Strategies & Methods for Teachers

 

9 Tips for Teachers of Gifted & Talented Students:

Tip #1: Familiarize Yourself with the Characteristics of Intellectually Gifted Students
Not all gifted students in your classroom will be identified and even those who are may not always appear to be gifted. As such, it is important that you don't allow yourself to be distracted by false stereotypes. 

 

Tip #2: Let Go of "Normal"
In order to be an effective teacher, whether it's your first year or your 30th, the best thing you can do for yourself is to let go of the idea of "normal." 

 

Tip #3: Conduct Informal Assessments
Meeting the needs of gifted students does not need to be an all consuming task. One of the easiest ways to better understand how to provide challenging material is to conduct informal whole class assessments on a regular basis.

 

Tip #4: Re-Familiarize Yourself with Piaget & Bloom 
When it comes to teaching gifted children, take a few moments to review the work of Jean Piaget and Benjamin Bloom. Jean Piaget offers a helpful description of developmental stages as they relate to learning. Gifted students are often in his "formal operations" stage when their peers are still in his "pre-operational" or "concrete operations" stages. When a child is developmentally advanced he/she has different learning abilities and needs. This is where Bloom's Taxonomy can be a particularly useful. Students in the "formal operations" developmental stage need learning experiences at the upper end of Bloom's Taxonomy. Essentially all assignments should offer the student the opportunity to utilize higher level thinking skills like analysis, synthesis and evaluation, as defined by Bloom.

 

Tip #5: Involve Parents as Resource Locators
Parents of gifted children are often active advocates for their children.

 

Tip #6: Learn About Distance Learning Opportunities
The choices available to teachers and parents in this area have exploded in the past several years. Distance learning opportunities have dramatically increased options for meeting the needs of gifted students. Programs such as EPGY math and the Johns Hopkins Writing Tutorials as well as online high school and college courses, including online AP classes, are a great way to substitute more challenging curriculum for students who demonstrate proficiency with grade level material.

 

Tip #7: Explore Acceleration ~ It's Free and It Works!
Another option is to allow students to attend classes with other students who are at the same developmental level, rather than with their age peers.

 

Tip #8: Learning from the Experiences of Others
 

 

Tip #9: Utilize Outside Resources 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Early Childhood Teachers

Independent Projects:
Create an Independent Project activity. You will find that many gifted and talented students tend to have a lot of extra time on their hands in your classroom because they finish their work rather quickly. Use this time to help them develop their creativity by allowing them to explore a special area of interest related to the topic being studied.

 

 

Vertical Enrichment:
Plan "vertical enrichment" activities with gifted students. Design assignments or projects that go above and beyond what is covered in the regular classroom. Don't just give gifted students "more of the same." There are a number of educational products designed for gifted and talented students that can be easily adapted into regular classroom activities. Here is a list of vendors offering affordable materials that can be used to challenge students in a range of academic disciplines while developing their higher level thinking skills and problem-solving abilities.

 

Prufrock Press                                                                                             MindWare

PO Box 8813, Waco, TX 76714-8813                                                           121 5th Ave NW, New Brighton, MN 55112

1-800-998-2208                                                                                           1-800-999-0398

 

Critical and Creative Thinking for the Gifted                                               Zephyr 

PO Box 448, Pacific Grove, CA 93950-0448                                                   3316 N. Chapel Ave., Tucson, AZ 85716-1416

1-800-458-4849                                                                                             1-800-232-2187

 

Try a New Approach:
Change your approach when working with gifted and talented students. Instead of being "the expert," become "the facilitator." Rather than just "giving" them information, help them to discover it!

 

Research about the strategy: Indirect instruction seeks a high level of student involvement in observing, investigating, drawing inferences from data, or forming hypotheses. It takes advantage of students' interest and curiosity, often encouraging them to generate alternatives or solve problems. In indirect instruction, the role of the teacher shifts from lecturer/director to that of facilitator, supporter, and resource person. The teacher arranges the learning environment, provides opportunity for student involvement, and, when appropriate, provides feedback to students while they conduct the inquiry (Martin, 1983).

 

Click HERE to look at more information on how to become a great facilitator in your classroom. This website can be used for teachers of all ages. 

 

Learning Centers:
Set up learning centers in your room so that students can work at their own speed. The following source provides a variety of learning centers based on Bloom's Taxonomy.

Thinking Caps for the Gifted
PO Box 26239
Phoenix, AZ 85068
(602) 279-0513

 

Research about the strategy: Hundreds of studies have been undertaken to measure the success of cooperative learning as an instructional method regarding social skills, student learning, and achievement across all levels from primary grades through college. The general consensus is that cooperative learning can and usually does result in positive student outcomes in all domains (Johnson & Johnson, 1999). 

 

 

 

 

Middle Childhood Teachers

Academic Competition:
Involve gifted and high achieving students in an academic competition. These highly motivating events can be held right at your school and have relatively inexpensive registration fees. They are computer driven and test students' knowledge in a variety of academic disciplines. Not only do they challenge students academically, they provide an opportunity to develop skills in leadership and group dynamics. Here are two organizations that can provide competitions and more information.

 

The Knowledge Master Open (Elementary, Middle School, and High School)
Academic Hallmarks
P.O. BOX 998, Durango, CO 81302
1-800-321-9218 or 970-247-8738

 

Thinking Cap Quiz Bowl (Elementary and Middle School)
4220 Park Hill Circle, Urbandale, IA 50322
515-278-5097

 

Find a Mentor:
Don't turn your gifted student into a tutor or teacher's aide! Instead, find a mentor who is willing to work with him/her in an area of interest. Start with the parents of students at your school. Ask other teachers. Contact local organizations. The bottom line is that you want to help the gifted student reach his/her potential and tapping outside expertise is sometimes necessary. Gifted children need "tutors," too!

