About SUN

The philosophy of the Sunnyside Unified School District reflects a commitment to provide appropriate educational opportunities and experiences for students of varying abilities, to ascertain individual and interest, and to provide for these to the highest degree possible. Gifted and talented students in grades K-12 shall be educated in a differentiated manner, with programming, pacing, and instructional methods adapted to their unique needs and talents.

Sunnyside has established the following goals:

• Each student will develop an intrinsic motivation for individual excellence.
• Each student will accept and maximize gifts and increase personal challenges.
• Each student will develop a realistic, healthy self concept, as well as sensitivity and responsibility towards others.
• Each student will develop attitudes and skills necessary to interact acceptably and comfortably with others, with an            
• expectation of becoming a productive member of the global community.
• Each student will develop competencies at a higher level of cognition.
• Each student will develop independent, intuitive, and creative learning strategies.
• Each student will develop competencies in complex, abstract, and diver-gent thinking.

Gifted students have needs to a) understand, develop and utilize the higher mental processes associated with high levels of academic and artistic talent; b) have time to meet their peers and hold meaningful dialogues; c) have the time, space and human resources necessary to assist in the development of individual talent or ability; d) understand, appreciate and study the diversity of the world; e) develop learning styles commensurate with their particular profiled of abilities; f) have the opportunity to assess their own unique talents and interest; and g) have appropriate pacing for learning.

S.U.N. Program teachers, trained and endorsed to differentiate curriculum for gifted and talented students, sensitive to the needs and to the population of Sunnyside Unified School District, begin their job with the daunting task of individualizing for our brightest students. The curriculum must be differentiated for the brightest students in terms of its content, process, product, and learning environment. Curriculum planning begins with creating choices for students while planning that the learner will create his/her own meaning from the information at hand, integrating knowledge across the disciplines. Students are encouraged to think in complex ways about abstract notions, with a focus on critical and creative thinking. The interests and needs of gifted students are the starting point for curriculum planning to a significant degree across the grade levels.