Apr 25, 20241 min read
Professional Development & Learning Resources
If you're looking to expand your mind into the realm of giftedness and understand more about what giftedness is and how it works, keep...
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Teachers
How to Cater to Gifted Students
01
Identifying Gifted Students
The most important thing to remember is that giftedness is represented in all racial, economic, cultural, and exceptional groups. Giftedness does not look like any "one" thing. Giftedness can be in one or many topics. Typically tests and assessments are used to identify, however, teachers should be proactive in ensuring their students' needs are being met.
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Support for Gifted Students
Advocate for and support your students. Often, gifted kids feel overlooked, bored, and isolated. Be there for them and challenge them. Build bridges with administrators and within the community for these students.
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Differentiation for Gifted Students
Differentiation is crucial for those identified gifted learners in regular classroom settings. This can be in the form of small group settings, projects, assignments-- anything that gets gifted kids interested and challenged on a topic. Utilize the theory of multiple intelligences in order to help your gifted population grow.
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Educating Yourself on Giftedness
Check out the "Resources" page for more information on giftedness.
According to the American Psychological Association (APA), assessment can be broken up into two types: Formative & Summative.
Formative:
"Formative assessments provide information about gifted students that is useful in making decisions about curriculum, instructional strategies, grouping and acceleration." (APA, 2018.)
Summative:
"Summative assessments are useful in evaluating gifted students’ learning progress, and the effectiveness of curricular and instructional practices, and the overall educational program." (APA, 2018)
Assessing Gifted Students
Standardized testing has traditionally been one of the primary methods used to identify gifted students. However, it is not always the most dependable way to ensure that every gifted student is correctly identified. Some gifted students, despite their advanced abilities, are not always proficient at taking tests.
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Intelligence testing is another way to identify giftedness, though it can be met with the same struggles as standardized testing.
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Classroom observations, surveys of teachers and parents and a student's past achievements/portfolio serve as better ways to identify giftedness, though, some students still go under the radar.
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There is no one clear, set way to identify giftedness in every single student. Being aware of their capabilities and how they perform is the most important part of identification.
What to Differentiate for Gifted Curriculum
Modify your content, process, environment, and expectations!
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Content: Encourage students to move at their own pace when possible; be broad and integrative to cater to all of your students; once mastery is evident, challenge them with more difficult work.
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Process: Restructure activities to be more intellectually challenging for gifted students; encourage students to take new perspectives and a more abstract outlook.
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Environment: Make sure the environment is student-centered; don't be harsh or judgmental, each child is different.
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Expectations: Allow a variety of response types when demonstrating what has been learned.
Specific Strategies for Gifted Differentiation
Tiered Assignments
Creating tiered assignments allows all learners to complete the same material at different difficulty levels. This is easiest achieved by planning the lessons for gifted learners, then adding in support for the remaining population of students.
Self-Directed Assignments
Allowing gifted students to work on a self-directed assignment of their choosing when they finish other work helps them grow in an area they have special interests in.
Project-Based Learning
Getting gifted students to actively engage in a project regarding their community allows them to grow their problem-solving, time-management, and critical-thinking skills.
Leveled Group Work
Splitting gifted students up within the classroom into groups with other students on their level lets them see varied perspectives and challenge themselves, as well as each other. This can expand their horizons, as giftedness is always displayed differently.
Allow Students to Work at Own Pace
Pre-assessments, then allowing students to jump in where they are ready helps them focus on parts of the lesson that they don't already know, rather than what they do.
Educator
Resources
These are specifically made for educator use, providing a basis for rules and programs. This is an important resource when looking at giftedness and gifted programs.
Gifte
Teaching AIG Children Pamphlet
I created this pamphlet for my ELEM 3000 class in order to outline the complexities and characteristics of gifted learners. Take a peek if you're curious-- there's a lot of helpful information regarding giftedness!
Creativity, Co-Teaching, & Giftedness
I created this presentation for my GIFT 4300 class in order to show how lesson plans can be creatively altered through co-teaching and collaboration to fit the needs of our gifted learners. There's a lot of information provided about creativity and go-teaching and how that impacts our gifted learners, including changing an existing lesson plan to fit the needs of an AIG student. Go take a look!
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Creativity, Problem-Solving, and Critical Thinking Podcast
This is a short podcast I created for my GIFT 4300 class detailing how creativity, problem-solving, and critical thinking are all related to each other in the realm of giftedness.
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I encourage you to give it a listen. It's very insightful on how these skills go hand in hand.
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