Special report for Educational Leadership, Oct/08 edition, by Amy M. Azzam
What does it mean when 60 percent of teachers name struggling students as their top priority and 81 percent indicate that struggling students are the most likely to get one-on-one help from teachers-when 86 percent of those same teachers surveyed say that public schools should focus equally on all students, regardless of their backgrounds or achievements levels? According to a new report, it means that there's some confusion over the definition of equity in U.S. Schools, particularly when it comes to high-achieving students.
A recent two-part report published by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute-High Achieving Students in the Era of NCLB- looks at issues related to the best and brightest in our schools. The first study examines achievement trends for high-achieving students; the second looks at teachers' views on how schools are serving high achievers. Neither study tries to establish a casual link between No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and the performance of high-achieving students.
“Part 1: An Analysis of NAEP Data,” authored by Brookings scholar Tom Loveless, presents two major findings:
Although the United States' lowest-achieving students made rapid gains from 2000 to 2007, the performance of top students was “languid.” The bottom 10 percent of students have shown solid progress in 4th grade reading and math and 8th grade math since 2000, but the top 10 percent have minimal gains.
This pattern of stronger progress for low achievers rather that for high achievers is associated with the introduction of accountability systems in general-and not with NCLB in particular. National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data from the 1990s show that states that adopted similar testing and accountability programs saw similar patterns. According to the report, this is because “accountability systems, like NCLB, put pressure on schools to get students over a fairly low bar” (p.10).
“Part 2: Results from a National Teacher Survey.” authored by Steve Farkas and Ann Duffet, is based on a national random sample of 900 3rd-12th grade public school teachers. Key findings include the following:
Sixty percent of teachers indicate that struggling students –not high achievers- are their top priority. Only 23 percent indicated that “academically advanced” students are a top priority.
Eighty-one percent of teachers named “struggling students” as those most likely to get one-on-one attention from teachers. Only 5 percent named “advanced students” as getting that attention.
In a forced-choice question, only 11 percent of teachers said that public schools should focus on raising the achievement of disadvantaged students who are struggling academically, whereas 86 percent said schools should focus equally on all students, regardless of their backgrounds or achievement levels. According to Chester E. Finn Jr. and Michael J. Petrilli, in their executive summary of the report, this is an “overwhelming repudiation of one of NCLB's core tenets” (p. 12). They note that one reason the achievement of top students hasn't tumbled in recent years is that “teachers' personal views have 'mediated' the federal law's intentions and incentives” (p. 12).
Forty percent of teachers said that programs for high-achieving students are “too often watered down and lacking in rigor” (p.10).
Low-income, black, and Hispanic high achievers (on the 2005 8th grades NAEP in math) were more likely that low achievers to be taught by experienced teachers.
Commenting on what they call the overall “benign neglect” of high-achieving students, Finn and Petrilli note that “if gains by low achievers are our only measure of success, America faces big challenges in the years to come” (p.12).
For a full copy of High-Achieving Students in the Era of NCLB, go to www.fordhamfoundation.org/publications/index.cfm
Smart, Black, and Losing Ground
Research has shown that black-white achievement gaps grow most noticeably during the elementary school years. But according to a recent report out of Stanford, they are growing fastest among the most able black and white students.
The report relies on data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study: Kindergarten Cohort, a nationally representative sample of kindergartners who were assessed in reading, mathematics, and general knowledge/science skills at six time points during the years 1998-2004. The report analyzed reading and mathematics scores for approximately 7.000 elementary students. There are the two key findings:
Among students entering kindergarten with the same math and reading skills, black students fall well behind their white peers by 5th grade. The 5th grade scores of black students who enter school with average math and reading skills are one-half a standard deviation below those of their white peers and place at the 20-25th percentile of the white distribution.
The black-white gap in both math and reading appears to grow the most quickly among students who enter kindergarten with above-average math and reading skills. The gap grows twice as quickly for students who begin school with scores one standard deviation above the mean as for those who begin one standard deviation below the mean.
The study attributes this pattern to several factors. In addition to socio-economic realities that may deprive students of valuable resources, high-achieving black students may be exposed to less rigorous curriculums, attend schools with fewer resources, and have teachers who expect less of them academically than they expect of similarly high-achieving white students.
