ALL

SYSTEMS GO

Todd Stanley - The Gifted Guy

POTENTIAL

Gifted

DIFFERENT SYSTEMS

Do they possess skills?

Are they being challenged?

Academics

Executive Functioning

Social/Emotional

Cognitive

Intellectually stimulated

Over-excitabilies

Audacity

Willing to take risks

THEY’LL BE FINE, WON’T THEY?

• Speculation is that anywhere from 10 to 50% of gifted students suffer from underachievement (Hoffman, Wasson, and Christianson, 1985; Richart, 1991)

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• More alarming is that between 18-25% of students who drop out of high school have been identified as gifted (Center for Comprehensive School Reform and Improvement, 2008).

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Fear

WHAT ARE BARRIERS?

Bigger problems

The myth of the gifted child

Culture of meh

Misconceptions

The triaging of the classroom

SOLUTION

Offer opportunities and chances for gifted children to use their potential.

WHAT ARE THESE OPPORTUNITIES?

Formal

Programs, acceleration, advanced classes, mentorships, internships, academic competitions.

Informal

Higher-level questioning, inquiry investigations, debate, project-based learning, tiered assignments.

ACADEMICS

ACADEMICS

Content

Process

Product

Pacing

No ceiling

WHAT DOES THIS LOOK LIKE?

Programming

Do students have autonomy when it comes to content, process, and/or product?

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Menu boards, PBL, performance assessment

Are there stopping points where students cannot go any further or are there infinite possibilities?

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Open-ended, divergent thinking, HLQ

Student choice

Do students have options to move at a faster pace or is enrichment available in course content?

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Subject/grade accelerations, CCP/AP, independent study

WHAT DOES IT ACTUALLY LOOK LIKE?

SOCIAL/

EMOTIONAL

SOCIAL/EMOTIONAL

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Understanding

Acceptance

Space

Camaraderie

WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE?

Like-minded

Balance

Knowing how behavior manifests itself in various ways and recognizing these for what they are?

Are students grouped with others who act and think like them? Do they have peer mates as well as age mates?

Recognition

Knowing students can’t Bloom until they properly Maslow.

WHAT DOES IT ACTUALLY LOOK LIKE?

EXECUTIVE

FUNCTIONING

EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING SKILLS

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Micro-skills

Daisy chaining

Foundation

Grit

Connection

WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE?

Habit forming

How purposeful are you in teaching these skills and how have these been broken down for students into achieveable goals?

How does this lead to that? What is the cause and effect and how can the cause be controlled better?

Intention

Stacking these habits on top of one another so that students see how they fit together and can be used in conjunction.

WHAT DOES IT ACTUALLY LOOK LIKE?

COGNITIVE

COGNITIVE

Inquiry

Metacognition

Challenge

Curiosity

Intellectually stimulated

WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE?

Reflection

Are student allowed to ask questions and then given the space to explore those?

Is learning about finding the right answers or is it more about making a case for one or several ideas?

Inquiry

How much thinking about the thinking are students doing? Are they thoughtful about the choices they make and the other possibilities?

WHAT DOES IT ACTUALLY LOOK LIKE?

AUDACITY

AUDACITY

Go big

Safety

Risk-taking

Outside the box

Learning for learning sake

WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE?

Structure

Is the classroom a place where it is OK to make mistakes when swinging big or are they punished for it?

Is everything for a grade or is learning the goal? Are mistakes built into the learning as part of the process?

It’s OK to fail

Are there places to play with imagination and creativity such as MakerSpace, a blank canvas, or regular assignments?

WHAT DOES IT ACTUALLY LOOK LIKE?

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

Advocate

Educate

Lookout for this underdog

Yourself and others

• There is more to gifted children than their intelligence.
• They are emotionally very sensitive.
• They may think like an adult, but can also act like a much-younger child.
• They have a strong sense of right and wrong.
• Gifted does not mean perfect.
• Being gifted does not equal straight A’s.
• They are not gifted in everything.
• They will not be fine on their own.

8 Things Educators Should Know About Gifted Children

ALL SYSTEMS GO

THANK

YOU