Gifted Myth No. 3 Debunked

Myth No. 3: There is no need to identify gifted students in the early grades.

Many school districts do not begin identifying gifted and talented students until third grade. There is a belief among some educators that giftedness cannot be properly identified in the early grades. However, the National Association for Gifted Children programming standards start with pre-kindergarten. The group’s early childhood network position paper says that “providing engaging, responsive learning environments … benefit all children, including young gifted children.”

Well, we all know that I am not opinionated about this at all! (Note Sarcasm) As an educator, that is like telling me that we cannot be properly identifying special education until 3^rd grade.  A gifted child can and oftentimes does perform better when they are younger prior to us “schooling it out of them”.  For more information about that watch this FANTASTIC video by Sir Ken Robinson:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U . 

As a parent, I was truly fortunate to have someone realize that our son was profoundly gifted and he was tested and started receiving services at 2 ½ years old.  Until then, I just assumed all children sorted animals by kingdom, phylum and class.  However, we had a rude awakening when joining the public school system to find out that not only did they not test children that age, they did not provide services.  In fact we were told that all children typically even out around 3^rd grade and if we had just not worked so much with him he would be fitting in better at school.  My beautiful, bright, inquisitive boy who couldn’t wait to go to ‘real’ school (he had been going to an ASU profoundly gifted program for 2 years twice a week) hated going to school and cried nearly every day.  It was absolutely a horrible experience for him and us.  Why would we want to put any child through that? 

Each and every child that we come in contact with should be given the opportunity to be excited about learning something new each day.  Anything else is criminal in my book.  (Again, not showing any opinions here!)

And as a side note, I tested three students today, two were 5 and one was 6.  The test was a piece of cake for them and of course they all qualified.  The nice thing is that the Cognitive Abilities Test, is just that:  a test for cognitive abilities.  I learn so much more than just whether a child is gifted or not.  I can typically tell a lot about a child, their strengths, weaknesses and possibly if they are disabled and it has not been caught because their giftedness masks their disability.  I personally believe that every student should be tested using the CogAt or something similar so that we have one more data point to use to determine appropriate educational paths.

Twice Exceptional

Our daughter was just diagnosed as twice exceptional. Bittersweet -- we were testing her for dyslexia and the tests confirmed that she does indeed have dyslexia and we also found out what we already knew but had no cognitive documentation -- she is VERY gifted. So I have two thoughts:

1. How do parents help their children when it can be so frustrating to be so smart, but unable to express themselves in a manner that showcases their gifts?

2. As a teacher, how do we provide services that enrich/enhance their learning while still helping the students with their disability?

Rim Country Gifted & Differentiated Strategies Symposium

We will be hosting a conference in Payson for teachers who want to learn more about gifted and differentiation. It will be October 13-15, 2010 and the cost is only $295 for three days including lunch, snacks and one dinner! Feel free to contact me for further information.

How Much Time Should We Spend Helping Gifted Kids?

You have all been to the meetings...you know the ones...the ones where the focus is the students who are not performing. How many hours a day do you think that we spend on non-performing kids versus kids who have the ability to perform beyond expectations? I know in my classroom, I am guilty of doing this too. It is easier to not have to worry about them and know that they will be fine.....BUT is it right?

But I am wondering...how do we help those that can do, while still helping those that can't or won't do the work?

We spend 80% of our resources on those that won't or can't do and 20% on the rest of the population. My question for you is......is this fair?

There are some that say that if kiddo's get it, why are we worried about it? But I am thinking...if these students are challenged to perform to the best of their ability, how will their education look at the end of 13 years? Compared to one who just goes with the status quo and does the minimum necessary to please the teacher; what does their education look like at the end of 13 years?

Please share your ideas, concerns and venting as appropriate:

REALLY???

Found this statement at:  http://ow.ly/CxPShttp://ow.ly/CxPS

“My child is acting up because he’s bored. He’s so bright.”


“I’ve been teaching for 13 years, and I would say in that time I’ve had maybe one or two children who were truly bored and I immediately got different material for them,” says teacher Thea LaRocca, who has taught 3rd through 5th grades in Raleigh, N.C. “I didn’t need the parent to tell me.”

LaRocca says she understands that parents naturally want to think the best of their child, but she suggests that they try to be honest with themselves and think about why their child is acting up, then ask the teacher for strategies to deal with it. “If you truly think your kid is bright, ask for more work,” she says.

Are you kidding me?  In all of her 13 years, only one or two children were truly bored?  How does she know if they bored or not? I know that when I was in grade school I sat on the verge of tears most days because I was bored...I had already read every book I could get my hands on.  BUT, I was told to sit and behave like a good girl.  I did exactly as I was told and hated every minute of it. Thank God for my 4th grade teacher, who saw this and set me on to a different track, reading higher level books and letting me create crazy wild contraptions to show off what I had learned from what I had read. 

And how sad that she has had some 250+ children in her class and only one or two have been gifted? AND why would you simply solve the problem by giving them more work instead of different work? 

What do you think?  Would you want this type of teacher for your child?

Differentiation Works!

Differentiation is the buzzward of the week it seems. But what is it? Everyone seems to have a different definition. I was talking with a co-worker today, and I was shocked to find out that some teachers believe that differentiation means a different lesson plan for each student. This couldn't be further from the truth.

Differentiation is simply put, a different way to meet student needs based on their unique ability level and needs.

Most teachers are already doing this. They may have a student who needs visual or auditory re-enforcement. This is a differentiation technique. The difference now is that administration wants us to document what we have done on a regular basis to show how we differentiated for the students.

Can you share your ideas on differentiation and how we must document it?

Book Reviews

An idea that I have seen and hope to implement next year is having students write book reviews for books that they have read. The twist is that we would video tape the review and add special effects. Students would then be able to access the review via the school server and be able to add their star rating of the book. Can you see this working in your classroom or school? Do you have any ideas that could help improve this idea?

Differentiation

I am reading an article on Ability Grouping & Gifted Children from Duke. In it the article states that most teachers do not differentiate content for gifted learners. Do you agree with that statement? How about in your own classroom?

If you would like to read the article it can be found at http://www.dukegiftedletter.com/articles/vol1no2_rb.html

TRACKING, GROUPING, CLUSTERING, COMPACTING, DIFFERENTIATION

With all of these terms thrown around, I would like to know--what do teachers really think that they mean? How are they used in your school? What do you think is best practice? In the perfect world how would you set up a school or district?

The Gifted Readers Bill of Rights

I came across this and thought it was very eye opening. I went to a conference where the author was the key note speaker...she is probably the funniest gifted advocate that I have ever met! Let me know what you think.

The Gifted Reader’s Bill of Rights

The right to read at a pace & level appropriate to readiness without regard to grade placement.

The right to discuss interpretations, issues and insights with intellectual peers.

The right to reread many books and not finish every book.

The right to use reading to explore new and challenging information & grow intellectually.

The right for time to pursue a self-selected topic in depth through reading & writing.

The right to encounter & apply increasingly advanced vocabulary, word study & concepts.

The right to guidance rather than dictation of what is good literature & how to find the best.

The right to read several books at the same time.

The right to discuss but not have to defend reading choice & taste.

The right to be excused from material already learned.

Kingor, Bertie. (2002). Austin: Professional Associates Publishing

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?