tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18461546580300356872024-03-29T04:15:50.650-04:00 Soaring with SnyderJenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06864046205728668957noreply@blogger.comBlogger39125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1846154658030035687.post-46371332805681087782019-02-05T09:36:00.002-05:002019-02-05T09:45:17.775-05:0015 Great Picture Books to Help Children Manage Perfectionism <div class="separator" style="clear: both; display: none; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX8F5eTVD3IDM1ZlTE0kYgSjusrqB8VljtAQRQ4JkWTeWhg3Ua8KspbqgaC6UCp_PRubByIDmzJwCHDsqTuVlV0QfmQTEKToriR9ser65PwUzCkyGjlriXNC_tijRPoth9ZovI5foU7sQ/s1600/slider+for+perfectionism+picture+book+post.001.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="325" data-original-width="575" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX8F5eTVD3IDM1ZlTE0kYgSjusrqB8VljtAQRQ4JkWTeWhg3Ua8KspbqgaC6UCp_PRubByIDmzJwCHDsqTuVlV0QfmQTEKToriR9ser65PwUzCkyGjlriXNC_tijRPoth9ZovI5foU7sQ/s1600/slider+for+perfectionism+picture+book+post.001.jpeg" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Picture books have long been used as a source of both entertainment and education in the classroom. For years, teachers have been using the many colorful words and images provided to us by authors and artists to illustrate so many of the things children need to learn in school.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZEkwYTqpKrb5AYWD-Lz4ae-r92i9REMcL1-y2WIHuhBDdhreJKnDcQxbmbOsoQTFyLHduYB5dyNM80JvA_m82hB43Vqz-YQCzVem9S6ZeiHT7IIoEg-nMVfmhsTrCF-Anmv3bSE4ixJQ/s1600/perfectionism+picture+book+post.042.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="850" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZEkwYTqpKrb5AYWD-Lz4ae-r92i9REMcL1-y2WIHuhBDdhreJKnDcQxbmbOsoQTFyLHduYB5dyNM80JvA_m82hB43Vqz-YQCzVem9S6ZeiHT7IIoEg-nMVfmhsTrCF-Anmv3bSE4ixJQ/s640/perfectionism+picture+book+post.042.jpeg" width="340" /></span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">We use picture books for everything from helping show children how to behave properly in class (hello, <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Interrupting-Chicken-David-Ezra-Stein/dp/0763689033/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1544456719&sr=8-1&keywords=the+interrupting+chicken" target="_blank">Interrupting Chicken</a> </i>;)) and how to treat each other with kindness to the specific content information we need to learn in our math, science, and social studies classes. Books can help children develop a sense of empathy, providing windows into the way other people live and grow in our world. And they can act as mirrors, reflecting events, people, and feelings of the readers themselves.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: inherit;">Picture books are also a great way to help children solve problems they may be facing in their lives. This may be particularly true of children who are developing in any way outside the norms of what we might expect of a "typically developing" child (is there such a thing?).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: inherit;">I <a href="https://www.soaringwithsnyder.com/2018/10/nine-strategies-for-helping-gifted.html" target="_blank">posted recently</a> about nine ways we can help gifted children manage perfectionism and/or the fear of failure. Using books, of course, is one of the best (and easiest, I think) ways we can help give our students some strategies for dealing with perfectionist tendencies. Tackling books like the ones I'm sharing with you today is one way we can allow children to see their own reflection by showing them other children who have faced similar struggles. The books can also give them some relatable tools for solving some of the problems that may arise when perfectionism threatens to take hold. The books in this post are suitable for elementary (K-6) school children. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: inherit;">Without further ado (and in no particular order)...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Books to Help Children Manage Perfectionism and Fear of Failure</span></h2>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Perfectly-Messed-Up-Story-Patrick-McDonnell/dp/0316222585" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="286" data-original-width="302" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBcgr9B46JH3HuUCU8p3wn53xsw5bQv-6SQ6hSG5rhG6vk_vXYjMeYyn1wjuKwU7TZNo0ZFfHpbcWuGPdEzeem7ASatkntyQfXrLLFeOXqq11Ou10hf6_Nrvws4ulgy7hftlkC2p5gxuo/s1600/Screen+Shot+2018-10-16+at+10.31.07+AM.png" style="cursor: move;" /></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: red;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Perfectly-Messed-Up-Story-Patrick-McDonnell/dp/0316222585" target="_blank">A Perfectly Messed-Up Story</a></span></i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> is a silly and interactive story about a boy who wants to tell a perfect story but keeps getting tripped up along the way by obstacles and blemishes like a smudge of jelly or coffee on the page from a reader. He gets frustrated but eventually realizes his story is great, in spite of the imperfections. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><span style="color: red;"><br /></span></i></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"><span id="goog_1985400803"></span>Mistakes that Worked: 40 Familiar Inventions & How They Came to Be<span id="goog_1985400804"></span></a></i> is an informational text that tells the stories behinds many familiar inventions that started out as mistakes. It's an inspirational and engaging book that helps show children the value in making mistakes.<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"> </span></span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: -webkit-standard;"> </span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9GhdUmlhWCgTK-A3jgAVmNGFhoQvJwx2pe61lrJ4IQ3YgvT8Opkzwyunv3dlHiSlX1WgJ_myzgXNO30j0Zo1prYSc6sF0j_DVx1fpWdhsAGR9A9W9niw05CNYon8jttw0OMINJKZl05M/s1600/Screen+Shot+2018-10-16+at+10.26.14+AM.png" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="280" data-original-width="304" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9GhdUmlhWCgTK-A3jgAVmNGFhoQvJwx2pe61lrJ4IQ3YgvT8Opkzwyunv3dlHiSlX1WgJ_myzgXNO30j0Zo1prYSc6sF0j_DVx1fpWdhsAGR9A9W9niw05CNYon8jttw0OMINJKZl05M/s1600/Screen+Shot+2018-10-16+at+10.26.14+AM.png" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">From Peter H. Reynolds, author of The Dot, the book </span><span style="color: red; font-family: inherit;"><i class=""><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ish-Creatrilogy-Peter-H-Reynolds/dp/076362344X" target="_blank">Ish</a></i><span style="color: red;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">illustrates the story of Ramone, the child who loves to draw, until he was teased for one of his drawings. He spent many months trying to draw pictures that were just right, but he felt like he could never get them just so, and gave up on drawing until his little sister came along offering a new perspective. There are so many applications for this book in the classroom that perhaps you and your students can live "ishfully" ever after. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguqcbi8_pfQXilG10D602cTFyloSxZ4kN48gIga052-AXPnDMNfdwicEUqUqIpA1RnL16A0Xnq5RTA7bxFyeRbE3zybGmi6lF2Ju1Rv6g_L6sda1Xf2BaYLXAcvbdax1jigWVSfAQrnKg/s1600/Screen+Shot+2018-10-16+at+10.32.11+AM.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="392" data-original-width="304" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguqcbi8_pfQXilG10D602cTFyloSxZ4kN48gIga052-AXPnDMNfdwicEUqUqIpA1RnL16A0Xnq5RTA7bxFyeRbE3zybGmi6lF2Ju1Rv6g_L6sda1Xf2BaYLXAcvbdax1jigWVSfAQrnKg/s320/Screen+Shot+2018-10-16+at+10.32.11+AM.png" width="248" /></span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><span style="color: red;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/What-When-Mistakes-Quake-What/dp/1433819309" target="_blank">What to Do When Mistakes Make You Quake: A Kid's Guide to Accepting Imperfection</a></span></i> is written by two clinical psychologists. This book uses cognitive-behavioral principles and techniques to help children begin to cope with making mistakes and put their worries aside so they can explore new places without fear.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNNrNTLdEXf9STbyaN45UNO0WL8coun0e7tPHclWoj8oAId8DqHkkeyOQgaX2FOhoODRoZatofYJ7Z-i7hnxzjeEhRp2LlRFIRWR5MiLZQEv0QG4kIaqp35hIQhbDDA5gkKOy-IKzYGPQ/s1600/Screen+Shot+2018-10-16+at+10.33.29+AM.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="374" data-original-width="302" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNNrNTLdEXf9STbyaN45UNO0WL8coun0e7tPHclWoj8oAId8DqHkkeyOQgaX2FOhoODRoZatofYJ7Z-i7hnxzjeEhRp2LlRFIRWR5MiLZQEv0QG4kIaqp35hIQhbDDA5gkKOy-IKzYGPQ/s320/Screen+Shot+2018-10-16+at+10.33.29+AM.png" width="258" /></span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: inherit;">Another book about learning to accept making mistakes, this story focuses on a frog named Stickley. With help of his grandfather, Stickley learns to say, "Oh well," when something doesn't go quite right. </span><i style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: red;"><a href="http://Stickley Makes a Mistake" target="_blank">Stickley Makes a Mistake</a></span></i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://Stickley Makes a Mistake" target="_blank"> </a>is authored by </span><span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Brenda S. Miles, Ph.D.,</span><span style="background-color: #fafafa;"> a pediatric neuropsychologist, and provides tips to caregivers about using the book. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fafafa;"><br /></span></span> <span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fafafa;"><br /></span></span> </span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXqc7G17ZgHCokZAZ6Oukoz4JZjTKfuDwpFlRZJDwxit_qS_NRB96O14jUpheDX7Nwd_UucEwfZ5CBjQmN0cP9NYZA_Tc98tuZbNj5T37_1PcWYSYiiCBStL71Q5WLkrflo9ZLFCy3x-s/s1600/Screen+Shot+2018-10-16+at+10.34.02+AM.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="302" data-original-width="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXqc7G17ZgHCokZAZ6Oukoz4JZjTKfuDwpFlRZJDwxit_qS_NRB96O14jUpheDX7Nwd_UucEwfZ5CBjQmN0cP9NYZA_Tc98tuZbNj5T37_1PcWYSYiiCBStL71Q5WLkrflo9ZLFCy3x-s/s1600/Screen+Shot+2018-10-16+at+10.34.02+AM.png" /></span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: inherit;"><i style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: red;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Your-Fantastic-Elastic-Brain-Stretch/dp/0982993803/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1543949110&sr=1-1&keywords=Your+Fantastic+Elastic+Brain%2C+Stretch+It%2C+Shape+It" target="_blank">Your Fantastic Elastic Brain, Stretch It, Shape It</a></span></i><span style="font-family: inherit;">, is a great informational text that explores what the brain is and</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> the many wonderful things it can do, including GROWING and STRETCHING. It is a great book that focuses on the ever-popular growth mindset. It emphasizes the control and power we all have over our brain's growth, ability to overcome, and capacity to stretch and learn more and more information. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6kI_cU_pLWT111r2l3o2_tS6CGQDVmbTxlMuuqb8ohGBTSl8qgK5-PU15_ttT7wrtWVEPoR6631JV7O8UPvdRhPWOEqEVcRpvWo6-GMjl3qL2HrTCh7RUU4TqdXw44HhtLRJgKQcpj7c/s1600/Screen+Shot+2018-10-16+at+10.46.13+AM.png" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="470" data-original-width="304" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6kI_cU_pLWT111r2l3o2_tS6CGQDVmbTxlMuuqb8ohGBTSl8qgK5-PU15_ttT7wrtWVEPoR6631JV7O8UPvdRhPWOEqEVcRpvWo6-GMjl3qL2HrTCh7RUU4TqdXw44HhtLRJgKQcpj7c/s320/Screen+Shot+2018-10-16+at+10.46.13+AM.png" width="206" /></span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: inherit;">Written with the tween (ages 9-13) in mind, <i><span style="color: red;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/What-When-Good-Enough-Isnt/dp/1575422344/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1543949145&sr=1-1&keywords=What+to+Do+When+Good+Enough+Isn%27t+Good+Enough" target="_blank">What to Do When Good Enough Isn't Good Enough</a></span></i> is a book about is a book that teaches children about perfectionism and its potential downfalls. Using realistic vignettes, the book illustrates how kids can face perfectionism and use practical strategies to move away from always feeling like everything has to be just so. The book is written by a licensed psychologist and family therapist, Thomas S. Greenspon, Ph.D.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7_J9XOU-RaAilUSU0sdNJZSyHlHyMctuAUbr1OrBA7FPFKAnMfGuxAB3rzYS12WuQhFYjTFc64BMGAfzwNntUquvobP1-EwP2Pi2b_R7SXtOOQfSEu5yjblYC2YbNT3kCaQkUCkVxQnw/s1600/Screen+Shot+2018-10-16+at+10.24.59+AM.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="556" data-original-width="558" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7_J9XOU-RaAilUSU0sdNJZSyHlHyMctuAUbr1OrBA7FPFKAnMfGuxAB3rzYS12WuQhFYjTFc64BMGAfzwNntUquvobP1-EwP2Pi2b_R7SXtOOQfSEu5yjblYC2YbNT3kCaQkUCkVxQnw/s320/Screen+Shot+2018-10-16+at+10.24.59+AM.png" width="320" /></span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: inherit;">Written by a teacher, <i><span style="color: red;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Being-Bella-Discovering-Proud-Your/dp/1933916273/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1543949169&sr=1-1&keywords=Being+Bella%3A+Discovering+How+to+Be+Proud+of+Your+Best" target="_blank">Being Bella: Discovering How to Be Proud of Your Best</a></span></i> is a story about a first-grade student who faces many typical problems that a first grader is likely to face on any given day. With the help and encouragement of family and friends, Bella starts to realize that everyone makes mistakes, and we can grow from those mistakes.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">*Be sure to check your local libraries for this one. Looks to me like it may be out of print--it's crazy expensive!* </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSAmGauz23Pu0h0WDq1ipy-IA6tm1yCVQIOOuH6LOB3e97CH0AQ2cS93_wN9d32FR4D59RI5BG3efDXUqepksJtLYzfOa9oa_Jh3B-sbNX52t25axLLrk8M0LNX7Y2SR0jOmAZrUtlvXc/s1600/Screen+Shot+2018-10-16+at+10.25.44+AM.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="288" data-original-width="302" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSAmGauz23Pu0h0WDq1ipy-IA6tm1yCVQIOOuH6LOB3e97CH0AQ2cS93_wN9d32FR4D59RI5BG3efDXUqepksJtLYzfOa9oa_Jh3B-sbNX52t25axLLrk8M0LNX7Y2SR0jOmAZrUtlvXc/s1600/Screen+Shot+2018-10-16+at+10.25.44+AM.png" /></span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><br /></i> <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Dot-Peter-H-Reynolds/dp/0763619612/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1543949471&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Dot" target="_blank">The Dot</a></i> is a wonderfully written and illustrated circle story by author Peter H. Reynolds that shows how a child once paralyzed by fears of imperfection overcame her fear with the help of an encouraging teacher. This is a great book to use at the beginning of the year or any time your students are struggling with getting started on an activity or project because of their fear of failure.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-3JmxcJ7T1wU2WCkldj2REOIdPdKR8cyW-ImcLY9xNjpWG611i-lpbnOciz4g5auxM6ll2FmgoytJVTL_z_p-PmRGcSOhqwPXY3y5bvyBujwix2jL64KDWtXLXoqTn5O-o5HP_z4J6Zw/s1600/Screen+Shot+2018-10-16+at+10.26.38+AM.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="306" data-original-width="306" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-3JmxcJ7T1wU2WCkldj2REOIdPdKR8cyW-ImcLY9xNjpWG611i-lpbnOciz4g5auxM6ll2FmgoytJVTL_z_p-PmRGcSOhqwPXY3y5bvyBujwix2jL64KDWtXLXoqTn5O-o5HP_z4J6Zw/s1600/Screen+Shot+2018-10-16+at+10.26.38+AM.png" /></span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: inherit;">This is an adventurous story about a girl who gets extraordinarily frustrated when she tries something new and fails time and time again. Filled with lots of colorful vocabulary words (wrenches, fiddles, tweaks, and fashions, to name a few), <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Most-Magnificent-Thing-Ashley-Spires/dp/1554537045/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1543949574&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Most+Magnificent+Thing" target="_blank">The Most Magnificent Thing</a></i> gives children a great example of how one child deals with frustration and recovers from a string of mistakes, eventually reaching her goal.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3F8WTBjPDOG6386UGbxnHsw_E6xmHGnyWHPiORGJBwhah9ySIVk4pvG7iMgjT7hiYmsblpsfvSRenjEJjErDtfzSoWnQifkRMklCc2zrJyTp7WtvqP6S3hm9co86DWPCcs_g72VWvTaY/s1600/Screen+Shot+2018-10-16+at+10.27.15+AM.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="308" data-original-width="306" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3F8WTBjPDOG6386UGbxnHsw_E6xmHGnyWHPiORGJBwhah9ySIVk4pvG7iMgjT7hiYmsblpsfvSRenjEJjErDtfzSoWnQifkRMklCc2zrJyTp7WtvqP6S3hm9co86DWPCcs_g72VWvTaY/s1600/Screen+Shot+2018-10-16+at+10.27.15+AM.png" /></span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: inherit;">Sometimes mistakes can be beautiful, and this is exactly what author Barney Saltzberg shows children in this humorous interactive book. In <i><span style="color: red;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Beautiful-Oops-Barney-Saltzberg/dp/076115728X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1543949602&sr=1-1&keywords=Beautiful+Oops%21" target="_blank">Beautiful Oops!</a></span></i>, Each page shows how a mistake can turn into something lovely and artistic, teaching children that in every mistake, there is an opportunity.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4E1C_e79T-FicDEYQKwsnzMFv97EfW2QXGf_cQdmUrO8aKa8wRK5gvCN5jy6kKj69MCPRA1hWaJVXnmPCVfh1ugssNmZfy8UyhcXCNxw3KzCOiOtiDUyjfkrrdMzr128tLvDDCZSQbm4/s1600/Screen+Shot+2018-10-16+at+10.27.48+AM.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="238" data-original-width="302" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4E1C_e79T-FicDEYQKwsnzMFv97EfW2QXGf_cQdmUrO8aKa8wRK5gvCN5jy6kKj69MCPRA1hWaJVXnmPCVfh1ugssNmZfy8UyhcXCNxw3KzCOiOtiDUyjfkrrdMzr128tLvDDCZSQbm4/s1600/Screen+Shot+2018-10-16+at+10.27.48+AM.png" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In Mark Pett and Gary Rubenstein's <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Girl-Who-Never-Made-Mistakes/dp/1402255446/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1543949644&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Girl+Who+Never+Made+Mistakes" target="_blank">The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes</a> </i>Beatrice Bottomwell never made mistakes. Well, not until it was time for the school's talent show. Beatrice made a mistake. And it was a BIG one. Everyone in the audience was stunned until Beatrice began laughing. Everyone started laughing together and Beatrice realized that making mistakes can actually be fun!</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWndWuahyphenhyphenL4ALDE34mF_Qu5Cki8VpWnsS4sfzVWDwPR4sIDht2txD51l-v3hqUsco1ON4Vh0R1kjnRZFYbKYnkySjkIm-QORDt_kplKTWdpdinrJ1VqXOwRMYn197hYHZK4QAPHRok6yk/s1600/Screen+Shot+2018-10-16+at+10.28.42+AM.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="438" data-original-width="304" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWndWuahyphenhyphenL4ALDE34mF_Qu5Cki8VpWnsS4sfzVWDwPR4sIDht2txD51l-v3hqUsco1ON4Vh0R1kjnRZFYbKYnkySjkIm-QORDt_kplKTWdpdinrJ1VqXOwRMYn197hYHZK4QAPHRok6yk/s320/Screen+Shot+2018-10-16+at+10.28.42+AM.png" width="222" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In the story, <i><span style="color: red;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Everyone-Loves-Cupcake-Kelly-DiPucchio/dp/0374302936/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1543949668&sr=1-1&keywords=Everyone+Loves+Cupcake" target="_blank">Everyone Loves Cupcake</a></span>,</i> by Kelly DiPucchio, Cupcake works hard at trying to get everyone to like her. She worked extra hard at being perfect, but the pressure to be perfect wore on her over time. Eventually, she decided to share with her friends the <i>real</i> Cupcake, and her friends love her so much more for just being herself instead of always trying to be perfect!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYc2VW4jDgkGLD2H-mSSvY0L9TzVI4StE2waozY2JUrzhsQ2fkIAJbwixRCmaVhCHWZPcU9kUHe3a21wAtIw2eosCELZHsrnVW0d3DqR-TW2ubFHv3LEQsIVoJKuo1Ez8RhpUmH4cXs5Q/s1600/Screen+Shot+2018-10-16+at+10.23.31+AM.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="808" data-original-width="552" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYc2VW4jDgkGLD2H-mSSvY0L9TzVI4StE2waozY2JUrzhsQ2fkIAJbwixRCmaVhCHWZPcU9kUHe3a21wAtIw2eosCELZHsrnVW0d3DqR-TW2ubFHv3LEQsIVoJKuo1Ez8RhpUmH4cXs5Q/s320/Screen+Shot+2018-10-16+at+10.23.31+AM.png" width="218" /></span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: inherit;">In <i><span style="color: red;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Nobodys-Perfect-Story-Children-Perfectionism/dp/1433803801/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1543949693&sr=1-1&keywords=Nobody%27s+Perfect%3A+A+Story+for+Children+About+Perfectionism" target="_blank">Nobody's Perfect: A Story for Children About Perfectionism</a></span></i>, by Ellen Flanagan Burns, you'll meet Sally Sanders, a girl who is good at everything she tries. The problem is, she's always afraid that she will feel like a total failure if there's every something she's not good at. Thankfully, Sally's mom and teacher are there to help her see that she doesn't have to worry so much about always being the best.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj47ShubaDESKzLYquW-r8YZbK-CrXGWWYliqJQ1B5jmwmiLK98TJXSRy7_ZvuIxmIDOfT19t1PagkPqlroR-bhSN-U_lrGI7mYDvbdqmqOyaYmTSm2C8ynUaTchnGID24m-eOcm-mDsG4/s1600/Screen+Shot+2018-10-16+at+10.28.18+AM.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="370" data-original-width="294" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj47ShubaDESKzLYquW-r8YZbK-CrXGWWYliqJQ1B5jmwmiLK98TJXSRy7_ZvuIxmIDOfT19t1PagkPqlroR-bhSN-U_lrGI7mYDvbdqmqOyaYmTSm2C8ynUaTchnGID24m-eOcm-mDsG4/s320/Screen+Shot+2018-10-16+at+10.28.18+AM.png" width="254" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Best for children aged five to nine, <span style="color: red;"><i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Penelope-Perfect-Tale-Perfectionism-Gone/dp/1631980475/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1543949719&sr=1-1&keywords=Penelope+Perfect%3A+A+Tale+of+Perfectionism+Gone+Wild" target="_blank">Penelope Perfect: A Tale of Perfectionism Gone Wild</a></i></span> by Shannon Anderson is a humorous book about a young perfectionist girl whose accidental oversleeping sets off a chain of less-than-perfect events for the day. She ends up being able to laugh at her mistakes, learning that it's okay to go with the flow sometimes and that the world won't end if she's not perfect. Includes tips for parents and teachers about how to help the Penelopes in your life.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />Some of these you may love, and some might seem a little contrived, but I think the biggest value in using these books in the classroom is that it helps to develop a narrative about accepting and valuing mistakes. My hope is that children will eventually be able to incorporate these ideas as part of their own internal dialogue someday. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Got any other recommendations? I'd love to hear them! Send me an email at <a href="mailto:jen@soaringwithsnyder.com" target="_blank">jen@soaringwithsnyder.com</a> or connect with me on <a href="http://bit.ly/SoaringwithSnyderIG" target="_blank">Instagram</a> or <a href="http://bit.ly/SoaringwithSnyderFacebook" target="_blank">Facebook</a>. </span></div>
Jenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06864046205728668957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1846154658030035687.post-1041766779141143422018-10-23T14:34:00.000-04:002018-11-13T11:32:32.479-05:00Nine Strategies for Helping Gifted Students Manage Perfectionism<div class="separator" style="clear: both; display: none; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMoA3TFfxvN-si9mDfzTdqyberUN7Khal01V7tjcUJaaqybT5thWYF1iRp2AuR6_7st2g_iVpQF_y6aXe_SIwzLiEJ2ItTwFcWcM3RCNIaaEeNMDTgV2AQY_cWd-g1ho3vAGpTCoMvm10/s1600/Slider+Images+for+Blog.005.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="325" data-original-width="575" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMoA3TFfxvN-si9mDfzTdqyberUN7Khal01V7tjcUJaaqybT5thWYF1iRp2AuR6_7st2g_iVpQF_y6aXe_SIwzLiEJ2ItTwFcWcM3RCNIaaEeNMDTgV2AQY_cWd-g1ho3vAGpTCoMvm10/s1600/Slider+Images+for+Blog.005.jpeg" /></a></div>
I didn't get my driver's license until I was 20 years old.<br />
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And it wasn't because I was some terrible driver who kept failing the driving exam.<br />
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It was because until I was 20, I didn't sign up for the test.<br />
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I avoided taking the test because I was afraid to fail.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbUZteyAfW98dh2iuWht94DBm2NuQ8q4WRCtpa_L6Hft3E_0chiI-_Y9mFflIyc1Tdrebd5AOusqIzEKFWAIhDuTvUmzM6tn7UTMyaKJaQXbSd5RPAOP9d1Xu1Ka2YwRDVkRgdUpFe3zs/s1600/Shorter+Long+Pins.029.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="850" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbUZteyAfW98dh2iuWht94DBm2NuQ8q4WRCtpa_L6Hft3E_0chiI-_Y9mFflIyc1Tdrebd5AOusqIzEKFWAIhDuTvUmzM6tn7UTMyaKJaQXbSd5RPAOP9d1Xu1Ka2YwRDVkRgdUpFe3zs/s640/Shorter+Long+Pins.029.jpeg" width="339" /></a>Afraid of making mistakes. Not achieving my goal. Feeling embarrassed in front of the driving examiner, my family, and my friends for not passing the test. Feeling that somehow, I was some kind of loser for not being able to pass a silly test that thousands of "regular" people pass every day.<br />
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Does this sound familiar to you? If you haven't personally experienced these feelings, perhaps you've seen signs in your students. Maybe they're procrastinators, avoiding the work until the very last minute. Maybe they avoid certain tasks altogether. Perhaps they barely try on certain assignments because trying their best and not achieving the (sometimes unrealistic) goals they've set for themselves means they like themselves less because they've associated their self-worth with their achievement and perfection. These children are, essentially, creating a layer of protection around themselves because they never started, tried their hardest, or did their best, so no one can actually judge them on their <i>true</i> capability. This task avoidance is a form of coping with the sometimes crippling effects of perfectionism.<br />
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So, how do we help our gifted students develop a healthy mindset about achievement while still allowing them to set high goals and strive to achieve great things?<br />
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<h3>
What is perfectionism and who does it affect?</h3>
Perfectionism usually takes on one of two forms: <i>healthy perfectionism</i> and its (appropriately, though not creatively named) opposite, <i>unhealthy perfectionism. </i>Although perfectionism is well documented among the gifted population (even to the point that it is an indicator on screeners for gifted identification), it occurs at pretty much the same rate among the non-gifted population as well.<br />
<i><br /></i>In this <a href="https://www.nagc.org/resources-publications/resources-parents/social-emotional-issues/perfectionism">NAGC article</a>, healthy perfectionism has been defined as a person's ability to do their best and then move on, the person's ability to set high personal standards while still being accepting of their imperfect themselves, and being able to manage their behaviors so that they don't interfere with daily life.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQv2uczCYon_LR9rpxNHG9UdEhPhlxnXqReJQYP0PgtoKpq446p5k2wIp_UN6A2gDwuvatY8jISt2WoeemgYTTq-yDNIvUtjkhckK2RGTOESqe10kqpj5n-wvaFuAnP9K7d1lMFakwXiI/s1600/IMG_2670.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQv2uczCYon_LR9rpxNHG9UdEhPhlxnXqReJQYP0PgtoKpq446p5k2wIp_UN6A2gDwuvatY8jISt2WoeemgYTTq-yDNIvUtjkhckK2RGTOESqe10kqpj5n-wvaFuAnP9K7d1lMFakwXiI/s320/IMG_2670.PNG" width="320" /></a>According to the same article, perfectionism reaches unhealthy levels when there is a bigger emphasis on or rewarding of performance over other aspects of life, having the perception that one's work is never good enough, feeling continuously dissatisfied about one's work (which could eventually lead to anxiety and depression), experiencing feelings of guilt if not continuously engaged in meaningful work, and having a serious compulsion or drive to achieve, so much so, that the person places their own personal value based on what they accomplish or produce.<br />
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Unhealthy perfectionism is also a way of thinking. It's the perception that there are only two options for doing things: it's perfect or it's worthless.<br />
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At extreme levels, perfectionism can lead to self-defeat, underachievement, physical pain, alcoholism, eating disorders, depression, OCD and other maladaptive symptoms or behaviors.<br />
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<h3>
How can we help our students deal with perfectionism (fear of failure, and task avoidance)?</h3>
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Being #totallyhonest here. Unhealthy perfectionism is a complicated beast, with many possible contributors. This list of tips could be pages and pages long, but after much research, I'm leaving nine of the ideas I thought would be most valuable from <i>my</i> perspective as a <strike>perfect person</strike> recovering perfectionist. </div>
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<li><span style="caret-color: rgb(54, 54, 54); color: #363636; font-family: inherit;"><b>Create or adopt an affective curriculum</b>--we often assume that children pick up these "soft skills" on their own by watching how others interact and deal with things. And to some extent, that is true. But for gifted children and other differently-abled children, some of these skills require extra focus, explicit teaching, modeling, and practice. </span></li>
<li><span style="caret-color: rgb(54, 54, 54); color: #363636; font-family: inherit;"><b>Help the child decide ahead of time when to quit</b>--One interesting component of perfectionism is that people sometimes have a hard time deciding when enough is enough. This is definitely something I struggle with (hellooooo lengthy blog posts... 🙄😬). Whether you decide on a time limit or a certain number of sentences, a particular number of objectives, or set of sub-topics, a conference with the child focusing on what a reasonable stopping point is could help release the child from some of the perfection pressure. </span></li>
<li><span style="color: #363636;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(54, 54, 54);"><b>Work together to set realistic goals</b>--Make sure that these aren't just any goals. Children who
struggle with perfectionism benefit from realistic goals that focus on improvement and/or progress over perfection. It would be beneficial to take the goal setting one step further by helping the child map out incremental steps and set times to check in and take a peek at the progress being made. </span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #363636;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(54, 54, 54);"><b>Help the child separate their self-worth from grades/products/evaluations and the gifted label</b>--This is a complicated imperative, but we can start by being careful with how we praise perfectionistic students. Focusing on the positive parts of their performance, and focusing on their effort over their achievement are two ways to help. Further, when assignments come back with less than perfect scores, sit down with the child to compare their product with the rubric or expectations of the assignment. Put the child in charge of vocalizing what improvements they would make while teachers/parents focus on what went well. </span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #363636;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(54, 54, 54);"><b>Share your mistakes with students</b>--This seems obvious, but especially for teachers who like to maintain an aura of perfection, sometimes we really need to consciously take this step. </span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #363636;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(54, 54, 54);"><b>Study the lives of eminent people</b>-- Focus on the person's path to success, qualities that they <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://eepurl.com/dijgLX" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1020" data-original-width="1320" height="308" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEispDBlSCr8QEurYd7i7ib3X4Gk5DaXTehvnsxjhBlbYof421-KiOKKXtOiLqZM4dDDMNpVY3vKfyLxPilQSKZwUB1AN9RfosP1SHKRLHxzAQNnaJQaWZxDYloU4M-7PZRXhXGxnYa0J7U/s400/Helping+your+Gifted+Student+Cope+with+Perfectionism+Blog+Freebie.001.tiff" width="400" /></a></div>
possess that have helped enable their success, and what kind of barriers they had to overcome in order to achieve success. </span></span></li>
<li><b>Change YOUR attitude about failure</b>--Sometimes we need to work on and model our own response to making mistakes. Handling them with humor and a positive attitude goes a long way. Speaking aloud your <i>own</i> internal self-talk about how you can grow from the mistake provides students with a model for their own self-talk. </li>
