Teaching

g Gifted and Talented Students

Tony Herber
EDUC 352: Adolescent Exceptional Learners
 Outline
„ The many faces of gifted and talented
„ Perceptions of GT…AND the rest of the story
„ H can we provide
How id iinstruction
t ti to t
gifted/talented students?
„ A i i
Activity
„ Identifying gifted and talented students
„ Assessment
„ Closure
C osu e
Are anyy of these true???

z Gifted students are like a group of

individuals
z Gifted children are better
z Gifted children will make it on their own
z Gifted students are perfect
z Gifted children like to be called “Gifted”
NO!!!!
O
All False
What Qualifies as Gifted/Talented?
Characteristics and/or types of G/T
– Intellectually gifted
– Creative
– Talented
– Hidden Gifted
Gifted, Creative,
Creati e or Talented
Is there one definition of what it
means to be gifted/talented?
† OF COURSE NOT!
„ US Dept of Education
„ R
Renzulli’s
lli’ 3-Ring
3 Ri conception
ti
„ Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences
„ Gagne’s Differentiated Model
„ Columbus Group
„ National Association for Gifted Children
„ The Javits Act
Why should we care?
„ Incidence
Incidence-gifted
gifted and talented students are in
every school, like other exceptionalities.
„ Estimates rangeg for 2-5% of the student
population being GT, to 15-20% of students
benefiting from some special programs.
„ Schools are generally not required to provide
gifted and talented programs, so these
students will often be in regular classes all
day…though this is slowly changing.
 Recently in the news…
news
ƒ Indiana
I di Senate
S Bill 408 passes andd is
i signed
i d by
b
Governor Daniels!
ƒ On March 20,
20 2007
2007, the senate passed bill 408408,
which mandates that “all Indiana school
corporations identify students of high ability in the
general intellectual and specific academic domains
and provide them with appropriately differentiated
curriculum and instruction in areas of core content
in grades K
K--12.
12 ” The general assembly also
passed a budget that includes $13 million per year,
beginning July 1, 2007, for High Ability Services.
How do we teach these students
in a “regular” classroom?

• Acceleration
• Enrichment
• Modify the process/method
• Modifyy the p
products of learning
g
Schiever’s Spiral Thinking Model

► Useful for planning

differentiated lessons
for g
gifted// talented
students.
► Encourages
g learning g
to progress to the
highest levels.
 Modifying your classroom
„ --Depth/complexity
Depth/complexity (and relevancy)
„ --Alter the pace and style as necessary
„ --Use high level questioning (think Bloom’s!)
„ --Provide
P id guidance
id tto students’
t d t ’ curiosity
i it
„ --Allow students to choose content, allow group brainstorming
„ --Allow students to show creativity and encourage
perseverance
„ --Encourage students to show what they learned through
varying media...theatrics, reports, TV commercials, art, song,
demonstrations journals,
demonstrations, journals or other suitable means
„ --Allow students to prepare and research alone or together
Id tif i
Identifying possible
ibl GT students
t d t
z Please see top of handout for list of
characteristics that are often present in gifted
or talented students
students.
z This list is not comprehensive, and usually a
GT student will exhibit several of the traits at
once.
The Next Step

„ After identifying a possible GT student,

do not hesitate to begin making
modifications for them in class.
„ Talk with other teachers to learn about
the GT program at your school.
„ If a satisfactory one doesn’t exist, talk
to your principal about starting one.
After all, it’s now the law…
Assessment and Closure
 To learn more,
more also try
try…

z National Association for Gifted Children (www.nagc.org)

z Teaching Gifted Kids in the Regular Classroom (by

Susan Winebrenner)

z Gifted Students in Regular Classrooms (by Beverly Park)

z Indiana Association for the Gifted (www.iag-online.org)