GIFTED MAGNET CENTER
3rd Street Elementary's Gifted/Highly Gifted Magnet Center will be open for the 2024-25 school year and enroll approximately 78 third through fifth grade students from across the city of Los Angeles.
3rd Street Elementary Grade 3-5 Gifted Magnet Center’s vision is to provide an exemplary gifted education to a racially and socio-economic diverse group of students that will inspire every child to reach their fullest academic and social-emotional potential.
All of 3rd Street Elementary’s Gifted Magnet Center’s curricular and instructional choices will be grounded in the California Common Core State Standards (CCCSS). The CCCSS emphasis on rigor, depth, complexity, relevance, and deeper understanding, foster higher levels of learning and as acknowledged by the National Association for Gifted Children, “promote the kinds of instructional strategies that have long been advocated in gifted education.” However, even with the increased rigor of the CCCSS, our school recognizes that the students in our gifted magnet center will require experiences beyond what the standards specify.
Informed by both the California State Board of Education Recommended Standards for Programs for Gifted and Talented Students and the National Association for Gifted Children’s Standards in Gifted and Talented Education, 3rd Street Elementary’s Gifted Magnet Center curricular and pedagogical choices will differentiate/ accelerate, and/or expand on the CCSS and emphasize advanced, conceptually challenging, in-depth, and differentiated content. For example, in language arts, our magnet center classrooms will feature Reading and Writing Workshop and Cognitively Guided Instruction (CGI) in mathematics (more information about Reading and Writing Workshop and Cognitively Guided instruction can be found on our website under the About section).
Regardless of the content area, our curriculum and pedagogy will focus on depth and complexity, advanced, accelerated or compacted pacing of content, and novelty. Ultimately, our students will develop their critical, creative, problem solving and research skills and be able to think abstractly, identify big ideas, direct their own learning, and think meta-cognitively so that they’ll be prepared for secondary school, college, and careers. A variety of teaching and learning patterns, including large and small group instruction, homogeneous and heterogeneous grouping, teacher and student-directed learning, and opportunities for independent study will also be used.
Because gifted students often have a need for additional support in the areas of social and emotional development (NAGC Position Statement), all classrooms will have an explicit and continuous focus on social-emotional learning. We will continue to implement the Sanford Harmony Social Emotional curriculum we adopted recently in tandem with Restorative Justice strategies. Additionally, we will use the Responsive Classroom approach, including such elements as morning meetings, closing circles and CARES skills (cooperation, assertion, responsibility, empathy, and self-control).
Whether it is engaging students in historical inquiry through the use of primary resources in social studies or developing scientific habits of mind such as skepticism, objectivity, openness to new ideas, and curiosity while study real-life phenomena, the curriculum utilized by our magnet classrooms will focus on depth and complexity, advanced, accelerated or compacted pacing of content, and novelty. Ultimately, our students will develop their critical, creative, problem solving and research skills and be able to think abstractly, identify big ideas, direct their own learning, and think meta-cognitively so that they’ll be prepared for secondary school, college, and careers.
For additional information including eligibility criteria, details on how to apply to our Gifted Magnet Center, and a FAQ check out:
Third Street
