Curriculum
The Integrated Curriculum Model (ICM)
The development of exemplary curriculum frameworks and units of study for classroom use with high-ability learners has been an emphasis at the Center for Gifted Education since its inception. Center materials are grounded in the Integrated Curriculum Model (ICM), which is designed to respond to gifted learners' characteristics of precocity, intensity, and complexity through its three dimensions of advanced content, higher level processes and product development, and interdisciplinary concepts, issues, and themes. The ICM is comprised of three interrelated dimensions.
The ICM has been translated into a curricular framework and set of teaching units in the areas of language arts, social studies, and science.
ICM Features
| Overarching Concepts | Advanced Content | Process-Product |
| Change | In-depth | Elements of Reasoning |
| Systems | Advanced Reading | Research |
| Patterns | Primary Sources | Problem-based Learning |
| Cause and Effect | Advanced Skills | Inquiry Skills |
| VanTassel-Baska, J. (2003). Content-based curriculum for high-ability learners: An introduction. In J. VanTassel-Baska & C. A. Little (Eds.), Content-based curriculum for high-ability learners (pp. 1-23). Waco, TX: Prufrock Press. | ||
What Works: 25 Years of Commitment to Gifted Children Through Research and Curriculum
This document highlights “what works” based on the curriculum development and research work of the Center for Gifted Education during the past 25 years. Research findings include the areas of curriculum development, instruction, assessment, and professional development. Through the use of the Integrated Curriculum Model as a template for design, coupled with curriculum reform emphases in content areas, the Center curriculum has produced positive outcomes in student achievement and teacher use of differentiated strategies. Download What Works [pdf].
Curriculum materials have been developed in each of the major content areas:
 Language Arts |
 Science |
 Mathematics |
 Social Studies |
Materials are disseminated either through the Center for Gifted Education, Kendall Hunt Publishing Company or Prufrock Press/Routledge.
See the CFGE Curriculum Overview for detailed information about the curriculum units available from Kendall Hunt.
For information about the curriculum, please contact us at cfge@wm.edu