Differential Growth in the Black-White Achievement Gap During Elementary School Among Initially High- and Low- Scoring Students, by Sean F. Reardon, is available at www.stanford.edu/group/irepp/cgi-bin/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=27&Itemid=43
Showing posts with label advice to teachers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label advice to teachers. Show all posts
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
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
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
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
Bullying and the Gifted
Victims, Perpetrators, Prevalence, and Effects
By Jean Sunde Peterson and Karen E. Ray
Purdue University
PUTTING THE RESEARCH TO USE
This study provides information to parents, school personnel, and counselors that can be useful when
advocating for the safety and well-being of gifted students. The reality that many victims apparently do not report incidents to adults at school or at home means that parents, teachers, and counselors should keep bullying in mind when attempting to ascertain why a child expresses hopelessness, appears uncomfortable in school, withdraws socially, becomes hypervigilant, or has problems eating or sleeping.
Direct questions about bullying (e.g., “Have you ever seen someone being bullied?” “Have you ever been bullied?”), including references to a wide range of bullying behaviors (e.g., “Have you ever seen a student threaten someone?”), may generate important revelations. Open-ended questions are best for generating conversation without provoking defensiveness (e.g., “Tell me about recess, the lunchroom, lining up for the bus. How do the kids behave when they’re not in the classroom?” “How do you feel when you’re on your way to school in the morning?”). Teachers, in the classroom and when supervising elsewhere, need to consider bullying broadly, watch for both overt and subtle bullying, not ignore bullying when it occurs, and not blame the victim. The fi nding that gifted children and early adolescents can also be bullies suggests that teachers should be particularly alert to nonphysical
bullying, which the study found to be associated with gifted bullies, and intervene immediately.
Proactive psychoeducational curriculum for young gifted children and others, as well, can encourage
pro-social behavior and enhance coping and general interpersonal skills.
ABSTRACT
Gifted eighth graders (N = 432) in 11 U.S. States participated in a retrospective national study that explored the prevalence and effects of being bullied and being a bully during kindergarten through grade 8. No signifi cant differences were found related to size of city, race/ethnicity, and geographical region in terms of either being bullied or being a bully. Sixtyseven percent of all participants had experienced at least 1 of 13 kinds of bullying listed on the survey, more in grade 6 than in other grades, and 11% had experienced repeated bullying. Name-calling and teasing about appearance were the most common kinds of bullying, and the latter was among several kinds of bullying signifi cantly related to emotional impact. In grade 8, 16% were bullies, and 29% had violent thoughts. At all grade levels, a larger percentage of males than females were bullied, were bullied more than 10 times, and were bullies.
CONCLUSION
The fi ndings in this study have powerful implications not only for gifted education, but also for all of K–12 education. Bullying appears to be a signifi cant problem for gifted children and early adolescents. Evidence of continued escalation of certain kinds of bullying throughout middle school in this study raises concerns that bullying might continue in high school in altered, but still insidious, forms. On the other hand, the decreasing percentages after grade 6 in name-calling and teasing about appearance, the two most common kinds of bullying, provide some hope that bullying is actually less a problem during high school than earlier (cf. Long & Pellegrini, 2003). However, the continuing increase of thinking about doing something violent tempers that optimism, as well as the reality that 41% of the gifted eighth graders in this study worried about violence in school daily. Educators and parents certainly should not assume an absence of bullying just because gifted children and adolescents do not speak of it and adults do not see it.
Perhaps the most surprising fi nding of this study is that 16% of the gifted participants were bullies in grade 8, after steadily increasing in number from kindergarten on. Gifted bullies may or may not be among the proactively aggressive bullies who are perceived to be popular. Regardless, as noted in the literature, the long-term prognosis for bullies is not positive. In terms of long-term health and well-being, it is just as important for educators and parents to intervene with gifted bullies as with gifted
victims of bullying, while recognizing that the latter are more numerous, according to this study. The noteworthy percentages of gifted victims and bullies certainly stand in stark contrast to the research literature about the low scholastic competence of both bullies and their victims (e.g., Mynard & Joseph, 1997).
The fi ndings in this study can help to raise awareness of the need for proactive, prevention-oriented, systemic school programs, especially during the late-elementary and middle-school grades. No single approach is “best practice” (Rigby, 2003), and schoolwide prevention programs must be specifi c to context. Nevertheless, preprofessional training and continuing education of teachers about bullying, collaborative efforts of educators and parents to protect children from bullies, and empirically proven curricula to alter perceptions of bullying and develop effective social skills all have the potential to make bullying abnormal and unpopular, instead of accepted as a normal part of development during the school years.
