1. Bright Idea Multi-phase Nurturing Initiative
Interest Development Early Abilities
A Javits Research Project I,
A Javits Research Project II,
Partnership with Dr. Margaret Gayle of the
Duke-Research NETWORK on Racial & Ethnic InEquality at the Social Science Research Institute

2. Project Bright Idea History
Commissioned report to NC State BOE led by Dr. William Darity with a team of researchers from UNC-CH and Duke in association with Dr. Margaret Gayle
Recommendations included providing nurturing programs in elementary schools
Pilot study led to Javits Grant to continue
Overarching goal:
Create a model, nurturing and talent program for transforming K-12 instruction and curriculum for ALL students
Professional Development for teachers, principals, & content specialists
Differentiated classrooms to engage all students in gifted intelligent behaviors through performance tasks within interdisciplinary concept-based curriculum

3. Bright Idea is...Gifted for ALL.
Multi-phase Initiative:
Building Thinking Skills is part of a Nurturing and Cognitive Development
Strategy for all children
and Re‑Training Model for
all teachers. (Year 1)
Habits of Mind enhance the ways students produce knowledge rather than how they merely reproduce it. (Years 1 & 2)
Increasing cognitive development through higher order thinking and producing knowledge go hand in hand with
Common Core

4. Bright Idea is...Gifted for ALL.
Professional Learning Opportunities:
Learning Styles and Task Rotations provide opportunities to learn about themselves as learners through a variety of task opportunities. (Years 1 & 2)
Curriculum writing institute and Concept-Based Instruction by Dr. Daniel Moirao. (Years 2 &3)
Ongoing Coaching, Mentoring, and Observing by Duke staff (Years 1- 3)
Teachers and students utilize multiple intelligences and learning styles to guide students to
Reaching their potential in learning how they learn perform at their best. Students gain understanding of metacognition.
All of these tools will enble our students to perform better throughout their school careers.

5. WCPSS Goals in Utilizing Bright Idea
Overarching goal: Create model nurturing program for transforming K-2 instruction and curriculum for 21st century students
WCPSS Specific goals:
Increase the number of gifted students from underserved populations at target schools
Increase number of students identified across all demographic groups at target schools
Bright IDEA will be utilized as an intervention model for reaching all students, especially those underserved to nurture their gifts and talents.
In WCPSS, two goals:
-increase number of underserved populations at target schools
-increase number of students identified aross all demographic groups at target schools

6. Bright Idea Objectives
Builds on advanced and research practices
Focuses on empowering regular classroom teachers, principals and specialists through training and mentoring
Trains teachers to design interdisciplinary, concept-based curricular units
Infuses Building Thinking Skills, Gifted Intelligent Behaviors, and Multiple Intelligences
Redesigns classroom environments to meet learning styles of all children
Aligns instruction and assessments with Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy and Marzano’s Taxonomy

7. Bright Idea (Year 1)
Building Thinking Skills® provides highly effective verbal and nonverbal reasoning activities to improve students’:
vocabulary
reading
writing
math
logic,
figural-spatial skills
visual and auditory processing.
These processes help students develop superior thinking and communication skills that lead to deeper content learning in all subjects.
Big Ideas, Concepts & Generalizations-mini units
Taxonomies: Bloom’s Revised & Marzano’s New Taxonomy
REFERENCE PD & CURRICULUM PLAN Page- (First 4 rows)

8. What Building Thinking Skills is:
-A researched-based, integrated program that teaches “analysis skills.” It provides:
– Background vocabulary, knowledge and strategies that give students a common language to be successful in subject areas.
– Explicit information for teaching students the mental models needed to become better thinkers.
– Cognitive stimulation to improve student performance.
– Instruction for teaching concepts and integration of curriculum.
What does this look like in class?-Sherri Matheson

9. What Building Thinking Skills is NOT:
-Independent activities or homework assignments -Worksheets or morning work -A separate, add on to the existing curriculum
Direct connections to content/Common Core

10. What Building Thinking Skills can do when implemented with fidelity:
-Develop the basic thinking skills that curriculum objectives require in the primary grades minutes per day must be devoted to BTS. -Develop academic vocabulary for mathematics, science, and social studies and enriches and extends instruction. -Prevent or close the achievement gap for young children in kindergarten through second grade by exposing students to, and continually reinforcing, high level thinking skills and advanced vocabulary. -Increase underserved populations in gifted and advanced classes.
What does this look like in class?-Sherri Matheson

11. Building Thinking Skills Works with All Learners by:
- Implementing activities in the
regular classroom for exposure for all students.
- Supports and enhances RtI as part of Tier 1 Core Instruction by:
Developing students ability to practice their thinking and reflection on their learning during every lesson
Immersing Students in analysis skills and advanced vocabulary that are critical for success.
Supports and enhances Positive Behavior Models by:
Providing students with activities that keep them engaged and challenged.

