Fitting Square Pegs in Round Holes Gifted Kids Don’t Always Fit

1. Fitting Square Pegs in Round HolesGifted Kids Don’t Always Fit Dr. Barbara L. Branch Director, GATE/Extended Learning Nancy Craig, M.S. Curriculum Training Specialist Sacramento City Unified School District

2. Dr. Barbara Branch General Ed Teacher GATE Teacher Principal of a school with GATE Program Director of the GATE Program – Sac City Gifted Ed. Consultant College Instructor in Gifted Certificate Program Author Chairman – Capital Region GATE Consortium Educator Rep to the California Association for the Gifted (CAG) State Board from the Capital Region Incoming Executive Director of CAG Passionate about gifted kids

3. Who are the Gifted?

4. 8 Gripes of Gifted Students • No one explains what being gifted is all about - it's keep a big secret. • School is too easy and not challenging • Parents, teachers, and friends expect us to be perfect all the time. • Friends who really understand us are few and far between. When Gifted Kids don't have all the answers, by Jim Delisle & Judy Galbraith

5. 8 Gripes of Gifted Students • Kids often tease us about being smart. • We feel overwhelmed by the number of things we can do in life. • We feel different and alienated. • We worry about world problems and feel helpless to do anything about them. When Gifted Kids don't have all the answers, by Jim Delisle & Judy Galbraith

6. Differing from the norm can have disadvantages… Bummer of a birthmark, Hal…

7. Asynchrony Perfectionism Sensitivity and Intensity Social and Emotional Needs

8. Asynchrony • Uneven development • Cognitive abilities surpass motor or emotional development • Seeks friends who are older • Relates well to adults

9. Asynchrony Gifted students are asynchronous. Their chronological age, social, physical, emotional, and intellectual development may all be at different levels. For example, a 5-year-old may be able to read and comprehend a third-grade book but may not be able to write legibly.

10. Perfectionism • High expectations of self and others • Sometimes leads to limited risk-taking • May lead to low self-worth • Highly self-critical

11. Healthy Perfectionism vs. Dysfunctional Perfectionism • Healthy • Reflective organism • High personal standards • Agreeable • Extroverted • Conscientious An Empirical Typology of Perfectionism in Academically Talented Children, Parker 1997

12. Healthy Perfectionism vs.. Dysfunctional Perfectionism • Dysfunctional • Excessive concern about mistakes, doubts, or parental criticism • Anxious • Disagreeable • Doubts about actions An Empirical Typology of Perfectionism in Academically Talented Children, Parker 1997

13. Healthy Goal Setting The pursuit of excellence by individuals who enjoy setting and attaining high standards is not perfectionism.

14. What Parents Can Do Help your child to • Keep striving when first attempts are unsuccessful. • Don’t quit when the going gets rough • Don’t punish yourself for failing. • Hold onto your ideas and believe in your ability to reach them. • Recognize that there are good parts and bad parts to perfectionism. Perfectionism, Carole C. Peters

15. Intensity Emotional intensity in the gifted is not a matter of feeling more than other people, but a different way of experiencing the world: vivid, absorbing, penetrating, encompassing, complex, commanding - a way of being quiveringly alive. 

16. INTENSITY A salient descriptor that characterizes the personality of a gifted child is intensity. Intensity takes many forms that can be both strengths and weaknesses. Recognizing and understanding these intensities can help toward improving the social and emotional life of a child. From J.R. Delisle, Once Upon a Mind: The stories and scholars of gifted child education. 2000.

17. INTENSITY OF THOUGHT “Her mind is always whirring.” From J.R. Delisle, Once Upon a Mind: The stories and scholars of gifted child education. 2000.

18. INTENSITY OF PURPOSE “Once he makes up his mind to do something, he’s not satisfied until it’s accomplished.” From J.R. Delisle, Once Upon a Mind: The stories and scholars of gifted child education. 2000.

19. INTENSITY OF EMOTION “She internalizes anything anyone says about her.” From J.R. Delisle, Once Upon a Mind: The stories and scholars of gifted child education. 2000.

