Extended Learning
Extended Learning
Extended Learning (formerly known as the Advanced Learning Programme) is the term we use to define the programme we are delivering to our students, some of whom will be gifted & talented.
This is an opportunity for students to engage in a programme that prepares them to become future-focussed and flexible in their thinking.
- To have opportunities to engage in critical, creative, and caring ways with complex issues shaping their world now and for the future.
- To have provisions that are differentiated in breadth, depth, and pace to ensure opportunities for personal excellence.
- Includes Learners from every demographic of Aotearoa New Zealand.
- To have the opportunity to develop self-understanding within responsive environments alongside peers who have similar abilities and interests.
- The presence of a specific learning difficulty (e.g. dyslexia) does not exclude a student from being identified as an Extended Learner. Such learning differences will be supported and accommodated.
These students often:
- Learn more quickly / require less practice
- Have an exceptional memory
- Have the capacity for long periods of concentration
- May ask probing questions
- Often are keenly alert and observant
- Might have made leaps in learning
- Often complex thought processes/ability to juggle complex material
- Often divergent/creative
- Often critical/analytical
- May have exceptional reasoning ability
Note i: For every gifted child who displays one particular trait, there can be another who displays the exact opposite.
Note ii: The more highly able, the more pronounced particular traits and characteristics may be and potentially.
Extended Learning
Classes
At Ōtūmoetai College a student may be in one or more EL classes depending on their individual strengths and interests.
- Year 9 EL – English, Social Studies, Maths, Science
- Year 10 AL – English, Social Studies, Science, Maths A and B
- Year 11 – English A + Maths ALA + Science AL
- Year 12/13 – Eng A + Subject Selection + Scholarship
The learning needs of an Extended Learner student include:
- Intellectual stimulation
- Learn at readiness and pace
- Others like themselves
- To feel comfortable with themselves
- Teachers who ‘get’ them
- Support with perfectionist tendencies
- Support with asynchratic development
Teaching and learning across Extended Learner classes is characterised by:
- Differentiation – Content / Process / Product
- Curriculum Compacting
- Emphasis on higher order thinking
- Concept driven learning
- A focus on “real” issues / ethical dilemmas / student interests
- Emphasis on Key Competencies
- Research and Inquiry Learning
- Open ended components to task design
- Choice, student voice, creativity
- Emphasis on Growth Mindset
- High expectations including failing forward
- SOLO Taxonomy – Pam Hook
- NZ Curriculum documents
- Understanding Learning Dispositions
- The Ōtūmoetai Kahui Ako Writing Framework
- Depth and Complexity Framework (J Taylor)