giftedness identification instructional strategies
TRANSCRIPT
Giftedness
IdentificationInstructional Strategies
What is giftedness?
Renzulli's (1986) Three-ring conception of giftedness
Between 2-5% of students are gifted
Identifying giftedness A student who possesses demonstrated or potential
abilities that give evidence of exceptionally high capability with respect to intellect, creativity, or certain discipline-related skills
Identification and assessment should be carried out using multiple criteria and information from a variety of sources. These include several of the following:
Formal test results including indicators of cognitive ability, achievement, aptitude, and creativity
Teacher observations including anecdotal records, checklists, and inventories
Records of student achievement including assignments, portfolios, grades and outstanding talents and accomplishments.
Characteristics of the Gifted
First-borns and only children more likely to be identified, as are children of gifted parents
Visual-spatial learners more prevalent than auditory-sequential
Emotional difficulties Approximately 1/6 of gifted children have some
sort of co-morbid learning disability i.e., Dyslexia, ADHD Giftedness can mask these disorders and
depress IQ scores making identification difficult
What to look for?
The learning styles that help define students as gifted can lead to complex behaviours if early needs are not recognized and met
Strength Possible Problem
Advanced verbal skills Talks too much, talks above the heads of age peers
Long attention span Tunnel vision, resists interruption, stubborn
Acquires/retains info. easily Inaccurate, sloppy, impatient with others, dislikes basic or repetitive routines
Creative, inventive Escapes into fantasy, rejects norms, may be disruptive
Independent, prefers individualized work
Unable to accept help from peers, nonconformist
Critical thinking Critical of others, perfectionist
Prefers complexity Resists simple solutions, bossy, complicates
Sensitive, empathetic Sensitive to criticism or peer rejection
How to help?
Develop a student profile (class exercise) Academic achievement Interests Learning styles and strengths Special abilities Visions and goals for the future
Using... Observations, assessment, portfolios, journals,
tests, learning style inventories, interest inventories, rating scales of student characteristics, report cards, information from parents
How to help?
Match the student profile to differentiation of:
Content (What the student studies) Process (How the student works with
the information) Product (How students represent what
they know) Learning environment
Differentiating Content
Providing multiple options for what the student is learning
Acceleration (providing advanced curriculum, skipping a grade, taking a course at a higher level)
Telescoping (reducing the time taken to cover curriculum – learning two grades in one year)
Compacting (spend less time on classroom assignments and more time on application)
Independent study (pursue areas of interest)
Tiered assignments (students work on same content but answer different questions)
Learning Centres
Differentiating Process Providing multiple option for how students process
the content
Higher-level thinking (Bloom's analysis, synthesis, and evaluation)
Creative thinking (promote fluently generating wide range of ideas, being original, and elaborating on ideas)
Problem solving [divergent-convergent: (1) goal, (2) data, (3) problem, (4) ideas, (5) action plan]
Critical thinking (promote question asking – gathering information, organizing information, extending information)
Research skills (where to obtain info, how to record and organize info, methods of gathering new information)
Differentiating Products Multiple options for how students demonstrated learning
i.e., Models, diagrams, letters, videos, debates, displays, dramatizations, multimedia, concept maps, stories, sculptures, paintings, songs, scripts, classification systems, advertisements, cookbooks
Real audiences
Letters to the editor, children's literary magazines, public displays, presentations to local groups, artistic performance for public, story telling in library, create oral history tape for library, etc...
Consider: Engage students in developing their own criteria Include student learning logs Developing portfolios
Differentiating Learning Environment
Physical Interest centres, variety of working
spaces, full range of learning materials co-op, community mentors, acceleration, early graduation
Social Promote group planning, problem-solving Time with intellectual peers
Emotional Study of famous people, bibliotherapy,
grouping for instruction
Differentiating Learning Environment
Physical Interest centres, variety of working
spaces, full range of learning materials co-op, community mentors, acceleration, early graduation
Social Promote group planning, problem-solving Time with intellectual peers
Emotional Study of famous people, bibliotherapy,
grouping for instruction
In-class exercise
In groups or individually
1) Think of your lesson plan and identify ways to differentiate the lesson to support gifted students in your class.
2) You might want to consult with some of the resources at the front of the class when thinking through your design.
Reflection
In one short paragraph outline: The concepts from the readings/course
notes that you were hoping to apply Your contribution How your contribution successfully
applied those concepts