By Jean Sunde Peterson and Karen E. Ray
Purdue University
PUTTING THE RESEARCH TO USE
This study provides information to parents, school personnel, and counselors that can be useful when
advocating for the safety and well-being of gifted students. The reality that many victims apparently do not report incidents to adults at school or at home means that parents, teachers, and counselors should keep bullying in mind when attempting to ascertain why a child expresses hopelessness, appears uncomfortable in school, withdraws socially, becomes hypervigilant, or has problems eating or sleeping.
Direct questions about bullying (e.g., “Have you ever seen someone being bullied?” “Have you ever been bullied?”), including references to a wide range of bullying behaviors (e.g., “Have you ever seen a student threaten someone?”), may generate important revelations. Open-ended questions are best for generating conversation without provoking defensiveness (e.g., “Tell me about recess, the lunchroom, lining up for the bus. How do the kids behave when they’re not in the classroom?” “How do you feel when you’re on your way to school in the morning?”). Teachers, in the classroom and when supervising elsewhere, need to consider bullying broadly, watch for both overt and subtle bullying, not ignore bullying when it occurs, and not blame the victim. The fi nding that gifted children and early adolescents can also be bullies suggests that teachers should be particularly alert to nonphysical
bullying, which the study found to be associated with gifted bullies, and intervene immediately.
Proactive psychoeducational curriculum for young gifted children and others, as well, can encourage
pro-social behavior and enhance coping and general interpersonal skills.
ABSTRACT
Gifted eighth graders (N = 432) in 11 U.S. States participated in a retrospective national study that explored the prevalence and effects of being bullied and being a bully during kindergarten through grade 8. No signifi cant differences were found related to size of city, race/ethnicity, and geographical region in terms of either being bullied or being a bully. Sixtyseven percent of all participants had experienced at least 1 of 13 kinds of bullying listed on the survey, more in grade 6 than in other grades, and 11% had experienced repeated bullying. Name-calling and teasing about appearance were the most common kinds of bullying, and the latter was among several kinds of bullying signifi cantly related to emotional impact. In grade 8, 16% were bullies, and 29% had violent thoughts. At all grade levels, a larger percentage of males than females were bullied, were bullied more than 10 times, and were bullies.
CONCLUSION
The fi ndings in this study have powerful implications not only for gifted education, but also for all of K–12 education. Bullying appears to be a signifi cant problem for gifted children and early adolescents. Evidence of continued escalation of certain kinds of bullying throughout middle school in this study raises concerns that bullying might continue in high school in altered, but still insidious, forms. On the other hand, the decreasing percentages after grade 6 in name-calling and teasing about appearance, the two most common kinds of bullying, provide some hope that bullying is actually less a problem during high school than earlier (cf. Long & Pellegrini, 2003). However, the continuing increase of thinking about doing something violent tempers that optimism, as well as the reality that 41% of the gifted eighth graders in this study worried about violence in school daily. Educators and parents certainly should not assume an absence of bullying just because gifted children and adolescents do not speak of it and adults do not see it.
Perhaps the most surprising fi nding of this study is that 16% of the gifted participants were bullies in grade 8, after steadily increasing in number from kindergarten on. Gifted bullies may or may not be among the proactively aggressive bullies who are perceived to be popular. Regardless, as noted in the literature, the long-term prognosis for bullies is not positive. In terms of long-term health and well-being, it is just as important for educators and parents to intervene with gifted bullies as with gifted
victims of bullying, while recognizing that the latter are more numerous, according to this study. The noteworthy percentages of gifted victims and bullies certainly stand in stark contrast to the research literature about the low scholastic competence of both bullies and their victims (e.g., Mynard & Joseph, 1997).
The fi ndings in this study can help to raise awareness of the need for proactive, prevention-oriented, systemic school programs, especially during the late-elementary and middle-school grades. No single approach is “best practice” (Rigby, 2003), and schoolwide prevention programs must be specifi c to context. Nevertheless, preprofessional training and continuing education of teachers about bullying, collaborative efforts of educators and parents to protect children from bullies, and empirically proven curricula to alter perceptions of bullying and develop effective social skills all have the potential to make bullying abnormal and unpopular, instead of accepted as a normal part of development during the school years.
Emotional Outlook
When asked how they're feeling, gifted children who are suppressing their emotions usually say they're “fine,” even when their outward behavior shows clearly that they aren't fine. If they choose to do so, they can disguise their emotions better than most other children.
