When Gifted Kids Don’t Have all the Answers By: Jim Delisle, Ph.D. & Judy Galbraith, M.A.

1. When Gifted Kids Don’t Have all the AnswersBy: Jim Delisle, Ph.D. & Judy Galbraith, M.A. Textbook review, reflection, and narrative by: Scott Winberg #250748 EDGT 470-60 Instructor: Janet Goodheart

2. Abstract • This book is for anyone committed to helping gifted students gain insights, find solutions, and know they are not alone. Complete with first-person stories, easy-to-use strategies, classroom-tested activities, guided discussions, and up-to-date resources. Herein is an overview for each chapter of the book along with a reflection at the end.

3. Chapter 1What is Giftedness?overview/topics • What Does Giftedness Mean to You? • What does Giftedness Mean to Society? • What does Giftedness Mean to Kids?

4. Chapter 1A-C • A. What Does Giftedness Mean to You? • This section of the textbook outlines was that people define giftedness and invites them to come up with their own definitions. It outlines what other gifted educators think giftedness is and gives examples from several. One educator by the name of Richard M. Cash, Ed.D., who is the director of Gifted and Talented Programs in Minnesota says that “Giftedness is persistence, tenacity, and a willingness to overcome struggle—a drive to succeed when your gift doesn’t “fit in a box””(p. 11).Another educator by the name of Steven I. Pfeiffer, PH.D., who is is a diplomat of the American Board of Professional Psychology , views “…giftedness as exceptional ability in one or more culturally valued domains”(p. 13). • B. What Does Giftedness Mean to Society? • This section gives dueling definitions and claims that there is no one right, absolute, or generally accepted definition of giftedness. Instead there are federal and state government definitions, school and district definitions, dictionary definitions, encyclopedia definitions, advocacy organizations’ definitions, students’ definitions… and the list goes on and on. One definition from the National Association for Gifted Children defines; “A gifted person is someone who shows, or has the potential for showing, an exceptional level of performance in one or more areas of expression”(p. 15). Other definitions in this sections are from the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001; the U.S. Department of Education, Marland Report of 1972; the Encyclopedia Britannica Online; and even from parents. • This section also asks whether definitions matter which includes the concept of giftedness, and that it is not limited to high intellectual abilities, be based on the way the school operates their gifted program, definitions are influenced by social, political, economic, and cultural factors, and giftedness is found among all groups, including females, minorities, handicapped-persons, persons with limited English-speaking proficiencies, and migrants. This section also lists several factors that can define a person as gifted and myths along with misconceptions that people have in regard to defining those who are gifted. • C. What Does Giftedness Mean to Kids? • This section describes what giftedness means to kids and includes an anonymous questionnaire that teachers can give to kids. When they fill it out it gives teachers an idea of why students think that they are in their class, what they think about the class, what they think gifted means, whatt ways the students feel the same or different from their peers, what emotional issues they may have in their lives, who their support system is, and what they feel good about in themselves. The questionnaire is designed for all gifted students to take but can be modified as the teacher sees fit.

5. Chapter 2Identifying Gifted Kidsoverview/topics • Why Is Identification So Complex? • How It Should Be • What You Can Do Right • What We Sometimes Do Wrong

6. Chapter 2A-B • A. Why is Identification so Complex • The first part of this section discusses the fact that IQ scores were once used as a criteria for measuring gifted children. If their score was above 140, they were deemed gifted, if it was 139 or below, they weren't. This section also lists several other biases that were in early American education that tried to define giftedness but were biased, ignorant of the traits of real gifted children, tended to identify kids with talents who resembled their own, and tended to identify “teacher pleasers” as gifted, instead of those children who were highly intelligent but under motivated in school (p. 48). • B. How it Should Be • This section describes how identifying students who are gifted and talented doesn’t have to be a difficult task and lists three tips for successful gifted placement. • All placement in a gifted program should be considered tentative, with the fit between the child’s needs and the program’s offerings being the bottom-line criterion for continued placement. • All placements in a gifted program should be considered voluntary. Meaning that no one should have to act gifted if they don’t want to. • The names of students selected fro a gifted program should be shared with the students’ teachers, who should also be asked if they know of any other children who might be considered for placement. (note: I would, as a teacher, also consult parents for their opinions as well).

