A Gifted-Friendly Classroom

Beyond a doubt, teachers want all kids to learn.  But since many pre-service programs include only a passing glance at the needs of gifted learners, many educators may not realize how to create and maintain a gifted-friendly classroom.

When I first began exploring giftedness, Dorothy Kennedy was director of the Network for Gifted Education at the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point.  I learned much from her years of experience and have kept this gem since it was first published in The Roeper Review in 1995. Her list below is as pertinent today as it was 18 years ago so I'm adding it to the teacher support side of the right triangle.

Plain talk about creating a gifted-friendly classroom

1. Resist policies requiring more work of those who finish assignments quickly and easily. Instead, explore ways to assign different work, which may be more complex, more abstract, and both deeper and wider. Find curriculum compacting strategies that work and use them regularly.
2. Seek out supplemental materials and ideas which extend, not merely reinforce, the curriculum. Develop inter-disciplinary units and learning centers that call for higher level thinking. Don't dwell on comprehension-level questions and tasks for those who have no problems with comprehension. Encourage activities that call for analysis, synthesis, and critical thinking, and push beyond superficial responses.
3. De-emphasize grades and other extrinsic rewards. Encourage learning for its own sake, and help perfectionists establish realistic goals and priorities. Try to assure that the self-esteem of talented learners does not rest solely on their products and achievements.
4. Encourage intellectual and academic risk-taking. The flawless completion of a simple worksheet by an academically talented student calls for little or no reward, but struggling with a complex, open-ended issue should earn praise. Provide frequent opportunities to stretch mental muscles.
5. Help all children develop social skills to relate well to one another. For gifted children this may require special efforts to see things from other viewpoints. Training in how to "read" others and how to send accurate verbal and nonverbal messages may also be helpful. Tolerate neither elitist attitudes nor anti-gifted discrimination.
6. Take time to listen to responses that may at first appear to be off-target. Gifted children often are divergent thinkers who get more out of a story or remark and have creative approaches to problems. Hear them out, and help them elaborate on their ideas. 
7. Provide opportunities for independent investigations in areas of interest. Gifted children are often intensely, even passionately, curious about certain topics. Facilitate their in-depth explorations by teaching research skills as needed,directing them to good resources, and providing support as they plan and complete appropriate products. 
8. Be aware of the special needs of gifted girls. Encourage them to establish realistically high-level educational and career goals, and give them additional encouragement to succeed in math and science.

Dorothy M. Kennedy

Roeper Review, May/Jun95, Vol. 17 Issue 4, p232

What Jenny Taught Me

Late one night I received a phone call from a frantic dad. 

  

“Mrs. Douglas, would you please talk to Jenny?  She’s been working for hours on her English paper and won’t go to bed until it’s done.”  

 

I couldn’t imagine what the massive assignment could be for this was just the first day of the school year! So when she came to the phone I asked for details.

“Well,” Jenny said, “my teacher said she was going to base our writers’ workshop goals on this first assignment and to write the best essay we could.” 

Ahhhhh!  Perfectionism.  How do we help our gifted kids learn to match their efforts to teachers’ expectations?

As Judy Galbraith wrote in her 8 Great Rights of Gifted Kids:

#4 - You have a right to make mistakes and not do your best all the time.

NUMATS Conferences

A surprising discovery . . . over half of the middle school students we honored last Saturday do not know if their school districts use their extraordinarily high scores on the ACT and SAT to match them to appropriately challenging academics.  Is it a lack of communication or an indication that educators are not actually using the scores - the whole point of kids taking out of level exams?

And from a self-advocacy standpoint, how can students make informed decisions if we don't give them all the information?

Several years ago I described how my district used the data.  I've excerpted a bit of it here, but the whole article, Post-NUMATS Meetings Build Partnerships, is on the WATG website.  

The needs of our brightest students can be best addressed when families and schools work together.  Thus, when the ACT, SAT and Explore results arrive in spring, it is important for students, parents/guardians, and educators to meet for individual conferences. These meetings can be initiated by anyone: parents, teachers, counselors, gifted education coordinators, or the students themselves as they seek to self-advocate.

Families come to the conference with many questions, of course. What was gained by participating? What do all the scores mean? What does the school plan to do with the data?  What can we do?  What should our child do? What’s next?  Educators can help by listening to concerns, offering suggestions, and providing resources.

During the conference, students can reflect on the testing experience, statistical summaries can be clarified, and appropriate educational options can be discussed.  These conversations help all NUMATS participants, no matter how well they scored, to understand their strengths and take charge of their own education.  

Thank you, Mrs. Dickie

When I was in third grade my school district balanced uneven class sizes by creating a combined class: eight 4^th-graders, eight 3^rd -graders, and eight 1^st-graders.  The teacher they hired for the class, Flora Dickie, had years of experience in a rural one-room school and I imagine the prospect of three different grades in one classroom didn’t faze her at all. It was during that year, Mrs. Dickie gave me a most wonderful gift . . . the love of books. 

We lived in a small town (population less than 2000) and the local public library was a tiny windowless room in the dank basement of the closed movie theater.  There were probably less than a thousand books on the shelves and only a handful for children.  I had already checked out all of them. 

So each Wednesday after school, Mrs. Dickie drove one of us students 12 miles away to the beautiful Red Wing Minnesota Carnegie Lawther Public Library, where she pointed out books she thought would interest us personally.  It was there I first encountered Dr. Seuss.  And as I consumed On Beyond Zebra and To Think that I Saw it on Mulberry Street and If I Ran the Zoo I fell in love with words and poetry and humor and imagination.

So here’s to all the Mrs. Dickies in the world who open doors for students, recognizing gifts and talents and passing on their own passion for learning.  The impact of your deeds lasts a lifetime . . . and beyond, as we too give to those we teach and love.

