Introvert or Highly Sensitive?

Here's an interesting article by Leslie Sword, Gifted and Creative Services Australia.

The Gifted Introvert

And it's found on a fascinating website, part of a large group of websites focusing on giftedness, created and edited by Douglas Eby.  
Check out Talent Development Resources.  

So much to read, 
so much to see, 
so much to learn . . . so little time!

Talent Factories

Check out this YouTube video.

Dylan William on Remodeling Schools into Talent Factories

 

Comparing academics to sports isn't new to advocates for gifted kids, but William's comments are a good indication that those outside the field also recognize the inequity.    

 

I'm not sure where it came from, but the decades old story told by educators of the gifted goes something like this:

 

So I walked into my high school principal's office and asked for a few minutes of his time.  "I'd like you to consider this proposal," I said.  

 

"I'd like to select a handful of our best students and allow them to work together with specialists in their talent area for 3 or 4 hours each day. Then they could interact with other students with similar interests and abilities. The adults would be good role models, experts who could work individually with the students, perfecting their skills, making sure each is appropriately challenged."

 

"We'll need a big part of the school building for our program.  And lots of specialized equipment.  Probably a budget of $500,000 a year or more."

 

"I'd also like the kids to go to other schools several times a week to interact with and learn from kids just like them.  We'd need busing and chaperones, of course.  And also school logo clothing for each of them would be nice, just to show that we're proud of them and want others to know they're from our school."

 

"As a matter of fact, I think this selection process should begin in elementary school where we'll identify the most promising students and provide year-round programming for them, including summer camps and after school lessons.  That way, by the time they reach high school they will truly be our best and our brightest."

 

"Are you crazy?" he said.  "That would be elitist."

 

"No," I said.  "That would be our athletic program."

 

Go! Fight! Win!
BIG THINKERS

A Reminder

I just wrote this as part of a grant to support self-advocacy.  Some is gleaned from my past writings, but it's a good summary of why we need direct instruction in self-advocacy for gifted kids:

Many creative/talented/gifted (c/t/g) middle school students are generally unaware that their route to graduation can and should be significantly different from that of their less able peers.  Many slog on through grades 6 to 12, sometimes challenged and interested, frequently not.

Even if a wide array of high quality differentiated educational options is available, many c/t/g adolescents choose not to take advantage of those opportunities.  Advice of parents and teachers is often shunned as teens transition into the greater independence of middle or high school.  Parents and educators can encourage students’ appropriate choices and foster self-advocacy by helping them to understand their rights and responsibilities as gifted individuals, to assess their personal learner profiles, to investigate alternative experiences, and to connect with the people who can bring about change.

If c/t/g students are uniquely capable of self-advocacy, why don’t they do it?  Do they need permission to ask for what they need? Are they afraid of being ridiculed? Do they not know how? Are they uncomfortable with the etiquette of speaking with powerful adults? Even if they are inclined to advocate for themselves, they may think they lack the skills required to advocate effectively for themselves.

Kit Finn theorized that although c/t/g children may be forthright about stating their needs, their egotism keeps them from being either subtle or tactful.  “Turning this into effective self-advocacy is a complex effort,” she writes.  Without training, a “child’s naive efforts tend to antagonize others.  The child may become inappropriately manipulative, or may learn to stop attempting to self-advocate at all.

         

For, c/t/g students who are underachievers, self-advocacy may be the key to becoming an achiever but they may be reluctant to take the risk of asking for something different when they have not performed. Susan Winebrenner wrote, “The most common complaint about underachievers is, ‘They won’t do their work.’  In my experience, the reality is that they won’t do the teacher’s work, but would be very happy to work on what is meaningful for them.”

There are myriad means to an appropriately challenging educational experience but these opportunities are ineffective if students do not willingly engage in them. In order for their education to be personally meaningful, c/t/g students must be allowed to make choices. Providing them with choices has been identified as a primary motivational tool that encourages learning.  Educational researchers have found that self-regulated learning that included choice led to higher self-efficacy and improved academic performance for middle school students.  It was also revealed that the issue of choice was crucial for addressing motivation and student achievement.  However, providing choices in the classroom requires that teachers share power with students, thus encouraging decision making and ownership of learning.

While it is important for teachers to believe in student choice and to create varied learning opportunities, it is just as important for students to understand their specific personal educational needs and to develop the skill to advocate for themselves. Frances Karnes contends that children with high intellectual, academic, and creative ability are especially ready to take charge of their own education, citing several studies that found a more internal locus of control (the feeling that control of one's life rests in one's own hands) is associated with giftedness.