Gifted children often push their feelings down because they're frightened to show others what's going on in their inner lives. Their feelings are often so intense that the children wonder if they're “normal.” They can feel as if they're holding the ocean in a bottle; they may be afraid that if they take out the stopper, they'll be overwhelmed by the waves -than once they begin to vent their emotions, they won't be able to stop. They fear losing control, and if there's one thing gifted children need, it's a sense of self-control and belonging. So they act as normal and ordinary as possible and tell their parents what they think the parents want to hear. Most of the time, they know precisely what adults want them to say.
Friendship can be problematic. A gifted child may, after long consideration, confide deeply in one friend; that's why the break-up of a friendship can be so devastating. If the friendship falls apart, the child has no outlet for all the emotion previously shared with the lost friend. The child may then grieve deeply or show anger that seems excessive to parents.
Helping Gifted Children Soar
by Carol A. Strip, Ph.D with Gretchen Hirsch
Gifted children often push their feelings down because they're frightened to show others what's going on in their inner lives. Their feelings are often so intense that the children wonder if they're “normal.” They can feel as if they're holding the ocean in a bottle; they may be afraid that if they take out the stopper, they'll be overwhelmed by the waves -than once they begin to vent their emotions, they won't be able to stop. They fear losing control, and if there's one thing gifted children need, it's a sense of self-control and belonging. So they act as normal and ordinary as possible and tell their parents what they think the parents want to hear. Most of the time, they know precisely what adults want them to say.
Friendship can be problematic. A gifted child may, after long consideration, confide deeply in one friend; that's why the break-up of a friendship can be so devastating. If the friendship falls apart, the child has no outlet for all the emotion previously shared with the lost friend. The child may then grieve deeply or show anger that seems excessive to parents.
Helping Gifted Children Soar
by Carol A. Strip, Ph.D with Gretchen Hirsch
Are Children Smarter Than They Used To Be?
Today's moms and dads have access to much more information about infant and child development that did parents a generation ago. Consequently, there are many children who are products of exceptional parenting. These children have been intellectually stimulated from birth. They've been talked to, read to, and played with. Fortunate children like these have been provided with books, games, puzzles, computer learning, music, and art materials. By the time they enter kindergarten, they can differentiate shapes and colors and understand concepts such as alike and opposite; they know their letters and numbers. They've visited the zoo, the science center, the movies, and the grocery store. They've eaten in restaurants, perhaps both fast food and “white tablecloth” establishments. They may have been taken to dance and musical performances. They may have taken to dance and musical performances. Perhaps they've attended both amateur and professional sports events. They might have been active participants in church suppers or neighborhood picnics and festivals. All of these activities give these children things to talk about and learn from.
Some of these little ones have attended preschool or day care programs that focus on both learning and self-esteem. Their preschool experience may have included children with various disabilities, so they readily accept those who use sign language or wheel chairs. May pre-schoolers have also been exposed to an extended family, whether these people are real kinfolk or their parents' friends. Exposure to other people and groups has enriched these children's lives and prepared them for school.
Their health has been guarded, too. They've seen the pediatrician or clinic health care provider regularly, and since most schools districts require immunization, the majority of students are up-to-date on their shots. They eat healthful foods, get lots of exercise, and have regular bedtimes. All of these help learning.
Although enrichment opportunities are more readily available to middle-class children, lack of money doesn't have to mean lack of opportunity. It may be difficult, but it is certainly possible for lower income families to find these same advantage, and many do. One minority principal with experience in both inner city and suburban schools says it this way: “Sometimes you have to ask for what you need. Let's be honest. Money makes things easier, but there are ways for parents go get what they need for their children
Helping Gifted Children Soar
by Carol A. Strip, Ph.D with Gretchen Hirsch
Some of these little ones have attended preschool or day care programs that focus on both learning and self-esteem. Their preschool experience may have included children with various disabilities, so they readily accept those who use sign language or wheel chairs. May pre-schoolers have also been exposed to an extended family, whether these people are real kinfolk or their parents' friends. Exposure to other people and groups has enriched these children's lives and prepared them for school.
Their health has been guarded, too. They've seen the pediatrician or clinic health care provider regularly, and since most schools districts require immunization, the majority of students are up-to-date on their shots. They eat healthful foods, get lots of exercise, and have regular bedtimes. All of these help learning.