<li><span style="color: #363636;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(54, 54, 54);"><b>Play a round of Worst Case Scenario</b>--if your student is really struggling with getting started or if the fear of failure is really preventing them from doing work commensurate with their abilities and you suspect perfectionism is the culprit, sometimes sitting down to think of and write out the actual WORST thing that could happen if the child fails helps put everything into perspective. Chances are, they will see how their big worries are comparing to small potential outcomes, and be able to move on toward meeting their goals. Conferring with the child <i>after</i> the stressful event or assignment would be a great way to help the child start connecting the dots to see that the worst things they had imagined<i> really</i> didn't happen! </span></span></li>
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<li><span style="color: #363636;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(54, 54, 54);"><b>Use books with characters who struggle and make mistakes</b>--I'm a big believer in bibliotherapy. I think sharing books with children that focus on perfectionism and the fear of failure can really go a long way in promoting positive ways to deal with these stresses. Keep an eye out for a future post featuring 15 books you can use with your students! </span></span></li>
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<span style="caret-color: rgb(54, 54, 54); color: #363636; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(54, 54, 54); color: #363636; font-family: inherit;">I hope that through using these tips, you can help your students start to overcome their own perfectionism. May you have students who do not choose to wait for years to achieve something they really want!</span><br />
<span style="caret-color: rgb(54, 54, 54); color: #363636; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="caret-color: rgb(54, 54, 54); color: #363636; font-family: inherit;">Got other ideas? Leave me a comment or send me an email with suggestions. I'd love to hear them!</span><br />
<span style="caret-color: rgb(54, 54, 54); color: #363636; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="caret-color: rgb(54, 54, 54); color: #363636; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="caret-color: rgb(54, 54, 54); color: #363636; font-family: inherit;">P.S. You can get a FREE copy of that infographic with the nine tips above by clicking on the picture, or clickng <a href="http://eepurl.com/dijgLX" target="_blank">right here</a>! <span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(85, 85, 85);">*Just to be clear, by clicking to get this freebie (and instant access to the growing collection of free resources in my library of subscriber exclusives), you're also agreeing to be added to my email list, where I'll send occasional messages with fresh ideas, tips, and other resources straight to your inbox. You can unsubscribe at any time.*</span></span><br />
<span style="caret-color: rgb(54, 54, 54); color: #363636; font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "raleway" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(85, 85, 85);"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="caret-color: rgb(54, 54, 54); color: #363636; font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "raleway" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(85, 85, 85);"><br /></span></span></span> <span style="caret-color: rgb(54, 54, 54); color: #363636; font-family: inherit;">Thanks so much for stopping by!</span><br />
<span style="caret-color: rgb(54, 54, 54); color: #363636; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <span style="caret-color: rgb(54, 54, 54); color: #363636; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <span style="caret-color: rgb(54, 54, 54); color: #363636; font-family: inherit;">Information for this post was collected from the following sources: </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.nagc.org/sites/default/files/Publication%20THP/THP_Spring_2017_GiftedStudentsAndPerfectionism.pdf">Burdick, Anne Marie. (2017). Gifted Students and Perfectionism. Teaching for High Potential. NAGC</a></span></div>
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<span style="caret-color: rgb(54, 54, 54);"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://www.nagc.org/resources-publications/resources-parents/social-emotional-issues/perfectionism">Perfectionism on NAGC Website</a></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.davidsongifted.org/Search-Database/entry/A10459">Pyryt, Michael. (2004) Helping Gifted Students Cope with Perfectionism. Parenting for High Potential. NAGC</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , "helvetica";"><span style="caret-color: rgb(54, 54, 54); font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(54, 54, 54);"><a href="http://www.sylviarimm.com/article_wwwperfect.html" target="_blank">Rimm, Sylvia. (2000). What's Wrong with Perfect?</a> </span></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(54, 54, 54);"><br /></span></span> <span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://biglifejournal.com/blogs/blog/help-your-child-overcome-fear-of-failure" target="_blank">Cullins, Ashley. (2017). </a><span style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://biglifejournal.com/blogs/blog/help-your-child-overcome-fear-of-failure" target="_blank">6 Ways to Help Your Child Overcome the Fear of Failure</a><a href="https://biglifejournal.com/blogs/blog/help-your-child-overcome-fear-of-failure" target="_blank">. Big Life Journal.</a></span></span><br />
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<br />Jenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06864046205728668957noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1846154658030035687.post-82519271676991410312018-05-25T14:24:00.000-04:002018-05-25T14:27:32.392-04:003 Easy Ways to Boost Your Vocabulary Assessment<div class="separator" style="clear: both; display: none; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxCqlb9dQ6ywNYsdjGu1bkJZ8BnpVlYRFAinQPPLlIZA79piMaPQb4u31D32_t-Q0t6cnbi0HnC0pa923i29zL0gN6crC58642DESChm5utet3gmu-smxOlJVW_wZ4uJzY2P3kA5HFJII/s1600/Blog+Sliders+.021.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="325" data-original-width="575" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxCqlb9dQ6ywNYsdjGu1bkJZ8BnpVlYRFAinQPPLlIZA79piMaPQb4u31D32_t-Q0t6cnbi0HnC0pa923i29zL0gN6crC58642DESChm5utet3gmu-smxOlJVW_wZ4uJzY2P3kA5HFJII/s1600/Blog+Sliders+.021.jpeg" /></a></div>
Welcome, friends! This is the last installment of my series on vocabulary instruction, and it's all about the A-word.<br />
<br />
Yep.<br />
<br />
Assessment. Were you thinking I'd say something different? 😳<br />
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All joking aside, this part of your flow of vocabulary instruction is juuuuuust as important as any other part, even though it can sometimes feel like a pain to tackle.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrnRD1nBPSqq2dBEC6G81Pko3HRPzmMbksioVDxJimJ9hyABYgUWvdz4AUo3Pfgvf_NO3uY2prlVYloqPPJdrUCC5hDyDB3ReyEdH-2n3oitZfO8tcDH8RmYRPaCWajjrPhArnppm1YP8/s1600/vocab+assessment+blog+post+pin.001.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="850" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrnRD1nBPSqq2dBEC6G81Pko3HRPzmMbksioVDxJimJ9hyABYgUWvdz4AUo3Pfgvf_NO3uY2prlVYloqPPJdrUCC5hDyDB3ReyEdH-2n3oitZfO8tcDH8RmYRPaCWajjrPhArnppm1YP8/s640/vocab+assessment+blog+post+pin.001.jpeg" width="337" /></a>I'm sure you assess your kids' vocabulary learning. And if you're like (the old) me, you probably have students complete some kind of fill-in-the-blank, matching, define-the-word-and-use-it-in-a-sentence type of test to see whether the learning 'stuck,' right?<br />
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Seems to make sense. If you have a vocabulary curriculum or component in your ELA set, there might even be a set or ready-made quizzes you can use.<br />
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Quick and easy. Score and grade. Done. ✔️<br />
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So simple, buuuuttt, maybe it's a little<i><b> too</b></i> simple.<br />
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The thing is, traditional vocabulary assessments aren't really telling us that much about the actual mastery of the word. Mastering those kinds of tests is really about a child's memorization skills, isn't it? Sure, they can get all of those things right on the test this week, but what about when it comes to using it in their writing next week.<br />
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We've got to get past providing quizzes that require short-term memorization and move into assessment activities that require more critical thinking and creative use of the words.<br />
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But, <b>how</b>, right?<br />
<br />
Well, I have three ideas to present to you (though I'm POSITIVE there are more). <br />
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*If you have any other great ideas you think I should add, PLEASE leave a comment or send me an email. I'd be happy to expand on this list with your great ideas!*<br />
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<h3>
Complete the Clause</h3>
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One way to up the critical and creative thinking factor on vocab assessments is to create a clause/sentence with the vocabulary word italicized. Instead of ending the sentence with a period, end it with a semicolon and have students write the second clause so that it explains the italicized word. </div>
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<u>Upper-grade example: </u></div>
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You write: The hikers ascended as quickly as possible to the summit of the mountain ahead of the <i>deluge</i>; </div>
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Students write the next clause: <span style="color: #45818e;">the extreme rainfall would have made it very dangerous for them to continue. </span></div>
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<u>Lower-grade example: </u></div>
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You write: Campers at the park finished the <i>shelter</i> just in time; </div>
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Students write: <span style="color: #45818e;">now they will be protected from the wind and rain. </span></div>
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Since this is a fairly complex thinking task, using only 4-6 words is probably the best idea.<br />
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<span style="caret-color: rgb(69, 129, 142);">Is that right? </span></h3>
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<span style="caret-color: rgb(69, 129, 142);">This time, you will write different complete sentences with the vocabulary words italicized. Sometimes the sentences should use the word incorrectly, and sometimes they should use the word the right way. Students need to decide whether the italicized word is being used correctly or not and justify their response with an explanation. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4Qh_WvZd08dWRHFuuaZMHneHazTHLVcSSnhcstIewj4CQg8rHU3-qf3ISphXmePpp107OIDqr6EE3AAFkXJ9k8t4CpnSVf9f9i_3bugHTiQQRhDrbN3izDROh3on1ECcSP4Pk6xS1wcE/s1600/IMG_0988.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4Qh_WvZd08dWRHFuuaZMHneHazTHLVcSSnhcstIewj4CQg8rHU3-qf3ISphXmePpp107OIDqr6EE3AAFkXJ9k8t4CpnSVf9f9i_3bugHTiQQRhDrbN3izDROh3on1ECcSP4Pk6xS1wcE/s320/IMG_0988.PNG" width="320" /></a></div>
<h3>
<span style="caret-color: rgb(69, 129, 142);">Modified Cloze</span></h3>
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<span style="caret-color: rgb(69, 129, 142);">Vocabulary words are written into a <i>passage</i>, then deleted and left in a word bank. Students choose words from the bank to complete the sentences, using context clues for assistance. </span></div>
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<div>
Simple enough, right?<br />
<br /></div>
<h3>
<span style="caret-color: rgb(69, 129, 142);">How does this fit into a differentiated classroom-- will I have to create 30 different tests? </span></h3>
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<span style="caret-color: rgb(69, 129, 142);">The short answer is not really! You should be able to create one test for each list of words provided to the students in your class. If you've given your class three or four different lists of words, yes, you'll need to create a three or four different tests. But you really only need to choose the most important 4-6 words from each list and test on those. It's more work initially, but once they're created you can reuse them for years to come! </span></div>
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<span style="caret-color: rgb(69, 129, 142);"><br /></span></div>
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<h4>
<span style="caret-color: rgb(69, 129, 142);">A Trick to Make it Easier</span></h4>
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<span style="caret-color: rgb(69, 129, 142);">One fun (and potentially time-saving) way that you can put a twist on these assessments is to allow students to submit their own clauses, sentences, or passages to be used for the assessments. You can choose from the submissions and use <i>those</i> for the quiz. Of course, students will need lots of practice writing the passages, sentences, and clauses to be meaningful, but this provides students with a big motivator and an authentic audience for writing, so it seems like a win-win to me!</span><br />
<span style="caret-color: rgb(69, 129, 142);"><br /></span>
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<h3>
<span style="caret-color: rgb(69, 129, 142);">One Note of Caution: </span></h3>
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<div>
<span style="caret-color: rgb(69, 129, 142);">As with anything new in your classroom routine, children should have plenty of opportunities for practice and be witness to lots and lots of modeling for these vocab strategies. You should feel confident by the time they are completing these activities on their own that students are truly showing their vocabulary learning and not getting hung up on directions or task complexity. </span><br />
<span style="caret-color: rgb(69, 129, 142);"><br /></span></div>
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<h4>
<span style="caret-color: rgb(69, 129, 142);">Before you go...</span></h4>
<span style="caret-color: rgb(69, 129, 142);">If you haven't already, be sure</span> to stop and check out my other posts on pre-assessing vocabulary, instructional strategies, or learning activities, you can read them <a href="https://www.soaringwithsnyder.com/search?q=vocabulary" target="_blank">here</a> (they're the first four posts on the page!). </div>
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P.S. Creating fun and engaging (research-based) vocabulary activities is no small task. If you're ready to try something new but don't have the time to create them yourself, be sure to check out this resource. There are 36 unique and fun (and research-based) learning activities that students LOVE to complete. Click the picture if you're interested, and be SURE to go back to my last vocabulary post <a href="http://bit.ly/MeaningfulWordWorkBlogPost" target="_blank">here </a>to get a free sample of three of the activities to try for yourself before you invest. </div>
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<a href="http://bit.ly/vocabactivitybundle" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="768" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTpPrb5iPjMhX_dnxRAhF_gbr7a_GoD0TF9IebFogk3rdoLOSxlUMb8hvhs-tKCBASYhtH2t7WvLfrs-oJOufyAl01D8188FJFCig_B76SQsbsuAcvEW1uzwdedX53v12swO1E8M42_2U/s320/Square+Cover+Word+Study+Bundle.001.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Sources:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Strategies for Vocabulary Development </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: inherit;">by Dr. Kate Kinsella, Dr. Colleen Shea Stump, and Dr. Kevin Feldman</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Vocabulary: Five Common Misconceptions by </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: italic;">Nancy Padak, Karen Bromley, Tim Rasinski and Evangeline Newton</span></li>
</ul>
</div>
<span style="background-color: #bd081c; background-position: 3px 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; background-size: 14px 14px; border-bottom-left-radius: 2px; border-bottom-right-radius: 2px; border-top-left-radius: 2px; border-top-right-radius: 2px; border: none; color: white; cursor: pointer; display: none; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-weight: bold; left: 192px; line-height: 20px; opacity: 1; padding: 0px 4px 0px 0px; position: absolute; text-align: center; text-indent: 20px; top: 2692px; width: auto; z-index: 8675309;">Save</span><span style="background-color: #bd081c; background-position: 3px 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; background-size: 14px 14px; border-bottom-left-radius: 2px; border-bottom-right-radius: 2px; border-top-left-radius: 2px; border-top-right-radius: 2px; border: none; color: white; cursor: pointer; display: none; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-weight: bold; left: 192px; line-height: 20px; opacity: 1; padding: 0px 4px 0px 0px; position: absolute; text-align: center; text-indent: 20px; top: 2692px; width: auto; z-index: 8675309;">Save</span>Jenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06864046205728668957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1846154658030035687.post-24891690971323043502018-04-21T08:00:00.000-04:002018-05-25T14:24:42.406-04:00Teaching Gifted Kids: A New Facebook Group for Elementary Teachers<div class="separator" style="clear: both; display: none; text-align: center;">
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Ok, friends. I'm taking a quick break from posting about vocabulary to let you know about something really great I've been working on behind the scenes with a few super talented friends of mine.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #134f5c;">I'm going to start with a quick story about myself</span>. If you've followed along with me on this blog (or if you know me IRL <---see how 'with it' I am? 😉 ha!), you know that I've taken a break from teaching for the past couple of years. You can read more about my journey <span style="color: red;"><a href="http://bit.ly/swstryingtosoar">here</a></span>.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_QZRJd9MBvkivjlY9KfGaezDXEFMbsrXpFmHJhh9nmKwCpgGDHo0Lo5dUY4zRE9M_bHbpbwSIrxO6VcM_IEMbHjnyraErC8qotKp55StZkFW7MdjCwd7QiWqCU9cOs8GMJ-AXtIEGu2g/s1600/Untitled.001.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="768" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_QZRJd9MBvkivjlY9KfGaezDXEFMbsrXpFmHJhh9nmKwCpgGDHo0Lo5dUY4zRE9M_bHbpbwSIrxO6VcM_IEMbHjnyraErC8qotKp55StZkFW7MdjCwd7QiWqCU9cOs8GMJ-AXtIEGu2g/s400/Untitled.001.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>
Anywayyyyy, when I was teaching, I used social media to post adorable pictures of my children and dog, connect with my current friends and family, catch up with old classmates, and keep an eye on the latest celebrity gossip. Really, my social media use was limited to personal use for a large part of my teaching career because it wasn't really a *thing* until later on.<br />
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{Believe it or not, I got married <i>and</i> had my first child before I could make it "Facebook Official." Now I'm left wondering--did those things even <i>happen?! </i>Don't even get me started on how Pinterest didn't exist when I was planning my wedding. How did I even DO THAT? Sigh. I digress...}<br />
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I didn't join Facebook until 2009 (GASP!) and by that time, I had been teaching for about seven years. My first post on Instagram was in 2012, judging by how tiny and adorable my children were. 😊<br />
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So, while I'm not sure how many of you currently use social media in some form, I'm going to go ahead and assume that MOST of you use it to some degree, and you probably use it on a regular or semi-regular basis.<br />
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And I don't know about you, but when I was using social media during my time in the classroom, I was almost completely unaware of this growing population of teachers who were using Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other platforms to give people glimpses into their classrooms, offer tips about how they do things at school, and support each other on the wonderful, crazy, harrowing, stressful, amazing journey that is teaching.<br />
<br />
But, let me tell you. I was missing OUT!<br />
<br />
I've found out since having the ability to stay home and work on blogging and creating teaching resources, that there is this HUGE, WONDERFUL, INSPIRING community of teachers on many<br />
of these social media platforms.<br />
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Teachers all over the world are taking time out of their busy days to share great bulletin boards they've created, collections of multicultural picture books they've amassed, inspiring professional books they've read, solutions to problems they've encountered, peeks into awesome professional development opportunities, and so much more. They've even created support groups on Facebook that are specific to grade level, subject area, and teaching specialty.<br />
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I've since joined several of these groups, in my quest to stay fresh and up to date with current issues facing teachers, and in part, to still feel connected to the people in the field of work that I love so much. I've been able to read about the success teachers have experienced in connecting with their students, offer advice when teachers face challenges I've encountered myself, and join in the laughter when teachers share their daily bloopers and mishaps. #beenthere<br />
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These groups, I realized, would have been SO helpful to me when I first started teaching. Or when I was the only gifted intervention specialist in the entire district. I might have felt a little less <i>isolated</i>, a little more <i>normal</i>, a lot more <i>connected</i>.<br />
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So here's the thing. Once I discovered these groups, I wanted to try and connect with some other teachers in gifted education because that's truly my passion in the teaching field. I started searching for groups of gifted intervention specialists, gifted teachers, teachers of gifted... But no matter how many different keywords or combinations of teacher + gifted + talented I entered, I was unable to locate a group.<br />
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I thought, surely, I must be doing something wrong, looking in the wrong places. I HAD to be missing <i>something</i>.<br />
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Naturally, I started reaching out to some friends and colleagues to see if they were ever able to find any groups. Everyone came back with the same answer: a resounding NOPE.<br />
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Well, shoot. That's not good. Teaching gifted kids is such a rewarding, rich experience, but it is also quite challenging, with some difficulties that are truly unique to this special group of children. The fact that I couldn't find a place where these teachers were connecting, sharing and building relationships was kiiiiind of a huge bummer.<br />
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<a href="http://bit.ly/TGKonFB" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="850" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH54PXrwZaYVYx1U6w4IirK-phpv-sxEhlXaGfwi3rujfytnBvTsrCnCsN75YwfObvJUa_ygk77tmt7zkbOOLJ-759pQh0nNqxtYLqBTlqNg64AOuJegTTpePDvU0GMdk0UI9Fzj-OJjc/s640/facebook+group+promotional+pins.002.jpeg" width="337" /></a>So, guess what? For the past few months, I've been working diligently with two friends, Michael Sivert, from <span style="color: red;"><a href="http://www.mikeydteach.com/">Mikey D Teach</a></span>, and Susan Morrow from <span style="color: red;"><a href="http://keepemthinking.com/">Keep 'em Thinking with Susan Morrow</a></span> to create a group to fill this need we identified. All three of us have degrees or endorsements in gifted education, and we collectively have more than <b><span style="color: #76a5af;">SIXTY</span> </b>years of experience in teaching and education! We've just officially launched the group recently and we're so excited to finally be able to spread the word that we are officially live and growing!<br />
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Our vision for the group is to be able to provide those awesome things happening in groups that I mentioned in the paragraphs above. We want it to be a <b>judgment-free </b>place where teachers of gifted children can come to talk about the challenges we face, ways to meet the needs of this special population of thinkers, curriculum series or other resources that work for gifted children, PD that grows us, the joy that gifted children bring us, and so much more. We want teachers of gifted children to feel supported, encouraged, and recognized for the important work they do each day with our high-potential kids and armed with the tools and knowledge they need to do it!<br />
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The group is mostly geared toward elementary (K-6) teachers who teach gifted students in the regular classroom, but ANYONE who teaches, supports, or interacts with gifted children in the educational setting is <b>welcome and encouraged</b> to join.<br />
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<br />Jenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06864046205728668957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1846154658030035687.post-27855117209164632902018-03-27T15:04:00.001-04:002018-10-18T13:30:44.435-04:00Meaningful Word Work and Purposeful Practice--Six Ideas for Fun and Effective Vocabulary Instruction<div class="separator" style="clear: both; display: none; text-align: center;">
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Welcome (or welcome back) to another installment of my series on teaching vocabulary to gifted students. In previous posts, I wrote about <span style="color: red;"><a href="http://bit.ly/SoaringWithSnyderBlogPretestVocab" target="_blank">steps</a></span> to take before staring vocabulary instruction, including assessing what students already know using a quick and easy self-ratings scale. Next, I wrote about strategies for <span style="color: red;"><a href="http://bit.ly/VocabTeachingStrategies" target="_blank">introducing new words</a></span> and putting a gifted twist on vocabulary instruction.<br />
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The whole reason I started researching best practices in vocabulary started when I realized a few things.<br />
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<ul>
<li>One, I had gifted students to teach and it was obvious that the regular, run-of-the-mill vocabulary materials handed to me by the district would not be sufficient. </li>
<li>Two, had the curriculum been challenging enough for my students, I found it dreadfully boring. If<i> I </i>found it boring, my students would have positively died. And I'm not into creating that kind of emergency in my classroom. </li>
<li>And three, I knew the importance of vocabulary instruction and it's far-reaching effects, so it was something I felt I couldn't afford to get wrong. Thus began my own journey into deeper learning so that I could really make an impact in our classroom, while also injecting some FUN!</li>
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This post goes into a little more depth on the components of quality vocabulary instruction, as well as some of the activities that I used with students to engage them in meaningful word learning and purposeful practice. Just as a quick reminder, a child's vocabulary is a huuuuuuge predictor of academic success in ALL areas.<br />
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<h3>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizn9VUHp_m2pGA-43miZZSGn6o32uQ632ZK6orZbIsJO1jsPl4Pu2q6wWE2vWiQpWbpRRzaUU9eVvNOS57XN32AtxwFFskKnmJe1fb7dXjAGjD0T941fIwUcf_H0GvsGz9zzzoQSCj8vg/s1600/Vocab+Post+Three.001.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="850" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizn9VUHp_m2pGA-43miZZSGn6o32uQ632ZK6orZbIsJO1jsPl4Pu2q6wWE2vWiQpWbpRRzaUU9eVvNOS57XN32AtxwFFskKnmJe1fb7dXjAGjD0T941fIwUcf_H0GvsGz9zzzoQSCj8vg/s640/Vocab+Post+Three.001.jpeg" width="337" /></a>What the Research Says</h3>
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One of the best-known researchers in the field of vocabulary instruction is Robert Marzano. In his studies, he found six key steps were the key to better vocabulary instruction. The first three steps are done with the help of the teacher:<br />
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<ol class="decimal" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 3px 0px 6px 25px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.25em; list-style-type: decimal; margin: 0px 0px 5px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 5px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Teachers should give students an example, description, and/or explanation of the new term. </span></li>
<li style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.25em; list-style-type: decimal; margin: 0px 0px 5px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 5px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Students need to restate the explanation, description, or example using their own language.</span></li>
<li style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.25em; list-style-type: decimal; margin: 0px 0px 5px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 5px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Students should construct a picture, pictograph, or symbolic representation of the term.</span></li>
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(If you hop back to my <span style="color: red;"><a href="http://bit.ly/VocabTeachingStrategies" target="_blank">previous blog post</a></span><span style="color: red;">, </span>you will find<span style="color: red;"> </span>a free download of a graphic organizer on which students can engage in steps two and three). </div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> 4. Periodically, students should engage in activities that help them add to their knowledge of the terms in their vocabulary notebooks.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> 5. Students should be asked to discuss the terms with one another sometimes.</span></div>
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6. Students are p<span style="font-family: inherit;">eriodically involved in playing games that enable them to play with terms.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In studies conducted with classrooms using these strategies, it became clear that when teachers engaged their students in alllll of these six practices, students usually showed significant gains in vocabulary learning. </span></div>
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Other well-known vocabulary researchers, Dr. Kate Kinsella and Dr. Kevin Feldman, point out three things that don't work in their article, <span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-style: italic;">Narrowing the Language Gap: </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><i>The Case for Explicit Vocabulary Instruction: "</i>looking up words in the dictionary, using written context to determine word meaning, unplanned, extemporaneous vocabulary teaching."</span><br />
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Instead, teachers should focus on four important ideas: wide reading, direct teaching of important individual words, teaching word learning strategies, and fostering word conscientiousness through various activities that encourage language play, and choice in writing (Graves, 2000) and (Nagy and Scott, 2000).<br />
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<h3>
My General Flow of Vocabulary Instruction and Assessment </h3>
Now that I've shown you some research, and told you a little about how I preassess and introduce the words, as well as how I accommodate gifted learners, I'm thinking you might be curious about how it all fit together for me.<br />
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<b>A typical vocabulary cycle flows like this for me:</b><br />
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<li>Pre-test students on new words by having students complete a self-ratings-scale prior to starting a new list </li>
<li>Introduction of new words. If they already know any of the words well enough to define and use in a sentence, they don’t have to study those words. You can find more about how I pre-assess for vocabulary in <a href="http://bit.ly/SoaringWithSnyderBlogPretestVocab" target="_blank">this blog post</a>.</li>
<li>Students add their words to our “Map It Out” cards. We discuss the definitions of the vocabulary words together. Students continue to work on these throughout the entire cycle, starting with the synonyms and antonyms (you can even do this part together) and reserving the sentence writing portion until near the end. The “Map It Out” cards are great for students to keep with them when they are working on the other learning activities throughout the cycle, too! They can always go back to the cards and add to or revise them as they learn more about their words. You can read more about introducing the words and find a free download of the Map It Out cards <span style="color: red;"><a href="http://bit.ly/VocabTeachingStrategies" target="_blank"><span style="color: #45818e;">here</span></a>.</span></li>
<li>Students add their words to a catalog or make word wall cards for each root or affix. The “Map It Out” cards themselves are sized to fit on a 5 x 7 notecard or in a composition notebook. I like students to keep a record of all of their words for the year to use for reference and as evidence of all the learning they’ve accomplished! </li>