7. Chapter 2C-D • C. What You can do Right • Classroom teachers are the key players in the eventual success or failure of a child’s gifted program placement. Teachers can be talented identifier, a student advocate, be supportive and flexible, and be a treasure hunter. Being a treasure hunter means that teachers need to look beyond any rebellious or nonchalance about schoolwork that students may have, and notice when they do well. Students like this may be hard to detect but may possess some characteristics of being gifted. This section also lists several characteristics that may prevent identification of gifted students. Some of these include the fact that students may get bored with their work, or may work intently on one subject and not the others, or may get excited about a particular subject, topic, and posses a valued knowledge of these topics. • D. What We Sometimes do Wrong • We assume that once a student is identified as gifted , that they will always be identified that way. If properly identified in childhood, the phenomenon of giftedness will continue to be an immutable apart of their lives. We also assume that once not identified, never identified. Meaning that if a child doesn’t do well on IQ tests, or standardized testing such as the ISAT that automatically this classifies them as never gifted,. However these are blockers that many educators use that can overlook many children who are gifted when identified using other measures. Some of the ways that can prevent this is saving copies of papers and projects, ask parents to provide examples of precocious performance or question-asking from early childhood, and remember examples from the classroom when a child has exceeded expectations.

8. Chapter 3Emotional Dimensions of Giftednessoverview/topics • Challenges from Within and Without • Different Ways of Being Gifted, Different Emotional Needs • Recognizing Problems

9. Chapter 3A-C • Challenges from Within and Without • Certain challenges to emotional balance may come automatically with exceptional intellectual ability or talent. Challenges from within include being, by nature, highly perceptive, highly involved, super-sensitive, and perfectionistic. Challenges from without come from conflict with the environment. Gifted students may be highly perceptive to stimuli (sights, sounds, smells, touches, tastes, movements, words, etc…) They may be highly involved which may breed a certain irritation with the “insensitive” and unusual preoccupation with interests, tasks, materials, and questions. They may be super sensitive to emotional or moral issues. They can be perfectionists where they see themselves as never able to fail, if they do then they see themselves as “losers”. The may have intellectual abilities that are out of sync for example they may be have strong spatial ability, but be weak in drawing. This section also discusses the eight great gripes which is furthered examined in chapter 8 in the textbook. • B. Different Ways of Being Gifted, Different Emotional Needs • There are some generalizations that we can make about who is gifted and what their affective needs may be. This includes quantity and quality of intelligence where the degree of difference between the gifted and average students influence, by itself, the gifted student’s self-concept. Gifted students are often accelerated and enriched learners whom are interested in mastering and integrating increasingly complex material. Other generalizations that may predict emotional needs include gifted girls, gifted children from ethnic and cultural minorities, and gifted children with physical and learning differences. Ways to support gifted girls include identifying them early, usually 3.5 and 7 years of age, provide special programs that stimulate and challenge them, encourage them to take higher-level math and science courses, and use multiple measures of ability and achievement. Gifted minority students can be supported by communicating high expectations of them, by being sensitive to the experiences and beliefs of people from different cultural groups, by continuously and firmly encouraging students to go to college, and by creating a multi-cultural learning environment and make sure the curriculum reflects a variety of cultures. Ways to support gifted children with learning differences include being aware of the powerful role of language, reduce communication limitations and develop alternative modes of thinking and communicating. • C. Recognizing Problems • This section indicates the kinds of problems and needs that gifted students may have. Some of the problems that may inhibit the gifted student is dropping out, poor performance, and not completing college for one reason or another. If teachers can recognize problems such as low-self-esteem or depression in gifted students then they can provide support and help them in coping with reality.

10. Chapter 4Being a Gifted Teacheroverview/topics • Explaining Gifted Education • What Makes a Good Gifted Education Teacher? • Creating a Supportive Environment