20. INTENSITY OF SPIRIT “He’s always looking for someone less fortunate who needs help.” From J.R. Delisle, Once Upon a Mind: The stories and scholars of gifted child education. 2000.

21. INTENSITY OF SOUL “She asks questions that philosophers have asked for centuries and gets upset when we can’t give her definitive answers to them.” From J.R. Delisle, Once Upon a Mind: The stories and scholars of gifted child education. 2000.

22. Gifted Kids and Brain Activity

23. MRI Research “Brains on Fire” • Bright red blazes of high metabolic activity burst out all over the scan. Each red patch represents millions of microcombustion events in which glucose is metabolized to provide fuel for the working brain. • Gifted brains are remarkably intense and diffuse metabolizers. education.jhu.edu/PD/newhorizons/Neurosciences/articles/Brains%20on%20Fire/

24. MRI Research “Brains on Fire” • Gifted thinkers are rarely one-mode thinkers. • Gifted brains are essentially "hyper-sensitive education.jhu.edu/PD/newhorizons/Neurosciences/articles/Brains%20on%20Fire/

25. MRI Research “Brains on Fire” • Enhanced Sensory Awareness / Sensitivity • Enhanced Memory Efficiency and Capacity • More Efficient Organizational-Analytic Capacity • More Extensive Associational-Synthetic Capacity • Greater Potential for “Creative-Corporate Thinking” education.jhu.edu/PD/newhorizons/Neurosciences/articles/Brains%20on%20Fire/

26. MRI Research “Brains on Fire” • Neurological characteristics carry a number of potential drawbacks • sensory, emotional, and memory overload, • sensory hypersensitivities, • personal disorganization, • sensory distractibility, • delayed processing due to "analysis paralysis" (or getting "lost in thought" due to an excess of options) • mental fatigue education.jhu.edu/PD/newhorizons/Neurosciences/articles/Brains%20on%20Fire/

27. What Parents Can Do • Accept children's' emotions: • Exercise appropriate discipline as this helps develop a sense of security • Discuss feelings openly

28. What Parents Can Do • Take time to listen to children's ideas, opinions and feelings. • Appreciate their sensitivities, intensities and passions.

29. What Parents Can Do • Reassure them when they are afraid and help them to find ways of expressing their intense emotions • Realize that they become frustrated when their physical capabilities do not match their intellectual abilities • Honor emotions in boys as well as girls.

30. What Kids want you to know • Come into my bedroom at night, tuck me in and sing me a song. Also tell me stories about when you were little. • Give me hugs and kisses and sit and talk with me privately. • Spend quality time just with me, not with my brothers and sisters around.

31. What Kids want you to know • Give me nutritious food so I can grow up healthy. • At dinner talk about what we could do together on the weekend. • At night talk to me about anything; love, school, family etc.

32. What Kids want you to know • Let me play outside a lot. • Cuddle under a blanket and watch our favorite TV show together. • Discipline me. It makes me feel like you care. • Leave special messages in my desk or lunch bag.

33. What do the needs of gifted kids tell us about schooling?

34. Why Should Gifted Students Be Supported? • “Gifted and talented” is not always viewed very positively • Isn’t it elitist? Offends our egalitarian sensibilities • Democracy butts heads with intellectualism – we want everything equal • Does superior intellect make us uncomfortable?

35. Why Should Gifted Students Be Supported? • Doesn’t it stigmatize kids or label kids? • Is it fair to other students? • Isn’t it just kids who get more field trips and special treatment like after-school programs?

