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?
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I teach History and this lends itself extremely well to self choice. In fact, I often have my younger classes (US grades 7 and 8) research and complete projects of their own devising in the summer term. The gifted students need next to no guidance and have produced some outstanding work in the past.
ReplyDeleteIndependent learning is very high on the agenda in the UK at the moment and I'm currently trying to get the other staff at my school to make it an ongoing extension activity in the classroom.
This is a great blog, I'm so glad I came across it! Thank goodness for Twitter!
Glad to have you Sally! Do you have a copy of the book? It is amazing to you use.
ReplyDeleteI have found that as long as you give deadlines and check in dates, that if they get to have some choice in how they do the project or the topic, they do a much better job. What do you think?
Having students come up with their own ideas for projects in an English class could begin with a persuasive essay or a sales pitch. Have students explain what the goals of the project could be and how it should be graded. It would provide the teacher with lots of ideas for future projects, and she could allow students to move forward on the projects that seem most effective.
ReplyDeleteBethany
I have given students choice in the classroom. I teach High School Social Studies and gave the students a tic tac toe board. From there they could choose what they wanted to learn, which went beyond the scope of the class but was most interesting to them. The kids were very motivated by this and I received a great deal of positive feedback. Another idea that a colleague used was literature circles. In this exercise she gave the kids the option to read a book of their choice and what interested them instead of giving them the assigned reading..
ReplyDeletei also give choice using a form of Kathie Nunlie's Layered Curriculum. http://www.help4teachers.com lots of good examples of layered units are here. I use them for ideas, but modify the curriculum to fit me.
ReplyDeleteYou all have posted GREAT ideas! How many of you use the ideas that you are given and tweek them to fit your needs? I know I do all of the time!
ReplyDeleteI really like the contract idea outlined in chapter three and four of the book. While most of the ideas are generic in nature, they could apply to many content areas:
ReplyDeleteCreate diagrams; work the class assignment backwards; write and equation or test question; draw detailed pictures; develop a lesson plan on how you would teach these objectives; invent a game that teaches this subject; create a diarama; and the list goes on.
In my research, 84% of teachers surveyed indicated that differentiated instruction was hindered by the lack of activities they could create and use as "enrichment" (I like the term enrichment better than extension because extension makes it sound like they have to do more work) activities.
I have recently started a blog where we can post detailed enrichment activities by content unit. So far there is only one idea . . . but I plan to add more as time permits. If you have specific ideas, please check it out and add your comments.
http://giftedenrichmentactivities.blogspot.com/