<li>Students choose one to three (or more) learning activities (like the ones outlined below) to complete. *The number of activities chosen should be a reflection of how much time students have and the number of activities you think each student needs. Gifted students may require much less repetition than “typical” peers or students with other learning differences so the activities that go more in-depth may be a better fit for them!* </li>
<li>Use a quick-check strategy every couple of days to measure progress on learning. I do not use this as a graded quiz. It is meant to be a low-stakes, low-risk tool that students can use to quiz themselves as they are progressing toward mastery. This is a research-based strategy that has been shown to increase retention. </li>
<li>Assess student learning following the completion of the activities.</li>
</ol>
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This cycle is flexible, but I found it generally took about 7 school days to get everything accomplished. Yours might take more or less time, depending on how much class time you can dedicate to it, and of course, on your students' needs. </div>
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<h3>
How I Encouraged Word Play in My Classroom</h3>
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While I definitely engaged students in the super important pre-assessment and direct instruction activities, my FAVORITE part of the vocabulary learning process was definitely allowing students to engage in different activities that helped students achieve deep learning and understanding of their words. This was definitely the part my students enjoyed the most, too.<br />
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I'll outline a few of my favorite activities here, and maybe even provide a *free* download for you at the end. </div>
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"WordTube"</h4>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This activity is a play on the popular YouTube website. Students write each assigned vocabulary word and draw a picture of it on a “WordTube” screen. Then they use the “Up Next” boxes to write the part of speech, identify the roots/affixes contained in the word or the origin if the word does not appear to have Greek or Latin roots or any affixes, and define the word. Students should paraphrase the definition, as this strategy requires more critical thinking and will ultimately help them remember the meaning of the words better. </span></span></div>
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<h4>
Word Analogies</h4>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Students create their own analogies for vocabulary words. Creating and using analogies when learning new material is a research-based strategy that requires students to have a deeper understanding of vocabulary words, activates prior knowledge, and helps students bridge the gap between their schema and new learning. There are two ways students can use this strategy-- students can create their own analogies for vocabulary words and complete the entire analogy. Or, students can create partial analogies that they can trade with a partner to solve. For this option, they must also make up an answer key (I suggest they create the answer key first). You'll want to be sure to teach children the different kinds of relationships you can create with analogies--for example, analogies can show part to whole relationships, the can reflect synonyms, antonyms, time sequences, increasing or decreasing intensity, etc. </span></span></div>
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<h4>
Shades of Meaning</h4>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: inherit;">For this activity, students generate semantic gradients for their vocabulary words. This requires them to think of or find words that are semantically similar to their vocabulary words and then to arrange the words in order. This activity helps students make meaningful connections between words they already know and their new term. There are, again, two variations of this activity that are fun and useful. For one variation, students would either think of, find (or be provided with) a list of synonyms that align with the original vocabulary word. They would then arrange the terms in order from the strongest expression of the term to words that express the term to a lesser degree. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: inherit;">For the second variation of the activity, students think of or look up 5 synonyms and 5 antonyms for the vocabulary word. They place the vocabulary term in the center of the continuum and then arrange the synonyms and antonyms so that they get stronger as they move away from the center. When students are finished, they should discuss with someone why they chose to put their words in order. They could write their rationale instead if no-one is available to discuss. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">I like to allow students access to both options because some terms don’t really have opposites. Further, I always allow some flexibility with the number of synonyms and antonyms students have to find, as some words</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><b>—</b></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">particularly words from content area studies</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><b>—</b></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">don’t have many synonyms or antonyms. Also, since these are fairly subjective and there is lots of “grey” area in terms of how the words are arranged, grading these should either be avoided, aside from completion, or rely heavily on the child’s explanations. I highly suggest this activity be completed with pairs or small groups of children to encourage the rich conversations that can occur as they are determining the order in which to place the words. </span></span></div>
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<h4>
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Making Connections</span></span></h4>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: inherit;">Making connections between words really encourages students to think deeply about the meaning of words, and how they relate to other words. This activity is well-suited for small groups of students, as well as the entire class at once if you’re all studying the same words at the same time. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: inherit;">Students are each assigned one or two unique words, and then they spend time interacting with others in an effort to find a word that they feel connects with their words. Eventually, students settle on a connection or match. Then, students explain either in writing, to the class, or just to the rest of their group members how their terms are connected. </span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx40iLCxkxPq2v1OTQA3MZAxXJlzv-gu2ahXjFlmW-dEiyLoTzRDJwtBAj_zQcJnL5yCceGzlLut7UD-Lx2W26V1ZYdFLIbHtXGVp3xxcJ9QhzNCaqDCfVKml5PW6wmkc1eop2oh-1MPk/s1600/ACS_0027+copy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx40iLCxkxPq2v1OTQA3MZAxXJlzv-gu2ahXjFlmW-dEiyLoTzRDJwtBAj_zQcJnL5yCceGzlLut7UD-Lx2W26V1ZYdFLIbHtXGVp3xxcJ9QhzNCaqDCfVKml5PW6wmkc1eop2oh-1MPk/s400/ACS_0027+copy.JPG" width="300" /></span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: inherit;">You will want to spend some time with your students discussing the difference between surface-level and deeper connections. For example, students need to look past words having the same number of letters, starting or ending with the same letters or sounds, being in the same chapter in their science book, etc. The activity (and related research) suggest that making deeper connections between words and concepts are really what will help cement the vocabulary into children’s learning, creating long-lasting, authentic learning experiences. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Interview a Word</span></span></h4>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">This activity is great for helping deepen students’ understanding of words and their possible connotations. One student “becomes” one of the words, and the other student is the interviewer. It</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">is fun to encourage the “words” to show their personality and act as though they were truly embodying their word. My students really enjoy acting things out like this! I suggest doing this activity in pairs or small groups, however, if a child is working independently, he or she can just write down the answers to the interview questions on paper instead of posing the questions for someone else to answer.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: inherit;">For this activity, you may find it useful to allow students access to websites such as visualthesaurus.com and www.etymonline.com so they can research some possible answers to the interview questions.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: inherit;">As a fun aside, having students make and wear nametags for this activity is a fun way to boost engagement!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Create a Menu</span></h4>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Students get full creative license over designing a menu for a new restaurant and using their vocabulary words in the descriptions. Students start by deciding on a theme and name for the restaurant. Then they decide the names of dishes to include on the menu, all fitting in with the designated theme. Next, students use all of their vocabulary words to create a restaurant menu. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In my opinion, it is not necessary that each menu item use a vocabulary word, as long as they have managed to include all of their words on the menu somehow, using them properly in context. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Creating a themed restaurant and sticking to only including dishes that fit the theme definitely requires higher level thinking skills. If you find this to be too challenging for some of your students, you could allow them to include dishes on the menu that do not fit into a particular theme, as long as they are still using their vocabulary words to write the descriptions. If you want to take this to the next level, you could do something like have students design and create an actual (miniature) restaurant storefront, or allow students time to visit each other’s restaurants and “order” something off of the menu. </span></div>
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Sound like fun? </h4>
There are SO many other great ideas for helping your students engage independently with their vocabulary word study. I put three of the above ideas together for you in a free exclusive download if you're ready to give them a try. This freebie is available ONLY to my subscribers and can be found among many other free resources in my <span style="color: red;"><a href="http://eepurl.com/dijgLX" target="_blank">free resource library</a></span>. Click the image below to gain access to your free copy! *Just to be clear, by clicking to get these freebies (and instant access to the growing collection of free resources in my library of subscriber exclusives), you're also agreeing to be added to my email list, where I'll send occasional messages with fresh ideas, tips, and other resources straight to your inbox. You can unsubscribe at any time.*<br />
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If you're ready to save TONS of time, you can find these three activities and many more in my store by clicking on the images below.<br />
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So far, I have FIVE separate volumes of nine activities created and ready to download and print. Each volume includes a <b>t</b><span style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b>able of contents</b> and </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: inherit;">f</span><span style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">ull-page student-friendly <b>directions</b> for each of the activities. They also include a <b>c</b></span><span style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b>hoice menu</b></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: inherit;"> for each volume, which allows students to make choices about which activities they work on to learn their vocabulary words each week. It is also a good tool to track completion of menu options depending on how long or how many options you allow students to complete. All three volumes also include a <b>r</b></span><span style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b>ubric</b>, the <b>"</b></span><span style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b>Map It Out"</b> graphic organizer and <b>n</b></span><span style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b>ine</b> vocabulary activities</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: inherit;"> that can be used with any of your own vocabulary lists. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: inherit;">Each volume of my Word Study Activities also has one or two <b>FREE bonuses,</b> from a formative assessment tool to a student activity proposal form to a pre-assessment and self-ratings scale. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: inherit;">I also bundled these activities together for big savings. You'll get all five volumes (45 activities!) and the corresponding bonus resources for the price of four volumes! If students complete one different activity a week, there are enough activities in the pack to last the entire year (or longer)! </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">You can access the bundle by clicking the picture below.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: inherit;">Let me know if you have any questions! I love hearing from my readers! </span><br />
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Jenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06864046205728668957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1846154658030035687.post-61892399180030361782018-02-16T09:22:00.000-05:002018-05-24T09:02:41.298-04:00Teaching Vocabulary to Gifted and Advanced Learners--Instructional Strategies that Work<div class="separator" style="clear: both; display: none; text-align: center;">
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You may (or may not!) have been handed a list of required vocabulary words that you are responsible for teaching for the year.<br />
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But if you're like me, you were probably <i>not </i>handed any curricular materials or instructions for <i>how</i> to actually teach those words to your general education students.<br />
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And you were almost definitely not given any ideas for how to teach the words to your gifted and advanced learners.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlKh7CizyUcZXPmWLVe0lZs4sDxXcix_HPyG0ntIWqn0_SD59S9ekQ-WFwzTTl3GxwdF7s-eMd6h2LXKUGkb-c_ysW_k4-0tsNMO0ZpxZYchuQ4KlrW6b1HbdRkz-fPKVM6FPHfapxDMs/s1600/Shorter+Long+Pins.001.jpeg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Pinterest pin for Teaching Vocabulary to Gifted and Advanced Learners" border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="850" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlKh7CizyUcZXPmWLVe0lZs4sDxXcix_HPyG0ntIWqn0_SD59S9ekQ-WFwzTTl3GxwdF7s-eMd6h2LXKUGkb-c_ysW_k4-0tsNMO0ZpxZYchuQ4KlrW6b1HbdRkz-fPKVM6FPHfapxDMs/s640/Shorter+Long+Pins.001.jpeg" title="" width="337" /></a>Then again, maybe you were lucky enough to be supplied with everything you needed to teach this very important knowledge to ALLLLL of your students (Yay, you! #whereareyouteaching #aretheyhiring?#i'monthenextbus/flight/taxi #seeyousoon hahaha 😂).<br />
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No matter where you fall in this spectrum of preparedness, if you are looking for some fresh ideas on how to teach new vocabulary to your students, I hope to offer you some help!<br />
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Urgency: Why Learning New Vocabulary is SO Important</h3>
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Even for gifted children who may have already indicated strong word knowledge or aptitude on achievement or intelligence measures, the process of acquiring new vocabulary remains extremely important.<br />
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And yet, vocabulary instruction, even for verbally gifted students, is something that gets pushed to the wayside sometimes. I'm here to tell you that vocabulary instruction truly should be an integral part of not only your language arts instruction but also your math and content area instruction as well!<br />
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A simple search will reveal that a strong vocabulary is absolutely essential for reading comprehension. It is a key indicator of future success in school (and life).<br />
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Virtually all understanding of any complex idea is dependent on knowing the words used to describe that information. When picturing your gifted student and their thirst for advanced knowledge, it's easy to see how important it is to teach them how to learn the meaning of new words.<br />
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Not to mention, when you consider student engagement, learning about and playing with language is often something that gifted children really LOVE doing!<br />
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So it's SUPER important, and also can be incredibly fun and engaging for your students. Have I convinced you yet? Ready to learn about how to get started?<br />
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<h3>
Effective Strategies for Introducing New Words</h3>
<span style="color: #134f5c;">STOP!</span> Before you do anything else with your vocabulary instruction, you've GOT to start by determining what students already know. Consider hopping over to <a href="http://bit.ly/SoaringWithSnyderBlogPretestVocab" target="_blank">this blog post here</a> for tips on how I quickly and easily pre-assess student knowledge (there is a free printable involved, so go ahead, I'll wait <span style="color: #222222; font-family: "raleway" , "helveticaneue" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre;">☺</span>). And if you're ready to see the kinds of activities I use in my classroom (and another freebie), click <a href="http://bit.ly/swsvocablearningactivities" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
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Ok, you're back. I missed you.<br />
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So, after you know which words your students need to know, it's time to think about how to use <i>research-based</i> methods for teaching the meaning of new words. Here are a few ideas to get you started.<br />
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<li><b><span style="color: #134f5c;">Introduce the words in student-friendly language.</span> </b>Use them in the context of meaningful sentences or stories that students can connect with. Model how the word is used in real life. </li>
<li><b><span style="color: #134f5c;">Have students put that information into their own words. </span></b>This is a VITAL step. Before allowing students to go off and work on committing these new words to memory, it is <i>really</i>, really important that you be sure that they do understand the real meaning of the word. Marilee Sprenger (2005) calls this "recoding," and notes that this is an opportunity for you to help them correct any misconceptions before the wrong meaning gets embedded in student's long-term memory. </li>
<li><b><span style="color: #134f5c;">Have children draw a picture of the word.</span> </b>If they can't draw it, they don't really know it (Ruby Payne, 2009). </li>
<li><b><span style="color: #134f5c;">Find synonyms and antonyms for each word.</span> </b>This is another crucial step. It helps deepen and solidify student's understanding of the words, empowers them to define the word in their own terms, and makes it easier for students to connect the new words to what they already know. </li>
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The Gifted Component</h3>
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The steps above will work whether you are teaching typically developing students, advanced/high achieving students, and gifted students. However, there are a few important things to remember when you have gifted children in your class. </div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;"><b>Gifted children need less repetition</b>.</span> Most children need repeated exposure to new words before they are truly learned. You may have to revisit several of the above steps with your typical students. The gifted difference will come in when you note that a typical <i>gifted</i> child will need FEWER repetitions, maybe as few as 1-2 more exposures to the word will do it for them.<br />
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<span style="color: #134f5c;"><b>Gifted children love opportunities to play with language</b>.</span> In your explorations, you will find it easier to connect with your high IQ students if you can add in some component of wordplay, even starting with introductions to new words. Consider using jokes, puns, song lyrics, poems, and figurative language as you put forth the new terms. </div>
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<b><span style="color: #134f5c;">Gifted children need complexity and depth</span></b>. While the above introductions to the new words are very important, the reinforcement activities you have students do next as they continue really learning the words are just as important in your quest to meet their needs. My next post will provide more detail on this (stay tuned). If you want a sneak peek into some of the activities my students LOVE, check out these resources in my store. But, I promise, I'll be back soon to expand on these fun activities!<br />
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<span style="text-align: center;"> </span><a href="http://bit.ly/SoaringwithSnyderWordStudyVolumeOne" style="text-align: center;" target="_blank"><img alt="image of resource link word study activities for any list volume one" border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="768" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ5LdtxtETl12uLzG2Te0tLoosdIstPLmNXPbKFfaOq-lA3vRCS0tn-1GQyx6g37TtG5GVi_Qx51PziTF-dNRNnGZXahjBNXB7mlkX9Cwgw7KpzGsWgL7jAr2uD7dsjNoo64a6HojSO54/s200/Square+Cover+Word+Study+Activities+Volume+One.002.jpeg" title="" width="200" /></a><span style="text-align: center;"> </span><a href="http://bit.ly/SoaringwithSnyderWordStudyVolume2" style="text-align: center;" target="_blank"><img alt="image of resource link word study activities for any list volume one" border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="768" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEpwF_mvWomUNuUrHCeaoUy1JWX0-lTXKROp17rXSlNCRzXHz1XFIQ19Jdn2IVngDeyr583gYy1Z5SUGEICOKtGJIKFF7QCZ60Ium0iOuUgROGo29MOBaZwPAC0YQwfBCJ5PPepJs7_RU/s200/Square+Cover+Word+Study+Activities+Volume+Two.001.jpeg" title="" width="200" /></a></div>
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{Need a way to <span style="color: #134f5c;">quickly implement some of these tips</span>? Click the image below to grab a FREE copy of the graphic organizer I created for students to keep track of their vocabulary words. (It's part of my growing free resource library!) Spaces are provided for the word, a sketch, synonyms, antonyms, definition, and sentences. I sized them to be cut out and glued inside a composition notebook. They even have a rounded tab for quick reference. *Just to be clear, by clicking to get these freebies (and instant access to the growing collection of free resources in my library of subscriber exclusives), you're also agreeing to be added to my email list, where I'll send occasional messages with fresh ideas, tips, and other resources straight to your inbox. You can unsubscribe at any time.*}<br />
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<b><span style="color: #134f5c;">Next up</span></b>: Learning activities that foster creativity, fun, and deep thinking. You can get there by clicking <a href="http://bit.ly/MeaningfulWordWorkBlogPost" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
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I love hearing from you! Are there other strategies for introducing new words that you have found especially effective? Send an email to jen@soaringwithsnyder.com.<br />
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References:<br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Sprenger, Marilee. Teaching the Critical Vocabulary of the Common Core. ASCD (2013).</span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Winebrenner, Susan. Teaching Gifted Kids in the Regular Classroom. Free Spirit Publishing (2000). </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3eHIw27HK-EF2E526dRAkxK_8haBcEbi3JocmMTJaWBjwtSOsafL2_oqkD8YJQndBS8p3QBqLR7z2Awrc_WG9ngsk5PcXhAw1Q7UcEpR2P3RjFD0De91etuCZZGdJRu3qp8u7xGnVCf8/s1600/Blog+Sliders+.001.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="325" data-original-width="575" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3eHIw27HK-EF2E526dRAkxK_8haBcEbi3JocmMTJaWBjwtSOsafL2_oqkD8YJQndBS8p3QBqLR7z2Awrc_WG9ngsk5PcXhAw1Q7UcEpR2P3RjFD0De91etuCZZGdJRu3qp8u7xGnVCf8/s1600/Blog+Sliders+.001.jpeg" /></a></div>
Tackling vocabulary instruction in any classroom is a complex challenge. Add in students who function above or below the mean, and suddenly trying to meet everyone's vocabulary needs can feel pretty daunting! If you've ever felt overwhelmed by trying to figure it all out, you're not alone. I feeeeel ya!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiYUZx3UZHt1qZbhAOipatXyK8ZxWv8Oa-NSyjZlq7gVDdsWSI4SfVCKcF5Xt8iNyeANrpfpIr0Orr2mIxk7W3kxFP7AhWarJ5IW24j1gkdIiYEDv6M5ADsJBqrOI-ibbza-QKFYVvpfY/s1600/Shorter+Long+Pins.001.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="850" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiYUZx3UZHt1qZbhAOipatXyK8ZxWv8Oa-NSyjZlq7gVDdsWSI4SfVCKcF5Xt8iNyeANrpfpIr0Orr2mIxk7W3kxFP7AhWarJ5IW24j1gkdIiYEDv6M5ADsJBqrOI-ibbza-QKFYVvpfY/s640/Shorter+Long+Pins.001.jpeg" width="337" /></a></div>
It took me some time, but over the years, I feel like I ended up with a sort of "system" of differentiated vocabulary instruction that worked really well for both me and my students. In the next few posts, I'd like to take you through my complete setup.<br />
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In the Series...</h4>
We'll start here with <b><span style="color: #45818e;">pre-assessment,</span></b> and move on to <b><span style="color: #45818e;"><a href="http://bit.ly/VocabTeachingStrategies">instructional strategies here</a></span></b>. Next up is <b><span style="color: #45818e;"><a href="http://bit.ly/swsvocablearningactivities">independent learning activities</a></span></b>, as well as some <b><span style="color: #45818e;">formative and summative assessment strategies</span></b> used to measuring student growth. There are so many fun and simple things you can do with vocabulary instruction, I can't wait to share my ideas with you!<br />
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I hope you'll join me as I spell it all out. If you have any questions along the way, free to leave it in a comment for me at the bottom of the post or send an email to me: jen@soaringwithsnyder.com I would love to hear from you!<br />
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First Things First</h4>
Before I go around passing out new lists of words to my class, I spend time on something super important: <b><span style="color: #45818e;">FINDING OUT WHAT STUDENTS ALREADY KNOW!</span></b> Ahh, sorry to shout at you there, but it's something that is SO important to me as an educator of <i>any</i> student, but especially gifted and talented learners who may come to you already knowing up to 80% of what you're planning to teach on any given day.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1H3BFv8wqaEP5fNSHgfUfZi8cIc9_6NXgAt6rBKX5v0557eP8WSctwKO-JXOkdDm9cRT-Id0fPTR5CD76jAVYFopXL8ImAdtBTbPByLgmhJiPfMLgarWEL5yDIcb0ibqd1tyFyJBv2Yo/s1600/IMG_3430.PNG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1H3BFv8wqaEP5fNSHgfUfZi8cIc9_6NXgAt6rBKX5v0557eP8WSctwKO-JXOkdDm9cRT-Id0fPTR5CD76jAVYFopXL8ImAdtBTbPByLgmhJiPfMLgarWEL5yDIcb0ibqd1tyFyJBv2Yo/s400/IMG_3430.PNG" width="400" /></a><span style="color: red;"><br /></span>There are many ways to quickly pre-assess. It can be as simple or as involved as you like. KWL charts, concept maps, graffiti walls, and formal pretests with multiple choice or short-answer prompts are some of the ways to check on students' prior knowledge.<br />
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{Want to know more about this?<span style="color: red;"> </span>Pop on over to this post <span style="color: red;"><a href="http://bit.ly/PreassessmentBlog" target="_blank">here</a></span><span style="color: red;"> </span>for more detailed information about pre-assessing student knowledge, including explanations for twelve different ways to do it.}<br />
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My preferred method for pre-testing vocabulary is having students <i>self-rate</i> their knowledge of the word list. This is a research-based strategy credited to several authors (<span style="color: #041622;">Blachowicz, 1986; Young et al. 2002, and</span><span style="color: #041622; font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Stahl & Bravo, 2010). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The Self-Ratings Scale</span></h4>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">With a self-ratings scale, students are presented with the words and are asked to rate their knowledge and understanding of the words on a spectrum. It makes SO much sense if you think about your own understanding of words. Some words you have seen a zillion times, used them in your everyday vernacular, and could teach someone else about them in your sleep. Other words you may have seen and been able to infer the meaning in context enough to get by, and some words are completely new to you and you have approximately zero ideas of what they mean. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Truly, we are the only ones who know the depth of our own understanding, so why not use this to our advantage in the classroom, and trust that students can be empowered to do the same kind of self-reflecting?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Using a self-ratings scale can be done very informally using a fist to five-finger rating, with zero fingers up (fist) reflecting that a student has never heard or seen the word, all the way to a five-finger rating, meaning the student knows the word and it's definition and can teach it to someone else/use it in a meaningful sentence. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: inherit;">For me, though, I <i>like</i> having a paper record of which words students are familiar with, and which ones are not known as well. It's nice for me to hang on to for my records, and it's fun for students to see their own growth before/after the unit. </span><br />
<a href="http://eepurl.com/dijgLX" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="Picture of vocabulary self-rating scale for teachers to use with students. Includes link for free download" border="0" data-original-height="1108" data-original-width="854" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnxTENQgNAugz-00CZmmzk0-fPIPeozyVtKQcNcxXJvtOrHFU6_vNXDyuoRvx9w-kQAB-oh9f1xh4kOnZj9lKwHhpnz4Y4atj82rcfMkDaROH7GrDxCssLAZlx41GsOj1-DtS4RqZsdyA/s400/Screen+Shot+2018-01-04+at+2.29.20+PM.png" title="Vocabulary Self-Rating Scale" width="301" /></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: inherit;">For the paper version, students are presented with a word (or words) and then they take a moment to reflect on their current understanding of the word. Then they give themselves a rating--this can either be done with a number scale or on a chart. Ratings range from students never having seen the word, to seeing it before but not really knowing what it means, to seeing it and being able to define it, to knowing it so well that they can both define the word and use it in a meaningful sentence. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">When students indicate knowing the word, it's meaning, and the ability able to use it effectively in a sentence, I do <i>prefer</i> them to prove it by defining the word and using it in a sentence so that I can judge whether they truly know the word or not. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: inherit;">However, if we were ever short on time (who isn't?!), I developed a quick color-coding system for students to use. With their highlighters, students marked words with red (or pink), yellow, and green to indicate how well they knew each word. If they didn't know it well enough to define and use the word, it was highlighted red, if they kind of knew it and/or could figure it out in context, they marked it yellow, and if they 100 percent understood and could use the word, they colored it green. Words rated red or yellow or marked below 4 or 5 (students being able to define and use words in a sentence) became the targeted words they were responsible for learning during that vocabulary cycle. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: inherit;">You can make your own ratings sheet or develop your own system, but if you're short on time, feel free to check out the one in my free resource library by clicking the image above or click <a href="http://eepurl.com/dijgLX" target="_blank">here</a> for your copy. </span>*Just to be clear, by clicking to get the freebie (and instant access to the growing collection of free resources in my library of subscriber exclusives), you're also agreeing to be added to my email list, where I'll send occasional messages with fresh ideas, tips, and other resources straight to your inbox. You can unsubscribe at any time.*<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">You may be thinking that students might try fib a little on these self-ratings scales so that they have fewer words to study. I'm sure someone might try it, but because students knew that they were really only hurting their own learning, in the end, I really never had a problem with it. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: inherit;">Thanks so much for stopping by today! You can find the next post in the series <a href="http://bit.ly/VocabTeachingStrategies">here</a>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Don't forget--if you have a question or comment, feel free to leave it for me below. I love hearing from you!</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje_5eG69jfjHBIbHzDhVG8w7G9RUeS915rtu7QCwovySGcZYMf-ufshvmXH3m53ocXXsNhwbZim6jcnmBUDZjqsjomxIfibzQWc075pDXwq4uQfhIXwmiEZDAq9BQGxBQBKf3B6-UyCUU/s1600/Blog+Slider+choice+menu.001.jpeg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje_5eG69jfjHBIbHzDhVG8w7G9RUeS915rtu7QCwovySGcZYMf-ufshvmXH3m53ocXXsNhwbZim6jcnmBUDZjqsjomxIfibzQWc075pDXwq4uQfhIXwmiEZDAq9BQGxBQBKf3B6-UyCUU/s1600/Blog+Slider+choice+menu.001.jpeg" /></a></div>
