Building Your Gifted Toolbox
5 things I have had teachers say to me
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All students are gifted in their own way.
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I have bigger problems to worry about.
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Why should they get special treatment?
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Shouldn’t they be in a special class or program?
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It’s not going to hurt them to learn it again.
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1 out 4
High School dropouts are identified as gifted
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Up to 50%
Gifted students suffer from underachievement
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$0.03 out of every $100
Federal $ spending on gifted education out of education budget
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30 of 56
Countries that scored better than our highest achievers.
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65%
Teachers who said their teacher education program provided little to no training on working with gifted students
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Gifted-Ed
Regular-Ed
Special-Ed
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Affect on your day-to-day classroom
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Will require slight adjustments to your day such as taking 15 minutes out of class
This is a strategy that drives a lot of the learning but is mixed in with other forms of pedagogy as well.
Will require little to no change to day-to-day practices, mostly add-ons
Might not be prevalent all of the time in the classroom but is used enough so that one would notice it is being used.
It is the main driver for how students are learning.
Kids who get their work done early
Four Corners/Bulletin Board Enrichment
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Four Corners Project - 1
High interest projects in each corner of the room that students can independently work on when they get finished with their regular classwork
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Bulletin Board Enrichment - 1
Having brain teasers and other challenging tasks that students can pick up and work on should they get finished early
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1) The one who makes it, sells it. The one who buys it, never uses it. The one who uses it never knows that he’s using it.
2) What word looks the same upside down and backwards?
3) Say my name and I disappear.
4) If two’s company and three’s a crowd, what are four and five?
5) Forward I’m heavy, but backwards I’m not.
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Kids who already seem to know it
Independent Project/Student as Teacher
B
Independent Project - 2
Have students dig deeper into a topic they already seem to know a lot about. Allow them to work independently from the class
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Teacher as Student - 3
Allow the student to show what they know to their classmates by creating a lesson they will teach.
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Kids who need to have their thinking challenged
Blooms/Depth and Complexity
C
Blooms Taxonomy - 4
Looking at the levels of thinking you are requiring of students and making sure you are challenging them with higher level thinking
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Scaffolding Bloom’s
Using the story Goldilocks and the Three Bears
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Depth and Complexity - 4
Thinking platform that pushes the thinking of students to go beneath the surface and dig down deep.
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Kids who think outside the box
Performance assessments/STEM challenges
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Performance Assessments - 4
Alternative assessments that allow students to use skills other than test taking ones. Some allow students to express their creativity.
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STEM Challenges - 3
Challenges that have students use the engineering design process in how they go about solving it
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Engineering Design Process
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Paper Tower Challenge
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Kids who need executive function skills
Differentiated Centers/20 time
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Differentiated Centers - 5
Self-paced work centers that have tasks of varying degrees.
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20time - 4
Giving students time to work on something they are interested in, usually trying to solve a big hairy problem
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Other tools
Enrichment clubs 1-3
Before/after school or during clubs such as chess, coding, Dungeons and Dragons, Invention Convention, robotics, etc.
Bonus opportunities 2
On a test or project, providing students with the opportunity to take it further. It might be going more in depth, adding something, or a more complex question.
Board games 1
During indoor recess and day before holiday break day, providing board games that will cognitively or creatively challenge students.
Makerspace 1
Providing students the space and materials to create things either things from their imagination, or project cards that ask for something specific
Student choice 4
As much as possible, allowing students to make choices about their learning whether it be where they sit, who they work with, how they will show mastery, to even the topic of learning.
Mentors 2
Using outside experts to guide and teach students who have shown propensity for a certain area of interest
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Bonus Opportunity to explore on your own
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Go to www.thegiftedguy.com/toddtalks
Under Enrichment in a Classroom with Gifted Students, choose a video or two that speaks to you
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Watch the video(s)
How could you use this in your own classroom
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What strategy made you stop and think?
What strategy makes you cautious about using it and why?
What strategy makes you want to go and try it right now?
Stoplight Reflection
CHECK OUT TODD TALKS
FREE PD VIDEOS THAT TALK ABOUT A LOT OF THE TOOLS SHARED HERE TODAY AS WELL AS OTHER TOPICS IN EDUCATION AND GIFTED.
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WWW.THEGIFTEDGUY.COM/TODDTALKS
Thanks!
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