36. Why Should Gifted Students Be Supported? Numerous studies confirm a sad finding: • Gifted students in the US have little good to say about their schooling. • Are usually bored and unengaged in school • Tend to be highly critical of their teachers • Are asked to learn independently too often. Ellen Winner

37. Rationale for Providing Gifted Services 24% of drop outs are gifted 50% of the prisoners on death row in Oregon and Washington have IQ's over 130 Think of the havoc wrecked upon our society by Ted Bundy, Charles Manson, and Ted Kaczynski. Dr. Victoria Gardner Placker, B.A.Ed., M.S., R.Sc.P., Rs.D. http://www.angelfire.com/ne/cre8vityunltd/futrgifted.html

38. Rationale for Providing Gifted Services Every child has a right to a free and appropriate public education at his or her level All youngsters need appropriate peers and friends If improperly nurtured and educated, gifted youngsters can become a powerful negative force in society Dr. Victoria Gardner Placker, B.A.Ed., M.S., R.Sc.P., Rs.D. http://www.angelfire.com/ne/cre8vityunltd/futrgifted.html

39. Rationale for Providing Gifted Services We need gifted people to deal with our world's problems, and they need to be appropriately educated and emotionally healthy to do so! Our future depends on them! Dr. Victoria Gardner Placker, B.A.Ed., M.S., R.Sc.P., Rs.D. http://www.angelfire.com/ne/cre8vityunltd/futrgifted.html

40. Rationale for Providing Gifted Services Gifted children have specific behavioral characteristics in the cognitive and affective realms that present special learning needs that must be addressed by curriculum differentiation

41. How do we deliver the differentiated instruction in the best possible way?

42. Grouping the Gifted • Full- day • Cluster grouping • Flexible grouping • Multi-age grouping

43. Rationale for Grouping • Placing high achievers together in one classroom challenges those students, enabling other students to become academic leaders and allowing new talent to emerge. Marcia Gentry

44. 2-Year Study Evaluate affective and academic changes in students placed in advanced programs 14 districts, 10 states Gifted students in separate class, pull-out, and special schools had higher levels of achievement than their gifted peers inn general ed Delcourt, M. B., Cornell, D.G., & Goldberg, M.D. (2007) Cognitive and Affective learning outcomes of gifted elementary school students. Gifted Child Quarterly, 51, 359-381.

45. Rationale for Grouping • Grouping makes it easier for teachers to meet the needs of students in their classrooms by reducing the achievement range of students within a classroom. • Grouping used in conjunction with challenging instruction and high teacher expectations may improve how teachers view their students with respect to ability and achievement. Marcia Gentry http://home.wsd.wednet.edu/wsd/Instructional/enrichment/cluster%20classrooms.pdf

46. Rationale for Cluster Grouping • Achievement scores improved over a three-year period for students in a cluster group environment and the number of students identified as high achievers increased. Marcia Gentry http://home.wsd.wednet.edu/wsd/Instructional/enrichment/cluster%20classrooms.pdf

47. Rationale for Cluster Grouping Flexible grouping within and between classes that reduces the achievement range of each class can provide many benefits to all students and teachers. Marcia Gentry http://home.wsd.wednet.edu/wsd/Instructional/enrichment/cluster%20classrooms.pdf

48. Rationale for Cluster Grouping • raising teacher expectations; • creating a sense of ownership; • reducing the range of achievement levels in classrooms Marcia Gentry http://home.wsd.wednet.edu/wsd/Instructional/enrichment/cluster%20classrooms.pdf

49. 10 Ways GT Has Helped MeGrades 2-3 To get a challenge To have a challenge and not have everything be easy To play logic games and learn new things Perseverance Logic thinking To not get stuff done right away That not everything in life is going to be easy To be challenged So everything isn't so easy It helped me learn new things like Latin and Greek base words blogs.edweek.org/teachers/unwrapping_the_gifted/2013/03/ten_ways_gifted_education_has_helped_me.html

50. 10 Ways GT Has Helped MeGrades 4-5 Challenge my mind. It makes my thinking not scattered. Inspired me to do things. Ex. = Take on challenges. GT helps me to use my brain and strategy because we play chess and you have to think. If I could be anywhere in the world, it would be here in GT because in [my regular] class I feel like we are learning 1st grade activities and we are doing unnecessary things to drag on activities in class GT helps me to learn math, logic, creativity, and how to handle frustration better, which I never knew before. In class I hear the same things over and over again, but not here in GT. blogs.edweek.org/teachers/unwrapping_the_gifted/2013/03/ten_ways_gifted_education_has_helped_me.html