Understanding the World of Academically & Intellectually Gifted

1. Understanding the World of Academically & Intellectually Gifted Watson School of Education AIG Mini-Conference Angela Housand, Ph.D. housanda@uncw.edu

2. A Practical Guide to Differentiation

3. How do you differentiate?

4. They Are All So Different… Children come to us in a variety of shapes, sizes, intellectual abilities, creative abilities, inter/intra personal skills, and a myriad more characteristics that makes each child we deal with unique and special. Carol Ann Tomlinson

6. Diversity in students can include: • Ability (aptitude) differences • Achievement differences • Academic background differences—lower achievement can be due to poor preparation and limited exposure • Cultural differences—second language acquisition, interaction style differences • Differences in affect (enthusiasm level and personality) and effort (effort vs. ability issues) • Differences in styles of learning style (visual, auditory, concrete, abstract, hands-on, written) • Differences in interests • Differences in preferences for products and processes • Differences in self-regulation and study skills Sally Reis

7. The success of education depends on adapting teaching to individual differences among learners. Yuezheng, in 4th century B. C. Chinese treatise, Xue Ji

8. Why Aren’t Some Students Challenged?

9. Classroom Practices Study Teachers reported that they never had any training in meeting the needs of gifted students. 61% public school teachers 54% private school teachers Archambault, F. X., Jr., Westberg, K. L., Brown, S. W., Hallmark, B. W., Emmons, C. L., & Zhang, W. (1993). Regular classroom practices with gifted students: Results of a national survey of classroom teachers (Research Monograph 93102). Storrs, CT: The National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented, University of Connecticut.

10. Classroom Practices Observational Study Students experienced no instructional or curricular differentiation in 84% of the activities in which they participated: Reading Language Arts Mathematics Social Studies Science Westberg, K. L., Archambault, F. X., Jr., Dobyns, S. M., & Salvin, T. J. (1993). An observational study of instructional and curricular practices used with gifted and talented students in regular classroom (Research Monograph 93104). Storrs, CT: The National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented, University of Connecticut.

11. Types of Differentiation in Which Target Gifted Students Were Involved No Differentiation Advanced Content Advanced Process Advanced Product Indep. Study w/ Assigned Topic Indep. Study w/ Self-selected Topic Other Differentiation

12. The Five Dimensions of Differentiation Content (Knowledge) Process (Pedagogy) Yourself Classroom Organization and Management Products (Expression Styles)

13. What is differentiated instruction? • It’s teaching with student variance in mind. • It’s starting where the kids are rather than with a standardized approach to teaching that assumes all kids of a given age or grade are essentially alike. • It’s responsive teaching rather than one-size fits-all teaching.

14. Ways to Differentiate Content • Varied Texts • Accelerated Coverage of Material • Varied Supplementary Materials • Independent Projects • Tiered Lessons • Interest Development Centers • Compacting

15. Approximately 40-50% of traditional classroom material could be eliminated for targeted students. Reis, S. M., Westberg, K.L., Kulikowich, J., Caillard, F., Hébert, T., Plucker, J., Purcell, J.H., Rogers, J.B., & Smist, J.M. (1993). Why not let high ability students start school in January? The curriculum compacting study (Research Monograph 93106). Storrs, CT: The National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented, University of Connecticut.

16. Compacting • Assesses what a student knows and what content is not yet mastered • Content not yet mastered becomes part of learning goals • Previously mastered content is not required thereby “freeing up” time for enriched, accelerated, or interest driven activities Renzulli & Reis (1997) Tomlinson (1995)

17. When teachers eliminated as much as 50% of the curriculum, no differences were found between treatment and control groups in most content areas. In fact, students whose curriculum was compacted scored higher than control group students in some areas. Reis, S. M., Westberg, K.L., Kulikowich, J., Caillard, F., Hébert, T., Plucker, J., Purcell, J.H., Rogers, J.B., & Smist, J.M. (1993). Why not let high ability students start school in January? The curriculum compacting study (Research Monograph 93106). Storrs, CT: The National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented, University of Connecticut.