One of the most <i>challenging</i> jobs for teachers is to meet the enormous range of needs of the learners in their classroom. Even in my self-contained gifted classes, children's skills and knowledge can be asynchronous, or very unevenly developed. Within my 4th and 5th grade multi-age language arts class alone, I had children reading at SEVEN different reading levels. SEVEN.<br />
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*Side note: It's a huge misnomer that kids are all developing and learning at the same pace in a gifted classroom. Differentiation in gifted classes is <u>every bit as important</u> in a classroom with only gifted students as it is for general education of special education classrooms.*<br />
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Okay, back to my point. BECAUSE it can be so challenging to meet the needs of a range of learners, using <span style="font-size: large;">menus</span> is a great way to differentiate!<br />
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<b>There are several reasons I use menus in my classroom (and why I think menus are a great choice for ANY classroom):</b><br />
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<b>ONE</b>--Menus give students CHOICE. There are so very few times in a child's school day when they get to exercise <i>control</i> over what they do. Menus <b>empower</b> students to decide which activities they choose to complete.<br />
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<b>TWO</b>--Menus increase student engagement. As a result of increased autonomy, students are naturally <i>more invested</i> in their own learning.<br />
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<b>THREE</b>--Menus create a <i>student-centered</i> learning environment. Teachers truly take on the "guide on the side" role. There are various degrees of student-centeredness you can create in your classroom. Start by controlling what all of the choices on the menu are, and then maybe start providing some "free choice" spaces and allow students to decide how they will meet the learning objectives on their own. You might be surprised by their great ideas!<br />
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<b>FOUR</b>--Menus can meet the needs of a variety of students' intelligences--students with strengths in areas other than language arts can showcase learning using their own special talents.<br />
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<b>FIVE</b>--Choice menus can be a departure from the traditional worksheet activities (<b>HOORAY</b> for that!) Hooray! (Yep, it deserves TWO cheers! ;)<br />
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<b>SIX</b>--Menus are easily adaptable--they can range from quick learning activities to lengthier long-term projects. Or they can contain a mix of both.<br />
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<b>SEVEN</b>--The difficulty levels of activity options can be varied and laid out in a way that students can't just stick with completing the easiest tasks.<br />
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There you have it. Seven real, meaningful reasons I let students have choices!<br />
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Ready to dabble in menu options for your classroom? Maybe you'd like to try some options that are already prepared for you...Click any of the pictures below to take a peek at some of the menus I created with CHOICES in mind.<br />
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<a href="http://bit.ly/ChristmasTreeReadingCompPassages" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2IjgS1H95GBmixvam30XHQVi_XbaXJ-d8Qjc80gmbL7xy9ZVmTgitnJsDg6StRYPQPDSUajV8Hq01F1rwtDbQoa1ntA8azEcPNGIVbb5ybZxZtt-dhswqp-64xSJIL1Nl0bksEAV8m8c/s320/Square+Cover+History+of+the+Christmas+Tree.001.jpeg" width="320" /></a><a href="http://bit.ly/ThanksgivingReadingCompPassages" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYUv2NqKoH2iZ9eImJZeDAtnB-xQBjuC4vYPIJhgDug7z3-tKjYdKVueqVr2qJI_ofsSIf-2arpl-il1-LKrDXlOnFTlBe2xiKFWwfYHX2W4G3DW36tYZF9sxCh7bZ06fgg0pDRl-omD0/s320/Square+Cover+Truth+or+Turkey+Thanksgiving+Reading+Comp..001.jpeg" width="320" /></a><a href="http://bit.ly/TrueorBooHalloweenReadingComprehension" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS_HGjsxaVp2v7m6bcHfO2hSo4Xtvi2cwILbh6_ZynfsV0ch-BFPzvy3b5iurcSonwOyosz2pmjBz5dIclPLTJdlu6NHVeQgbEdvjDAjQHN5KSPjg97iqkwJcFQVap9DOjdV8yxkh6Zdg/s320/square+cover+true+or+boo.001.jpeg" width="320" /></a><a href="http://bit.ly/ThunderCakeBloomsReadingKit" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghpHMvP9lQO9UgWhmni4zX1lHtSnfQFIW2mMG3slD0TCKnmYkoO1PdSyQ0fy2jljyRgxQ7FhsIMIBW-2UBaBSIBXPoYXfSIfTEfX2pQEcoSCsyWtXMQSN0XMo6fTJ71H26SdjfROQR98Y/s320/Square+Cover+Thunder+Cake.001.jpeg" width="320" /></a><br />
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Let me know if you have any additional thoughts or questions! Leave me a comment below or drop me an email at jen@soaringwithsnyder.com<br />
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I look forward to hearing from you! </div>
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Jenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06864046205728668957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1846154658030035687.post-24234627320894192672017-07-05T10:19:00.000-04:002017-07-31T19:34:15.462-04:00Help Your Advanced Reader: Eight Practical Ways to Find Great Books<div class="separator" style="clear: both; display: none; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivuY1WhjvtJUZ1BC1r7a_PPJpJMrD3SH-odgYkXqmkRjBRJxlUGNZKGzmWF346cEMVQgmn6TE4AmABnw2CPoDyHhC4PvaIpztRBxUtIvIdnJhpkc42F8o8ExD3Nxhz4kqXxknpQhd6718/s1600/Blog+Sliders+.001.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="325" data-original-width="575" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivuY1WhjvtJUZ1BC1r7a_PPJpJMrD3SH-odgYkXqmkRjBRJxlUGNZKGzmWF346cEMVQgmn6TE4AmABnw2CPoDyHhC4PvaIpztRBxUtIvIdnJhpkc42F8o8ExD3Nxhz4kqXxknpQhd6718/s1600/Blog+Sliders+.001.jpeg" /></a></div>
Parents and teachers of gifted or advanced children, do these children sound familiar to you?<br />
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She has 14 books on her nightstand, seven at the foot of the bed, and probably two or three more under her pillow. She has surrounded herself with books for as long as you can remember.<br />
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He "sneaks" reading in at all times of the day, sometimes smuggling books into the smallest crevices and cracking them the tiniest bit open the moment he thinks you're not watching.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbKYrD7ghgnMGhcDTQL8NUSpQUe3XVvd4N9Pin1wS3OZ8kB8oA5T6WZHaF6-Xs6Wf9GYMefZLzuCy6iiFCOGdDseBuH_qNfTcCjFEBw0mTpFhJ3jNz_t7SGsvLZ-LHGYglMs9AL0_lVYc/s1600/Shorter+Long+Pins.001.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="850" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbKYrD7ghgnMGhcDTQL8NUSpQUe3XVvd4N9Pin1wS3OZ8kB8oA5T6WZHaF6-Xs6Wf9GYMefZLzuCy6iiFCOGdDseBuH_qNfTcCjFEBw0mTpFhJ3jNz_t7SGsvLZ-LHGYglMs9AL0_lVYc/s640/Shorter+Long+Pins.001.jpeg" width="336" /></a>She's maxed out her library card allowance, consumed multiple books from your own shelves, borrowed from friends and teachers, and is constantly on the hunt for more.<br />
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He devours each and every book he can find, often able to tune out many noises and other activities occurring in his surroundings. He would miss meals if you didn't remind him.<br />
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I know <i>I've</i> encountered these children both at home and at school. (In fact, there is a pretty good chance that I actually <i>am</i> one of those people ^^^.)<br />
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If you know (or live with) one of these voracious readers, you might find yourself thinking about what a blessing it is that your child or student reads so widely and deeply! After all, it <i>is </i>pretty awesome, right? Think of all the learning and imagining and growing your child is getting just from gobbling up all of those books!<br />
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If you know (or live with) one of these voracious readers, you are probably also familiar with what can feel like a never-ending struggle to find suitable reading materials. It's not always easy hunting down the next great read (or 826 reads) for your little (awesome) bookworm.<br />
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Today's post is aimed at helping point you to a few good places to look for the next reading treasure for your bookish child.<br />
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<h3>
First Things First: Schools of Thought on What Kinds of Books are Best</h3>
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There are several different ideologies about what gifted children should be reading. </div>
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Guided reading gurus like Irene Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell have developed a system to match readers with leveled books. In a nutshell, they suggest that children be evaluated to determine what their instructional, independent, and frustration reading levels are. According to their research, they've found that children should tackle books that are deemed too difficult with for their current reading skills with extreme caution. If they can't understand 90-95 percent of the words on the page, their reading comprehension will suffer. Instead, the authors suggest that children read books together with support from a parent or teacher that are at their instructional reading level, and save the books at their independent reading level to read on their own. </div>
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Using reading levels is not isolated to guided reading. The advent of the Common Core State Standards brought with it the use of the Lexile system, which claims to match readers and books through the use of computer software. Critics of the Lexile system have noted that books like Fahrenheit 451 and Diary of a Wimpy Kid are listed at very similar levels, which calls into question the notion of whether the system is truly able to evaluate the complexity (and maturity<br />
level) of the ideas presented in the books. </div>
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There are other schools of thought that suggest children should have full autonomy over which books they read. Teachers and researchers like Nancie Atwell and Donalyn Miller have suggested that it doesn't necessarily matter whether the books are too easy or too hard for the child (within reason) as long as they are engaged in reading books that they actually <i>want to read</i> for extended periods of time each day. These behaviors reflect what it's like to be an adult reader, out in real life. According to Donalyn Miller, </div>
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Providing students with the opportunity to choose their own books to read empowers and encourages them. It strengthens their self-confidence, rewards their interests, and promotes a positive attitude toward reading by valuing the reader and giving him or her a level of control. Readers without power to make their own choices are unmotivated. </blockquote>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRHsyHCPiNLwXUjrW7QbA2GNUdQ7UpDHR1HCXv1_VeGFCvjrQk1gICbbEm5s_AuNj2LalDS1ZLEdRXP9M-s2RYoxh-x69uYR9M8F8pBuU1N6borIH37PMvzts7iecFNyrJMoozxsaGE3Q/s1600/pexels-photo-256548.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1063" data-original-width="1600" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRHsyHCPiNLwXUjrW7QbA2GNUdQ7UpDHR1HCXv1_VeGFCvjrQk1gICbbEm5s_AuNj2LalDS1ZLEdRXP9M-s2RYoxh-x69uYR9M8F8pBuU1N6borIH37PMvzts7iecFNyrJMoozxsaGE3Q/s400/pexels-photo-256548.jpg" width="400" /></a>Critics of this thinking argue that children won't be growing as readers if they're spending time rereading Charlotte's Web for the seventh time or if they are toiling away at Moby Dick for weeks and weeks. * To be clear, I believe this characterization is a bit of an exaggeration of what choice reading proponents have laid out, and not really reflective of my own concerns, but I thought it was worth noting.*</div>
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And then there are some people who think that children (advanced or not) should all just stick to the books that are marked as appropriate for their grade level/age. They say that advanced readers don't need advanced texts because they can "go deeper" with the regular grade level texts. Matching advanced readers to texts marked for students' current grade level can sometimes be a little more challenging, but can definitely work if you manage to find books that are more complex in structure, perspective, genre, or theme.<br />
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I tend to think that a combination of these approaches works best. Finding a balance between allowing choice, and guiding students to choose books that will help them grow as readers by stretching their decoding, reasoning, and reflection skills at the same time seems to be the best approach <i>for me</i>. Further, whichever approach you prefer, for gifted readers, it is important to find books that have rich language, complex but relatable characters, and intricate plots to satisfy their needs and help them grow.<br />
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No matter which of these ideologies seem to match your reader's needs (and your own thinking) best, the problem remains: how can I find books that will work for my kid?!<br />
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Some Practical Ways to Find Books That Fit</h3>
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Below is a compilation (in no particular order) of strategies and resources I use when trying to help match readers to books. This list stems from my experience teaching gifted readers starting in kindergarten through 5th grade as well as from having my own advanced readers at home. None of these recommendations are part of any kind of affiliate program--I won't get money if you choose to purchase anything after reading the recommendations. I'm suggesting them to you because they are what worked for me as a gifted intervention specialist and parent. </div>
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<li><b>Picture books--</b>I think these are an often undervalued resource. Kids (and adults alike) think that once they are fluent readers, chapter books and novels are the only way to go. And while using those longer books certainly provide a little more respite in between searches, picture books can provide really rich opportunities for exposure to advanced themes, vocabulary, and structures that may be too difficult for readers to access in the longer stories. Authors like Patricia Polacco, Jan Brett, Bill Peet, Graeme Base, Chris Van Allsburg, Steven Kellogg, Mark Teague and Tomie DePaola are some of my go-to picture book authors. </li>
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<li><b>Graphic novels--</b>Despite what you may be thinking, these books are so much more than long form comic books! <a href="https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/lesson-plans/teaching-content/guide-using-graphic-novels-children-and-teens/" target="_blank"> A lesson plan</a> on the Scholastic Teachers website called <b><span style="background-color: white; font-weight: normal;"><i>A Guide to Using Graphic Novels with Children and Teens </i>notes:</span></b></li>
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The excellent graphic novels available today are linguistically appropriate reading material demanding many of the same skills that are needed to understand traditional works of prose fiction. Often they actually contain more advanced vocabulary than traditional books at the same age/grade/interest level. They require readers to be actively engaged in the process of decoding and comprehending a range of literary devices, including narrative structures, metaphor and symbolism, point of view, and the use of puns and alliteration, intertextuality, and inference. Reading graphic novels can help students develop the critical skills necessary to read more challenging works, including the classics.</blockquote>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG9ypzemFQ3hu_mAJsPOho4UQwzZyJhl9WuKuOK0TgvVhLRhBptKb8qTDdUpSxDdxKIyXLwixABXd4DKJrl8rAF2TY4XFDHI1xpUHiTbvoGIcY5O5_s63mYpzHswsCgQsYy4NT0It0SGQ/s1600/mark+twain.001.jpeg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="768" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG9ypzemFQ3hu_mAJsPOho4UQwzZyJhl9WuKuOK0TgvVhLRhBptKb8qTDdUpSxDdxKIyXLwixABXd4DKJrl8rAF2TY4XFDHI1xpUHiTbvoGIcY5O5_s63mYpzHswsCgQsYy4NT0It0SGQ/s400/mark+twain.001.jpeg" width="400" /></a>
<li><b>Children's Classics/Books Written Long Ago--</b> I love using classics and older books with advanced readers for several reasons. One of the biggest reasons I frequently recommend them is that the content in them is often less questionable than some of the modern-day books written at the same level. Also, the language in some of the books written long ago is not commonplace in our everyday speech, so comprehending the texts definitely takes more effort on the reader's part. And, despite what Mark Twain may have said about classics, these books can be entertaining and fun for children to read. My daughters loved Pollyanna, The Velveteen Rabbit, Alice in Wonderland, Anne of Green Gables, Charlotte's Web, The Secret Garden, Aesop's Fables, Mother Goose Stories, and others. </li>
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<li><b>Literary Magazines--</b>These were always a hit in my upper elementary classroom. I love them because they include a nice variety of genres like poetry and nonfiction that children may not always go about choosing on their own. They are also often illustrated, and sometimes include fun writing contests that help motivate some children to compete! There are many options for these magazines, but my favorites are from <a href="https://shop.cricketmedia.com/" target="_blank">Cricket Media</a> (not an affiliate link, I just LOVE these magazines). Titles like Spider, Cricket, Muse, Calliope, Odyssey, and Cobblestone were always student favorites. There are other options available, like Scholastic's StoryWorks Magazine, however, I found them to be too simple for my advanced readers, beyond perhaps some of the comprehension skills practice they offered. </li>
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<a href="https://shop.cricketmedia.com/" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="484" data-original-width="436" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1LEgvCKWGU1Qcebv0zn-MKugvizb_vf0vAbzexevWMyDXKYYs-dhd9kAJXpo7nmNdPKlFbHV0ITLfzgzPAHsVWmpteVXUoCo52LDdByWDq1IwVrA-V0qhOOW_oOfPR-9zu9IcSsMcz6E/s320/Screen+Shot+2017-07-04+at+3.42.21+PM.png" width="288" /></a></div>
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<li><b><a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/">Project Gutenberg</a>--</b>This site has a collection of over 54,000 FREE ebooks! One really nice feature is that they don't require registration, so using it in school (or at home) is a breeze. They also offer several different ebook formats, so you have some flexibility in how you access the books. On the site, you can click on a tab labeled "Book Categories," which will lead you to many different groupings of books, including children's books and classics. You still have to know what you're looking for, of course, which leads me to my next recommendation:</li>
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<li><b><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Some-Best-Friends-Are-Books/dp/0910707960"><i>Some of My Best Friends Are Books: Guiding Gifted Readers, by Judith Wynn Halstead</i>--</a></b> This is a book I've had in my collection for many years. Now in its third edition, this title describes the intellectual and emotional needs of gifted readers, provides a framework for typical reading development, and offers advice for parents and teachers of gifted children in guiding their young gifted readers in choosing and understanding books. It also has an annotated book list of over 300(!) books divided into both age groupings and listed under intellectual and emotional topics or themes such as intensity, introversion, developing imagination, sensitivity, and resiliency, among many others. It is truly a wonderful book that I recommend anyone who works with gifted children add to their library. </li>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Some-Best-Friends-Are-Books/dp/0910707960" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="946" data-original-width="636" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi20RcTQF6HN79dLzpYx8D3HxCAQTfYvHYkZFC8Jn5MFB6J8QI8sI7i74GQrnL2jf0NnI7g8GSKhfYgiXeLpDP6Gl3raum2qfg9_emPosq_GeHPK88PIR8sgBSLRPiRu70eFtoTFYt5kc/s400/Screen+Shot+2017-06-06+at+11.31.20+AM.png" width="268" /></a>
<li><b>Librarians--</b>Meet them, greet them, bake cookies for them, and treat them well. They are one of the most powerful and resources we have on our journey to find great books. I had one school librarian, in particular, that would just scour the ends of the earth with me to try and find books that were just right for my advanced readers. One note of caution--not all librarians are fans of allowing children to read out-of-level books. To this I say you can thank them for their input. If you want to, you can also gently let them know that according to your own research and the knowledge you have of your own student or child, you believe reading X, Y, or Z types or levels of books is the best option at this point. Feel free to give them my email address if they have questions. ;) </li>
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<li><b>Use Websites and Facebook Groups for more recommendations--</b>Other parents and teachers of gifted people are almost <i>ALWAYS</i> willing to share with you the books that worked for their children or students. The book lists section under the kids/teens section on <a href="http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/hot_topics.htm">Hoagie's Gifted website</a> has TONS of annotated books lists for many topics like Classic Fiction, Girls and Young Women, Math and Programming, Mystery, Puzzle Books, Books about being Gifted, Arts and Crafts, and many more. On Facebook, search for groups or pages operated by your local gifted associations or larger groups like the NAGC or Hoagies' Gifted Education Page. In those groups, parents are encouraged to share experiences, ask questions, and give recommendations to one another. </li>
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A Few More Tips</h3>
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<b>DO... </b></div>
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...read out of level books before/with your children when possible. If you can't do that, try checking out the <a href="https://www.commonsensemedia.org/">Common Sense Media </a>website for information about the content and language in the book.</div>
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...check the lists of reviewed books from district, state, and national sites. Here are a few of the good sites I've come across:<br />
<a href="http://www.lemars.k12.ia.us/webfiles/kwingert/Recommended%20Books%20for%20Talented%20Readers.pdf">Recommended Books for Talented Readers</a><br />
<a href="http://www.midwayisd.org/cms/lib/TX01000662/Centricity/Domain/441/Suggested_Book_Lists_-_Mulbry.pdf">Book List for Elementary Gifted Students</a><br />
<a href="http://mcgt.net/mcgt-suggested-book-list-for-gifted-children">Minnesota Council for the Gifted and Talented: Books for Young Readers</a><br />
<a href="http://www.watg.org/uploads/3/4/6/1/3461451/books_for_verbally_talented_learners.pdf">Good Books for Verbally Talented Readers</a><br />
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<a href="http://bit.ly/PermissiontoRead" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="768" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju1e8TnsmyT7-W1jQ6YBpE3wBJdofbv5awF57P_txzpsL6Dvs3kfsHBZMmb8raKi9VS5Lg9d4Crpjyi3tTx9uD3ZyG_U_wzZeN3_2L6OBTwKgiuOo5_RbHpJ2yRq_OdpCe_IbcoqyWaLM/s400/Square+Cover+Permission+to+Read+Letter.001+copy.jpeg" width="400" /></a>...send out a permission slip for out-of-level books if you are a teacher. You can see the one I created <span style="color: red;"><a href="http://bit.ly/PermissiontoRead">here</a></span>.<span style="color: red;"> </span></div>
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...use technology to your advantage. From the lists upon lists that I've referenced above to the ability to check out books online from your local library to download your child's device, the sky is the limit when finding books that your young advanced reader will love!</div>
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<b>DON'T...</b></div>
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...assume your values match those of your student's families and limit or encourage above-level texts accordingly. This is why sending a permission slip can be so helpful! It removes the responsibility of judgment from your shoulders and allows parents/guardians to decide. </div>
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...limit kid's consumption of texts to only their "Zone of Proximal Development"/Reading Level/Lexile Level. There are so many factors that influence a child's ability to comprehend text. Motivation to read the text plays a HUGE role in the child's ability to stay with the story and work at comprehending it. </div>
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...assume one size fits all. Among the group of children in a single grade level who are considered advanced readers, there can still be an enormous range of reading abilities and interests. Just because the book works for one child doesn't mean it will work for all children.<br />
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<h3>
Do You Have Any Other Great Resources?</h3>
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Leave me a comment below or connect with me on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/soaringwithsnyder/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel">Facebook </a>and let me know what tips you have for finding great books for your gifted or advanced readers! </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH1Z2lS-CSF5YtRNX0IDFJ_Jo-Cteqv69V-L3cc74dw50wnMDgfmlvRTw6P7m03KR15EX9tvATLhdrlxuA2b_GXZwlwOKcoURQbBoKbNGXWviYtfrGJCSG6uev0fULBY9uZI80MageXeI/s1600/Blog+Slider.001.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH1Z2lS-CSF5YtRNX0IDFJ_Jo-Cteqv69V-L3cc74dw50wnMDgfmlvRTw6P7m03KR15EX9tvATLhdrlxuA2b_GXZwlwOKcoURQbBoKbNGXWviYtfrGJCSG6uev0fULBY9uZI80MageXeI/s1600/Blog+Slider.001.jpeg" /></a></div>
My last two posts were about children with dual exceptionalities. I gave some tips on how to identify these special children (and why), as well as some helpful ways you can help these special children. You can find those posts <a href="http://bit.ly/2EGiftedwithaTwist">here</a> and <a href="http://bit.ly/supporting2ekids">here</a>. Part of my last post focused on creating an accepting classroom environment for your 2E students.<br />
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Today I'm going to expand on that idea of creating an accepting environment for 2E children. Of alllllll of the activities, discussions, and routines I worked hard at implementing at the beginning of the school year, this is the <b>one lesson</b> that I feel really helped lay the groundwork for a successful and supportive learning environment, in which children were free to be themselves, and where we accepted, acknowledged, and even celebrated our differences.<br />
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<h4>
How it started...</h4>
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One really great exercise I did with students at the start of the school year was based on a lesson from "The Sisters" Gail Boushey and Joan Moser, creators of the Daily 5/Café reading structure/strategies. In their book, <a href="https://www.stenhouse.com/content/cafe-book"><u>The CAFE Book</u>,</a> they suggest a demonstration involving shoes to describe the process of choosing a "good fit" book. I first used this in my language arts classes to help guide children in the selection of books that matched their reading needs.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDv_i3ONhK06ryN4z2l-A2J46pczmryZzwMgaGxxuTCMsUxzIS6tc2ZvvcV5dTnSykhQNB7SR7Xc0WFV8ppTSNKrlblZoJSZ_9i8I62DJx7DhzE8WUPNqD6Vtfwlm-t2tmXJDeDo-jh1w/s1600/Shorter+Long+Pin.001.jpeg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDv_i3ONhK06ryN4z2l-A2J46pczmryZzwMgaGxxuTCMsUxzIS6tc2ZvvcV5dTnSykhQNB7SR7Xc0WFV8ppTSNKrlblZoJSZ_9i8I62DJx7DhzE8WUPNqD6Vtfwlm-t2tmXJDeDo-jh1w/s640/Shorter+Long+Pin.001.jpeg" title="How I Used Shoes to Create a Classroom Culture of Acceptance and Appreciation" width="339" /></a></div>
In a nutshell, I brought in a bunch of my family's shoes and we talked about how I wouldn't wear my high heels for gym class and my hiking boots were definitely not appropriate for my date night to a fancy restaurant (this was the analogy used to teach about choosing books to suit the child's purpose for reading.) The lesson went on with me demonstrating how neither my daughter's infant shoe nor my husband's tennis shoes were a good fit for me--they were obviously too big and too small (this connected to picking books that were neither way too easy or way too difficult). The lesson continued as we talked about choosing books that we were interested in, could understand, etc.<br />
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It soon became apparent to me that this lesson could also work really well when speaking to the class about differentiated instruction in my classroom.<br />
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The analogies now worked in new ways.<br />
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They offered a really concrete way for children to see that just because what they were doing in class (or when they came to my resource room) was<i><b> different, it wasn't better or worse</b></i> than what the other kids were doing. It was just <i>different. </i> It was what they needed, what they deserved, and what (we hoped) would help them to grow the most as learners.<br />
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<h4>
How it played out...</h4>
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Because I worked hard at offering students choice in the classroom through the use of menus, projects, choice reading, etc., we went on a pretend fantasy shoe-shopping trip so that students could engage in exercising their preferences.<br />
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I selected images ahead of time for different kinds of shoes in the same category. For example, if the category was shoes to wear to PE class, I gathered several images of gym shoes and put them up for the class to see and vote on favorites. We talked about how everyone <b>has their own style and preferences</b> when it comes to the shoes they chose. Maybe two children had both selected tennis shoes, but it was clear that the child who had chosen the flashy, light-up, glittery, neon show-stoppers had a different style sense than the child who had chosen the well-loved, broken-in, simple black Chuck Taylors. And that was OKAY! In fact, it was awesome to see the differences! Some children chose shoes for comfort, some chose for style, and some chose for ease of putting on and taking off.<br />
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It was all great because at least they <i>got to choose </i>according to their own desires and needs at the time.<br />
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**Before I describe the next steps, it is important to note that for this exercise specifically, <b>I did not use the children's actual shoes</b>. The reality is that some children don't <i>get to choose</i> their shoes--they're glad to have shoes that fit and function at all because of financial or other difficulties at home. There is no reason to draw attention to the potential differences in socio-economic status or other out-of-school difficulties here.**<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik_hg7d3wNX1YgwDTBAWXcJDEUP9G9RvhgvghCjKC5fi13BvNXUdONxKdRnDsRKCBE3i7Xn-fZi1Wttk2dXT15x7lNcO1EC3mm8rm0gQgo1ujIdNJBGZAdL0v1BnU4JE8USGMAsBNQMKI/s1600/Untitled.001.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik_hg7d3wNX1YgwDTBAWXcJDEUP9G9RvhgvghCjKC5fi13BvNXUdONxKdRnDsRKCBE3i7Xn-fZi1Wttk2dXT15x7lNcO1EC3mm8rm0gQgo1ujIdNJBGZAdL0v1BnU4JE8USGMAsBNQMKI/s400/Untitled.001.jpeg" width="400" /></a>Next, we talked about <b>shoe size</b>. I had children take off their shoes and line them up according to size (sometimes I had them take measurements if it was during math!). We of course quickly learned that the children's shoes were all different sizes. This lead to a conversation about how it wouldn't make sense to make someone with a size-11 foot squeeze into a size-five shoe. Clearly, the child had long outgrown the size five shoe and was ready for a bigger size. It didn't mean anything was wrong with the child, or that he or sheet was in some way better than someone with smaller feet, it just meant that they were growing at different rates. We talked about how this was the same for children's learning in school. I wish I had video footage of the faces I would see during this lesson. Watching those connections be made, and having someone acknowledge, maybe for the first time, that their learning differences were natural and normal and to be expected instead of better or worse than someone else was <strike>so great</strike> kinda magical.<br />