For c/t/g students to receive an appropriate education, educators must not only provide challenging opportunities, they must also help those students become partners in their own education by understanding their needs, discovering available options, and becoming proficient at advocating for themselves. A workshop on self-advocacy for creative/gifted/talented teens can provide them with engaging, interactive, direct instruction in these skills.

Let's do it! 

From New Zealand

I've recently discovered Sonia White's blog, Gifted Chatter.  She's a parent, teacher, author, teacher educator and gifted education consultant in New Zealand.  Though we've never met, I'm guessing we have a lot in common!  

One of my favorite series of posts is 10 Ways to Help Your Gifted Teen Get the Best out of Secondary School.

Check it out!

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

More than a Test Score

Sorry for my absence!  I've spent the last month organizing a celebration honoring some of Wisconsin's brightest middle school students.  These amazing kids participated in Northwestern University's Midwest Academic Talent Search, taking the EXPLORE, ACT and SAT exams intended for students 4-6 years older than they are.  Believe it or not, these youngsters in grades 4-8 scored quite a bit higher than the average high school seniors. (For those of you who know the tests, some earned as high as 33 on the ACT and 1530 on the SAT.)

For our theme "More than a Test Score" I created a slideshow of photos the kids submitted showing them doing all the things they love.  Truly amazing.  I plan to post it on the WATG website.  Some of the parents asked me to post my welcoming comments as well, so here they are!

Welcome!  We’re here today to recognize you for accepting the challenge of attempting an out-of-level achievement test intended for students 4-6 years older than you are.  Not only did you accept that challenge, but you did well on the exams.  Really, really well!

However, we’re here today to celebrate more than your high test scores.  As we saw on the slideshow, you are wonderfully interesting people who also happen to have great intellectual and academic gifts.  You’re artists and dancers and musicians and athletes and actors. You work, you play, you volunteer.  You’re special in many, many ways.  AND you are KIDS – typical, busy kids who sometimes feel like Caleigh did (in her caption) “I’d rather be sleeping!”  So today we’re taking this opportunity to celebrate the “whole” of you . . . your brilliant minds, your compassionate hearts and your active lives.  Congratulations to each of you. 

Dr. Maureen Neihart once wrote: “The single most powerful predictor of positive outcomes for vulnerable children is a relationship with a caring adult.”  Parents, your presence here today is a sign of your ongoing love and concern for your children’s welfare and happiness.  Students, will you join me in thanking your parents for being here and for always being there?

And I’d also like to thank you students.  Thank you for being you - wonderfully bright, caring, funny kids.  Thank you for your courage, for pursuing challenges and taking educational risks.  Thank you for your diligence, for working hard and valuing quality work. Thank you for your humility, for understanding that while you are definitely better at some things than your peers, you’re never better than others.  And thank you for taking charge of your own education and for allowing us, your parents and teachers, to help you create your own personal path to graduation and beyond.  Remember as you pursue your many passions - take time to enjoy the journey.

Another story of chance

About a month ago I wrote about Gagne's Differentiated Model of Giftedness and Talent and the impact of chance on the development of one's gifts into talents.

Today I was reminded of Annie, another student whose life course was changed by chance.

While her parents provided her with tons of enriching experiences, no one in the family was especially interested in music.  Then they moved to a new house with a much larger living room than they'd had before.  With room to spare, they agreed to babysit for a friend’s baby grand piano.  At first it just sat closed in the middle of the room.  But 9-year-old Annie’s curiosity got the better of her and one day she opened the lid and tried a few notes.  The attachment was immediate.  Before long she was spending hours on the piano bench, legs dangling, composing her own surprisingly complicated melodies.  Her parents agreed when she told them it was time for formal instruction!  By middle school she was competing in state music competitions.  By high school she was winning them . . . and a scholarship to the conservatory of music!

Right time + right place + right advocacy = talent development

Egalitarianism?

A response to the misconception that  

“Teaching gifted kids to self-advocate won’t work because we don’t offer that in our school."

If we don't, we must! It needs to be in the toolkit of every one who comes in contact with gifted children.

The best method is direct instruction in self-advocacy because it is the most efficient, effective, systematic, and continuous way to help students take charge of their own education.

 

And better yet . . . providing that instruction to a like-ability group of students assures a common knowledge base, peer networking, and a broader understanding of learner diversity. 