18. What is Curriculum Compacting? • Modifying or streamlining the regular curriculum • Eliminating the repetition of previously mastered material • Upgrading the challenge level of the regular curriculum

19. Family Circus

20. When once the child has learned that four and two are six, a thousand repetitions will give him no new information, and it is a waste of time to keep him employed in that manner. J.M. Greenwood Principles of Education Practically Applied, 1888

21. Student Behaviors Suggesting that Compacting May Be Necessary

22. Finishes tasks quickly • Completes homework in class • Appears bored during instruction time • Brings in outside reading material • Creates puzzles, games, or diversions in class

23. Tests scores consistently excellent • Asks questions that indicate advanced familiarity with material • Sought after by others for assistance • Daydreams

24. For Students, Compacting Eliminates boredom resulting from unnecessary drill and practice. Provides challenge leading to continuous growth.

25. How to Compact Step One:Identify the objectives in a given unit and pre-test students to ascertain mastery level.

26. How to Compact Step Two: Eliminate or Streamline instruction for students who demonstrate mastery.

28. How to Compact Step Three: Keep records of the process and instructional options available to compacted students.

30. Inconceivable Should every student have an Individualized Education Plan?

31. Ways to Differentiate Content • Varied Texts • Accelerated Coverage of Material • Varied Supplementary Materials • Independent Projects • Tiered Lessons • Interest Development Centers • Compacting

32. Tiered Lessons • Varied level of activities • Designed to ensure that students explore ideas at a level that builds on prior knowledge • Prompts continued growth

33. Why use tiered instruction? Maximizes the likelihood that • Each student comes away with key skills and understandings. • Each student is appropriately challenged. • Each student avoids work that is anxiety-producing (too hard) or boredom-producing (too easy)

34. Developing Tiered Instruction • Think about the students who will be using the activity • Readiness • Interests • Learning Profile • Create one activity that is interesting, requires high-level thinking and is clearly focused on the key concept, skill or generalization.

35. Developing the Tiers • Create an activity or use a successful activity from the past • The activity should: • Be interesting • Engender high level thinking and problem solving • Cause students to utilize target skills to understand key ideas or concepts

36. Developing the Tiers • Chart the complexity of the activity • Is it high skill complexity or low skill complexity? • Who will be challenged by this activity: • Advanced students? • On grade-level students? • Struggling learners?

37. Developing the Tiers • Based on where the activity falls on the ladder, you can define who needs more or less challenging versions of the same assignment • Clone the activity along the ladder • How many versions will you need?

38. All Tiers Should • build understanding • challenge students • be interesting and engaging • be respectful

39. Group sizes may vary • The number of groups per tier will vary • The number of students per group will vary • For Example: • Tier One: Two groups of three • Tier Two: Five groups of four • Tier Three: One group of two

40. What can be tiered? • Assignments • Activities • Homework • Learning Centers • Experiments • Materials • Assessments • Writing Prompts

41. Sample Tiered Math Game • Use two dice. • One person at a time, roll the dice. • Add or multiply totals. • The goal is to reach but not exceed 36.

42. First cast of the dice 3 1 + 2 = 3 = 2 1 x 2

43. Second cast of the dice 3 + 12 15 3 + 4 = 7 = 12 3 x 4

44. Third cast of the dice 15 + 6 21 5 + 1 = 6 5 x 1 = 5

45. Fourth cast of the dice 21 + 18 39 21 + 9 30 3+ 6 = 9 3 x 6 = 18

46. Modifications for Advanced Students • Play to 100 • Disallow paper for calculations or remembering numbers • Use powers • Use subtraction • Allow negative numbers • What about fractions?

47. Tiered Lesson:Using Powers Option 81 34 = 3 x 3 x 3 x 3 = 81 = 4 x 4 x 4 = 64 43

48. Tiered Lesson:Exploring Options 2+ 6 = 8 2 - 6 = -4 6 - 2 = 4 2 x 6 = 12 26 = 64 62 = 36

49. 36 What about • Using a multi-sided die 64 • Or two?

50. 12 We could really shake things up • Try three dice and use the distributive law! 12 + (3 x 18) = 12 + 54 = 66 (12 + 18) x 3 = 30 x 3 = 90 Did you get closer to 100?