12. Habits of Mind (Years 1&2)
Habits of Mind as Learning Outcomes:
Habits of Mind, works with not only what students know but also in how students behave when they don't know an answer.
The Habits of Mind are performed in response to questions and problems, the answers to which are not immediately known. Key is in enhancing the ways students produce knowledge rather than how they merely reproduce it.
The Habits of Mind guides students to learn how to develop a critical stance when examining their work: inquiring, editing, thinking flexibly, and learning from another person's perspective. The critical attribute of intelligent human beings is not only having information but also knowing how to act on it.
REFERENCE PD & CURRICULUM PLAN Page-(Row 5)

13. 16 Habits of Mind
1. Persisting. Stick to it. See a task through to completion, and remain focused.
2. Managing impulsivity. Take your time. Think before you act. Remain calm, thoughtful, and deliberate.
3. Listening with understanding and empathy. Seek to understand others. Devote mental energy to another person’s thoughts and ideas.
4. Thinking flexibly. Look at a situation another way. Find a way to change perspectives, generate alternatives, and consider options.
5. Thinking about thinking (metacognition). Know your knowing. Be aware of your own thoughts, strategies, feelings, and actions—and how they affect others.
6. Striving for accuracy. Check it again. Nurture a desire for exact- ness, fidelity, craftsmanship, and truth.
7. Questioning and posing problems. How do you know? Develop a questioning attitude, consider what data are needed, and choose strategies to produce those data. Find problems to solve.
8. Applying past knowledge to new situations. Use what you learn. Access prior knowledge, transferring that knowledge beyond the situation in which it was learned.

14. 16 Habits of Mind (continued)
9. Thinking and communicating with clarity and precision. Be clear. Strive for accurate communication in both written and oral form. Avoid overgeneralizations, distortions, and deletions.
10. Gathering data through all senses. Use your natural pathways. Gather data through all the sensory paths: gustatory, olfactory, tactile, kinesthetic, auditory, and visual.
11. Creating, imagining, innovating. Try a different way. Generate novel ideas, and seek fluency and originality.
12. Responding with wonderment and awe. Let yourself be intrigued by the world’s phenomena and beauty. Find what is awesome and mysterious in the world.
13. Taking responsible risks. Venture out. Live on the edge of your competence.
14. Finding humor. Laugh a little. Look for the whimsical, incongruous, and unexpected in life. Laugh at yourself when you can.
15. Thinking interdependently. Work together. Truly work with and learn from others in reciprocal situations.
16. Remaining open to continuous learning .Learn from experiences. Be proud— and humble enough—to admit you don’t know. Resist complacency.

15. Habits of Mind
Which Habit of Mind is highlighted in this video?

16. Dr. Daniel Moirao Years 2 & 3 Provides professional learning with:
Learning Styles
Performance Task Rotations
Curriculum Writing
Concept-Based Instruction
Moirao as a pioneer in school reform and a distinguished educator who works to assist in creating climates where all students can learn.
His focus is on learning style theory and teaching strategies, and he has been credited with bringing several school districts out of the doldrums of performance improvement to high-performing school districts where students can and do learn.
REFERENCE PD & CURRICULUM PLAN Page-(Row 6 & 7)
Mentioned Dr. Moirao earlier-utilize his services in Years 2 & 3 to bring all components together.

17. Coaching, Mentoring, & Observing
Years 1 - 3
Spring 2014 – Summer 2016
Dr. Margaret Gayle & team from Duke University will be on school sites to provide support
AIG Central Services will train & provide support
REFERENCE PD & CURRICULUM PLAN Page-(Row 8)
Mentioned Dr. Moirao earlier-utilize his services in Years 2 & 3 to bring all components together.

18. Why we should support the Bright Idea Nurturing Initiative:
Achieve positive results with long-term implications for all student
Assist in closing achievement gaps between groups of students
Serve as a model to reach ALL students, especially those underserved/underrepresented
Increased identification in gifted programs and accelerative opportunities
The Exceptional Children Division has approved Bright Idea as a model to assist in addressing disproportionality issues.

19. Nurturing Pilot, Bright IDEA 1, 2001-2004 Data
-All Bright IDEA Kindergarten classrooms scored in the 99th percentile on the North Carolina K-2 Literacy and Math Assessments. -Achievement level gaps amongst African- American, Hispanic, ELL, and EC was reduced for each sub group in these
As mentioned earlier, Bright Idea began as a pilot program with schools across NC, including some WCPSS schools.
This is data related to the program Wake County Implemented BTS in three K-5 schools with significant results on
EOG tests-specific data was not available at time of this presentation from Dr. Gayle.

20. Nurturing Pilot, Bright IDEA 1, 2001-2004 Data
-Bright IDEA 2nd graders scored in the 80th percentile on the NC K-2 Reading Assessement vs. 39th percentile for those who did not go through the Bright IDEA program.
-Assessments on Gifted Intelligent Behaviors showed growth from pre to post for each student.
Significant results of Javits Research Project,
Gifted Identification & Placement for students who participated K-2 with Bright Idea:
Cohort 1 24% vs. 10% not participating
Cohort 2 46% vs. 10% not participating
Cohort 3 15% vs. 10% not participaitng

21. Nurturing Pilot, Bright IDEA 2, 2004-2009 Data
“In , a target group of students in K-3 participated in daily lessons utilizing BTS from January-April.
This group outperformed all students (82.3%) on the ABC’s End-of-Grade Test in Math with an average score of 86.5%.”
“In , in another study, minority students in grades 2-3 minority students were engaged in the Building Thinking Skills program from January-April.
Their most recent scores showed an average growth of 11 points in Reading and points in Math on the ABC’s End-of-Grade Test.
As a result, the total gifted population doubled for students going into grades3-4.”
Target groups=cohorts from across the state
Target groups were comprised of underrepresented/underserved in AIG

22. Recommended Implementation and Timeline.