Enlightened Self-Exploration

As teachers, we can help our students to become more than passive recipients of our teaching.  With some enlightened self-exploration into their own educational agendas, your students will become partners with you in an enterprise that was never meant to be a one-way street: education.

Jim Delisle & Judy Galbraith, When Gifted Kids Don’t Have All the Answers

Flow

It isn’t too far a leap from yesterday’s treadmill thought to the theory of flow as described by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi  (pronounced MEE-hy CHEEK-sent-mə-HY-ee).   In brief, flow is an optimal state of motivation in which you're totally immersed in what you're doing.

I’ve used the simplified graph below when helping gifted students understand their need for an educational challenge. (See the link below for the complete graphic.) In short, flow happens when a challenge you're facing is in sync with your skill level.

When I’m on the treadmill, I’m most into it when I set the speed that makes me work a little harder.  During the slow warm-up and cool-down I’m a little bored; turn it up to 6 mph and I’ve got great anxiety.

Not surprisingly, most often kids report that they experience flow when playing video games.  Why?  The challenge is constantly increasing with each step of success. 

I believe that differentiated curriculum and instruction can provide this balance between skill level and challenge that will engage students of all abilities.  There's no doubt that it's hard work for teachers . . . which is why they too are in flow when it's working.

You can find out much, much more about flow and Dr. Csikszentmihalyi online.  You might begin with the Wikipedia link here and also his presentation on Ted Talks.  (BTW, if you’re not familiar with Ted Talks, look around a bit when you’re there.  Fantastic chance to hear brilliant minds sharing their great ideas with us.)

Eureka!

You know those Aha moments?  When your body is doing something routine (like showering or gardening or exercising) and your mind takes off for an adventure of its own?  Suddenly you have a new understanding.   It’s like Archimedes’ “Eureka!” . . . though in my moments it's never so earth-shattering!

My Aha today:  learning is like using a treadmill.  (I’m not saying education is similar to a hamster’s wheel, but that might be a topic for another day!)  No, my comparison is much more positive. 

I love my treadmill work-out because, although there are pre-set modes, I can also customize it to fit my personal needs . . . set my own pace, adjust the incline, choose the time that fits my schedule, wear whatever clothes and shoes are comfortable, run or walk or jog for as long as I like.  I can choose to be super challenged . . . or not.

I exercise best/I learn best when I’m in control of my options.  I'm neither bored through lack of effort nor frustrated by being pushed too far, too fast. 

Wouldn’t it be great if we could help gifted kids figure out their own learner needs and adjust the pace and depth and breadth of their instruction accordingly, allowing them to take charge of their own unique paths to those Aha moments?  

Alpha, Beta, Gamma . . .

Yesterday was my mother's 95th birthday.  
In recognition I recited the Greek alphabet.

Why? Because my mom was the quintessential "home educator" who did things like post the alpha - omega series above our breakfast table where I read it daily along with the back of the Post AlphaBits box.

I can't begin to tell you how many times that knowledge has proved valuable.  Plus it piqued my curiosity about language in general, prompting me to study Latin and French and English.  

Thanks, Mom.

Effects of Legislation

According to NAGCs 2010-2011 State of the Nations report,

• Of the 36 reporting states, 10 provided $0 in state funds to support gifted education in 2010-11; another 4 states spent less than $1 million.
• Only 15 states make a greater investment in gifted students by spending $10 million or more in state funds.
• Since the last State of the States report, 14 states have reduced state funding for gifted education.
• In Wisconsin last year, state funding for GT was $263,500, almost $10,000 less than the year before. The amount for 2011-12 is $237,200.  The funds are disbursed through competitive grants and may only be used for learning opportunities not ordinarily provided in the classroom.   There is no federal funding. 

In Wisconsin this loss combined with the reduction in state aid overall has meant a decrease in staffing and/or staff time devoted to GT.  Some districts have responded by stating that students’ needs for acceleration and enrichment will be met in the regular classroom through differentiated instruction.

While differentiated instruction is a valuable tool in addressing the academic needs of gifted students, it is only effective when teachers are well trained and given time to write differentiated curriculum.  As every teacher knows, differentiating your entire curriculum is a huge, huge job requiring extensive time and effort. 

Many districts have eliminated or significantly reduced funds for professional development and for staff time outside of the classroom to revise curriculum. Remaining funds are frequently reserved for addressing the needs of under-performing students.  Also, the recent collective bargaining legislation assures there are few incentives for teachers to pursue continuing education at their own expense.

Since state law says the school must address the needs of gifted students, parents have a right to know the school's specific plan for providing an appropriate challenge for their child.
 

Parents can ask for that plan in writing and request periodic updates on how the plan is proceeding, as well as assessments that indicate academic growth of their child.  A teacher who uses differentiated instruction will be able to tell parents how concepts, activities, and products have been structured to meet the needs of children of varying abilities, not just for learning styles or interests.

Additionally, the highest ability students need services beyond the regular differentiated classroom.  Schools must identify those students and assure that there is a consistent and systematic plan for appropriately challenging education.

And it should be noted that while intellectual and academic gifts are most often addressed by differentiated instruction, students with three other areas of giftedness (creativity, leadership, and artistic) must also be identified and provided with appropriate programming by each school district. But GT coordinators and teachers are struggling to keep existing programs in place and it's impossible to expand when funds are scarcer and scarcer.

Sorry for this lengthy entry, but there's been a lot of interest in the effects of recent legislation on gifted education in Wisconsin.  As I begin to collect the stories, it's the frustration of educators and parents alike that have driven this response.

Ever the optimist, I still believe that new life and fresh ideas can sprout from the direst of circumstances!