 

Research about the strategy: It is a common misconception that gifted children need little or no assistance in developing their talents. Many think that gifted students will simply learn everything on their own because of their high level of intelligence. However, many students become bored in a regular classroom, due to the lack of a challenge. Mentoring is a good way to provide challenge and academic rigor for these students (Templin, 1999). Through these relationships, gifted students are able to mature, explore future careers and successes, apply classroom knowledge, and gain role models (Berger, 1990).

 

Leveling Assignments:
Try leveling class assignments and learning outcomes. In this way, you can explore the same material with all of your students, but require different outcomes depending on the students' individual abilities. This strategy can also be applied to testing. Refer to Bloom's Taxonomy and include higher level questions on exams for gifted students.

 

Research about the strategy: Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) describes the area between a student’s level of independent performance (what he/she can do alone) and the student’s level of assisted performance (what he/she can do with support). In the Vygotskian approach, instructional strategies used to scaffold include hints, prompts, and cues given and later removed by the teacher. 

 

 

This YouTube video demonstrates several practical ways to differentiate

instruction and learning for the gifted within whole group, small group,

and individual settings. You will see teachers using strategies that generate

qualitatively different learning experiences to the benefit of gifted

students' thinking, knowledge and engagement.

 

 

 

 

 

Adolescent Young Adult Teachers

Use Bloom's Taxonomy:
Let Bloom's Taxonomy become your guide in working with gifted students. This web site explains clearly and simply each level of Bloom's Taxonomy - a model of critical thinking that progresses from the most basic level to the most complex. Examples of appropriate questions are given as well as illustrations for use in the classroom. Gifted students should be asked to utilize the upper three levels - analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Below are some examples of lesson planning "actions" that should be incorporated when planning activities for gifted students.

Level: Analysis

Ask students to: Compare/Contrast, Solve, Investigate, Examine, Classify, Inspect

Suggested end results: Report, conclusion, plan, survey, solution to mystery or mock crime scene, questionnaire

 

Level: Synthesis

Ask students to: Create, develop, design, compose, invent

Suggested end results: Original story, game, musical composition, poem, invention, piece of artwork, hypothesis,experiment, script

 

Level: Evaluation 

Ask students to: Choose, rank, assess, grade critique, judge 

Suggested end results: Book review, self-assessment, current events debate, court trial, editorial

 

 

Incorporate Multiple Intelligences:
Incorporate Multiple Intelligences into your lessons. Developed by Harvard Professor of Education Howard Gardner, this Theory of Multiple Intelligences states that all people possess at least seven different kinds of intelligences - linguistic, logical-mathematical, visual-spatial, body-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, and intrapersonal. These intelligences exist in varying degrees within each individual. Applying this theory to your classroom activities ensures that every student will be individually challenged in one or more specific area. The multiple intelligences web site provides many practical ideas for using Multiple Intelligences across the curriculum.

Click HERE to take you to the multiple intelligences web site! 

 

 

 

Differentiation is essential to meeting the range of student readiness

levels and learning needs in grades 3-6. This two-part video

training program contains a wealth of practical differentiation

strategies filmed in actual classrooms. Viewers will see effective

ways to support and challenge learners and take

all students to higher levels of achievement.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click HERE for more reccommendations on how to effectively teach talented and gifted students. 

 

 

Assistive Technology For Talented & Gifted Students 

 

 

 

Twitter

Cost: Free 

Purpose/Skills: Twitter can provide students with access to the thoughts and ideas of educators and professionals throughout the globe. Gifted and talented students can easily follow the experts in any field of study they have interest in. Often these experts post links to content on the web in their subject matter, which drives the student to new learning material. Gifted and talented students can also use Twitter to follow other students at their same level as a support network of sorts. When teaching financial literacy I have used tweets from certain economists or finance gurus and often encourage people to follow the experts for free advice.

 

 

edX 

Cost: Free 

Purpose/Skills: Massive open online courses ( MOOC’s ) such as edX can allow students to begin experimenting with and engaging in college level coursework while still in high school. For my students who experience financial literacy education for the first time they often have a piqued interest in economics. An MOOC can give them access to higher learning in the field as a supplement to their high school work, which will better prepare them for entering college.

 

 

Livescribe Smartpens 

Cost: $169.95 per pen 

Purpose/Skills: Livescribe smartpens let your notes speak for themselves. Holding several hundred hours of audio and sporting a micro-USB connector, the pens work with Livescribe's proprietary dotted paper to record handwritten notes. The two models, Echo and Pulse, map handwriting for transfer to a computer or directly to a mobile device, Google Docs, Facebook, Evernote, or an email. The pens can also record audio and play back what was said at a particular moment of note taking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

iPad Air 

Cost: $499

Purpose/Skills: The introduction of the iPad, with its easy to manipulate touch screen technology, has allowed even very young children to take advantage of a computer. Its portable format and fast load-up time has made it possible for them to be used easily in the classroom. Children have endless access to valuable information such as a dictionary and thesaurus, which previously were only available in printed format. Interactive technology makes learning more engaging and memorable. Tools such as audio and video recorders can change the way that learning takes place and homework is completed. 

 

 

 

 

Last Updated August 4, 2014