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Next, we talked about the <b>purpose of the shoes</b>. Sandals for the beach, athletic shoes for playing sports, dress shoes for special occasions. We sometimes wear different shoes when we have different needs. I used this when I was addressing children's concerns about being seen as different when they came to my resource room for their gifted instruction. Just like they would choose sandals or flipflops for the beach, they came to me and were grouped together as learners for a specific purpose--to meet their needs!<br />
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Finally, we talked about <b>caring for our shoes.</b> I had students picture their best, most favorite shoe (or any possession, really). We shared a bit about their favorites and then I turned the conversation to have the children imagine being able to hold on to that special pair of shoes (or other items) forever. What would it take to protect the shoes (treating them nice, not beating them up, cleaning them when they got dirty, etc.) How can we make sure our favorite slippers stay nice so we can keep them as long as possible? How can we keep our shoes from looking like the tattered, neglected, abandoned shoes like the ones below?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUqB6q-Oo0fuA224m0dCM9__a4GrI2m_0kv_cWsG1OpmmkDKNhF1Xe0Coah30TFepdsDdwmycKTVtIisr5B7gwLpLwbN9aiAI0ldsR6tkRWZ5U0Ybadc2waHDyJAqVQVCjNzRIadkcOqA/s1600/christian-rosswag-154066.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUqB6q-Oo0fuA224m0dCM9__a4GrI2m_0kv_cWsG1OpmmkDKNhF1Xe0Coah30TFepdsDdwmycKTVtIisr5B7gwLpLwbN9aiAI0ldsR6tkRWZ5U0Ybadc2waHDyJAqVQVCjNzRIadkcOqA/s400/christian-rosswag-154066.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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To complete the analogy, we talked about the human connection. What are some ways in the classroom that we can make each other feel that we are those treasured shoes? How can we care for each other so that we can keep each other feeling valued, protected, and cared for? This always led to a great student-led conversation about treating each other with kindness and compassion, not pointing out differences, understanding that they all need to be looked after with great care. We talked about the importance of fixing problems as they come up, and valuing each other. We closed the discussion by considering the fact that <b>each one of us <i>is</i> someone's favorite</b>, and <b>we <i>each</i> deserve to be treated as such.</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiODJ5SfDfGwMnvgsxzHBO1QDx4jJ22-UOVhUFvyqo8NgqW5VcHlmwsIsQ0tP0OYeUg_eqnL4nnoUZ0QG9A17OxBbieeyGrRYrO58sMsWLTe5GVio7ZtkFnOUQOTn936w-6YzW3qbtU5Fw/s1600/IMG_1609.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="331" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiODJ5SfDfGwMnvgsxzHBO1QDx4jJ22-UOVhUFvyqo8NgqW5VcHlmwsIsQ0tP0OYeUg_eqnL4nnoUZ0QG9A17OxBbieeyGrRYrO58sMsWLTe5GVio7ZtkFnOUQOTn936w-6YzW3qbtU5Fw/s400/IMG_1609.PNG" width="400" /></a>Students came away from this lesson having a really concrete and clear picture of how, in my classroom at least, we would view, acknowledge, accept, and celebrate our differences.<br />
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And I truly feel like it made a difference in how students perceived each other, especially when it came to differentiated instructional opportunities.<br />
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We had fewer issues with jealousy and judging because our classroom culture was being shaped into a community of people who understood that decisions were made according to what students truly <i>needed </i>and deserved as the unique individuals in our class.<br />
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What are some of the ways you've engaged children in your classrooms or at home in discussions about acceptance and respect for other people's differences? Leave me a comment below!Jenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06864046205728668957noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1846154658030035687.post-17284876763202584892017-04-13T21:19:00.002-04:002018-05-24T08:55:25.479-04:00Ten Powerful Ways We Can Support Twice-Exceptional Children in the Classroom<div class="separator" style="clear: both; display: none; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjerZsw5jFMjK4tBbuePqX9B4PkQLf9byxuKpfwzFa5ZOk_9KsuECWPOo35LIqIuRLpYD0JoIhDnwDPB03EVeVL-HunnL0aAWTyLyYlkjnMHzMiyFkEso9OAqfjHkJyEIkQmeqjHAkz3ME/s1600/Blog+Sliders+.008.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjerZsw5jFMjK4tBbuePqX9B4PkQLf9byxuKpfwzFa5ZOk_9KsuECWPOo35LIqIuRLpYD0JoIhDnwDPB03EVeVL-HunnL0aAWTyLyYlkjnMHzMiyFkEso9OAqfjHkJyEIkQmeqjHAkz3ME/s1600/Blog+Sliders+.008.jpeg" /></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVxOL0AxaaF73FJMYbSRz94NIjMCDnL4yWqfnkIj3wemvsmnv7Ya0AHg2dEUb9yHAwIbFBQjNUiBMdAkD_uu5HXEf62awmBfyJLLt1PlueiJTIDv7OxnHZ9vqRNOCuogKJQ8DaGOMpEwo/s1600/Untitled+2.001.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVxOL0AxaaF73FJMYbSRz94NIjMCDnL4yWqfnkIj3wemvsmnv7Ya0AHg2dEUb9yHAwIbFBQjNUiBMdAkD_uu5HXEf62awmBfyJLLt1PlueiJTIDv7OxnHZ9vqRNOCuogKJQ8DaGOMpEwo/s640/Untitled+2.001.jpeg" width="339" /></a>Twice exceptional children need our help.<br />
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They need our help and support and love. They need people to know who they are and what makes them special.<br />
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They need to know how to use their strengths to help compensate for their difficulties. They need to have the opportunity to pursue their interests and learn and grow in their areas of giftedness just as much as any. other. gifted. child.<br />
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The times I've had the privilege of teaching children with dual exceptionalities have been both the most challenging and most rewarding experiences I've had as a teacher. Today I'm offering some tips that helped me meet the needs of these special learners.<br />
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As a reminder, twice exceptional children are those who are both gifted and have a significant developmental weakness in comparison to peers of the same age. You can read more about characteristics and signs to watch for in my post <a href="http://bit.ly/2EGiftedwithaTwist" target="_blank">here</a>. As of 2006, it was estimated that nearly 70,000 2e children had been identified. You can imagine that as districts have grown stronger in identifying these children, that number has only increased.<br />
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How to Help 2e Kids in the Classroom</h3>
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<b>Be thorough in our identification</b>--taking a look at the WHOLE child, an evaluation should include many areas including academic skills, cognitive abilities and processes (memory and reasoning skills), areas of concern, social and emotional strengths and weaknesses, and other contributing factors.<br />
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We have to get a thorough picture of <i>what</i> the problem is before we can solve it. This means that we need to enlist the help of both the parents and a team of professionals who can help collect all of this information.<br />
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<b>Create a supportive classroom culture.</b> It's important that we establish an environment in which children are supported and appreciated by each other in (and out of ) the classroom for their differences. The more we talk about the diverse needs of <i>everyone</i> in the classroom, and the more regularly we provide differentiated instruction, the more it will become <i>normal</i>. There are lots of ways to do this, and I suggest using explicit direct instruction and LOTSSSSS of modeling in the beginning of the year, and again throughout the school year as needed.<br />
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<b>Make sure strengths are served FIRST.</b> This can lead to a student's higher self-concept and reduction in tension caused by exceptionalities. It also helps other students see and respect the child for his or her strengths, improves social interactions, and of course encourages growth in learning in the child's area of giftedness.<br />
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In a 2003 article, <i>Strategies for Teaching Twice-exceptional Students, </i>author Susan Winebrenner said,<br />
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The rule to follow when teaching students who are twice exceptional is simple. When teaching in their areas of strength, offer them the same compacting and differentiation opportunities available to other gifted students. When teaching in their areas of challenge, teach them whatever strategies they need to increase their learning success. Never take time away from their strength areas to get more time to work on their deficiencies. Never remediate their weaknesses until you teach to their strengths!</blockquote>
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<b>Get students help for their challenge areas.</b> Often this involves the creation of IEP or 504 plan with your school's intervention team. Again, just be sure that time for intervention is not taking away from the time when the child's strengths are being nurtured.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhushP_DVOQVNdVzWYCr4IhkoKcxhS8VuofK_1BtT9nv3JdmiTHc5yN-LvaWbVBXzRDOHyErgCblk-tONEUMMUxIJq_zZQwQmf4dlwCIgWT5bvel7ImGx7PG1cA6jR9DlET3IeW86878aw/s1600/Ten+Things-Twice+Exceptional+Quote.003.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhushP_DVOQVNdVzWYCr4IhkoKcxhS8VuofK_1BtT9nv3JdmiTHc5yN-LvaWbVBXzRDOHyErgCblk-tONEUMMUxIJq_zZQwQmf4dlwCIgWT5bvel7ImGx7PG1cA6jR9DlET3IeW86878aw/s320/Ten+Things-Twice+Exceptional+Quote.003.jpeg" width="320" /></a><b>Be flexible with accommodations. </b><br />
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Will spell-checking software allow the child to write more fluently? Let them use it.<br />
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Will a calculator help speed up the process so that the child can work on the more complex math skills you're learning about? Let them use it.<br />
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Would allowing your dyslexic student to listen to an audio recording of your class novel help remove a barrier so that they could focus on the comprehension skills you're teaching? LET. THEM. USE. IT.<br />
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I'm not suggesting that these students shouldn't work on strengthening those spelling, calculating, or reading skills, but I <i>am</i> suggesting that we think critically about what our true objectives are for the lessons. We shouldn't penalize a child for needing some extra time if your learning objective isn't to increase completion speed. You can find a really great list of possible accommodations <a href="http://www.davidsongifted.org/Search-Database/entry/A10446" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
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<b>Provide lots of help with organization.</b> Use systems in your classroom that encourage routine and help students build their skills in managing time and materials. BUT, remember that this, too, is a learning process. Twice-exceptional students won't always remember to do things just the way you've shown them. Provide a gentle reminder and move on. If the routine isn't working for the student, maybe it's time make adjustments or offer extra support until it gets better.<br />
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<a href="http://eepurl.com/dijgLX" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0GL_g1cIcpwA5yA9ytPxO3kyTjKpdGgOd1SrCnPi8iIAPyW8sUJx7ZhFgXMzWqD3qcHybh0LddzfBeC9lyt2wJMzhM2ES-wNRCPkoQo-vx30GvXWckzYit69KVL_KO6WdTcv2po0YrrU/s400/Image+Goal+setting+Freebie.001.jpeg" width="306" /></a><b>Engage your 2e kid in some goal setting.</b> Help them set reasonable (small and easily attainable at first) goals and celebrate with them when they reach the goal. You can find some good tips for goal setting with children <a href="http://www.ldonline.org/article/21026/" target="_blank">here</a>, <a href="http://micheleborba.com/michele-borba-blog-teaching-kids-to-set-new-years-resolutions-that-stick/" target="_blank">here</a>, and <a href="http://choices.scholastic.com/blog/5-tips-teaching-kids-how-set-goals" target="_blank">here</a>. I created the page to the right to help with the goal setting. Feel free to click the picture to grab a copy for yourself. *Just to be clear, by clicking to get the freebie (and instant access to the growing collection of free resources in my library of subscriber exclusives), you're also agreeing to be added to my email list, where I'll send occasional messages with fresh ideas, tips, and other resources straight to your inbox. You can unsubscribe at any time.*<br />
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<b>Have patience. </b> This is true for all the areas of teaching children, no matter what their needs, but it is especially true for the child with dual exceptionalities. Part of what will help their success in your classroom is their connection with <i>you</i>. They need to know that you understand their struggles and that it's okay to make mistakes in your presence.<br />
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<b>Be flexible. </b>It's not an easy journey, and no two students are going to be the same. Sometimes what works one day may not work the next. Adjustments need to be made, and life needs to go on. Having you as a model for flexibility will also help your students the benefits of going with the flow.<br />
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<b>Seek help. </b>Educating a twice-exceptional child is no easy task. But if you feel yourself starting to get overwhelmed, imagine what it must be like for the student. I encourage you to use the tools and <i>people</i> at your disposal to get the assistance you need in meeting this challenge head-on. You can do<br />
it!<br />
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<h4>
Great resources for you to check out</h4>
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<a href="http://www.wrightslaw.com/info/2e.guidebook.pdf"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A Guidebook for </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Twice Exceptional Students: </span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.wrightslaw.com/info/2e.guidebook.pdf" style="font-style: italic;">Supporting the Achievement of GiftedStudents with Special Needs</a><i> </i>by Montgomery County Public Schools, Rockville, Maryland</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/twice_exceptional.htm">Hoagies' Gifted --Twice Exceptional</a></span><br />
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<a href="https://www.stthomas.edu/media/project2excel/pdf/Teacher-Developed_Best25Strategies_.pdf"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The “Best” 25 Strategies for Working With Twice-Exceptional Children: </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Teacher developed lists</span><span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 18pt; font-weight: 700;"> </span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.davidsongifted.org/Search-Database/entry/A10446" target="_blank">Accommodating 2e students--Linda Neumann, 2e Newsletter 2004</a></span><br />
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<b>Are there other tips or resources you suggest or have found helpful in your journey with 2e kids? I'd love to hear them. Leave me a comment below! </b></div>
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Sources:<br />
Mickenberg, Karen. 2017. <a href="http://cty.jhu.edu/talent/docs/Gifted-Underachiever.pdf" target="_blank"><i>Understand the Gifted Underachiever and Twice-Exceptional Student. </i>CTY Webinar, Johns Hopkins University. </a><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/eric/fact/teach-strat.pdf" target="_blank">Teaching Strategies forTwice-Exceptional Students</a>, </span>Winebrenner, Susan. 2003. <i>Intervention in School and Clinic. </i>Vol 38 no. 3<br />
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<br />Jenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06864046205728668957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1846154658030035687.post-84286227762710550622017-03-27T09:07:00.001-04:002018-04-05T10:55:39.754-04:00Twice Exceptional: Gifted with a Twist<div class="separator" style="clear: both; display: none; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSbLvf6uLlOGSAUXGQhxD4TRlRg3tvY7VEtUPrKzzLwVMUrQWj0e7P2bh0OTjlP3ZfX5RMDLBjcjKX7UrMhYR6hDYx34QARt_pDjpJ5P75mxa_blTFtCO6wv7-PtF45j3tyJZjBwpJa0g/s1600/LONG+pins.001.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSbLvf6uLlOGSAUXGQhxD4TRlRg3tvY7VEtUPrKzzLwVMUrQWj0e7P2bh0OTjlP3ZfX5RMDLBjcjKX7UrMhYR6hDYx34QARt_pDjpJ5P75mxa_blTFtCO6wv7-PtF45j3tyJZjBwpJa0g/s640/LONG+pins.001.jpeg" width="249" /></a>You've probably heard the stories of Albert Einstein and his delayed language development (he didn't speak until he was three) or the idea that his teachers in school thought he was "simple minded." Perhaps you've read about Bill Gate's autism-like behaviors, or Thomas Edison's inability to read until he was 12 years old. Sound familiar?<br />
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We know these stories of people who are widely recognized for genius in their fields, and yet they also had learning difficulties as well. We've used these famous people in our lessons to coach students about grit and perseverance, we teach them about how individuals like this overcame sometimes <i>tremendous difficulties</i> in their lives to become preeminent experts in science and technology.<br />
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And yet, when it comes to the children in our classrooms, identifying students who are both gifted <i>and</i> facing some sort of hurdle when it comes to learning--whether it's a physical, sensory, emotional/behavioral, or specific learning disability--is something that is quite often overlooked. </div>
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It's easy to see<i> </i>why these students are not always readily identified--they're dealing with a very complex set of strengths and weaknesses, many of which can be hidden or masked by a child's strengths (ADHD, Autism Spectrum Disorder, learning disabilities). Not to mention the fact that our parenting classes and teacher-training programs were not likely to spend much time training us on how to recognize these children. </div>
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It is important that we learn how to identify and support these children because while they may seem to have developed strategies for compensating in one area or another, they still need the support of parents and teachers alike. They need our help so that they can have access to strategies, tools, and programs that will help them meet their full potential. </div>
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Who are these special people?</h3>
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Simply, children and adults who are both gifted <i>and </i>possess some sort of learning difficulty are identified as having <b>dual exceptionalities</b> or are <b>twice-exceptional (2E)</b>. On one hand, a student may be extremely talented in mathematics but is reading and writing well below grade level. Another child may be spatially gifted but also be dyslexic. In general, it is thought that people with dual exceptionalities fall into one of three categories:*</div>
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<li><b>Children whose learning and attention issues <i>are masked</i> <i>by</i> <i>their giftedness.</i></b> These children are likely to have been identified as gifted as they generally perform well on tests for giftedness, but they may not do well in gifted programs. People may look at them as being lazy or underachievers when they don't perform as well as their gifted peers. </li>
<li><b>Children whose learning and attention issues <i>mask their giftedness</i></b>. These children are less likely to have been identified as gifted because they don't perform well on the gifted identification tests. Further, because they are sometimes placed in resource rooms or receive other services for their disability, they may become bored, act out, and are more likely to be labeled as a behavior problem. </li>
<li><b>Children whose giftedness and learning disabilities have </b><i style="font-weight: bold;">masked</i> <i style="font-weight: bold;">each other. </i>These students are likely to appear as fairly average or slightly below average in the classroom setting. Their abilities and disabilities have an effect of canceling each other out, making them quite difficult to identify for both their giftedness <i>and</i> their potential learning difficulty or disability. </li>
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What are the signs should we be looking for?</h3>
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Though no child is likely to show <i>all</i> of these characteristics, here are some things you can be looking for if you suspect a child could be twice-exceptional:**</div>
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<b><u>Strengths</u></b></div>
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<li>Above average vocabulary</li>
<li>Wide and deep knowledge in areas or subjects of interest</li>
<li>Exceptional skills in mathematical reasoning </li>
<li>Strong visual memory</li>
<li>Sophisticated sense of humor</li>
<li>Divergent thinking--has many original, creative ideas or ways of approaching problems</li>
<li>Insightful </li>
<li>Creative</li>
<li>Problem solver</li>
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<b><u> Weaknesses</u></b></div>
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<li>Can complete sophisticated or complex activities but may struggle with simple tasks like easy computations or basic writing </li>
<li>Poor spelling</li>
<li>Poor handwriting--reverses letters or has difficulty with proper letter formation</li>
<li>Great reading skills paired with poor comprehension or poor reading skills paired with high comprehension</li>
<li>Poor performance in one or more academic areas</li>
<li>Struggles on timed tests</li>
<li>Poor organizational skills</li>
<li>Difficulty with peer relationships</li>
<li>Low self-esteem, easily frustrated, has unrealistic expectations, avoids taking risks</li>
<li>Disruptive in class, off-task behaviors</li>
<li>Impulsivity</li>
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Challenges these kids face</h3>
Early identification and intervention are so important for 2E kids. <span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; text-align: center;">“Twice-exceptional (2E) children live a daily struggle trying to understand themselves and the educational world they face. We often hear their frustration, anger, stress, anxiety, and denial. We often see their depressive symptoms, fear of failure, dependency, and social distress. They struggle to maintain a precarious balance between dealing with the expectations of being gifted and desperately trying to cope with learning, emotional, and social difficulties.” </span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; text-align: center;">Schuler, P (2008). They face:</span></span><br />
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<b><u>Social Isolation</u></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOjJOpBRV9ggS79M4PjyNJ00Un80qo1HMTrtqtCrjx9Z95a9Wy2n6Myr5rjA9c-GTw9LtKh5c6eWoQ5SFh1ioC8wHbZP_XG-ZQqjC_5fO46HdHGd-rRQ8e2j174XVVOBCT1b51YthSJEo/s1600/Untitled.001.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOjJOpBRV9ggS79M4PjyNJ00Un80qo1HMTrtqtCrjx9Z95a9Wy2n6Myr5rjA9c-GTw9LtKh5c6eWoQ5SFh1ioC8wHbZP_XG-ZQqjC_5fO46HdHGd-rRQ8e2j174XVVOBCT1b51YthSJEo/s400/Untitled.001.jpeg" width="400" /></a>Gifted children who are placed in remedial classes may feel like they don't fit in with their special education peers, and likewise, may have difficulty relating to the children in gifted classes.</div>
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<b><u>Frustration</u></b></div>
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Having the knowledge of how to solve complex problems or create sophisticated stories but lacking the fine motor or processing skills to actually get solutions or stories on paper can be extremely frustrating for children dealing with their exceptionalities. They might crave perfection or independence, but struggle to attain either. They may have a hard time getting their brain or their body (or BOTH) to cooperate, leading to anxiety and sadness. </div>
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<b><u>Risk of Depression</u></b></div>
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Dealing with the daily discrepancies in thinking and functioning with a body or brain that doesn't seem to cooperate can lead to decreased confidence and persistence. Over time, children can start feeling hopeless, sometimes becoming depressed. </div>
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<b><u>Too Much Focus on Difficulties</u></b></div>
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A child's full potential may never be realized if the sole focus of their instruction and learning is only in deficit areas. The child's giftedness must also be addressed, and their gifted strengths can be employed as a tool for helping deal with the disability. </div>
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As you can see, learning how to identify gifted learners with disabilities is extremely important. Once we determine what the child's needs are, there are many tools and strategies teachers and parents can use to help them overcome their learning difficulties. Stay tuned--my next post will focus on how we can advocate and work toward meeting the needs of children with dual exceptionalities in the classroom.</div>
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Do you have a student in your classroom or child at home whom you suspect may be 2E? What signs are you seeing that have you questioning the possibility? Leave a comment below--maybe another reader or I can help. </div>
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References</h4>
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*<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 12pt;">Baum, S., & Owen, S. (2003). </span><span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic;">To be gifted and learning disabled: Strategies for helping bright students with LD, ADHD, and more</span><span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 12pt;">. Mansfield Center, CT: Creative Learning Press.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 12pt;">** New Zealand Ministry of Education: </span>http://gifted.tki.org.nz/For-schools-and-teachers/Twice-exceptional-2E-students/Characteristics </div>
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Jenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06864046205728668957noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1846154658030035687.post-17696580679823600782017-02-20T10:54:00.001-05:002018-05-24T08:54:56.222-04:00Are We Hurting Our Gifted Students by Using Them as Peer Tutors?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; display: none; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I was part of a conversation recently in which a parent voiced a concern about his elementary-aged gifted child. He said she was spending a significant amount of time tutoring other students in the class after finishing her work during the regular school day. He thought maybe this tutoring was hurting more than helping. </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">My instinct was to agree with the dad and his concerns (#watchoutformamabear), but as a person who likes to base advice on more than just a gut feeling, I listened to his concerns and made a decision to look into finding some research before offering input. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: inherit;">{P.S. If you're reading this as a parent of the gifted child, I hope my findings will be helpful as you advocate for your gifted child. If you're reading this as a teacher of gifted children, I hope that this helps arm you with more information as both an advocate and as someone who uses, or has considered using, peer tutoring in your classroom! Questions and comments always welcomed at the bottom of the post!}</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">His main concerns:</span></h4>
