The Enrichment Program

The Talented Learning Communities (TLC) Enrichment Program was created to provide opportunities and resources for the development and application of creative and critical thinking behaviors. The curriculum is based on CCCS’s core curriculum which includes Pennsylvania State Standards and Renzulli’s Schoolwide Enrichment Model (SEM). SEM uses Talent portfolios, ability grouping for math and language arts, enrichment clusters and individualized classroom assignments and activities. 

• Type I Enrichment activities expose children to new ideas, areas of study and exploratory activities 
• Type II Enrichment involves learning “how to” skills related to a topic of interest. 
• Type III Enrichment occurs after Type II projects where a student wants to complete a project related to the topic. It can be done in school or in the community. 

All types of enrichments give kids an opportunity to shine and teach them how to think and how to apply the knowledge they are studying 

The goals of the model are to develop the talents in all children using students’ strengths and interests, to create a broad range of advanced enrichment experiences and to provide lots of follow-up activities. Three interrelated types of enrichment focus on the application, rather than assimilation of knowledge, and the ways in which students products, and services can be brought to bear on authentic audiences. A wide variety of enrichment activities including clusters, guest speakers, field trips, hands-on projects, mentorships and independent studies are part of our program. In addition to these activities, student resources are being expanded to include theme-based research labs, classroom libraries, science labs, math software and manipulatives. An important addition to our student data collection is the Total Talent Portfolio which is part of Renzulli NEXTBook software program. It profiles students’ interests and learning styles and uses that information to connect them with websites on various topics.