Welcome to Gifted Education at Leesburg Elementary! 

The following are program goals set by the Gifted Resource Education Department for gifted and talented learners:

1.  Learners become divergent creative thinkers who recognize problems and solve them.

2.  Learners construct personal meaning and understanding of others and of the world around them. 

3.  Learners develop the capacity for self-assessment (ownership of the learning).

Gayle Sarman ~ Gifted Resource Teacher

My name is Gayle Sarman and I am so thrilled and proud to be the LEEsburg Eagle Gifted Resource Teacher!  The 2023-2024 school year marks my twentieth year of teaching with Loudoun County Public Schools.  I have taught technology, third-grade, fifth-grade, and gifted education. My undergraduate degree, in Business Administration, and my master's degree, in Elementary Education, are from Virginia Tech, Radford University, and George Mason University. More recently, I earned my Gifted and Talented Education Certificate from UCSanDiego.   

I am the proud mother of Mark, a 31-year-old Georgia Tech athlete/alumni, and Anna, a 29-year-old George Mason alumni, therapeutic riding volunteer, and Special Education Teaching Assistant.  In my free time, I enjoy traveling, spending time with family, and being outdoors with my French Bulldog Stella.  Being a mother and a teacher has taught me that time spent with a child is a gift that should be treasured.  It is an honor and a privilege to share my joy of learning and to instill a thirst for knowledge in children.

What is SEARCH?

Seeking Educational Alternatives to Reach and Challenge Higher level thinking

The Loudoun County Search Program (K-3) focuses on thinking skills and is designed to foster a classroom environment that encourages students to develop an excitement for learning and discovery. Search teachers work within the classroom to stimulate curiosity, practice problem-solving strategies, incorporate cooperative learning activities, provide opportunities for students to use higher-level thinking skills, and identify students with exceptional abilities. During the lessons, the primary classroom teacher makes observations to gain insight into the students’ various skills, strengths, and learning styles. Both teachers work cooperatively to recognize and develop the potential for excellence in each student. The search teacher is available to assist in the development of lesson plans and activities that promote higher-level thinking, model or provide tips for differentiating instruction, work with small groups of students, and offer enrichment to students who have been formally identified for gifted services. 

The Loudoun County Search lessons are organized under the learning keys listed below and are aligned with the Virginia Standards of Learning. The Search curriculum is aligned with the Virginia Standards of Learning, problem-solving-based, and spirals developmentally through five components: perceiving, reasoning, connecting, creating, and evaluating. Each grade level learns about each component at increasingly more complex and abstract levels.

What is FUSION? (Formerly FUTURA)  

Fostering Understandings, Sparking Innovation, Originating New Ideas

Fusion is a small-group gifted education push-in and pullout program for fourth and fifth-grade students identified by LCPS. The School-Based, Collaborative Gifted Program is a new model for delivering gifted services for 4th and 5th-grade gifted learners. It was established to provide gifted services for students at their home schools. A gifted resource teacher collaborates with classroom teachers to challenge gifted learners by enriching and extending the general curriculum and by integrating curricula developed for gifted learners (e.g., William & Mary Literature Units, Jacob's Ladder, and Mentoring Mathematical Minds). Gifted learners meet during the week with other gifted learners to collaborate on a variety of challenging, interdisciplinary projects.

What is EDGE?

Empowering Diversity through Gifted Education

The EDGE program is designed to nurture and challenge students with advanced academic potential from groups historically underrepresented in LCPS advanced academic and gifted programs. The program provides additional academic challenges for students designed to develop students' individual potential. Classroom teachers and gifted resource teachers work together to nurture academic potential in young learners and prepare them for more challenging and rigorous academic pathways.

What is DCI? 

Differentiated Classroom Instruction (ELA and/or Math)  

The LCPS Gifted Education Department has added a new level of gifted services for 4th-grade and 5th-grade students this year. It is called Differentiated Classroom Instruction or DCI. During the gifted evaluation process, students who demonstrated exceptional performance in one domain, language arts or mathematics, were found in need of DCI in their area of strength. Some students may have been identified for DCI mathematics and DCI language arts.

• Spring 2023 Update: (April 10, 2023)

   

  • Grade 2: Cognitive Ability test results are now available in your child's ParentVUE account under the test history tab. ALL grade 3 LCPS students are universally screened for small group gifted education in the spring of their third-grade year. Cognitive ability testing is just one component of that screening process for gifted services in gr4/5. Please refer to the LCPS gifted education page for more information on small group gifted services (beginning in gr4) known as FUSION and DCI language arts/math. LCPS gifted education

  • Grade 3: 2023 Elementary Gifted Evaluation Process - Spring Cycle Process:  View Video Here. Spring eligibility results will be emailed to parents of students found eligible for gifted services (for the 23-24 school year) in early June 2023. No further information is available at this time. 

  • Grades 4 & 5: 2023 Elementary Gifted Evaluation Process - Spring Cycle Process:  View Video Here Spring Eligibility results will be emailed to parents of students found eligible for gifted services (for the 23-24 school year) in early June 2023. No further information is available at this time.   

   

  February 2023 Update:  

  • 3rd and 4th-grade students who did not have CogAT testing from their previous school will be tested in February/March 2023. Those scores will be published in ParentVUE in early April. 

  • 4th-grade students whose parents requested reevaluations will start the eligibility process in February/March 2023.

  • 5th-grade DCI students will complete the CogAT testing & portfolio lessons in February/March 2023. The CogAT scores will be published in ParentVUE in early April. 

  • 5th-grade students whose parents requested reevaluations for gifted services for their child's sixth-grade year will start the process in February/March 2023. The CogAT scores will be published in ParentVUE in early April.     

  Fall 2022 Update:

  • Parents of students "NEW to LCPS in 2022-23 school year" (3rd, 4th, and 5th graders only): If your child is new to LCPS AND does not have a CogAT test on file, a "permission to test" form was sent home on October 6th in your child's Thursday folder. Please return the form no later than October 21st (the sooner the better. This permission form was only sent to a few specific parents and DOES not apply to most students.

  • 5th-grade Information: The 5th-grade fall window for GT evaluations is open from September 12-30, 2022. That window has now passed and referrals will not occur again until Spring 2023. Please contact Ms. Sarman in February 2023 in regards to a referral for gifted screening for eligibility for grade 6.  Please complete the referral form on the LCPS GT webpage if you would like to have your child evaluated. Return the HARD COPY of the referral in an envelope to Ms. Sarman's mailbox (GT education resource teacher).

  • 4th-grade information (new to LCPS): The (new to LCPS) 4th-grade fall window for GT evaluations is open from September 12-30, 2022.  That window has now passed and referrals will not occur again until September of 2023. Please complete this form if you would like to have your child evaluated next school year. Return the HARD COPY of the referral in an envelope to Ms. Sarman's mailbox (GT education resource teacher).