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<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">He felt his child was basically being given the job as a way to keep her busy because she is always a fast finisher.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">He indicated that while she first thought it was fun to have the "special privilege" to act as an assistant teacher, she was growing weary. Certain classmates started referring to her as the "teacher's pet," which hurt her feelings added to the inklings she already had sometimes about being a little different than the other kids in class.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">He acknowledged that teaching others is a great skill to learn, but his biggest concern was that by spending time teaching other students material that she <i>already knew, </i>she wasn't being allowed the opportunity to learn <i>new</i> material. </span></li>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I thought these were all very valid concerns. Though, assuming the teacher had positive intent in making the decision to use this practice (<i>always</i> assume positive intent first, right?), perhaps there are some positive aspects to peer tutoring that she thought would benefit the child. In any case, using peer tutoring in my own classroom wasn't a practice I employed, so I spent some time researching, reading, and reflecting. Call me nerdy, but this is how I operate. #wordnerdforlife #bookworm </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Here are my thoughts (with a little research sprinkled in for good measure):</span></h4>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Is it hurting or helping? Well, the answer is, it's complicated. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Keeping gifted students engaged is one of the biggest challenges any teacher faces. Because of the gifted student's ability to learn new content with few repetitions (and because they come to us<span style="background-color: cyan;"><a href="http://www.soaringwithsnyder.com/2016/03/why-are-we-holding-our-brightest-kids.html" style="background-color: white;" target="_blank"> already knowing up to 80% of your grade-level content</a></span>). Allowing a child to help out her classmates once she's finished with her work will certainly keep her occupied. However, in my opinion, the <b>step that needs to be taken before deciding</b> how a child should spend his or her free time in the classroom is asking questions like, "Why does this child have so much free time in my classroom? What is happening with the work completion that she is finishing so much faster than the rest of the class? Is the work too easy? Too hard? Did she learn that skill two or three years ago and no longer needs the practice with that skill?" We have to ask these questions because this will give us better ideas about how to respond to students needs. <b>Pre-assessing</b> the student will give insight into the answers to the questions above. You can read more about pre-assessment <a href="http://www.soaringwithsnyder.com/2016/05/meeting-needs-of-your-gifted-student.html" target="_blank">here</a>. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: inherit;">The student feeling singled-out in this situation is something we can't ignore. Any time a child expresses discomfort with a situation, we need to reflect on whether the feelings are just a normal part of what a child experiences with growth and learning, or if there is cause for concern. Gifted children, in particular, can experience feelings of being different which can sometimes lead to negative consequences. As a part of their giftedness, children can be more perceptive and more sensitive to people's perceptions and attitudes. You can read more on emotional overexcitabilities<a href="http://www.soaringwithsnyder.com/2016/01/gifted-kids-and-overexcitabilities.html"> here</a>. It's hard to know where the line is sometimes, you know, the one between growing pains and actual pain? We want to push our children because we know that true learning comes with a little discomfort. But it's important to know how far is too far. Because this peer tutoring is an optional activity, and we don't yet know what the intent is behind the assignment, if the child is uncomfortable, it's a good idea to stop the practice (if only temporarily). Until the objective is better defined, and it's determined that the benefits outweigh the strife, stopping seems like the best option. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: inherit;">Okay, so here is where things got a little more complicated in my research. Finding true, solid, peer-reviewed studies on the effects of peer tutoring (particularly the academic effects) on the gifted child lead me to, well, many dead ends. What I did find, however, is a fairly large amount of research that concludes that peer tutoring (when implemented correctly) has benefits for <i>most</i> children. For example, author <a href="http://josea.info/archives/vol1no1/article-03-FT.pdf">Christopher Yawn from the City College of New York</a> had this to say about peer tutoring: "Peer tutoring is an effective instructional method that permits a teacher to provide in-depth specific instructions to an individual students while at the same time ensuring that the remaining students in the classroom remain actively engaged with the assigned task (Harper and Maheady, 2007). Peer tutoring is an empirically validated instructional tool that has systematically evolved over the years to accommodate the needs of ELL students and students with and without disabilities (Gardner, Hessler, Yawn, & Heron, 2007; Saenz, Fuchs, and Fuchs, 2005)." </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In an article from <i><a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.4219/gct-2002-49">Gifted Child Today</a>, </i> author Matthew E. Coenen wrote about an after-school tutoring program developed by educators at a middle school. The program was essentially a daily after-hours homework session in which gifted students volunteered to tutor peers who needed help. The author noted, "Peer-tutoring programs have positive social and cognitive effects on many of the participants (Foot & Howe, 1998). Tutors can benefit cognitively by repeated exposure to previously learned material and the use of higher order thinking and organizational skills (Cohen, 1986); in fact, tutors often make academic gains as well (see Chiang, Thorpe, & Darch, 1980; & Miller, Barbetta, & Heron, 1994). Tutors practice empathy, manage and organize their thoughts, concentrate on the topic at task, set limits as to what and how much to teach, and demonstrate responsibility (Cohen, 1986). Other documented social benefits include increased positive social interactions between peers, decreased inappropriate behaviors, enhanced self-concept, more improved positive attitudes toward school and racial relations (Maheady, 1998)." It is important to note that the participants in this report were not only volunteers, but this peer tutoring took place outside of regular school hours. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span> <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The research sounds pretty good, right? And if you have a student who is in need of development in the areas of positive social interactions, self-concept, empathy, and demonstrating responsibility, goal setting, etc., it seems like engaging in this type of activity could prove beneficial. The thing is, while these papers have good things to say, it's what they <i>didn't say</i> that gives me pause. Aside from mentioning how "tutors benefit cognitively from repeated exposure to previously learned material," (true, but gifted children don't always <i>need</i> the extra repetition), I didn't see much about how gifted students are learning more in any academic areas of study. Yes, learning organizational skills and managing and organizing thoughts are important skills, but I also think gifted students are in school to grow academically just as much as any typically developing peer. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Suggestions for how to proceed: </span></h4>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">First off, it's important to remember that there is really only one person who can tell you <i>why</i> the child is tutoring other students in the class. So I would always, always recommend just <i>asking</i> the teacher why she made that decision. What are the teacher's objectives for both the student tutor and the tutee? What does she hope they gain by interacting like this? Are the objectives academic, social/emotional, or both? </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">And of course, asking in a, "I respect you as a professional, I'm just curious" kind of way will get you <i>so</i> much farther than approaching her with any kind or presumptive, combative, or defensive grilling. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Maybe the child needs some work with organizing thoughts, communicating, or any of the other social-emotional benefits from peer tutoring, in which case this tutoring could turn out to be a good thing!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Let's assume the teacher answered that she had already given some sort of pretest and determined that the work she provided was matched with what the child needed to learn. Maybe she's already read up on </span><a href="http://www.soaringwithsnyder.com/2016/04/meeting-needs-of-your-gifted-student.html" style="font-family: inherit;" target="_blank">differentiated instruction</a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> (!) and has put the research into action. Maybe the student is just suuuuper fast at finishing work! Again, we're in the territory of the tutoring being an okay strategy to use, <i>as long as</i> the child is still willing to do it because it seems as though she <i>is</i> learning new material, and she's just got some extra time to spare. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Some possible alternatives to peer tutoring</span></h4>
If the questions have been answered to your satisfaction but your child is still uncomfortable with tutoring during class, perhaps one of the following options will be a suitable alternative.<br />
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<a href="http://bit.ly/IndependentLearningContract" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJiuB6bXHtL0FKdcnI3P8P0mJ0bhHtaZ2t6IQ5KwTztj0FIByemS7xVg3KLUu4Ho2FXRMnbnIC1t4kBp2bRps4IMXJ-zB4XLI141li6xXyVtuKBl9F15-DmDiKWyiST8K7Lb_7wNYUslQ/s400/Independent+Learning+Contract+.001.jpeg" width="300" /></a>
<li>If the student is finishing quickly because the work is too easy, it's time to differentiate! Changing the depth or breadth of the content being studied is a must-do so that this child has an opportunity to learn new content during school! </li>
<li>If the student is a fast finisher on appropriately-leveled work, developing a long-term independent study project may be just the thing that keeps her both engaged and learning, while perhaps allowing her to feel less singled out. {Click <a href="http://www.soaringwithsnyder.com/2016/11/meeting-needs-of-gifted-learners.html">here</a> for a FREE copy of an Independent Learning Contract you can use with your students! *Just to be clear, by clicking to get the freebie (and instant access to the growing collection of free resources in my library of subscriber exclusives), you're also agreeing to be added to my email list, where I'll send occasional messages with fresh ideas, tips, and other resources straight to your inbox. You can unsubscribe at any time.*}</li>
<li>If peer tutoring is a must-do, perhaps finding opportunities for <i>all</i> of the students to be tutors at one time or another will help normalize the practice in the eyes of the gifted student. Others might stop referring to her as the teacher's pet because they will also be doing that "special" job that she once had sole ownership over. </li>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Sources used and/or referenced in the preparation of this post:</span></h4>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://www.verywell.com/social-and-emotional-problems-affecting-gifted-children-1449336">https://www.verywell.com/social-and-emotional-problems-affecting-gifted-children-1449336</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.4219/gct-2002-49">http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.4219/gct-2002-49</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://josea.info/archives/vol1no1/article-03-FT.pdf" target="_blank">http://josea.info/archives/vol1no1/article-03-FT.pdf </a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Did you find this post useful? Leave me a comment below and let me know!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Thanks!</span><br />
<br />Jenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06864046205728668957noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1846154658030035687.post-59053672027435932242017-01-20T10:39:00.000-05:002018-06-13T15:01:58.499-04:00Meeting the Needs of Gifted Learners: Differentiating the Learning Environment 6/6<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOSn-ZKEftbfRAby_geNidDasVEBjH8po8aayfU61s8fCQoAoWx9gNg8fwTnVYEEYU41qGEEhI7NvXv_k_OuOZchESPzOtcmiQP5wiZySI08ALuFUmcuii5PkWrpbbNc8ASYNjPjtE930/s1600/Slider+Images+for+Blog.001.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOSn-ZKEftbfRAby_geNidDasVEBjH8po8aayfU61s8fCQoAoWx9gNg8fwTnVYEEYU41qGEEhI7NvXv_k_OuOZchESPzOtcmiQP5wiZySI08ALuFUmcuii5PkWrpbbNc8ASYNjPjtE930/s1600/Slider+Images+for+Blog.001.jpeg" /></a></div>
Welcome to the final post in my series on differentiation! It's been quite a journey, so thank you if you've stuck around long enough to see it through! You can catch up on other posts like my overview of differentiation, found <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="background-color: #76a5af;"><a href="http://www.soaringwithsnyder.com/2016/04/meeting-needs-of-your-gifted-student.html" style="background-color: white;" target="_blank">here</a></span><span style="background-color: white;">.</span></span> To read about pre-assessment, click <span style="background-color: #76a5af;"><a href="http://www.soaringwithsnyder.com/2016/05/meeting-needs-of-your-gifted-student.html" style="background-color: white;" target="_blank">here</a></span>. You can also read ideas about differentiating <span style="background-color: white;"><a href="http://www.soaringwithsnyder.com/2016/09/meeting-needs-of-your-gifted-student_50.html" target="_blank">content</a>,</span><span style="background-color: #76a5af;"><span style="background-color: white;"> <a href="http://www.soaringwithsnyder.com/2016/11/meeting-needs-of-gifted-learners.html" target="_blank">process </a>or </span><a href="http://www.soaringwithsnyder.com/2016/12/meeting-needs-of-gifted-learners.html" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: white;">product</span></a></span><span style="background-color: white;">,</span> and take a peek into how it worked in my classroom <span style="background-color: #76a5af;"><a href="http://www.soaringwithsnyder.com/2016/10/meeting-needs-of-gifted-learners-how.html" style="background-color: white;" target="_blank">here</a></span>. Today's post is about differentiating the learning environment for gifted students.<br />
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Differentiating the Learning Environment</h3>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqHXTqRZDvQj5QlJKwaIchhJFOxSUS2ZwlW3rglQ2pw-iwv9OLWNMkjENLSEZ60u4FvZK7PDFmCtosYMeFsZ1pddodXDwUUMhLMM_dyT4j5MamtqmQDCNTDid_lXtteGJoe-ApWFHqBCQ/s1600/Creating+a+Learning+Environment.001.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Creating a Safe and Supportive Learning Environment for Gifted Students" border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqHXTqRZDvQj5QlJKwaIchhJFOxSUS2ZwlW3rglQ2pw-iwv9OLWNMkjENLSEZ60u4FvZK7PDFmCtosYMeFsZ1pddodXDwUUMhLMM_dyT4j5MamtqmQDCNTDid_lXtteGJoe-ApWFHqBCQ/s640/Creating+a+Learning+Environment.001.jpeg" title="Differentiating the Learning Environment" width="249" /></a>Ok, so it seems a little funny to be sitting here writing about how teachers and parents can differentiate the learning environment for gifted children because, in all reality, most of the things I'll be writing about are truly practices and ideas that <i>all</i> students would benefit from encountering. If you have a gifted child in your classroom, I would consider the following ideas to be <strike>great</strike> pretty much imperative. If you don't have a gifted child in your classroom, I still believe you would agree with me that integrating the suggestions below would still be a best practice for any of the "typical" learners in your classroom. </div>
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Differentiating the learning environment for gifted students encompasses not only the physical space in the classroom, but also how students are allowed to move about during their time in the classroom, and the social and emotional learning conditions in which children are learning. </div>
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Setting up the Physical Space for your Gifted Learners </h4>
Meeting the needs of the gifted and talented children in your classroom typically requires some space set aside for the student(s) to work independently, in pairs, or in small groups. Providing some sort of space for you and students to meet either individually or in small groups should also be part of the plan. In my classrooms, I had several areas that would work in these capacities.<br />
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First, I always had student desks in some sort of groups. This worked well for me because of the way I <span style="background-color: #76a5af;"><a href="http://www.soaringwithsnyder.com/2016/10/meeting-needs-of-gifted-learners-how.html" style="background-color: white;" target="_blank">structured my daily math and language arts routines</a></span>, but it also allowed for me to join students at their desks so that I could easily help problem solve as needed. Please note: my classroom's physical environment was nothing compared to the rooms I saw when I visited places like <a href="http://www.roeper.org/">The Roeper School</a> in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, which is a private school serving gifted children in the suburbs of Detroit. However, I do think it worked well for what I needed it to do! (Read: It was never Pinterest-worthy, but I liked it well enough!)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYtqEWMloXxRhMy0WFZqDU2ChTdA9NnNEW5lyvSi2Mj8NdH5u6M2Ks3vrcXa9wmly6U7Esjf2YBCI8AtOq5UVCTaqpOjL_tSpSkIoT98qj6mfHXDNwxl4rWsIeLoeFd_W4M_vnxUR-BoI/s1600/IMG_0674.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Classroom Learning Environment Picture Students desk groupings" border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYtqEWMloXxRhMy0WFZqDU2ChTdA9NnNEW5lyvSi2Mj8NdH5u6M2Ks3vrcXa9wmly6U7Esjf2YBCI8AtOq5UVCTaqpOjL_tSpSkIoT98qj6mfHXDNwxl4rWsIeLoeFd_W4M_vnxUR-BoI/s640/IMG_0674.JPG" title="" width="640" /></a></div>
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In my lower grade classrooms when I taught guided reading, I also always had a kidney bean-shaped table. It was perfect for small group instruction but also doubled as a place on which students could complete projects or work independently. In my upper elementary classroom, I didn't have a kidney table available, but I did have a couple of areas in which I met with students in small groups or independently. Most often we conferred near my teacher desk where I set up a little area for with supplies for reading conferences and meetings for "Genius Hour" projects or independent learning contracts. We also met on the floor in my classroom library. The library was definitely the most frequently used space in the classroom, and it filled many purposes each day.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvDPAf1sCsdyXY0JHgLgqbltrLN6RCRLXdpD0ZD-S7Y-3uEY2047VyW3vsLYihoIhBMzAGD3s0n3IkCzuGAjdOmeA9l43ZKJwIzavEga7_lQia3C2B3gInKJW3rOtcyobDBIFY9ED-x1k/s1600/IMG_0671.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Classroom Library and Meeting Area " border="0" height="478" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvDPAf1sCsdyXY0JHgLgqbltrLN6RCRLXdpD0ZD-S7Y-3uEY2047VyW3vsLYihoIhBMzAGD3s0n3IkCzuGAjdOmeA9l43ZKJwIzavEga7_lQia3C2B3gInKJW3rOtcyobDBIFY9ED-x1k/s640/IMG_0671.JPG" title="" width="640" /></a></div>
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Speaking of classroom libraries...You should definitely have one--especially if you're teaching gifted children. It should contain a selection of interesting reference materials, high-quality literature, books from as many genres as possible, written on a wide range of reading levels. This picture was taken before school started after I was almost finished labeling and loading in all of my books into my new upper elementary classroom when I first started teaching at this particular school. You can't see everything, but I did my best to stock the library with hundreds and hundreds of books. I had everything from picture books to classic novels. I had books written in languages other than English, reference books, pop-up books, comic books and graphic novels, and so many others.<br />
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In addition to these spaces, having an area designated for technology use is important so students are able to conduct research, complete assessments, work on technology-based or tech-enhanced projects.<br />
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The classroom should also have enough space so that students can easily transition from one area and work-style to another. Students should be able to move freely in and out of whole-group, small group, and independent work.<br />
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I also found it important to make sure that students had easy access to a variety of supplies and materials needed for the various projects they were working on. In my lower elementary classroom, I had an art center with many supplies readily available. I was able to control which supplies students had access to during their independent work time by only putting out what they were allowed to access and keeping the rest of it in the cabinet. In the upper elementary classroom, I allowed students full access to the shelves in a large supply cabinet of mine so that they could access anything they needed <i>when</i> they needed it. It almost goes without saying that I spent a significant amount of time at the beginning of each school year teaching students how to access, use, and properly clean up after themselves. Our mantra was a favorite quote of mine from Eleanor Roosevelt, "With freedom comes responsibility."<br />
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I also had <i>some</i> spaces dedicated to learning stations/centers (like a listening center, a writing center, and an art center for lower elementary) but for the most part, I stored center materials in bins which children could take wherever they wanted in the classroom to work.<br />
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So I had all of these spaces in my classroom and I pretty much let students work wherever they wanted to most of the time. I differentiated the seating arrangements by allowing student <i>choice</i>. Allowing students to work at the location where they were most comfortable in the classroom was the way I preferred it, and I think students appreciated it as well. "Flexible seating" is the buzzword for varied seating options in the classroom, so if you're looking to learn more about this, a simple google search will yield many results of how other teachers implement versions of this idea in their classrooms.<br />
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Creating a Safe Social and Emotional Space for Gifted Learners </h4>
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Although I took pride in the physical environment and day to day workflow in my classroom, this part of setting up the classroom environment for social and emotional student safety and success was truly a top priority for me. One of my biggest goals as an educator was to create an atmosphere in which gifted children felt safe, felt loved, felt appreciated, and felt like they could truly let loose and be true to themselves. I knew that these children came to me with their special package of <span style="background-color: white;">gifted traits</span>, and I knew that sometimes those traits had the potential to drive teachers (and other adults with whom they interacted) up. a. wall. Moment of full transparency: sometimes those same traits they threatened to drive me straight into the looney bin too, but because I knew that these kids <i>needed</i> a space where they could be themselves, I was usually able to get off the road to crazy one or two exits before total insanity. All kidding aside, we worked hard as a classroom community to develop a set of standards for behavior, attitude, work ethic, and community spirit that made our time together truly special. And I do think that together we achieved a place for students to be safe, to be heard, and a place just <i>to be</i>.<br />
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Here are some of the things I implemented to help create this environment:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6IjJa3qSemxhQFio_pu-koF_AboEOd_BsrYsurQLWny454rVegi_HOfJcs_MTDfXw1PV2kmASVxUWzEJNkE11IYsNzbnSbJD_nPS2PeAMO31M6bY1esvU7sDNT3H6JyAlAIouAXcNrts/s1600/IMG_0692.PNG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Quote from article " border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6IjJa3qSemxhQFio_pu-koF_AboEOd_BsrYsurQLWny454rVegi_HOfJcs_MTDfXw1PV2kmASVxUWzEJNkE11IYsNzbnSbJD_nPS2PeAMO31M6bY1esvU7sDNT3H6JyAlAIouAXcNrts/s400/IMG_0692.PNG" title="" width="400" /></a>
<li>Set expectations early, set them clearly, and set them high. We spent lots of time at the beginning of the year discussing, modeling, crafting guidelines together, and acting out scenarios for how to deal with daily interactions and conflicts in the classroom. And then we did it again. And again. Aaaaand again. And then sometimes we let some time go by and <strike>things were perfect</strike> we kept practicing.</li>
<li>Because gifted students have a tendency toward a heightened sense of justice and equality, I included frequent dialogue about the fact that fair was not a synonym for equal. This was important especially for my upper elementary students who came to me only for part of each day. They reported hearing other students expressing jealousy that they got to leave the classroom and go to "the fun teacher" (btw, of course, this was completely TRUE-I was a fun teacher 😜 ). Seriously, though, hearing others say this to them sometimes hurt their feelings or made them feel more isolated because they already <i>knew</i> they were a little different from those other kids--they didn't need a reminder that they had accommodations in their day that made them stand out even more. So, when they got to me, I reminded them that it wasn't about coming to "the fun teacher," it was about getting more of <b>what they needed</b> to help them learn and grow as students. </li>
<li>My classroom was established as an absolutely, positively, bully free zone. Gifted children are already prone to being victims of bullying because of some of those same gifted traits that make them special (one recent study I read mentioned that between 60 and 90 percent of gifted children had been bullied at one or more points in their school careers). Being bullied puts children at risk for underachievement, decreased confidence and view of self-worth, anxiety, and depression, which can lead eventually to eating disorders, chemical abuse, higher dropout rates, and other potentially devastating results. </li>
<li>Created an atmosphere of acceptance and appreciation for some of the quirky things that come tied up in the gifted "package." Whenever possible, we laughed at our own weird sense of humor, we celebrated each other's curiosity (I had a "Wonder Wall" and we worked weekly on self-selected inquiry projects), and we navigated our way through the intensities children had by using a variety of strategies and tools. </li>
<li>Developed a sense of perpetual learning and growth. I tried really hard to be sure to create an environment where students were praised for the effort they put into their work, while simultaneously trying to kind of devalue the focus on grades/achievement. Of course, I wanted them to get good grades, but it was more important for me to convey to them that it was important to keep working hard, no matter what grades they got. I wanted them to understand that it didn't matter whether they got and C or an A on that assignment because the learning wasn't DONE! If they got a C or lower, I allowed them to make a plan for fixing up mistakes or misunderstandings, or for learning the things that they hadn't learned <i>yet</i>. If they got an A or a B, it was important to look at the goals we'd set and decide whether to reevaluate and set some higher (or different) goals for next time. I highly recommend reading the work of psychologist Carol Dweck and her Growth Mindset approach if you want to learn more. She has a really great TED talk that you can listen to <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/carol_dweck_the_power_of_believing_that_you_can_improve" target="_blank">here</a>. </li>
<li>Established a strong sense of community. I was lucky enough to be introduced to <a href="https://www.responsiveclassroom.org/">Responsive Classroom </a>when I taught in my self-contained gifted kindergarten classroom. I read and received some training and then once I started, I never looked back. I'm not an affiliate in any way, but I am a big proponent of the methods developed by the authors of this approach. The basic tenets of their program are these (taken directly from their website):</li>
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<li><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; text-align: center;">Engaging Academics-</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; text-align: center;">Teachers create learning tasks that are active, interactive, appropriately challenging, purposeful, and connected to students' interests.</span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; text-align: center;">Positive Community-</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; text-align: center;">Teachers nurture a sense of belonging, significance, and emotional safety so that students feel comfortable taking risks and working with a variety of peers.</span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; text-align: center;">Effective Management-</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; text-align: center;">Teachers create a calm, orderly environment that promotes autonomy and allows students to focus on learning.</span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; text-align: center;">Developmental Awareness-</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; text-align: center;">Teachers use knowledge of child development, along with observations of students, to create a developmentally appropriate learning environment. </span></li>
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The books pictured below became some of my most referred-to books (as you can probably see by the 5,621 sticky notes sprouting out from the tops and sides). A big part of the program was having class meetings in which students really had time to get to know one another, cheer for successes, empathize with problems, and develop genuine relationships with one another. We ALL looked forward to those meetings. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtFTdCJMwbvsYWub487ZW4VIbqtVDPsvqDGlmBhVqg9YC5JfWWgrLdR1sJoxRnTqJaNDFcMQ1zhCPqNyIxVD1PJJbJVqpafFQ2YoWC2hNvM92-eyS8VyyUr1FIxauF_EDdVXvr8Wdw4vM/s1600/IMG_0686.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img alt="Responsive Classroom Books "The First Six Weeks of School" and "The Morning Meeting Book"" border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtFTdCJMwbvsYWub487ZW4VIbqtVDPsvqDGlmBhVqg9YC5JfWWgrLdR1sJoxRnTqJaNDFcMQ1zhCPqNyIxVD1PJJbJVqpafFQ2YoWC2hNvM92-eyS8VyyUr1FIxauF_EDdVXvr8Wdw4vM/s640/IMG_0686.JPG" title="" width="640" /></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I hope you find these ideas and strategies helpful! I'd love to hear about the ways you encourage a positive learning community in your classroom-- I'm always looking for new ideas. </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">And since you made it to the verrrrry bottom of the post, I'm going to leave you with two handy freebies that I hope you can use in your journey. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">But before that...</span> I'm excited to finish this series and I have lots and lots of ideas for new posts, but I would LOVE to hear about ideas or questions you have that you'd like me to explore in a future post! If you have any thoughts, you can scrollllll on down to the bottom and leave a comment, you can email me at jen@soaringwithsnyder.com, or you can reach out to me on any of my social media platforms by using the links on the top of my website or by searching Soaring with Snyder on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter. I hope to hear from you!<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Click the picture below to get access to a free cheat sheet that I created about gifted overexcitabilities. These OEs are common among gifted people, and knowing about them can help you create an even safer environment for gifted students. </span>*Just to be clear, by clicking to get these freebies (and instant access to the growing collection of free resources in my library of subscriber exclusives), you're also agreeing to be added to my email list, where I'll send occasional messages with fresh ideas, tips, and other resources straight to your inbox. You can unsubscribe at any time.*<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">And here is a list of characteristics common to gifted children that you may find helpful in your planning as well. </span></div>
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<a href="http://eepurl.com/dijgLX" target="_blank"><img alt="List of Gifted Traits " border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9LDYp6B7dM3S7ss0ixpSrkHuqmG-bzzcktfJ4w4QawG0aMnepoLE7LT53NKr-C98iZh2H5kHfJMZndvckQSpK3coitB_2fx_pZvr6cAoTken_trlLQ01LYp1rnwDAY0BETTKXQm-9AyQ/s640/Gifted+Traits.001.jpeg" title="" width="480" /></a></div>
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Finally, here are some of the sources I used or referenced in the creation of this post if you're interested in digging a little deeper...<br />
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<a href="http://www.purdue.edu/uns/html4ever/2006/060406.Peterson.bullies.html">http://www.purdue.edu/uns/html4ever/2006/060406.Peterson.bullies.html</a><br />
<a href="http://sengifted.org/trauma-a-call-for-collaboration/">http://sengifted.org/trauma-a-call-for-collaboration/</a><br />
<a href="http://sengifted.org/gifted-kids-at-risk-whos-listening/">http://sengifted.org/gifted-kids-at-risk-whos-listening/</a><br />
<a href="https://st-clair.net/Data/Sites/1/media/public/SpecialEd/gifted-program/differentiation-and-enrichment-strategies-for-gifted-students.pdf">https://st-clair.net/Data/Sites/1/media/public/SpecialEd/gifted-program/differentiation-and-enrichment-strategies-for-gifted-students.pdf</a><br />
<a href="https://daretodifferentiate.wikispaces.com/file/view/The+Learning+Environment_+Meeting+the+Needs+of+Gifted+Students.pdf">https://daretodifferentiate.wikispaces.com/file/view/The+Learning+Environment_+Meeting+the+Needs+of+Gifted+Students.pdf</a><br />
<a href="http://summitcenter.us/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/GiftedandBullied_GEC_Spr2012.pdf">http://summitcenter.us/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/GiftedandBullied_GEC_Spr2012.pdf</a><br />
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Thanks, friends.Jenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06864046205728668957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1846154658030035687.post-44660755126480876042016-12-13T12:04:00.002-05:002018-05-24T08:57:12.734-04:00Meeting the Needs of Gifted Learners: Differentiating Products 5/6<div class="separator" style="clear: both; display: none; text-align: center;">
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Welcome! This post is the fifth (well, technically the sixth!) post in a series I've dedicated to writing about how teachers can differentiate for students in the classroom. If you'd like to read an overview of differentiation, click <span style="color: red;"><a href="http://www.soaringwithsnyder.com/2016/04/meeting-needs-of-your-gifted-student.html">here</a></span>. If you would like to read about <span style="color: black;"><a href="http://www.soaringwithsnyder.com/2016/05/meeting-needs-of-your-gifted-student.html">pre-assessment</a>, <a href="http://www.soaringwithsnyder.com/2016/09/meeting-needs-of-your-gifted-student_50.html">differentiating content</a>, <a href="http://www.soaringwithsnyder.com/2016/11/meeting-needs-of-gifted-learners.html">differentiating process</a>, <a href="http://www.soaringwithsnyder.com/2016/10/meeting-needs-of-gifted-learners-how.html">or to see a snapshot of how it looked in my classroom</a></span>, use the words above or the sidebar to navigate to my other posts.<br />
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Today's post is all about differentiating the products that your students complete as part of their learning journey. I'll define it for you, give you some important tips, show you an example of how I did this in my gifted classroom, and I'll even give you a list of ideas you can use in your own classroom.<br />
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<h3>
What Does it Mean to Differentiate Products? </h3>
A product is what students do or make with their newly acquired learning. Products help children think<br />
about and extend their learning. It's something that happens at the end of a lesson unit, month, semester, or even entire year of learning. It can be something as simple as having students compose a poem that reflects their learning, or compiling a portfolio of different assignments, or it can be something as complex as a student-created simulation or documentary. Products allow the teacher to assess student learning. Products are also quite powerful tools for students to really demonstrate their understanding because they remove some of the barriers put up by traditional paper and pencil assessments. If teachers are looking to truly measure a child's science knowledge, they can devise a way to measure truly that, and not whether students have writing and organizational skills to construct a five-paragraph essay.<br />