While schools are generally eager to address the needs of other outliers, all too often gifted students do not feel they have permission to ask for what they need. 

As Jim Delisle wrote in Gifted Child Today, 24 (1) 14-15, Winter 2001:

In our rush toward egalitarianism as regards the concept of giftedness, we have lost sight of what should be our primary vision – the gifted child who cries out for attention. 

With our help, the sky is their limit!

Responding to "elitist"

"Teaching gifted kids to self-advocate won’t work because it would be elitist."

How do I respond?

The self-advocacy movement is about people speaking up for themselves. It began as an effort to reduce the isolation of people with disabilities and give them the tools and experience to take greater control over their own lives.  Who would consider that elitist?

And this is exactly what we want for all outliers, including those who are gifted and talented.

Our children are empowered when we help them to recognize their uniqueness – their strengths and weaknesses, their attitudes and interests, their pleasures and passions.

  

     Self-recognition is not to fuel egotism or elitism, but to align with a more powerful, creative part of you that will let your heart, your knowledge, your talent loose on the world.   

Mary Rocamora, founder and director
Rocamora School, Inc.

(BTW, don’t you get tired of charges of elitism from those who don’t understand that the major goal of gifted advocates is to give every student an appropriately challenging education?)

What are the Odds?

Last week my BFF Susanne and I took a gamble on winter roads and drove to Washington DC to see her daughter (the very talented Emily Trask) in The Gaming Table, a play about a game of chance.  

As fate would have it, we ran into friend and mentor, Jim Delisle, who luckily was able to join us for the play and a few pre-show minutes with Emily.  When Jim asked about her route to success in theater, Emily replied that so much of it was a matter of luck, being in the right place at the right time.  Yes, she’s worked hard and studied hard and put herself out there, but sometimes the stars just seem to align.

I imagine at this point you’re thinking, “Enough already with all this talk of luck and odds and chance!”  But according to Françoys Gagné, chance plays a huge role in whether or not a person’s gifts develop into talents.  Here’s his Differentiated Model of Giftedness and Talent (DMGT):

You’ll notice that natural abilities must go through a developmental process in order to become competencies.  Many environmental and intrapersonal catalysts affect the process, but it is the shaded area called “chance” that has a major impact.

For example, as Emily related it to Jim, she wasn’t really interested in theater as a child.  In junior high she loved learning French but hated completing the workbook activities.  (Imagine, a gifted child not doing her homework!)  Her teacher suggested she earn extra credit through participating in the French drama competition.  And, voila, a star was born! 

I can’t help but think that without her teacher’s fortuitous intervention, it’s quite possible Emily would never have discovered her gift, her passion.

As advocates, how can we improve the odds for our gifted kids?

How can we be the catalysts that help them grow their gifts into fully realized talents?

The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work.  Emile Zola.

6 Profiles

One of my all time favorite resources is Profiles of the Gifted and Talented by George Betts and Maureen Neihart, originally published in The Gifted Child Quarterly in 1988. 

They describe 6 profiles of gifted children:  The Successful, The Creative, The Underground, The At-Risk, The Twice/Multi-Exceptional, and the Autonomous Learner.

Their research opened many minds to the understanding that gifted kids are not always the ones who get good grades, please parents and teachers, and score well on standardized tests.

Betts and Neihart describe feelings and attitudes, behaviors, needs, adult/peer perceptions, identification, home support, and school support for each type.  Great stuff, especially because the more we know about children's uniqueness, the better we can advocate for them.
  
You can download the full chart at Deborah Mersino’s blog, Ingeniosus. 

Key for me was the awareness that I can help many of the Successful students I work with grow toward becoming Autonomous Learners. 

Here’s just a sample of the comparisons they make:

The Successful

• Gets good grades
• Is a consumer of knowledge
• Extrinsically motivated
• Dependent
• Seeks teacher approval
• Avoids risks
• Accepts & conforms 

The Autonomous Learner 

• Sets SMART goals
• Is a producer of knowledge
• Intrinsically motivated
• Strongly self-directed
• Self-confident
• Willing to fail and learn from it
• Stands up for convictions

In self-advocacy workshops with teens, I use a self-test version of the profiles.   Students always broaden their view of who their gifted peers might be and frequently are surprised to find something of themselves in multiple profiles.  So much can be gained through reflection!

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.)

A Flighty Mind

Fascinating op ed . . . 

The Art of Distraction

by Hanif Kureishi,a playwright, screenwriter, filmmaker, novelist and short-story writer.

I love the concept "drift and dream."