The gifted student in the regular classroom

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The gifted student in the regular classroom

• Julie Nelson- COE 8173

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The Gifted Student in the Regular Classroom

• Tyler daydreams in class, doesnt do his
  homework, yet always aces the tests.
• Ashley reads eight books a day in school.
• Samuels constant refrain is, Im done! Now what
  can I do?
• Danika has a learning disability, yet she is two
  grades ahead in math.

What do you do?
(Winebrenner, 2001)
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Where to Start

• Learn to design learning tasks that are
  responsive to different styles of learning and
  different levels of ability.
• Learn to manage a classroom in which students are
  working on different tasks simultaneously.
• Gifted students learn the same standards, themes,
  units and/or concepts as the rest of the class.
  The simply require regular opportunities to
  become engaged with learning activities that
  require more depth and complexity.

(Winebrenner, 2001)
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Planning

• To set the stage for high achievement, it is
  essential that the academically advanced student
  be afforded an appropriate pace and level of
  instruction in the domains of talent.

(Stanley, 1991 Stanley Benbow, 1982)
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Questioning
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• Gifted students
• When human beings are not allowed to move beyond
  what they have previously accomplished, they
  often become bored, discouraged, frustrated, and
  angry and feel diminished as persons (Clark,
  2008)
• All students
• Renzulli (1977) School-wide Enrichment Model
• All students should be given opportunity to
  challenge their minds and think critically

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Questioning
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• Literal Questions that focus on recalling
  information
• Should be minority not majority
• Skill/Concept/Inference Questions
• These questions require readers to infer answers
  by using clues in the text and their prior
  knowledge (Miller, 2002) Also, because the
  content is difficult, there will be opportunities
  for teaching children to actively listen and
  learn from each other (Miller, 2002).

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Questioning (ctd.)
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• Critical/Extended/Strategic Thinking questions
• Higher DOK levels

• Way for teacher to know student is really
  comprehending material
• Allows students to really think

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One Way to Help

• For content where its likely that some students
  have learned and mastered the material at an
  earlier time, compacting means
• Finding the students areas of strength
• Pretesting to determine which of the concepts
  they already know
• Giving them full credit for that content
• Allowing them to work on more challenging
  activities instead of the grade-level work
• Known as compacting

(Winebrenner, 2001)
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Compacting

• Gifted students do not benefit from extra work
• As soon as they figure out their prize for
  showing what they know is more work, they might
  stop demonstrating what they can do.
• Compacting is remarkably successful with
  students who have become behavior problems and
  may be refusing to do their work.
• Many behavior problems are caused by boredom and
  frustration.

(Winebrenner, 2001)
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• Gifted students usually prefer a reading program
  that offers choices about what they read and the
  activities they do.
• Gifted students probably already know most of the
  writing skills/math skills youre planning to
  teach.
• Pre-test first. See who needs to move ahead.
• They will benefit most from contracts and
  alternate activities.

(Winebrenner, 2001)
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• How can I create these alternative activities
  when I hardly have time for everything I already
  have to do?
• By using methods such as cluster grouping. In
  teams, a few of the teachers are primarily
  responsible for differentiating the curriculum
  for gifted students. The other teachers plan
  remediation activities. Each team gets together
  to discuss plans and then you decide which
  activities fit the learners in your classroom.
• Ultimately, it is our job as teachers to make
  sure students will still be mastering all
  standards while being challenged in our
  classrooms.

(Winebrenner, 2001)
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Contracts

• Contracts are a great way to hold students
  responsible if the would like to work ahead, read
  ahead.
• Example what if the student wants to read ahead?
• They can complete a contract stating that they
  will not tell other students what happens in the
  story and that they will not participate in
  predicting activities.
• Pass out contracts.

(Winebrenner, 2001)
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Mini-Centers and Contracts

• Mini-Centers can be a go-to thing for students
  to do if work is finished early. These should be
  based on an interest inventory done by students.
• Students must fill out a student-contract for
  each activity they sign up for. This decreases a
  lot of projects that are started and never
  finished. It also teaches responsibility.

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Self-Evaluations

• After students complete activities, they must
  evaluate themselves before the teacher does.

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How do I know what they want to learn?

• Interest Inventories
• A way to hold a students attention by focusing
  instruction on what students find interesting
• Because he knows so much about the topic and his
  motivation is high, hes able to read a book of
  greater difficulty than a traditional assessment
  might indicate (Miller, 2002)
• A way to show students you care

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Interest Inventories

• An example of making use of information from
  interest inventories
• Get an index card, and then jot down their
  answers and align them side-by-side on the
  bulletin board. (Beers, 2003)
• She also takes a Polaroid of each student and
  places it on the other side of the bulletin
  board (Beers, 2003).
• Teacher and students work throughout the year on
  determining which card goes with each student
• Shows students that their interests matter and
  will be incorporated in instruction
• Will remind teacher throughout the year of
  individual interests
• I havent thought a teacher cared who I was
  since the second grade (Beers, 2003).

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Challenge of the Week

• Each week there is a challenge. The teacher
  gives a prize to the students that complete the
  entire challenge correctly each week.

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Games

• Geogame is a game where the students are given
  clues about where in the world they are and it is
  up to them to research and figure it out
• Other games that are for Logic Game days are
  chess, Blokus, and Cranium to name a few

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Creative Expression

• An example of a creative expression activity is
  when the students had to draw half of their face
  with the paper folded in half. They had to draw
  the other half afterward without consulting the
  first side. These were the winners.

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More Enrichment Tools for the Regular Classroom

• Thinkies
• Thinkies are labeled Rubbermaid containers in
  the cabinet that students know they can grab if
  they have extra time. These tubs can range from
  Sudoku puzzles to riddles to mind-teasers. These
  activities usually take from about five to
  fifteen minutes to complete.
• Something quick!

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Conclusion

• Gifted children are expensive and
  time-consuming. They usually need less sleep than
  you do, ask more questions than you can answer,
  want 100 percent of your attention 24 hours a
  day, have obsessive hobbies, are unstimulated by
  the school curriculum, react intensely to
  everything, endlessly long for a best friend who
  understands them completely, and hold
  perfectionist standards for themselves and you.
  But dont despair. They have a great sense of
  humor and their development is so remarkable that
  theyre exciting to watch grow.

(Winebrenner, 2001)
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Conclusion

• Challenge all of your students.
• Give your students opportunities to demonstrate
  that they already know what youre about to
  teach, or can learn it in much less time than you
  have allotted.
• Use compacting.
• Create instructional groups that are flexible and
  change their composition depending on the
  content.
• Offer meaningful choices whenever possible.
• Focus on open-ended tasks and questions.
• Encourage independent research based on topics in
  which the students are passionately interested.
• Be sensitive to what gifted kids need.
• Take advantage to learn more about gifted kids
  and their exceptional learning needs.

(Winebrenner, 2001)
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References

• Beers, K. (2003). When kids can't read.
  Portsmouth, NH Heinemann.
• Clark, B. (2008). Growing up gifted. Upper Saddle
  River, NJ Pearson, Merrill Prentice Hall.
• Miller, D. (2002). Reading with meaning.
  Portland, ME Stenhouse Publishers.
• Stanley, J.C. (1991). An academic model for
  educating the mathematically talented. Gifted
  Child Quarterly, 35, 36-42.
• Winebrenner, Susan.(2001). Teaching gifted kids
  in the regular classroom. Minneapolis, Minnesota
  Free Spirit Publishing.