Primary Talent Development
Primary Talent Development (PTD) was created in the belief that all primary students deserve the opportunity to be nurtured and challenged in order to recognize and develop their full potential. Built on best practices in the fields of early childhood and gifted education, PTD is a concerted effort to engage all primary students (PK-2) in learning experiences that recognize developmental norms, yet offer challenge. It promotes instruction that aligns with the Common Core State Standards and addresses the need to differentiate instruction.
All St. Mary’s County Public Schools (SMCPS) students in prekindergarten through grade 2 participate fully in the Primary Talent Development program. These modules emphasize the development of targeted achievement behaviors that are indicative of potential and/or advanced learning capabilities in young learners. These seven behaviors include: Communicative, Perceptive, Inquisitive, Persistence, Creative, Resourceful, and Leadership.
The Primary Talent Development program incorporates attribute, questioning, and creative problem solving strategies to recognize, nurture, and challenge targeted achievement behaviors. These strategies are enduring in that they can be easily and effectively transferred to new learning experiences.
| Attribute | This skill is developed through supporting the student’s ability to look at things closely and critically, and to describe what they see. |
| Questioning | Students learn to ask divergent questions to help them identify problems and find possible solutions. |
| Creative Problem Solving | Students use the creative Problem Solving Model to help them identify problems, brainstorm possible solutions to the problem, choose a problem solving strategy, and develop a plan of action to solve the problem. |
Primary teachers use data available through the PTD instructional modules to document observed behaviors. In the middle of third grade, this information is combined with mutiple indicators of ability and achievement data including the Nagliarie Non-Verbal Aptitude Test, version 2 to identify for giftedness. This identification is done in the spring of a student's third grade year.