Curriculum Differentiation for the Gifted

Differentiation for gifted students means providing learning options that meet the students' special needs for acceleration of content and greater depth, breadth, and complexity of instruction. Some teachers think it's too difficult and time consuming to individualize daily lesson plans to accommodate these special students, but that's and inaccurate perception. It's actually easy to engage gifted children because they are open to so many different approaches and are excited about opportunities to accelerate or expand their learning in certain interest areas.
When a teacher provides ways for the gifted child to excel through small group investigation, independent study, or other option, he gains a valuable ally -the child. These students are so self-motivated that if they work together with their teacher to set goals and the teacher then gives them a gentle nudge in the right direction, the children take on much of the responsibility for their own learning. Naturally, the teacher supervises the students' activities, but teaching gifted children doesn't need to be an exercise in micro-management. When gifted children are fully engrossed, teachers find that they actually have more time to give to other students who need attention.

From the book: "Helping Gifted Children SOAR" by Carol A. Strip, Ph.D with Gretchen Hirsch

An expanded curriculum for Gifted Children

Individualized instruction, with enrichment activities for high-ability students, work very well for the majority of class members. For the gifted, however, it's not enough. These students will be most challenged and will derive amazing benefits from a expanded curriculum.
An expanded curriculum is not one in which gifted students are simply given more of the same kind of work to keep them busy. (This is sometimes called the MOTS approach, which stands for “More Of The Same.”) What's the point of giving a student who demonstrates complete mastery of a concept the “opportunity” to do six more worksheets of the same kind? Loading gifted children up with busy work almost guarantees passive withdrawal or disruptive, perhaps aggressive, behavior brought about by boredom and frustration.
A program for gifted children must provide pathways by which these students may venture away from the basic curriculum in areas in which they excel. This expansion of the curriculum may take place in their own classroom with guidance from the teacher; on field trips to museums, science centers, or cultural performances; or in a resource room. The students come back to work with their other classmates when it's appropriate for them to do so, but do not necessarily do all of the same work that the other students are doing. Because the curriculum in some areas can be made shorter for gifted children, it allows them time for flexibility in other areas. Some gifted students will be “outside the umbrella” in every subject, others in only one or two. In all cases, the teacher or a teacher working with a gifted specialist creates the strategies that differentiate (modify) the curriculum to make fit the needs and learning styles of gifted students.
The goal of the expanded curriculum is to equip exceptional children for life. When teachers first encounter gifted students, it's clear that the children's analytical intelligence is highly developed; it's that kind of intelligence that makes them candidates for a gifted program in the first place. But life isn't about analytical intelligence, and gifted children are more that the sum of their test scores. They are human beings, and human beings don't spend their entire lives circling numbers and drawing analogies. They go through life meeting obstacles, encountering challenges, solving problems, and dealing with other people. The teacher's job is to act as diagnostician -to see where the children's gift lie and then to provide relevant, authentic experiences through which they will develop what Yale psychologist Robert Sternberg calls their “tacit” knowledge -the skills that will someday allow them to use their giftedness in a wider context, such as an office, laboratory, classroom, or studio.
Psychologist B.F. Skinner once said, “education is what survives after what has been learned has been forgotten.” That's a pretty good definition of tacit knowledge. Tacit knowledge includes such skills as priority raking, allocating time and resources, and managing oneself and others.
Therefore, the ideal classroom for Gifted students will balance open-ended, stimulating, and creative opportunities for divergent thinking and analysis with meaningful, practical activities that involve day-to-day living. If gifted students spend all their time in abstract reasoning and have no opportunities to exercise their gifts in realistic situations, they may never learn how to harness their strengths in ways that are satisfying to them and enable them to make a contribution to society. They will still be gifted, but their gifts might be underdeveloped or even lost. They might become discipline problems or lethargic underachievers. Or they might become behavior problems on a spectrum that ranges from occasionally acting out in class to ending up in the juvenile justice system.

From the book: "Helping Gifted Children SOAR" by Carol A. Strip, Ph.D with Gretchen Hirsch

The ideal classroom

The ideal classroom is connected with the environment. It's a place where teachers open children's minds to the magic and charm of the world around them. If a child catches a butterfly on the way to school, the classroom should have a place for that butterfly -a place where the child can see it, watch it, study it, and enjoy its beauty.
The ideal classroom is geared to the various ways children learn. Students learn through their eyes, ears, hands, mouths, and noses. The learn in groups and alone. They learn through the use of music, art, and nature, as well as from textbooks and other resources, and the room should accommodate a variety of learning styles, including visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and others.
The ideal classroom should be filled with samples of students made products and will be arranged with nooks, crannies, and corners left open for independent projects and supplies.
The ideal classroom will change with the developmental needs of the children. The teacher will not hold preconceived notions about every detail of classroom arrangement and decor, but will be open to the children's suggestions and ideas.
The classroom in which your child will gain greatest benefit is a place where she feels connected to the teacher, the other students, and learning. It is always changing, because learning takes place in the classrooms, goes home with the students, is shaped by real-life experiences, and comes back to school in a different form next day.
You will see students who are continually involved, and they'll be able to tell you not only what they're doing, but why. You won't witness chaos, but the room won't be silent, either. There will be an almost rhythmic pulsation of children actively involved in learning, moving around the classroom, working together or independently. You will observe that the teacher and students are mutually arriving at decisions and plans, and you'll watch one-to-one communication between the teacher and individual students.
A classroom model familiar to many parents and teachers is one with several “learning centers” or “activity stations” for different types of student work. Teachers use learning centers in many different ways. Sometimes the centers are subject driven. Other times, centers are built around the ways students learn. Another center might offer materials that appeal to children who learn best visually. Learning centers can be quiet or hives of activity; sometimes there is only one student at a center and sometimes there are several students working together on a project.
The ideal classroom is student-friendly. This doesn't mean that the teacher abandons control and the children are free to do whatever they wish. It is where the needs of each child drive decisions about classrooms procedures. The teacher uses a variety of teaching methods -from lectures to media demonstrations to real-word activities to simulations- to make sure that all of the children's different learning styles are addresses. The teacher is learning coach.
The ideal classroom will also feature individualized instruction, or teaching that matches students' ability levels. For many teacher, the way to do it is to group students together according to their abilities in math and reading. For social studies an science, students work on a general theme, but individual students and small groups may investigate interest areas related to the theme.

From the book "Helping Gifted Children SOAR" by Carol A. Strip, Ph.D with Gretchen Hirsch