Although enrichment opportunities are more readily available to middle-class children, lack of money doesn't have to mean lack of opportunity. It may be difficult, but it is certainly possible for lower income families to find these same advantage, and many do. One minority principal with experience in both inner city and suburban schools says it this way: “Sometimes you have to ask for what you need. Let's be honest. Money makes things easier, but there are ways for parents go get what they need for their children
Helping Gifted Children Soar
by Carol A. Strip, Ph.D with Gretchen Hirsch
Will Enrichment Make a Child Gifted?
Children whose life experience has been enriched in many of these ways come to school ready to learn, and they usually excel in the early grades. They are bright, eager, and often socially adept -the public's (and sometimes parents' and teacher') idea of gifted students. But if the adults watch these children for a period of time, they may notice that by the third of fourth grade, some of the children are “leveling out,” -that is, they're performing like most of their chronological peers. They're still very intelligent, but their intellectual ability is now being challenged by more complex material. Although they may have appeared gifted in kindergarten and first grade, it's now evident that they are simply smart children who have had an enriched early childhood and who will excel in the so-called regular classroom.
Gifted children have different situation. These children may also have had careful, loving parenting, although they may or may not received the exceptional opportunities available to families with more resources. But so long as gifted children receive reasonable opportunities to explore, think, and create, their intellectual gifts generally can thrive, sometimes even with relatively little stimulation. Their giftedness is part of the genetic endowment -the potential they brought along with them when they were born. Of course, this needs to be nurtured and encouraged by their parents and others, but it exists by itself.
Introducing children to a wide variety of learning opportunities actually helps identify those who are gifted. For example, suppose a group of young children goes to the museum to look at dinosaur bones. All of the children will be fascinate by the skeletons, but the gifted child may suddenly blurt out hat brontosauruses must have been leaf eaters because they had long necks, just like today's giraffes. The gifted child is able to see relationships and make connections that aren't immediately apparent to other children. Gifted children soak up information rapidly an are usually on a constant, intense quest to learn more -and that intensity might be one of the earliest indicators of giftedness.
Gifted children are often autonomous learners and much of what they learn will be self-taught. Still, they need parents and teachers to guide them, particularly because their intellectual development often outpaces their judgment.
Just as a smart child who is hard worker and a high achiever may be mistakenly identified as gifted, a truly gifted child may be labeled as a troublemaker, a nuisance, a classroom pest, or even suspected of having Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The bright child may end up in the gifted class, the gifted child in the principal's office, and neither of them is in the right place.
Of course, not every sassy, aggressive, acting-out child is gifted; many gifted children are patient, polite, kind, and helpful. Parents and teachers must observe the child over time to know precisely what they're dealing with.
Smart children may indeed be more sophisticated thinkers that children of prior generations simply because they've had more experiences and been exposed to more information earlier in life. Nonetheless, smart children can be overwhelmed by the rigor and demands of a gifted curriculum. Gifted children, on the other hand, generally thrive in this type of creative and challenging environment. In fact, if they don't receive the stimulation they need for their intellectual and social growth, some gifted students will simply “camouflage” and hide their abilities or let their talents wither and die.
"Helping Gifted Children Soar"
by Carol A. Strip, Ph.D with Gretchen Hirsch
Gifted children have different situation. These children may also have had careful, loving parenting, although they may or may not received the exceptional opportunities available to families with more resources. But so long as gifted children receive reasonable opportunities to explore, think, and create, their intellectual gifts generally can thrive, sometimes even with relatively little stimulation. Their giftedness is part of the genetic endowment -the potential they brought along with them when they were born. Of course, this needs to be nurtured and encouraged by their parents and others, but it exists by itself.
Introducing children to a wide variety of learning opportunities actually helps identify those who are gifted. For example, suppose a group of young children goes to the museum to look at dinosaur bones. All of the children will be fascinate by the skeletons, but the gifted child may suddenly blurt out hat brontosauruses must have been leaf eaters because they had long necks, just like today's giraffes. The gifted child is able to see relationships and make connections that aren't immediately apparent to other children. Gifted children soak up information rapidly an are usually on a constant, intense quest to learn more -and that intensity might be one of the earliest indicators of giftedness.
Gifted children are often autonomous learners and much of what they learn will be self-taught. Still, they need parents and teachers to guide them, particularly because their intellectual development often outpaces their judgment.
Just as a smart child who is hard worker and a high achiever may be mistakenly identified as gifted, a truly gifted child may be labeled as a troublemaker, a nuisance, a classroom pest, or even suspected of having Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The bright child may end up in the gifted class, the gifted child in the principal's office, and neither of them is in the right place.
