Elementary Enrichment

Curriculum and Instructional Enrichment

Virgil Ward was the first theorist to develop ideas of differential education for the gifted. His work established the basic principles for adapting curriculum for use with gifted and talented students. Joseph Renzulli extended Ward's work, suggesting the development of enrichment activities and programming models. Renzulli created the first enrichment programming model, which advocates exposing bright students to new topics and areas of interest, training thinking and research skills, and [Page 291]providing opportunities for self-selected investigative activities of problems in students' interest areas. Following the creation of the enrichment triad model, Renzulli developed the multiple menu model of curriculum, including enrichment approaches in which six practical planning guides enable teachers to use menus to design in-depth curriculum units for classroom use. This model differs from traditional approaches to curriculum design in its emphasis on balancing authentic content and process, involving students as firsthand inquirers, and exploring the structure and interconnectedness of knowledge.

James Gallagher suggested the use of both content modification and enrichment in the core subject areas of language arts, social studies, mathematics, and science. Sandra Kaplan's approach to curriculum for the gifted included both acceleration and enrichment strategies. Working with a Leadership Training Institute task force, Harry Passow led a group of scholars in formulating seminal curriculum principles across content, process, and product, as well as including enrichment opportunities.

Emerging from these and other earlier theories, Carol Tomlinson, Kaplan, Renzulli, and their colleagues subsequently developed the parallel curriculum model, which integrated a series of parallel approaches with an emphasis on core knowledge and skills, generative learning, identity development, and interdisciplinary opportunities. This model provides several opportunities for enrichment. Joyce VanTassel-Baska and her colleagues have written gifted curriculum across various content areas, using curriculum design and alignment to standards as well as enrichment ideas. In her most recent work, she developed an integrated curriculum model (ICM) for the gifted with a content mastery dimension, the process/product research dimension, and an epistemological concept dimension.

Of these approaches, the most influential and widely used elementary enrichment and program delivery approach is Renzulli's enrichment triad model and the subsequent, schoolwide enrichment model. This model, coauthored with Sally Reis, suggests the need for a comprehensive approach to elementary enrichment for gifted and other students in the school. The enrichment triad model, an organizational and service delivery model, has three components: Type I enrichment (general exploratory experiences), Type II enrichment (group training activities), and Type III individual and small-group investigations of real problems. Renzulli and Reis's work includes elements such as enrichment planning teams, needs assessments, staff development, materials selection, and program evaluation. Some of the service delivery components are lessons to promote development of thinking processes, and procedures to modify the regular curriculum, such as curriculum compacting.

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