11. Chapter 4A-D • Explaining Gifted Education • This section lists different characteristics of gifted education including the following: • Gifted and talented are words used to describe kids who are exceptionally capable in some way. • Gifted means that a students learns very differently than most other children. • There are six categories of gifted children including; general intellectual ability, specific academic aptitude, creative and productive thinkers, and those who excel in leadership. • Depending on the child, his/her age, maturity, and type of ability many times these students are allowed to move ahead or even skip a whole grade. • Some schools have a pull-out program or class for gifted students. • The students learn faster and have different learning needs and objectives than other students. • Some of these students may work in an advanced class, or may be offered a more challenging curriculum. • B. What Makes a Good Gifted Education Teacher • Some of the qualities that these teachers should have include a lot of the following “people skills”, such as good observation skills, intuition, empathy, role-modeling, and good verbal presentation, writing, and group leadership skills. When students describe their concept of a gifted teacher a lot of them say they want someone who understands them, who has a sense of humor, who can make learning fun, who is cheerful, who supports and respect them, is intelligent, patient, is firm with them, and is flexible. Very few of the students listed knowing the subject, explaining things carefully, and skilled in group processes as qualities that they would like to see in their gifted teacher. This section also lists seven tips for gifted education teacher that include the following: • C. Creating a Supportive Environment • This section lists several strategies that can help teachers teach students who are gifted. For one, the teacher needs to clarify his/her role as a teacher and the students’ roles as learners as well as clarify the teacher’s and students expectations. The expectations should be stated with a clear learning objective, content, products and due dates, methods of proceeding and schedule, evaluations, and intangible outcomes. Another strategy would be to set ground rules where the students need help learning and understanding how to behave in a group by helping them with their social skills and learn trust issues with each other.

12. Chapter 5Understanding Gifted Kids from the Inside outoverview/topics • Self-Image vs. Self-Esteem • Gifted Kids Are Different

13. Chapter 5A-B • A. Self-Image vs. Self-Esteem • Self-Image is your perception of your ability to do a certain task, like cook a meal, write a term paper, or make a friend. Self-Esteem is the importance you place on your ability (or inability) to cook a meal, write a term paper, or make a friend. It is important to understand the distinction between the two because counselors or teachers may talk about a student’s high, or low self-esteem as if it were a singular, all-encompassing trait when, in fact, it’s content specific. Gifted kids often tend toward perfectionism, so helping them see both the connections and distinctions between self-image and self-esteem may allow them to see the importance of being selective in their quest for excellence. Also, knowing the difference helps students understand their motivation to improve a certain skill. • B. Gifted Kids Are Different • Some of the specific intellectual issues gifted children and adolescents face include the following: • Understanding and accepting what it means to be gifted. Explaining what gifted means to the student himself/herself. • Evaluating one’s life relative to different measures of success. • Recognizing the difference between “better at” and “better than.” • Coping with the frustration of having too many options. • Overcoming the barriers of others’ expectations. • Understanding the concept of asynchronous development. • Becoming an advocate for one’s own self-interest. • Understanding the role of socialization. Sometime kids who are gifted dumb themselves down in an effort to fit in.

14. Chapter 6 • Defining Underachievement • Much Research, Few Conclusions • Strategies to Reverse the Behaviors and Attitudes of Selective Consumers and Underachievers

15. Chapter 6A-C • A. Defining Underachievement • Underachievement is a behavior and, as such, it can change over time. Many times underachievement is seen as a problem of attitude or personality. However neither can be modified as directly as behavior can. Underachievement is content and situation specific. Sometime gifted student who don’t achieve well at school often do well in outside activities. Underachievement is in the eye of the behold where as long as a passing grade is attained , underachievement doesn’t exist. Underachievement is tied to self-image development. A child who learns to see himself/herself in terms of failure eventually begins to place self-imposed limits on what is possible. Underachievement implies that adults disapprove of a child’s behavior. It is a problem for children because it is recognized as such by adults. Underachievement can be learned by gifted students for whom “school” and “education” exist in separate places. Sometimes underachievement is also taught. • B. Much Research, Few Conclusions • This section lists 16 characteristics of children with underachieving behaviors. Some of these include: they have low self-concept and give negative evaluations about themselves; they are socially more immature than achievers, lacking self-discipline and refusing to do tasks they deem unpleasant; they harbor feelings of rejection, believing that no one likes them and that parents are dissatisfied with them; they have feelings of helplessness and may externalize their conflicts and problems; and they do not see the connection between effort and achievement outcomes. • C. Strategies to Reverse the Behaviors and Attitudes of Selective Consumers and Underachievers • Supportive strategies. These “affirm the worth of the child in the classroom and convey the promise of greater potential and success yet to be discovered and enjoyed.” • Intrinsic strategies. These are “designed to develop intrinsic achievement motivation through the child’s discovery of rewards available… as a result of efforts to learn, achieve, and contribute to the group.” • Remedial strategies. These are “employed to improve the student’s academic performance in an area of learning in which he/she has evidence difficulty learning, has experienced a sense of failure, and has become unmotivated to engage in learning tasks.”

