European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 22, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                March the stars and stripes Dodds to seek academically talented would identify top 20 percent of the student body by Tony Nuernberg Bureau bad Germany beginning next Dodd Germany faculty and administrators will be combing through the ranks of their students for talented and gifted tag children who occupy the Gray layer of Bright kids just below present tag admission Joseph University of Connecticut professor of educational psychology and consultant for tag programs in turns thumbs Down to traditional methods of using inflexible yardsticks for measuring giftedness in he outlined his called the triad Model see Story at the Dodd Germany administrators workshop this using traditional neither Thomas Edison nor Albert Einstein would have been considered Bright enough to handle a tag Renzulli einsteins teacher held that the creator of the theory of relativity was an academic and Edison once said that in school i was at the foot of my Renzulli has an extensive list of such historic figures who would not measure up to tag criteria still used in some when tag programs began about 10 years administrators Drew from methods used by psychologists who stood behind strict testing results As the sole criterion in determining whether a student was he admission to elite tag programs required what Ren Zulli called a ticket of across Leboard Talent As measured by in or other he said it is just common sense to eliminate such elitism and Salt tag students Back into the regular classrooms to improve Overall school excellence and to reduce the scorn regular Stu dents often develop toward tag Renzulli said his triad looks at a broader Range of students who display varying degrees of academic instead of the 3 to 5 percent usually identified through he would include As much As the top 20 percent of the student the Talent Pool would also include those who Are gifted in Only one the key to Renzulli triad is the students own Initia he often asks educators which they would a 7 foot basketball or a the obvious answer is the he but a 7footers no Good if he Doest want to run and he Doest want to Renzulli give me a student with a 120 in who will work his buns rather than a Lazy Renzulli linked High accomplishment to what he called the High in threshold not the Genius but the area around 115120 in he said that students with lower is Are also capable of displaying Talent in a single Renzulli stressed the importance of the word Dis play in his definition of displayed this emphasis is on the students ability to produce Stu dents should learn to be producers of not Consumers of he there Are no monuments to great men and women just because they had High Renzulli historically the monuments have gone to men and women of Mike Dodd Germany tag said the introduction of Renzulli method in regional schools comes As a direct result of an inspector general study two years the in said our program was Shelley adding that the criteria for determining giftedness were different among the a borderline student who was gifted in one school could move to another and find he is no longer Shelley Renzulli praised the Dodds system for its willingness to adopt an approach that does not rely solely on this will put Dodds 50 Miles ahead of state Side he the triad Model is being worked frito 20 regional Pilot schools this Shelley both Shelley and Renzulli declined to identify these schools since All of Dodd Germany will adopt it for the 198586 school Shelley he did say that at least one elementary and one High school in each of the regions geographical areas Are photo by Tony Nauroth Joseph Renzulli looking for broader Range of talented kids becoming Shelley said that in Dodd Germany had on two tag specialists to handle these last Shelley said the Region had 26 and predicted it would have 58 on Board for the 198485 school at this weeks he said the Region had and he predicted 67 for the 198586 Shelley said the actual Dodds percentage of participating tag students would depend on the availability of tag asked if parents of Genius level students in schools where the Model is in place complain about a watering Down of the Renzulli said that is not where complaints come he said the problem has always been in that Gray layer where the future einsteins and Edison program expands enrichment opportunities Joseph Renzulli triad developed in 1981 and tested in a Connecticut school is a three level enrichment the first level provides enrichment to All simply by exposing them to specific regular classroom teachers then keep watch for the student who is turned on by the subject Dodd Germany coordinator for talented and gifted tag Mike said this approach will eliminate exposing Only the top 5 percent of a schools population to expanded learning one for invited a astronaut to speak but Only to the gifted the second level involves the student in intense research on the subject matter that interested the student would study research techniques and explore resource Renzulli said some students dont even know How to use a let alone know that there Are scores of different kinds of level three produces results publication of student findings in scientific journals speaking exhibits and returns students to classrooms to share their added to this triad is a method of eliminating unnecessary subjects from a students course this curriculum compacting system identifies areas where students display advanced knowledge and lets them proceed to other theres no sense in a 5thgrade student who scores 100 percent on an St Grade final math exam to waste his time in constant Renzulli such useless activity results in Bright students being disenchanted with each student is guided in his project by his regular a tag specialist and a management the plan is a contract that establishes the goal of a students a Mentor or expert in the students chosen Field of study would assist for a professional photographer might help a student prepare a photo show at a local such mentors would be recruited from the school faculty or from the students would be assigned specific times to work out of a tag resource Center until their projects Are rather than assigned to the Center on a permanent their regular classroom instruction continues in areas where they Are not As far Renzulli said each school adopting the concept would have to adjust it to meet its individual he said the triad approach can give All students some Opportunity to participate in enrichment making the school a More stimulating environment for provide better coordination Between enrichment programs and the regular minimize concerns about elitism by expanding opportunities to the whole school Tony n a i Roth history lesson principal says false report of sea attack terrified students up a history lesson on the cuban missile crisis backfired when terrified students mistook a false announcement of an attack on a ship by the soviet Union for the Start of nuclear the principal of Jamestown High school said David Shaffer said the 53 students in the american culture class last week heard an announcement Over the intercom that the soviets had attacked a ship and that president Reagan would address the nation that the students also were told school would be dismissed he what they were not told until about five minutes later was that the announcement was the work of the instructors teaching the who wanted to spark discussion about world crisis situations in preparation for the next the cuban missile Shaffer we did not get that reaction of Dis Shaffer we just got Blank stares that quickly told us they were we just got Shaffer said he and the other teachers conducting the course bad not expected the students to assume the they did not consider conventional War they did not consider possible sanctions they went right to nuclear he we did expect their anxiety to go but for them to make that jump and not to consider the alternatives was we never said anything about nuclear the students lengthy essays written after they discovered the announcement was untrue revealed the terror they had experienced in those five they were concerned they we rent going to get that they never see their parents said who was the students age when the real cuban missile crisis we regretted putting them through that he said he had seen National surveys of High school students listing nuclear War among their biggest but said he thought the students were just reacting to Media publicity on the education is Worth a Shaffer sometimes you do some things that other people Arent going to if we had realized How students would we probably  have done he at a heated school Board meeting Mon Day Shaffer told angry parents and students that he had not expected such a Strong