GIFTEDNESS

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• GIFTEDNESS
• AS AN EXCEPTIONALITY
• Julia Peterson
• Crestline Elementary School
• petersonj_at_mtnbrook.k12.al.us

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EXCEPTIONALITY

• Deviating from the norm
• a having above or below average intelligence
• b physically disabled

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• Definitions of Gifted

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LEWIS TERMAN

• Gifted individuals are those who score in the
• upper 2-3 on intelligence tests

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ROBERT STERNBERG

• Giftedness is a kind of mental self
• management adapting to
• environments, selecting new environments,
• and shaping environments. Sometimes
• people refer to his definition as street
• smartness

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JOSEPH RENZULLI
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BARBARA CLARK

• Giftedness is a list of specific behaviors
• broken into characteristics in five major
• headings
• Cognitive (thinking)
• Affective (feeling),
• Physical, (activity)
• Intuitive and Societal
• (creativity and metaphysical).
• GROWING UP GIFTED (1988)

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HOWARD GARDNER

• Gardner proposed seven intelligences, each chosen
  because it represents a culturally valuable and
  relatively autonomous set of problem-solving
  skills, and each having an identifiable basis
  within the human brain and nervous system. He
  then argued that there is a particular type of
  giftedness associated with each form of
  intelligence.

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ALABAMA

• Gifted students are those who perform at
• high levels in academic or creative fields
• when compared to others of their age,
• experience, or environment. These students
• require services not ordinarily provided
• by the regular school program. Students
• possessing these abilities can be found in all
• populations, across all economic
• strata, and in all areas of human endeavor.

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FEDERAL

• Students, children or youth who give
• evidence of high performance capability in
• areas such as intellectual, creative, artistic,
• or leadership capacity, or in specific
• academic fields, and who require
• Services or activities not ordinarily
• provided by the school in order to fully
• develop such capabilities.
• 1994 Jacob K Javits Gifted and Talented Students
• Education Act of 1988

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DABROWSKI THEORY OF OVEREXCITABILITIESKey to
Recognizing and Understanding the Gifted
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The Overexcitabilities

• Psychomotor
• Sensual
• Intellectual
• Imaginational
• Emotional

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PSYCHOMOTOR
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PSYCHOMOTOROVEREXCITABILITY

• Heightened excitability of the
• neuromuscular system
• Capacity for being active and
• energetic
• Love of movement for its own sake
• Organic surplus of energy
• Psychomotor expression of
• emotional tension

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Translation! Students may

• Like a lot of movement and activity
• Sleep less than others
• Talk quickly and use lots of
• gestures
• Be impulsive

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When upset students may show their tension
through

• Nervous ticks
• Increased competitiveness
• Organizing their environment

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SENSUAL
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SENSUAL OVEREXCITABILITY

• Heightened experience of sensual pleasure or
  displeasure
• Sensual expression and outlets for emotional
  tension
• Appreciation for aesthetic pleasures

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Translation! Students may

• Dislike labels in your clothing
• Love good smells, textures, tastes
• Cant stand bad smells, textures, tastes
• Be sensitive to bright lights and harsh sounds
• Love to be the center of attention

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When upset students may show their tension by

• Overindulging
• Seeking out comfort and/or luxury

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INTELLECTUAL
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INTELLECTUAL OVEREXCITABILITY

• Heightened need to seek
• understanding and truth
• Intensified activity of the mind
• Penchant for probing questions
• Problem solving
• Preoccupation with logic, theoretical
• thinking and development of new
• concepts

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Translation! Students may

• Love to be logical
• Enjoy brain teasers and puzzles
• Like to figure things out, especially if its
• complicated
• Seek out truth and knowledge
• Be very observant
• Have trouble falling asleep at night
• because their minds are racing

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When upset students may show their tension by

• Analyzing things to death

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IMAGINATIONAL
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IMAGINATIONAL OVEREXCITABILITY

• Heightened play of the imagination
• Rich association of images and
• impressions
• Spontaneous imagery as an
• expression of emotional tension
• Capacity for living in a world of
• fantasy

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Translation! Students may

• Be called a dreamer
• Be creative
• Love metaphors
• Think in pictures
• Believe in magic
• Remember their vivid dreams

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When upset students may show their tension
through

• Tuning out or disappearing into a fantasy
  world
• An overwhelming fear of the unknown

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EMOTIONAL
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EMOTIONAL OVEREXCITABILITY

