Using Trade Books for Reading

On page 97, the author states that students should be able to bring in trade books to read for reading time. Can this be incorporated into the reading plan? If you use a system like Accelerated Reader that tests and keeps track of the books the students read teachers may not want to allow students to read books that are not AR. Do you think that this is appropriate?

Self Choice

One of the strategies for working with gifted students mentioned in the book is self choice: Having the students come up with their own ideas for projects or activities.

Would you feel comfortable doing this in the classroom?

If so, how would you integrate it into your lessons?

Reading for Gifted Readers

On page 90 the author states "The reading program that is most appropriate for all students and essential for gifted students is one that allows them to read, discuss, analyze and write about literature that challenges them, while being excused from practicing skills they have already mastered."

While I wholeheartedly agree with this, how do we put this into place with AR being the tool that is most widly used in schools? While I agree that AR is a great tool to use for those students who are below grade level readers, I believe that it becomes punitive for students who are reading above grade level, gifted or not. Why should an 8th grade student who reads at a 12th grade level have to read more than everyone else? How about having them delve deeper into the book and use higher level thinking skills instead of rote memorization for AR tests?

Social Emotional Needs

An area that is not really covered in the text is the social emotional needs of the gifted student. In MY opinion, this is the area that we as educators usually look over the most. Statistics show that suicide, depression, drug & alcohol use and drop out rates are higher in the "gifted" arena than in any other area per capita.

1. Do you agree with these statistics? Why or Why not.

2. How can we as educators meet the social emotional needs of the gifted students?

3. Is the school that you are teaching in trying to meet the social emotional needs of gifted students? If so how.

Compacting & Differentiation in Content Areas

Chapter 4 gives great strategies about compacting curriculum & differentiation. I think both of these buzz words are going around right now. My question for you is do you personally use any compacting or differentiation in your current classroom and can you give us examples of what they are and how you use them?

Bragging

In our text, the author states in the "Working Conditions For Alternate Activities, #6: Never brag about your opportunities to work on the alternate activities." While I agree about this to some extent, I want to pose the question to open a discussion and please feel free to correct me if I am wrong.

Don't we brag about everything to do with sports? If our team beats the other team, we make an announcement to the entire school. If we win the championship, we buy banners and post them for all to see with the child's name & player #. You hear teachers and other students congratulating the team members in the halls etc. When is it okay to brag about being super smart?

Allowing Students to Learn at a Faster Pace

The author makes the statement "gifted students should be allowed to move through it at a faster pace than the rest of the class." Do you believe this to be true for most highly intelligent & gifted students? If so, what percentage of students do you believe are allowed the opportunity to learn at their own pace and continue learning in America? And what do you feel about this?

School Reform

Here is an interest link about school reform:
http://blip.tv/file/88216

James

On page 41, the author discusses a scenario with James. James was a great kid who didn't make any trouble at school, but his parents were going to pull him out to home school him because he was not getting what they felt he needed at school. Come to find out, James started his "real work" once he got home. He was writing a textbook about Human Anatomy and Physiology. The teacher compacted his curriculum and allowed for him to work on his "real work" at school. Can you see this working in your classroom? Do you think you have any kids that would qualify or benefit from this type of compacting?

Article

I came across this article and was hoping that you would read it and post what you think. I am not going to say anything either way until after a few posts to see what your opinion is without knowing what I think. http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/3705/professor-encourages-students-to-pass-notes-during-class-via-twitter

Thanks!

Spelling/Vocabulary

I know that we don't concentrate on spelling at the middle level as much as in elementary, but I thought I would share how my 9 year old's teacher does their spelling. At the beginning of the year, the students take a pre-test on all of the words that they need to know by the end of the year. Then the students only test on the words that they missed on the pretest each week. When they finish their words for the year, then they get to pick their spelling words. For example, my daughter is choosing Greek vocabulary words and books of the Bible. She LOVES it!

So...for those of you who use key vocabulary terms, is this something you can incorporate? I don't know how it is done...so I am just throwing it out there.

AIMS & gifted

Given the fact that we are right in the middle of testing, I thought that this topic was appropriate! On page 32 the book states that "there are probably students in your class right now who could have taken any end of the year standardized test at the start of the year and scored at or above 95th percentile"

So.....
1. Do you agree with that statement, why or why not?
2. If you agree, what do you do with those kiddos that rightfully know the existing material (gifted or not)?
3. If you don't agree, would you be willing to test your students to find out if this statement is true?

Already Knowing the Information

On page one, the auther tells about a teacher who was happy when all of her top reading group got 'A''s on the end-of-unit-test. She realized that they may have already known the information before she was teaching it. So she decided to give the end of the chapter test prior to teaching the chapter and found that they all got 'A''s again.

We have all been there--bored to death in a class or a professional development and we already know the information being covered. How do we help these kiddos that come to class knowing the information. 1. How do we discover that they know it? 2. What do we do when they do know it? 3. How are we going to challenge them even further? and 4. What if they have holes in their learning, but they know most of it?