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Differentiating the products that students produce means that they have access to completing DIFFERENT activities or projects following their learning. They complete these tasks or assignments on their own or in small groups, which allows for independence, variety, choice, and challenge. It also allows for teachers to teach the same content to their class (especially in schools where teachers are required to stay within certain grade bands/knowledge strands) while allowing for the application and synthesis of the knowledge to be expanded within the creation of the products.<br />
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<h3>
An Example of How I Differentiated </h3>
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To help illustrate how you can differentiate products in your classroom, I'll give you an example from my classroom. One way I regularly incorporated product choice in my upper elementary gifted classroom was in my bi-weekly word study/vocabulary instruction. My vocabulary study for 4th and 5th graders was based on Greek and Latin roots, prefixes, and suffixes. </div>
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<li>At the beginning of each new two-week cycle, the class and I held discussions about the new roots, prefixes, and suffixes. Students made predictions about the word parts, based on their schema, and clues from words containing the Greek and Latin morphemes. </li>
<li>Then, we looked at a list of about 20 words that I had provided them, and children rated their knowledge of the words using a stop-light color-coding system. Words that they already knew and could teach to others were coded green and less familiar words were coded yellow (they've heard of the word and/or have seen it, but couldn't really use it in a sentence or explain it well) or red (they had little or no idea what the word meant). The red- and yellow-coded words became their word study words for the two weeks. Occasionally, I selected one or two "must-do" words, especially if they were relevant to a unit of study or if they were mandated terms for students to know. </li>
<li>We met in small groups to learn more about the meaning of the words and then added them to our word-study journals, with a sketch and/or Frayer model for each unknown word.</li>
<li>Finally, students used the red- and yellow coded words to create a variety of products. At the end of the cycle, we had product presentations. Students looked forward to presenting their products to the class, and it became a really fun bonding time and learning experience for everyone. </li>
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You can see a couple of small examples of student work in the photos below. This is a little script from a mini-play. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Water Words Word Study Product Choice</td></tr>
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And pictured below is one slide from a slideshow story a student had written incorporating her words.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnr7z-zxc-KEfAbJcFIWrm8RAo3dJAgvJtYCBCYfCnD4U3K7xc-mcDZRwKY-GaQ6A62gOwKFBbR89wyVzV-7d5yDW08nSmezI1ZehlaYVLdS7TH3g4RnlLic7SJVt13weyCd_0v-vqNhk/s1600/IMG_0360.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnr7z-zxc-KEfAbJcFIWrm8RAo3dJAgvJtYCBCYfCnD4U3K7xc-mcDZRwKY-GaQ6A62gOwKFBbR89wyVzV-7d5yDW08nSmezI1ZehlaYVLdS7TH3g4RnlLic7SJVt13weyCd_0v-vqNhk/s400/IMG_0360.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bob's Bedroom Word Study Vocabulary Story</td></tr>
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Sidenote: </h4>
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When I first introduced the product choices to students, I was careful to model for them and show them clearly the expectations for <i>each</i> product choice. The only time I did not do this was when a student had their own idea for a product. For these occasions, I worked one-on-one with the student to develop the criteria for the content, quality, and creativity of the product.</div>
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We also spent quite a bit of time for the first several cycles getting out the rubric that would determine their grade, and comparing the work they had done to the rubric. We carefully examined each section of the rubric and determined the meaning of the indicators for content, quality, and creativity, giving examples AND non-examples of what each indicator meant. </div>
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Somewhat unrelated, but I'm guessing that you may be thinking that I was extremely trusting of my students, allowing them to self-select their word study words. The reality is, you're right. I <i>was</i> very trusting of students to choose the words on their own, but it doesn't mean that I didn't ever question them on their choices, or double check their lists while they were working. Again, all of this was a combination of the process of me getting to know my students <i>very</i> well (I did loop with them for up to three years at one point!), some spot-checking on occasion, some informal pretesting, and some honest-to-goodness faith in my students that they could and <i>would</i> do the right thing. I had very few instances of anyone trying to "game the system" and if I had, I would have modified the selection process to include some formal pretesting of the words. </div>
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<h3>
Some Important Notes About Differentiating Products...</h3>
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<ul><a href="http://bit.ly/SoaringwithSnyderHolisticRubric" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL6YBJV-on9ncBosW6U5naRiof_PHUwihLtSuLZNRd0EYXOJYWqo0wOiHL36qxo5cRoVD2guclG-5r7v9-tZVplTHBqfrBIYkNKOvWSJTMlueUaZ6swQ6DZ9OlT0Jbg-tzmKDOpiBERkU/s200/Square+cover+Generalized+Product+Rubric.001.jpeg" width="200" /></a>
<li>You should definitely allow for choice. The choice could be as narrow among just a few pre-planned options that you have for them, </li>
<li>Be sure to set clear expectations around the content, quality, and creativity/originality of the products. I have a rubric that works for many product choices <span class="" style="color: red;"><a href="http://bit.ly/SoaringwithSnyderHolisticRubric">here</a> </span>if you're interested in taking a peek. </li>
<li>Be sure that you and your students agree on a timeline for the entire process, as well as check-in points along the way. No matter what the age of your students, it will be helpful for them if you provide some scaffolding here. Obviously, how <i>much</i> scaffolding you provide should be adjusted according to your students' readiness. At the very least, I suggest having check-ins and/or deadlines for idea generation and selection, storyboarding or planning, creating, revising/editing, rehearsal (if needed), and final turn-in. </li>
<li>Products can be differentiated by readiness, interest, and learning profile, or some combination of the three. </li>
<li>Students might need coaching with certain procedural aspects of the choices they make for their products. For example, if a student chooses to create a video documentary or stop-motion film, they may need some assistance with the technical aspects of making the films. This is a great time to bring in outside experts--parents, community members, even other professionals in your school who can assist your students with these needs. Children can also do some research (another great learning opportunity)! </li>
<li>Using differentiated products in your classroom is a great way to build classroom community. I often set time aside in class for students to share what they had been working on with the rest of the class. Sometimes, we even ventured out to share with other classrooms in the building, too! </li>
<li>Inviting parents in for product presentations is also an excellent way to share products with a larger audience. Research has shown that student engagement and achievement rises significantly when students know that people other than just their teacher will see their work. </li>
<li>Keep in mind, though, that not every student needs to (or wants to) share his or her product every time! This is not only time consuming, but for children uncomfortable in front of the class, it can be a source of unnecessary stress. </li>
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<h3>
Some Ideas for You</h3>
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Sometimes the hardest part is getting started, right? I've created several ready-made resources that include product choices in my Teachers Pay Teachers store that you can find <a href="http://bit.ly/SoaringwithSnyderChoiceBoards">here</a>. This is a growing collection of choices for upper and lower elementary students. And to thank you for reading allllll the way down to here, I made a list of many of the product ideas that maybe you'd like to try out. Click on the picture below to download your own free copy of the list from my free resource library. *Just to be clear, by clicking to get the freebie (and instant access to the growing collection of free resources in my library of subscriber exclusives), you're also agreeing to be added to my email list, where I'll send occasional messages with fresh ideas, tips, and other resources straight to your inbox. You can unsubscribe at any time.*<br />
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Thank you so much for reading! </div>
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Ready to learn about <a href="http://bit.ly/GiftedLearningEnvironment" target="_blank">differentiating the learning environment</a>? Click <a href="http://bit.ly/GiftedLearningEnvironment" target="_blank">here</a>! Thanks so much for reading!</div>
Jenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06864046205728668957noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1846154658030035687.post-4461817789260806792016-11-21T17:25:00.001-05:002018-05-24T08:56:47.622-04:00Meeting the Needs of Gifted Learners: Differentiating the Learning Process 4/6<div class="separator" style="clear: both; display: none; text-align: center;">
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When you choose to change, adapt, or otherwise make different the ways in which students gain access to new information <i>or</i> the way they process or learn new ideas, skills, and content, you're differentiating by <i>process</i>. This is the fourth installment of my series on differentiated instruction. If you're interested in reading more about the whole process of differentiation, you can read about the <a href="http://www.soaringwithsnyder.com/2016/04/meeting-needs-of-your-gifted-student.html" target="_blank">definition of differentiation</a>, <a href="http://www.soaringwithsnyder.com/2016/05/meeting-needs-of-your-gifted-student.html" target="_blank">pre-assessment</a>, <a href="http://www.soaringwithsnyder.com/2016/09/meeting-needs-of-your-gifted-student_50.html#comment-form" target="_blank">differentiating content</a>, and <a href="http://www.soaringwithsnyder.com/2016/10/meeting-needs-of-gifted-learners-how.html" target="_blank">how a differentiated classroom works</a>, in previous posts.<br />
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<h4>
What Does it Mean to Differentiate the Process?</h4>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3zsq30CQuumFSk8KHupymPa2iODqMav0WBJqriB-JS45kzMOqplBQSBQ_MabLMck1jzK1Tq0qt9FgYlw0F4rtt36JZI3fUejuI4iKFU_Hp_GijdES5p-3txB92F5v5aeuOOajGx7u_F0/s1600/Differentiating+the+Process+Pin+.001.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3zsq30CQuumFSk8KHupymPa2iODqMav0WBJqriB-JS45kzMOqplBQSBQ_MabLMck1jzK1Tq0qt9FgYlw0F4rtt36JZI3fUejuI4iKFU_Hp_GijdES5p-3txB92F5v5aeuOOajGx7u_F0/s640/Differentiating+the+Process+Pin+.001.jpeg" width="249" /></a></div>
Differentiating the process for learners usually translates to changing the activity part of the learning process or lesson. It is often the <i>verb</i> part of your learning objectives; whatever students <i>do</i> to move from their current understanding to deeper, more thorough, more complex levels of understanding. The need to differentiate the process for your students can often stem from a student's readiness, either in the area in which you're planning to differentiate or in another area. It can also result from the need to differentiate due to a learning disability in a student with dual exceptionalities. Your student with a disability in reading comprehension may be gifted in science and already know most of what you're planning to present in your rocks and minerals unit, but it will be difficult for him or her to access the information he or she needs to learn in a traditional textbook. When you differentiate the process for learning, you allow this student to have the same (or even more) information delivered to them in a different way. It might also mean that you allow them to interact with the information as part of their learning in a way that is different than their "typically developing" peers.<br />
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It is important to note that <a href="http://www.soaringwithsnyder.com/2016/05/meeting-needs-of-your-gifted-student.html" target="_blank">pre-assessment</a> again plays a crucial role in using this strategy with fidelity. We have to have a solid grasp on what our students know (and don't know), as well as their strengths and weaknesses to plan effectively.<br />
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<h4>
Framework for Differentiating the Learning Process</h4>
There are a few key ideas we can keep in mind as we plan and prepare to differentiate the learning process.<br />
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In her book, <i>How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed-Ability Classrooms (2001), </i>Carol Ann Tomlinson gives ideas for increasing the complexity of learning activities. They include moving from concrete ideas to more abstract, starting at simple and moving toward more complexity, beginning with more structure and moving toward open-ended tasks or ideas, and moving from examining a single facet to looking at multiple facets of ideas or concepts.<br />
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Of course using <a href="http://www.soaringwithsnyder.com/2016/03/if-youre-teacher-there-is-99.html" target="_blank">Bloom's Taxonomy</a> is another way to think about how we can create different learning activities that move students from lower order learning skills to higher order thinking. We can move them from simply remembering, understanding, and applying, to the more complex and intertwined analyzing, evaluating, and creating.<br />
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Using Dr. Sandra Kaplan's Depth and Complexity tools is another way we can plan for differentiated learning processes. You can read more about these visual prompts associated with deeper levels of critical thinking <a href="http://envisiongifted.com/services/understanding-depth-and-complexity/" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
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Examples of Vehicles for Differentiating the Learning Process</h4>
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Below you'll find just a few ideas for strategies or structures you can use in your classroom to help with the process of differentiation. This by no means is an exhaustive list, however, maybe it will help get you thinking about how many things you may already do that are headed in the direction of differentiation. Click on the picture to get access to your free printable copy. *Just to be clear, by clicking to get the freebie (and instant access to the growing collection of free resources in my library of subscriber exclusives), you're also agreeing to be added to my email list, where I'll send occasional messages with fresh ideas, tips, and other resources straight to your inbox. You can unsubscribe at any time.* </div>
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A Couple of Examples in the Classroom </h4>
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Perhaps your students are learning some new content in the classroom about Native Americans. In one scenario, students might take out their social studies textbooks (all written on the same reading level and all containing the same information, of course). They listen to your voice while you read aloud, or they read the text to themselves, with or without your support. Not only does this sound pretty boring, but it also doesn't take into account the differences in the ways students in your classroom learn <i>best</i>. Aside from not engaging your students much in the learning process, you may also be inadvertently creating an environment where students will begin entertaining themselves in various ways, otherwise disrupting your plans for a peaceful learning experience. If you <i>differentiated</i> this process for your students, you could both increase student engagement <i>and</i> tighten up your classroom management. So, instead of assigning the reading from the textbook, perhaps you could work with your librarian to find a variety of informational texts written at various reading levels so students could access the information at their independent reading levels. Maybe you could also research (or again, work with your fabulous, indispensable local or school librarian) for some multimedia presentations of the information, some kid-friendly websites, some audio recordings, or even some local professionals who could deliver the information in a different way. This way, all of your students are gaining the information that you need them to learn, but they're just approaching it a from different angles. You can use these materials as part of your small group instruction (learn more about planning for small groups here), as part of an independent learning contract, or in some other way. The point is, not everyone has to do it the same way, in lockstep. We don't all learn the same way. It's just not the way we're made! </div>
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Maybe it's your language arts class and the students are working on identifying character traits. You can differentiate the process by tiering the learning assignments. Let's say the learning objective is for students to choose two characters from whatever story they're reading currently and identify key character traits for those two characters. The tiers could look like this:</div>
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<li>Tier One (below or approaching the standard): Use a graphic organizer to identify two main characters, note behaviors, actions, and thoughts from these two characters, and then draw inferences about their traits based on the text evidence they've recorded on their graphic organizer. </li>
<li>Tier Two (at standard): Use a Venn Diagram to compare two (or three) characters from the text, using text-based evidence to support the claims of similarity and differences.</li>
<li>Tier Three (exceeds grade level standards): List characteristics displayed by two or three characters from the text. Rank the characteristics in order from most important to least important (or even have students decide upon which criteria to use in ranking the characteristics). </li>
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If you look closely at the tiers above, you'll see that I used Bloom's Taxonomy to make slight changes from one tier to another. Tier one is pretty much remembering/understanding, tier two is more like applying/analyzing, and tier three is analyzing/evaluating. Please note--it is not appropriate to ONLY have your tier one kiddos staying that remember/understand level. They need to be practicing higher order thinking skills as well--this is how they'll grow best! At the same time, your tier two and three kids will also need to spend some time in the lower levels of Blooms sometimes as well, but the amount of time spent understanding and remembering as opposed to the analyzing/evaluating/creating levels should be considerably <i>less</i>. </div>
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Well, you made it. You're at the end of another post. I hope you found this information helpful, and perhaps you'll consider stopping back to my little corner of the interwebs for the last two installments of the differentiation series. For those of you inspired to tackle one of the learning strategies I mentioned above, I created a FREE Independent Learning Contract for you to use. Click on the image below to download your free copy. *Just to be clear, by clicking to get the freebie (and instant access to the growing collection of free resources in my library of subscriber exclusives), you're also agreeing to be added to my email list, where I'll send occasional messages with fresh ideas, tips, and other resources straight to your inbox. You can unsubscribe at any time.*<br />
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And if you're looking for some activities that are already differentiated and ready to go, hop over to <a href="https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Soaring-With-Snyder" target="_blank">my store</a> on Teachers Pay Teachers. I have a small (but growing) collection of materials for you to use in your classroom. </div>
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Thanks so much for reading! Be sure to check out the next post in the series: <a href="http://bit.ly/SoaringwithSnyderDifferentiatingProductsPost">Differentiating Products</a></div>
Jenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06864046205728668957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1846154658030035687.post-26605468176064253542016-10-14T10:54:00.000-04:002018-05-24T08:52:58.226-04:00Meeting the Needs of Gifted Learners: How Does a Differentiated Classroom Actually Work? 3.5/6<div class="separator" style="clear: both; display: none; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0uYleqtUD-RZdTjZEJwM5Ya3KwSbV9X5tvdqgK8YVrVtg5Mt-HzwXVH11c7fnQCzY7PuuRt_ypDMz22ELPm9yRyEkkr3_HMuEL-dHh8En34BexLJrwC-SlVdg4-oKKdaoav8boTJi8nY/s1600/blog+image+differentiated+content.001.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0uYleqtUD-RZdTjZEJwM5Ya3KwSbV9X5tvdqgK8YVrVtg5Mt-HzwXVH11c7fnQCzY7PuuRt_ypDMz22ELPm9yRyEkkr3_HMuEL-dHh8En34BexLJrwC-SlVdg4-oKKdaoav8boTJi8nY/s1600/blog+image+differentiated+content.001.jpeg" /></a></div>
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How Does a Differentiated Classroom Actually Work? </h2>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinwHy38nqyxuQtaEfijHgNGzA4QesPp86VN25XVdq1VrqvBfJUAA6HG_uwDCxt0sa5X9JOXpHMIP8T0cXM5uqtgss-39qc7fTLoWWAktM5nSgZVENzrQdEEHup6xOq_kVH7CpvYCUWV-w/s1600/pinterest+image+what+differentiated+content+looks+like.001.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinwHy38nqyxuQtaEfijHgNGzA4QesPp86VN25XVdq1VrqvBfJUAA6HG_uwDCxt0sa5X9JOXpHMIP8T0cXM5uqtgss-39qc7fTLoWWAktM5nSgZVENzrQdEEHup6xOq_kVH7CpvYCUWV-w/s640/pinterest+image+what+differentiated+content+looks+like.001.png" width="250" /></a>If you're like me, you've finished reading another <a href="http://www.soaringwithsnyder.com/2016/09/meeting-needs-of-your-gifted-student_50.html" target="_blank">post</a> (<a href="http://www.soaringwithsnyder.com/2016/05/meeting-needs-of-your-gifted-student.html" target="_blank">or two</a>, <a href="http://www.soaringwithsnyder.com/2016/04/meeting-needs-of-your-gifted-student.html" target="_blank">or three</a>) about differentiated instruction and you're thinking, "Well, now what? How can I actually put this information to work for me in my classroom?" It takes lots of practice, and I'm positive there are other teachers doing it differently (and well!) in their classroom, but I'll go ahead and write about how I was able to differentiate in my own classroom. And for the record, these ideas worked for my both in general education classrooms when I had only a few GT identified students <i>and</i> in my self-contained gifted classes where all students were identified as either cognitively gifted or gifted in a specific academic area. </div>
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Some Key Ideas</h3>
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Classroom Management</h4>
The most important aspect of being ready and able to accommodate the different learners in your classroom space is really all about <b>how you manage your classroom</b>. I'm not talking about your behavior plan, clip charts, token economy system, etc. I'm talking nuts and bolts--how to you use each and every minute of your school day to maximize the time you have to spend with your students. The thing that made the <i>biggest</i> impact for <i>me</i> was using a guided math and guided reading type schedule for those two blocks. Whether you do legitimate guided reading Fountas and Pinnell-style or the Daily 5 model, or some variation of those, what matters most is <u style="font-style: italic;">building in time to your schedule each day</u> to be able to meet with students individually, or in small groups. You could also meet this need for content differentiation by holding a whole group mini-lesson and then assigning several different activities, according to readiness, or you can set up different learning centers according to interests and/or readiness as well. Structuring your day in these ways will allow a few magical things to happen:<br />
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<li>When you build in time for small groups, you simultaneously build in time for your students to work independently, which means you are FREE! Run while you can! Joking of course, but seriously, once you've trained your students to function without you <strike>constantly hovering</strike> providing close guidance and support, you are freed up to work with individuals or small groups as needed. </li>
<li>Your students value the time they get to spend with you one-on-one or in small groups. They look forward to this time and you look forward to it, too, because you get to connect on a deeper level with your kids. </li>
<li>You have time to spend meeting the needs of your students--tailoring materials and content to match their needs and push them towards real growth, which is a BIG win for alllll of the stakeholders. </li>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8b6vXvIxSX9QBVfriX4-mliEm8c6VkdjSqVDc7Mv4lAt3my09x0ShXs0hKijBDemJofsi39VfWtAWmN-AppL82xu-3I4KDV-IAyuyaEwzAIzInYBtMlnUuWuTim5m2iYHPIQ4-mO_sP4/s1600/IMG_9352.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8b6vXvIxSX9QBVfriX4-mliEm8c6VkdjSqVDc7Mv4lAt3my09x0ShXs0hKijBDemJofsi39VfWtAWmN-AppL82xu-3I4KDV-IAyuyaEwzAIzInYBtMlnUuWuTim5m2iYHPIQ4-mO_sP4/s400/IMG_9352.JPG" width="300" /></a>Time to Plan</h4>
Once you've carved out some time in your day, the next step is making sure you have gathered all the necessary information you need. What do you want your students to know? What do they already know? What do they <i>want</i> to know? How to they learn best? And where will you keep all of this information? I used my paper grade book pages to record pre- and post-test results, also noting which standards students still needed to work on. I also gathered some information about students' interests and recorded them on paper as well. All of this helped me in my grouping and planning so I could be sure to pull students back for small group work as they needed it.<br />
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After you pre-assess and gather information, it's time to start planning. If you're new to this, I think it's slightly easier to start in a subject area that has really discrete/distinct skills that are easy to separate from one another. Math, grammar, and content areas are a little less complicated to start with. I'm going to use math for my example, but the same general progression will work for most every subject. Here's my general flow:<br />
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<li>Pretest, sort information--students with the same missing skills get grouped together. You can see an example of this in my grade book checklist picture above. Sometimes I wrote information in there, sometimes I used sticky notes and stuck them in my planning pages. </li>
<li>I also kept notes on each student using a compacting recording sheet (my <a href="http://www.soaringwithsnyder.com/2016/09/meeting-needs-of-your-gifted-student_50.html" target="_blank">last post</a> for a free copy), so that I could to it at conferences and around report card time. </li>
<li>Decide what students can be doing in the time that they buy back. I called my time "Choice Time" but you can probably think of something more creative! For student choice time, students were working on a variety of things. In math, sometimes they worked on learning computer coding from code.org or Khan Academy, sometimes they created games for each other to play, and sometimes they worked on strengthening deficit areas. In language arts, my students had <i>lots</i> of choices about what they worked on--vocabulary/word study activities were a choice based on students' interests, independent reading was always a choice, based on interest and readiness as well. </li>
<li>Decide IF and HOW you will evaluate tasks and learning accomplished during choice time. My own opinion is that these alternate activities don't always need "graded," however they still need to be evaluated using a rubric or some other tool so that students can get feedback--even if it's only feedback on independent study behaviors. Students need to know that what they're doing is valued, but I also hope to instill in them a sense of ownership and pride in learning for learning sake. </li>
<li>A note about interest-based and learning profile content differentiation--these are, in <i>some ways</i>, lower-prep alternatives to differentiating by readiness. Here's why: generally speaking, if you offer children lots of choices in your classroom, they will gravitate toward what they like most, and you don't have to tailor it as much directly toward individuals. And once you get into the habit of giving students choices, you begin to build up your repertoire of materials and options that can be used over and over again, so it's really not as bad as it sounds. </li>
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Math</h4>
Here is what my <b>math</b> block often looked like: (P.S., I say often because there <i>were</i> days where we did lessons and activities as a whole group. #reallife P.P.S. I was BLESSED to have 60-90 minute blocks of time for my instruction, so yes, it <i>did</i> make it easier to structure my time, but it is totally possible to do this in less time--you just have to be a little more judicious with how you build in your choice time--maybe it's every other day, or every third day instead of every single day, but I promise--it CAN be done!<br />
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<ul>
<li>10-15 minutes-Problem Solving in math journals (sometimes differentiated, often <i>not</i> because they were challenging problems on which I allowed students to choose to work collaboratively)</li>
<li>15-20 minutes (sometimes)--Whole group mini-lesson or explanation of math stations/choices</li>
<li>30-60 minutes--Guided math (small group) lessons and choice time. This is either self-directed or done in a rotation style. We changed it up, depending on what we were working on. If children had a big project they were working on, they often just worked on the project the whole time while I met with small groups. In small group time, students learned the skill and practiced it. They had some independent work to complete on their own in class as well. </li>
<li>5-10 minutes--Exit ticket/show what you learned/Q&A time</li>
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ELA</h4>
Below are two versions of what the ELA block looked like in my classroom (again, I had 90 minutes in upper elementary and more like 150 minutes in lower elementary to work with but it <i>can be modified</i> to work in less time):</div>
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<u>Version One</u></div>
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<a href="http://eepurl.com/dijgLX" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="768" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpGkGVIUU4PM1ETZxWee-tcrsmhO7HrAGKOt_cHXIRqOLQ0uj6YMpiHDmN9oTAqXpuMwCKHVE0VApk3xXMNXyP0TJyxRddmOGExbfBQXTx9adcx5QRv7jNkUAmZU6PwV4_itQV64HqhWs/s400/Status+of+the+Class+Square+Cover.001.jpeg" width="400" /></a>
<li>5-10 minutes --Independent reading time or <a href="http://www.helloliteracy.com/2013/08/observing-describing-inferring-with.html" target="_blank">Picture of The Day</a> as children trickled in from different classes</li>
<li style="text-align: left;">5 minutes-- Status of the Class (click the picture to the right if you're interested in downloading one for yourself from my free resource library). *Just to be clear, by clicking to get the freebie (and instant access to the growing collection of free resources in my library of subscriber exclusives), you're also agreeing to be added to my email list, where I'll send occasional messages with fresh ideas, tips, and other resources straight to your inbox. You can unsubscribe at any time.* </li>
<li style="text-align: left;">15-20 minutes --Whole-group reading mini-lesson based on a skill that students will be applying during independent reading time </li>
<li style="text-align: left;">20 minutes--Choice time--students work on word work, independent reading, or other projects </li>
<li style="text-align: left;">15 minutes--Whole Group OR Small group mini-lesson</li>
<li style="text-align: left;">20-30 minutes--Choice time</li>
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<u>Version Two</u></div>
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<li>20 minutes: Whole-group standards-based reading mini-lesson based on comprehension, decoding, fluency, or vocabulary skills that could be applied to any book</li>
<li>45 minutes: Guided reading groups, individual conferences, and Independent Work--students apply the mini-lesson skills or concepts to books on their reading level and then work on word work, vocabulary, and/or other literacy-based centers </li>
<li>20 minutes: Whole-group standards-based writing mini-lesson</li>
<li>45 minutes: Guided writing groups and/or individual writing conferences</li>
<li>10-20 minutes-Rotation between exit slips, fluency practice, sight word practice, Author's Chair, etc. </li>
