I am desperate to tell you something. I don’t want to be misunderstood. Planning for gifted students is rewarding, fascinating, and challenging. On this site, I offer some ideas, some sample lessons, and even sample thematic plans. You can also find lists of many great resources for use in the classroom. My goal is to provide a starting place and hopefully highlight some best practices in gifted education.
It’s truly overwhelming when you are starting with nothing at all. But it would really distress me to think that any teacher was viewing this site as just a “recipe book” of lessons. I encourage you to read the entire article that is the source of this quote:
What it takes to teach gifted learners well …begins with the premise that each child should come to school to stretch and grow daily. It includes the expectation that the measure of progress and growth is competition with oneself rather than competition against others. It resides in the notion that educators understand key concepts, principles, and skills of subject domains, and present those in ways that cause highly able students to wonder and grasp, and extend their reach...
It’s not so hard to articulate. It’s fiendishly difficult to achieve in schools where standardization is the norm, and where teachers are supported in being recipe followers, rather than flexible and reflective artisans.
“What it Means to Teach Gifted Learners Well” by Carol Ann Tomlinson, Ed.D. – NAGC
Three Questions for Reflection
Are my plans focused on TIMELESS CONCEPTS and ENDURING IDEAS? ~ If what I do with students does not tie to universal ideas and concepts and enduring understandings, then my students will simply go from one activity to another, never seeing how they connect or even matter in the “real world.” Constantly bringing discussions back to these enduring understandings will result in students finding their own connections, too, thinking about how what they are learning connects with things they’re seeing and learning elsewhere.
Are my plans DYNAMIC and RESPONSIVE? ~ I need to constantly reflect on what I do with students, on what is presented, and how it is presented. My plans should include the latest developments in fields of study and exposure to how experts in those disciplines do their work. This means we have to keep up with new areas of study, new questions, new inventions, etc. I need to think about my students’ abilities and interests, I need to consider what is happening in the world, and I need to think about how relevant our studies are in my students’ world.
Do my plans include experiences for my students to CREATE, EVALUATE, and SELF-REGULATE? There are three things to consider here: (1) opportunities to create something new from available ideas and information will be critical in years to come; (2) students today deal with an overwhelming amount of information at their fingertips and need practice in synthesizing; and (3) gifted students benefit from applying strategies that help them monitor themselves and their learning.
“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something… they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things” (Steve Jobs in Wired Magazine ~Wolf, 1996).
…[Today’s] media confronts students with volumes of disparate information and requires them to connect and synthesize to construct their own meaning… We must help students to develop a set of new literacies to make sense of the vast amounts of information that they encounter. (Brian C. Housand, Ph.D in “The 21st Century is SO Yesterday” ~ Teaching for High Potential, Summer 2013)
The development of good self-regulation usually involves self-observation; that is, monitoring one’s performance and keeping records. It also involves helping children to gain self-judgment…goal-setting, self-administered praise or criticism, rehearsing, memorizing, structuring the environment …, and asking for help. (Dr. Sally M. Reis in “Self-Regulated Learning and Academically Talented Students” in Parenting for High Potential (NAGC)
Philosophies impact behavior. So, now you have a taste of my philosophy and some food for thought! If you have a reaction to this or have something to add, your comment below is more than welcome! If you change a lesson idea described on the site, or add your own resources, please start a conversation in the comments on any post. Let us know what YOU added, changed, or how a lesson went with your students.
Related Post: Novelty, Surprise, and Twists: How to Sneak These Into Your Lessons
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