• Heightened, intense positive and negative
  feelings
• Somatic expressions
• Strong affective expressions
• Capacity for deep relationships
• Well differentiated feelings toward self

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Translation! Students may

• Have extreme emotions
• Have a broad range of emotions
• Understand and be sensitive to others feelings
• Be compassionate and caring
• Form strong attachments to others
• Experience difficulty adjusting to new
  environments
• Be in tune with yourself

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When upset students may show their tension by

• Get physically ill
• Becoming depressed and/or anxious
• Feeling overly responsible for things that are
  out of your control
• Being highly self-critical

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• REFERENCES
• Sharon Lind Gifted, ADHD? Supersensitive? All
  of the above?
• Stephanie Tolan Dabrowskis Overexcitabilities
  A Laymans Explanation
• Cheryl Ackerman The Theoretical Underpinnings
  of Overexcitabilities and the Link to Giftedness

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• GIFTED?
• HIGH ACHIEVER?
• CREATIVE?

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CompareHigh Achiever Gifted
Creative
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High Achiever Gifted Creative
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High Achiever Gifted Creative
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High Achiever Gifted Creative
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High Achiever Gifted Creative
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High Achiever, Gifted, Creative
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High Achiever, Gifted, Creative
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IQ and Educational Needs
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IQ and Educational Needs

• Average 100
• 68 between 85-115 standard curriculum
• 13 - 84-70 and 116-130 modified
• 2.14- 69-55 and 131-145 individualized
  curriculum
• .13 - accommodations
• One out of 30,000 is 4 SD above exceptional
  educational accommodations

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Policies and Practices

• 20 cents of every dollar funds special education
• A fraction of a penny of every dollar funds
  gifted education
• Alabama mandates a program and has just begun to
  give fractions of
• pennies to gifted education.

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CURRICULUM DIFFERENTIATION FOR GIFTED

• CONTENT
• PROCESS
• PRODUCT
• ENVIRONMENT

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CONTENT

• More abstract concepts, generalizations
• Complexity inter-relationships
• Variety expand beyond regular material
• Study of People reactions to opportunities and
  problems
• Study of Methods of Inquiry procedures by
  experts in the field

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PROCESS

• Higher level of thinking - Blooms higher levels
• Creative thinking imagination, brainstorm
• Open-ended no right or wrong answer
• Group interaction competition, discussion, team
  work
• Variable pacing lower Blooms quickly
• Variety of learning process - Learning styles
• Debriefing giving reasons or conclusion to a
  problem of question
• Freedom of choice topics,
• methods, products and environments

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PRODUCT

• Real problems relevant to student
• Real audiences another student, a teacher, an
  assembly, a mentor, a community of specific
  interest group
• Real deadlines time management
• and planning
• Transformations using information instead of
  repeating
• Appropriate evaluation self and audience with
  real world criteria

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ENVIRONMENT

• Student centered student interest, input, ideas
  instead of teacher
• Encourages independence tolerating and
  encouraging initiative
• Open new people, materials, ideas non academic
  and interdisciplinary connection
• Accepting others ideas opinions before
  evaluating them
• Complex variety or resources, media, ideas,
  methods and tasks
• Highly mobile groups,
• desk settings, classrooms
• and schools

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Differentiation Strategies

• Compacting
• Tiered Assignments
• Independent Studies

• Grade Acceleration
• Advanced Classes
• Cluster Grouping

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CONCEPT BASED CURRICULUM

• Concept
• An idea that is timeless, abstract, broad and
  can be shown through a variety of examples

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WHY CONCEPT UNITS?

• Opportunities for curriculum integration
• Relevant to students lives
• Skills embedded through topic studies
• Teaches more that mere facts
• Forms generalizations (relationships between two
  concepts)
• Helps students really understand the topic
• Teaches students to think

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• Concept Based
• Content Based

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HOW TO CREATE CONCEPT UNITS

• Begin with a theme OR a concept
• Web the concept
• Decide on generalizations
• Make questions
• Decide on process and skills you will use to
  teach the unit
• Design a culminating product/performance created
  by students to show what they learned
• Develop a scoring guide.

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• COLOR

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Remember.

• In the ordinary elementary school situation
  children of 140 IQ waste half of their time. 
  Those above 170 IQ waste nearly all of their
  time.  With little to do, how can these children
  develop power of sustained effort, respect for
  the task, or habits of steady work?
• Leta S. Hollingworth