Of course, not every sassy, aggressive, acting-out child is gifted; many gifted children are patient, polite, kind, and helpful. Parents and teachers must observe the child over time to know precisely what they're dealing with.
Smart children may indeed be more sophisticated thinkers that children of prior generations simply because they've had more experiences and been exposed to more information earlier in life. Nonetheless, smart children can be overwhelmed by the rigor and demands of a gifted curriculum. Gifted children, on the other hand, generally thrive in this type of creative and challenging environment. In fact, if they don't receive the stimulation they need for their intellectual and social growth, some gifted students will simply “camouflage” and hide their abilities or let their talents wither and die.
"Helping Gifted Children Soar"
by Carol A. Strip, Ph.D with Gretchen Hirsch
Ways to support Gifted Children with learning differences
IDENTIFICATION
- Include students with disabilities in the initial screening phase.
- Be willing to accept nonconventional indicator of intellectual talent.
- Look beyond test scores.
- When applying cutoffs, bear in mind the depression of scores that may occur due to the disability.
- DO NOT aggregate subtest scores into a composite score.
- Weight more heavily characteristics that enable the child to effectively compensate for the disability.
- Weight more heavily areas of performance unaffected by the disability.
- Allow the child to participate in gifted programs on a trial basis.
INSTRUCTION
- Be aware of the powerful role of language; reduce communication limitations and develop alternative modes for thinking and communicating.
- Emphasize high-level abstract thinking, creativity, and a problem-solving approach.
- Have great expectations: These children often become successful as adults in fields requiring advanced education.
- Provide for individual pacing in areas of giftedness and disability.
- Provide challenging activities at an advance level.
- Promote active inquiry, experimentation, and discussion.
- Promote self-direction.
- Offer options that enable students to use strengths and preferred ways of learning.
- Use intellectual strengths to develop coping strategies.
- Assist in strengthening the student's self-concept.
CLASSROOM DYNAMICS
- Discuss disabilities / capabilities and their implications with the class.
- Expect participation in all activities; strive for normal peer interactions.
- Facilitate acceptance; model and demand respect for all.
- Candidly answer peers' questions.
- Treat a child with a disability the same way a child without a disability is treated.
- Model celebration of individual differences.
When Gifted Kids don't have all the answers, by Jim Delisle & Judy Galbraith
Ways to Support Gifted Minority Students
- Communicate high expectations.
- Be sensitive to the experiences and beliefs of people from different cultural groups. Get to know all students and their cultures. Consider the challenges that students may face in school.
- Continuously and firmly encourage students to go to college. Discuss the neccesary coursework, test, and other preparations with students and parents.
- Create a multicultural learning environment and make sure the curriculum reflects a variety of cultures.
- Help students connect with role models and mentors. Organize peer support groups for students with similar interest and abilities.
- Reach out to parents and family members. Enlist their support in providing encouragements and high expectations.
- Provide students with a variety of learning options. Create or select activities that are engaging, active, and grounded in reality.
- Listen to students' concerns, fears, and beliefs about their experiences and their education.
When Gifted Kids don't have all the answers, by Jim Delisle & Judy Galbraith
Ways to Support Gifted Girls
- Identify them early. The best age for evaluating and identifying gifted girls is between 3.5 and 7. For some gifted girls, early school entrance is beneficial.
- Provide special programs that stimulate and challenge them.
- Encourage them to take higher level math and science courses.
- Use multiple measures of ability and achievement. Females still score lower on the Scholastic Aptitude Test, the College Board Achievement Test, The Graduate Record Examination, and other examinations critical for college and graduate school admision. Most of these tests underpredict female performance and overpredict male performance.
- Encourage them to take credict for their successes and recognize their own talents.
- Provide material to compensate for the lack of inclusion of women's acomplishments in literature or textbooks.
- Foster friendships with gifted peers who share similar interests.
- Provide role models of women in traditional and nontraditional careers who have successfully integrated multiple aspect of their lives.
- Avoid sex-role stereotyping. Encourage awareness of biased depictions of girls and women in the media. (As recently as January 2000, the Barbie personal computer for girls came loaded with a little more than half of the educational software on the companion computer for boys).
- Encourage independence and risk-taking.
- Avoid having different expectations for girls than for boys.
When Gifted Kids don't have all the answers, by Jim Delisle & Judy Galbraith
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