16. Chapter 7Understanding Kids from the Outside Inoverview/topics • Group Discussion of the Eight Great Gripes

17. Chapter 7A • Group Discussion of the Eight Great Gripes • Gifted kids need to talk about the challenges, issues, and problems in their lives—and they need to talk with people who will listen, empathize, and understand. This section promotes using the eight great gripes as topics in a small group discussion session with gifted kids. • No one explains what being gifted is all about—it’s kept a big secret. This helps the gifted kids to understand what gifted is. The teacher provides definitions of giftedness, and explains the selection process to them. • School is too easy or too boring: the purpose of this discussion gripe is to understand what feelings underlie boredom; to clarify, what is boring to help students acknowledge their own responsibility for being bored. • Parents, teachers, and friends expect us to be perfect all the time: The purpose of this one is to discuss sources of perfectionism, feelings associated with perfectionism, and ways to handle perfectionism; to help students understand the difference between perfectionism and the pursuit of excellence. • Friends who really understand us are few and far between.: The purpose of this discussion is to tell stories about friendship; to contrast loneliness with aloneness and popularity with friendship; to share common questions about friendship, and possible answers; to introduce ideas for making and keeping friend that students can try. • Kids often tease us about being smart: In this discussion the students learn how to respond to teasing in a nonthreatened, nonthreatening way. • We feel overwhelmed by the number of things we can do in life: The purpose of this discussion is to examine specific choices facing students; to discuss the problems of pursuing one endeavor or interest. • We feel different and alienated: This discussion topic is meant to help students feel more comfortable with being different. • We worry about world problems and feel helpless to do anything about them: The purpose is to discuss students’ feeling about world problems and generate possible ways to respond to these problems.

18. Chapter 8Making it Safe to be Smart: Creating the Gifted-Friendly Classroomoverview/topics • Self-Esteem and School Achievement: A Natural Link • Invitational Education • Invitational Education in Action

19. Chapter 8A-C • A. Self-Esteem and School Achievement: A Natural Link • Gifted children, often more aware of reactions of other toward them, may begin to develop their self-esteem at a very early age. Since many gifted students tie their success in school to their worth as a person, early attention to self-esteem enhancement is essential. The belief that perfection is an attainable and expected goal limits some gifted children from giving themselves credit—and experiencing a personal sense of worth—for many of their lesser achievements. • B. Invitational Education • Invitational education is a “self-concept approach to the education process and professional functioning.” It relies on four basic principles: (1) People are able, valuable, and responsible and should be treated accordingly. (2)Teaching should be a cooperative venture. (3) People possess untapped potential. (4) This potential can become realized in an environment that respects individual differences and preferences. When teachers communicate to students their belief that the students are capable, the students are more likely to act in ways that prove their competence. • C. Invitational Education in Action • There are at least five areas in which educators can provide “invitations” to gifted pupils. • Within the curriculum: By providing posttests as pretests, coordinating student schedules, and provide incentives. • In grading procedures and student evaluation: Don’t use red pens or pencils when grading, let students grade their own papers, help students set reachable goals, and post less-than-perfect papers. • Within the classroom environment: The teacher should not embarrass the student by assuring their right to privacy, establish , set the mood for the classroom, establish a planning council, design the classroom that respects learning styles and preferences, and see each student as an individual. • In establishing disciplinary procedures: The teacher should avoid group punishments, reward incremental improvements, catch students being good, and avoid fear-based discipline. • Through self-satisfying behaviors that energize you as an educator: That teacher should start and maintain a feel good folder, leave school at school, avoid comparing himself/herself to others, and know that he/she doesn’t have total control over the students’ lives.

20. When Gifted Kids Don’t Have All of the AnswersReflection • I learned many things in this book that will help me when I become a teacher because I will have students who are gifted and talented in my classroom, and want to know how give them the best possible education. I have learned what discipline means to me, to society, and to the kids themselves. I learned gifted kids are so much more than test scores and grades. I learned proven, practical suggestions for encouraging social and emotional growth among gifted, talented, and creative children. I learned what giftedness means, how gifted kids are identified, and how we might improve the identification process. This book discusses issues relating to their self-images and self-esteem, challenges to their well-being as well as to their family, school, peers, and society in general. This book also has first-person stories, activities for the classroom, guided discussion topics, and up-to-date resources. This book is for anyone committed to helping gifted students gain insights, find solutions, and to know that they are not alone.

21. Bibliography • Delisle, J. R., Galbraith, J., & Espeland, P. (2002). When gifted kids don't have all the answers: how to meet their social and emotional needs. Minneapolis: Free Spirits Pub..