</ul>
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Some Final Notes </h4>
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Of course, these general plans worked for ME in my classroom, but you may need to modify them to work for YOU in your classroom. They are intentionally very <i>general. </i>When I taught kindergarten, having students sit and attend to a 20-minute mini-lesson was pushing it for their attention span. Working independently for 45 minutes was also a lofty goal, especially at the beginning of the year. To accommodate students' needs, I broke lessons down into smaller chunks, allowed for shorter spurts of independent work, etc. I worked together with the class for <i>weeks</i> modeling what our classroom looked like, sounded like, and felt like during each stage of our language arts and math blocks. The time spent at the beginning of the year paid off very well in the middle and end of the year when we were truly able to maximize our learning time and minimize distractions and time during transitions. </div>
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If you're ready to read more about differentiating, check out this post on <a href="http://bit.ly/DifferentiatingtheLearningProcess" target="_blank">how to differentiate the learning process. </a></div>
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I hope you found this information helpful! Got more ideas about how to make differentiation work in your classroom? Leave a comment below or send me an email (jen@soaringwithsnyder.com). I love hearing from my readers!<br />
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Thank you,</div>
Jenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06864046205728668957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1846154658030035687.post-29733239681112977092016-09-30T10:18:00.004-04:002018-05-24T08:50:55.216-04:00Meeting the Needs of Your Gifted Student: Differentiating Content 3/6<div class="separator" style="clear: both; display: none; text-align: center;">
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Welcome to the third installment of Meeting the Needs of Your Gifted Student! If you haven't done so already, I would recommend reading <a href="https://soaringwithsnyder.blogspot.com/2016/04/meeting-needs-of-your-gifted-student.html" target="_blank">this post</a>, which is an overview of differentiated instruction, and <a href="https://soaringwithsnyder.blogspot.com/2016/05/meeting-needs-of-your-gifted-student.html" target="_blank">this post</a>, which is aimed at pre-assessment.<br />
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Definitions and Urgency </h2>
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As the title indicates, today I'll be writing about how to meet student needs by differentiating <i>content. </i> When you're thinking about differentiating instruction for your gifted learners, you can change <i>what information</i> your students are learning (content), <i>how</i> they're learning it (process), and how students <i>show the learning </i>(product). You can also differentiate the learning environment as well as the way you assess student learning.<br />
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When we differentiate content, we make changes in <u>what</u> students learn in relation to what they need to know, understand, and must be able to do at this moment in their instructional journey. We can also differ the ways in which we allow children to access new learning as well. This could mean using a variety of different materials from which the students can learn, like providing multiple texts on a variety of reading levels, videos, audio recordings, primary source documents, and artifacts, magazines, travel brochures, etc.<br />
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<span style="color: #76a5af; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“It is what a student should come to know (facts), understand (concepts and principles), and be able to do (skills) as a result of a given assignment of study (a lesson, learning experience, a unit).” </span></div>
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<span style="color: #76a5af; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">-Carol Ann Tomlinson, 1999, The Differentiated Classroom</span><br />
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We can differentiate in response to readiness, interest, and learning profile, or some combination of the three. Given the strict mandates that many (most?) teachers face about what students must know each year in school, you may be thinking that it sounds strange to consider offering students access to content that is different from that which appears on your district's curriculum map and/or pacing guide. However, it's not that you'll be omitting information that the student must know because they're gifted, it's that often, your gifted student<i> already knows up to 80% of that information. </i>So if you think about it, it's really counterproductive to make a student who has demonstrated mastery (or is capable of demonstrating mastery) in a particular area of learning to sit through hours, days, or weeks worth of instruction on those same skills when they came to your classroom already having that knowledge. The potential end result of <strike> allowing</strike> forcing a student to "learn" the same content at the same pace as other students in the class is that the student will be bored, frustrated, sad, inattentive, and otherwise creative in filling the time he or she has been left with during instruction. I'll go ahead and let you use your imagination for the many, many schemes a gifted child is capable of concocting to fill their "down time." Not to mention, as teachers, we all have a responsibility to each of our students to help them grow, starting <i>from where they are</i> in their learning journey. This is just as true for our students who struggle the most with learning as it is with our high potential children.<br />
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Options for Content Differentiation</h2>
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There are several go-to strategies for differentiating content, but they all begin with finding out first what it is that students already know, what they're interested in, and/or what their learning profile is. After you learn about who your students are and what they know, you're ready to start differentiating content. If a student demonstrates mastery (usually between 80-90%) on a particular topic or skill, then you (and ideally, the student) have some choices to make about how this will be accommodated in the classroom. </div>
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Curriculum Compacting</h4>
One way to make that accommodation is by using Curriculum Compacting. This strategy was developed back in the early 1990s by Joseph Renzulli at the University of Connecticut. It is a strategy meant to help teachers and students really optimize the time they have together in the classroom each day.<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> </span>Once students demonstrate mastery on a particular subject, skill, or topic, they should be <i>exempted</i> from spending time learning this material again. In a way, by scoring high on a pre-assessment, they "buy back" time in the classroom and can now spend this time working on new learning. Students should still be expected to participate in lessons and activities for which they have not demonstrated yet mastery, but the rest of the time, they should be allowed to work on other things. One of the best things you can do for yourself and your student is to DOCUMENT all of this information along the way. I created a simple page to track student mastery levels and alternative assignments, which you can grab for yourself below by clicking on the picture. *Just to be clear, by clicking to get the freebie (and instant access to the growing collection of free resources in my library of subscriber exclusives), you're also agreeing to be added to my email list, where I'll send occasional messages with fresh ideas, tips, and other resources straight to your inbox. You can unsubscribe at any time.*<br />
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Flexible Pacing/Accelerated Learning </h4>
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Similar to compacting, flexible pacing (which, for gifted students often--but not always--results in accelerated learning) is a way of allowing students to access new content at their own pace, with the help and support of a teacher or mentor. In a 2011 study*, students (gifted and not gifted) were surveyed about their preferred method of differentiation. Self-pacing was the favorite among 90% of them, many citing that they wanted <i>more</i> time to dig into the really difficult material when they encountered it. Implementing flexible pacing in your classroom means documentation of mastery, as well as determining a way to guide your students and keep them accountable for their learning. Working together with the student(s), it is important that you create expectations for what is a reasonable amount of time to spend learning new content, as well as expectations for how the learning will be evaluated. Creating and using a learning contract is one very effective way to manage this process. </div>
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Mini-lessons/Individual Conferences/Small Group</h4>
We can also modify content for our students by creating a classroom environment which allows for small-group instruction. Holding mini-lessons or individual conferences with students is a way to meet their needs for content differentiation in all three areas (readiness, interest, and learner profile).<br />
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Anchor Activities/Interest-Based Learning Centers </h4>
These are activities that the teacher sets up for students to work on independently when they've completed required work, have tested out of regular classroom instruction, or to use during small group time. The activities should be relevant to current themes or topics of study, meaningful and interesting to students, and leveled appropriately to student needs. Giving students interest surveys a few times a year can help you plan for these kinds of activities.<br />
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Independent Study</h4>
Independent study almost doesn't need its own category, truly, because it's so closely tied in with Curriculum Compacting, Flexible Pacing, and mini-lessons/conferences. Again, students use the time when classmates are learning something that student has already demonstrated mastery on. Just to emphasize something I mentioned before--just because a student is ready to learn new material on their own doesn't mean he or she has the skills and/or tools it takes to do so <i>effectively</i>. However, once you've established expectations for students, and students have decided upon something they'd like to explore. These studies can easily take an aspect of the topic or theme that your class is studying and turn it into an in-depth study of the topic's origin, a comparative analysis of similar themes or topics, or real world applications of the same or similar ideas.<br />
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Thanks for reading! You can click here to read the next post in the series: <a href="http://bit.ly/Howdoesadifferentiatedclassroomwork">How does a differentiated classroom actually work?</a> <br />
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Sources:</h4>
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<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Curriculum Compacting: A Systematic Procedure for Modifying the Curriculum for Above Average Ability Students, by </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sally M. Reis and </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Joseph S. Renzulli, </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">The National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented, </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">University of Connecticut</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Deferential Differentiation: What Types of Differentiation Do Students Want? by Lannie Kanevsky, Gifted Child Quarterly 2011 55: 279 </span></li>
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Jenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06864046205728668957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1846154658030035687.post-77411027788450648582016-05-16T13:57:00.000-04:002018-05-24T08:42:01.641-04:00Meeting the Needs of Your Gifted Student: Differentiated Instruction--Preassessment 2/6<div class="separator" style="clear: both; display: none; text-align: center;">
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If you're going to try to differentiate instruction for you students, you will most definitely need to determine some important information about your students <i>before</i> you start thinking of ideas for what you're teaching and how to approach your instruction! In the education world, we call this preassessment or pre-testing, and as the prefix implies, this is an assessment of a child that is to take place <i>before</i> the new learning is to occur. Today's post is the second in a series I'm writing about differentiated instruction. You can read the first post <a href="http://soaringwithsnyder.blogspot.com/2016/04/meeting-needs-of-your-gifted-student.html" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
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What? Another TEST?!</h3>
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When you hear the term preassessment or pre-test, your first thought is probably something to the effect of, "Ugh! I don't have time for that!" or, "How on earth am I supposed to add <i>another</i> thing to our already busy schedules?" Perhaps you're even thinking, "Another TEST?! Aren't these kids tested enough already?"<br />
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Let me tell you something. I HEAR you! It<i> is</i> difficult to add something new to your routine when you are already in the groove. It <i>can</i> be a lot of work to create new assessments for everything you plan to teach. But learning about your students before you teach them is SO important. There are three types of pre-assessments you can administer to learn more about your kiddos. You can learn about students' readiness for something, their learning style or preferences, or their attitudes about learning and/or areas of interest. Although all three types of assessment are important, the majority of this post today will focus on assessing student readiness to learn new skills and concepts.<br />
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Learning about what preexisting knowledge your students are coming to you with is just so, so, so important. Did you know that your gifted students come to your classroom <i>already knowing</i> up to 80% of the material you plan on presenting? And preassessment has actually <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/07/magazine/why-flunking-exams-is-actually-a-good-thing.html?_r=1" target="_blank">been found</a> to be beneficial to student learning, not just because it tells you what they know, but also because it acts as a sort of primer for the brain, helping to pave the road for future learning. Remember, this is assessment FOR learning, not assessment OF learning. You <i>are</i> giving your students another test of sorts, but it should be presented to them in a way that helps them to understand that it is NOT a graded assignment. It is meant to help you, the teacher, get to how much of the content you need to teach them. And here's the kicker--it doesn't have to <i>be a test </i>or <i>feel like a test</i> if you get creative about it.<br />
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It is not sufficient to just give a pre-test, then proceed with the regularly scheduled programming without adjusting your instruction (and sadly, many teachers do <i>just</i> that <---insert frowny face). It's what you DO with the information that is most critical in the education of those young people in your care.<br />
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<span style="color: #45818e;">{By the way, let's not blame the teachers for not always knowing what to do with this information. It is fairly customary for new teachers to have only one or two (if they're lucky) courses in assessment in undergraduate-level programs. Teachers really don't get enough training in the complexities of assessment and grading before they're expected to become the expert in their own classrooms. I've been a teacher for more than 10 years, and I am <i>still </i>learning about best practice in assessment. I'm not sure I'll ever be done! It is because of the reasons I listed above that I feel so strongly about sharing the things I <i>have</i> learned in this journey as an educator.}</span><br />
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My goal for this post today is to leave you with some ideas for how you can quickly and effectively assess your students before you teach. Then in the following posts, I'll provide some suggestions for what to do with all that great information! If you ever have any questions that pop up in your reading, please don't hesitate to leave a comment at the bottom of the post, or email me using the link in the sidebar of my blog!<br />
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Decide What You Want to Know</h3>
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When you start your preassessment journey, you first need to think about what information you want your students to know at the END of the lesson, unit, year, etc. The pre-test should measure children's knowledge of the same objectives that you are responsible for teaching. I suggest starting by reading your standards closely or taking a peek at your school's curriculum map or assessment map. What is it that your students need to know or be able to do by the end of the instruction? It's important that you align the assessment to correspond in both content <i>and</i> difficulty--especially with the verbs you see in the standards. If they have to <i>interpret</i> products of whole numbers, (CCSS 3.OA.A.1) then the pre-test you give them should measure whether they can indeed, interpret the product, not just whether they can calculate the answer. For example, it's not enough that they can find the product of 5 x 7, they need to be able to describe the context in which they would need to express a problem like that. This can be tricky and takes practice if you're just starting out, but once you get the hang of it, aligning your problems to the standards gets easier. This practice will also help strengthen your understanding of the standards as well, so it's a win-win, right?<br />
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Decide How You're Going to Gather the Information You Need</h3>
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Formal Preassessment</h4>
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I think of these assessments as more traditional, a little less fun, but very helpful in the specificity of information that they can provide.</div>
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<li><b>Chapter tests</b>-- If you're lucky enough to be working in a district (or if you're homeschooling) and using curriculum that already has different versions of post-tests for each chapter, USE THEM! In my most recent teaching position, we used a math program that had three different levels of tests, and two versions of each test. I <i>always</i> used the form A test before we started the chapter, and then the form B test when we finished. </li>
<li><b>Quarterly tests/Benchmark tests</b>-- These tests, again, are already part of what you use in your school to measure student progress toward learning grade level standards (I hope). If not, you may need to create your own or find one someone else has already created. If you use these for pre-tests, be sure you either have different versions of the test available for use or that you take time to create a test that <i>mirrors</i> the tests because you want to be sure you don't skew results of the end-of-quarter or benchmark tests)</li>
<li><b>Portfolios</b>--If you use these, they are a great starting point for preassessment. These seem to me to be especially relevant for demonstrating a child's readiness in writing and visual arts, but I am sure they are helpful in other areas as well. The only reason I would caution the use of them as a standalone pre-test for other subjects (and even for writing) is the simple fact that you can't always guarantee that ALL of the child's previous learning is completely exemplified in the portfolio. It is hard to be sure that a work sample in a portfolio is a true example of <i>all they can do</i>. In other words, how do you know that the child reached the ceiling of his or her learning on that particular concept? Sure, they showed that they can multiply two-digit factors, but if they weren't prompted to do more, how can you be sure whether they can or cannot actually <i>do more?</i> Additionally, the use of portfolios requires having an accompanying rubric or checklist. </li>
<li><b>Checklists</b> of skills the child has demonstrated--Go <a href="http://www.lorenzeducationalpress.com/product.aspx?id=ETLC10214" target="_blank">here</a> for an AWESOME ebook of checklists you can use for grades 3-6. Seriously, check it out. You can see a sample on Google Books <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=waB9K2f5gEgC&dq=A+checklist+for+everything+ebook" target="_blank">here</a>. This is <i>not</i> an affiliate link, I just like this book. There are a TON of checklists on <a href="http://teacherspayteachers.com/" target="_blank">Teachers Pay Teachers</a>, depending on what you need, I'm <u>positive</u> you can find something there. </li>
<li><b>Running Records</b>--these are great for on-the-spot assessments of how your student is reading. To be sure it's VERY important that the child you are assessing is reading a book that is at or slightly above their instructional reading level so that you can get a true picture of their strengths and weaknesses. <a href="http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/109044/chapters/Taking-a-Running-Record.aspx" target="_blank">Here</a> is a great article from ASCD summarizing how to conduct a running record, if you haven't done it before. You should also check to see whether your district has identified benchmarks or cut-scores in reading rate, accuracy, and comprehension when you use this as a pre-test so that you know where your student stands in comparison to his or her grade-level peers. </li>
<li><b>Audition</b>-Teachers of performance arts, this is a great way to learn your students' limits. Using a checklist or rubric is also a must for this type of preassessment. </li>
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Informal Preassessment</h4>
These measures are a little more fun! Quick and easy to prepare and administer, they still provide valuable information, but I find them a little less accurate and/or thorough than the formal options.<br />
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<li><b>Four Corners</b>--This is a super quick way to gauge what your students know. There are a couple of different ways you can use this strategy. Using multiple choice questions you create or questions from your curriculum, label each corner of your classroom A, B, C, D. You pose the question, and students walk to the area of the room that matches with the answer they've selected. I would advise you to have students record their answers on a piece of paper, before allowing them to walk to the corners. This way, not only do you increase student accountability, you also have a physical copy of their pretest results. Further, having students record answers before moving creates an environment that decreases the likelihood of peer-pressure related answer selection. </li>
<li><b>Graffiti Wall</b>-This strategy is quick and simple. The only supplies you need are large pieces of chart paper, markers, and concepts that you plan on studying soon. Post the chart paper on the wall, and challenge students to come to each page and record as much information as they possibly can about the topic. They can write phrases or ideas--they don't have to write complete sentences. They need to sign their work (so you know who wrote what, of course) and they should get started writing as soon as they get to the paper. Enforcing the write right away rule is helpful because it decreases the likelihood that a child is copying from another student. This activity is something students really enjoy because it feels a little taboo when you call it graffiti! They also like the novelty of writing on the big teacher paper, and if you reserve special markers for them to use, it makes the experience all that much better. Limitations to this strategy could be that a student simply doesn't recall quickly everything they truly know about a topic, which is why I would recommend having maybe a quick conversation about the topics you've chosen, without revealing too much information. This just helps get children's brains warmed up a bit and primed for expressing their knowledge. You can also provide so keywords on or near each sheet of chart paper to help jog students' memories a bit. If you were concerned about copying, you could allow each student to have his or her own piece of paper instead. Modifications of this strategy include having students making voice notes or recordings of their knowledge on a device, typing out their answers on google docs, or verbally telling you their thoughts. </li>
<li><b>Entrance Slips</b>--Much like the commonly used exit slip, students can complete the task or problem you plan on giving <i>at the end </i>of the lesson <i><b>before</b></i> you teach them. Like I mentioned above, you need to make sure the question you provide is rigorous enough to capture your true learning objective for the day. After students complete the problem or task, you can quickly sort the slips (I frequently used sticky notes for this) into piles of students who either already know what you're planning to teach, or who don't know it. Of course, you need to have a plan already in place for what you'll do with students who already know the content. I actually found it helpful to give the entrance slips a day or two ahead of the lesson (but not much more that that) so that I had time to make a meaningful plan. More on that in a subsequent post!</li>
<li><b>Five Hardest, or Hardest First</b>--Many times, traditional assignments for independent work in class or for homework are designed in a way that questions toward the beginning of the paper are easier, and the questions at the end are more challenging or complex. For gifted children, forcing them to complete the entire assignment can be grueling and create negative feelings toward your subject or class. Allowing students to voluntarily attempt the most difficult problems first is a great way of finding out whether they truly understand the concept. If they <i>do </i>demonstrate an understanding of the learning objective on the most difficult tasks, <i>please, I'm urging you, don't make them do the rest of the page! </i>It would be torture, I tell you! Torture! </li>
<li><b>Quick Write or One-Minute Paper</b>-- Similar to the graffiti wall, this strategy encourages students to write down all they know about a particular topic. This time, though, unlike the graffiti wall, their writing should be a little more coherent. If you teach a subject in which writing conventions, overall cohesiveness, and quality of writing are not important, you can most certainly adjust this activity as you see fit (though it <i>does</i> provide a great opportunity for cross-curricular writing connections...). This is meant to be quick--but be careful! Gifted students (and others!) often feel extra pressure when a time element is involved, so it's important that you let children know ahead of time what your goal is, and feel free to loosen the time constraints if you see that your students are underperforming because of the time pressure. It would be counterproductive to give a preassessment on which students can't show you what they truly know because their brains aren't working properly under the pressure. </li>
<li><b>Interactive Games</b>--Games like <a href="https://getkahoot.com/" target="_blank">Kahoot</a> allow students to show you what they know in a super fun, technological way. Limitations, of course, would include access to technology. If you haven't tried using a game like this in your classroom, I urge you to do so. You won't regret it! </li>
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A Final Note About Preassessment</h3>
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The list above is most certainly not an exhaustive list of all of the preassessment strategies but the strategies I've included are what I found to be most helpful in my 10 years of teaching. Whatever you use to determine what your students know, DO NOT GRADE THESE ASSIGNMENTS! No matter how tempting it may be to jot their scores down in your grade book, remember these activities are intended to occur BEFORE you've taught the material. It's not fair (and really not ethical) to evaluate students on something they're not yet supposed to know. Each time I gave a pretest to my students, I <i>always, always, always,</i> let them know that they could completely fail the assignment F minus style and I would be happy to see their paper. After all, if they bomb it, I know <i>exactly</i> where to start teaching, right? It's the kids who already <i>know</i> the information that added a little more challenge to my planning (of course I didn't mention the last part to students--they don't need any extra pressure). What I DID do with the scores is have students record them on a graph. Particularly if I had given them a chapter post-test as a pre-test. Then I could confer with students and together, we'd set goals about how much growth to shoot for. We graphed post test results as well, and applauded successes along the way, or determined what work was left to do.<br />
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As always, thanks so much for reading this LONG post! I hope you found the information helpful.<br />
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Ready to read more on differentiation? Click <a href="http://bit.ly/SoaringwithSnyderDifferentiatingContent">here</a> to read about what it means to <a href="http://bit.ly/SoaringwithSnyderDifferentiatingContent">differentiate content. </a><br />
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As a thank you for making it all the way to the bottom of this post, you can click to get free access to this <a href="http://bit.ly/PreandPostGrowthChart" target="_blank">Pre- and Post-test Growth Chart</a> I made for my students. *Just to be clear, by clicking to get the freebie (and instant access to the growing collection of free resources in my library of subscriber exclusives), you're also agreeing to be added to my email list, where I'll send occasional messages with fresh ideas, tips, and other resources straight to your inbox. You can unsubscribe at any time.*<br />
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If you have any questions or suggestions for other great preassessment tools, please feel free to email me (jen@soaringwithsnyder.com) or leave a comment below!<br />
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Jenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06864046205728668957noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1846154658030035687.post-10503471341852783722016-04-12T10:51:00.000-04:002018-04-05T11:00:31.110-04:00Meeting the Needs of Your Gifted Student: Differentiated Instruction--Overview 1/6<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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If you've been in the education field for any length of time, there is no doubt in my mind you've heard the term differentiation or differentiated instruction. It's hard to sit through even one staff meeting or PD session without hearing the terms once or twice, right? There is also no doubt in my mind that your understanding of what those terms truly mean, as well as your comfort level with actually implementing differentiated instruction in your classroom is likely as varied as the personalities of the students in your classes. The truth is, all of us teachers fall somewhere along a spectrum of knowledge and implementation for classroom differentiation. Some of us are well-versed and have been walking the walk for years, and some of us are just starting out--learning what differentiation is, learning what it looks like in the classroom, and learning different strategies for implementation.<br />
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I'm going to embark on a series of posts tackling differentiation. This is the first of six posts focusing on different aspects of differentiation. First, I'll outline what is really is (and isn't), and then I'll work on giving practical strategies, tips, and resources for making it work in your classroom. Differentiated instruction can be hard. Capital H hard. It can feel overwhelming and scary and frustrating. It can leave you wondering whether it is really worth the extra work it takes to make it happen. The good news is that differentiation <i>is possible</i>. There are some ways that you can schedule your days or lessons to make it easier, and it is 100 percent worth it. Not only will your gifted students benefit from it, but <i>all</i> of your students will benefit.<br />
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Differentiation is...</h3>
First, the definition. As the term implies, differentiation means <i>different</i>. Differentiated instruction is meeting students right where they are and giving them the content, tools, and strategies that they need to meet (or exceed) grade level standards. It's not a program, or package, or worksheets. It's a <i>philosophy</i>, a way of teaching. It's knowing your students <i>so well</i> that you can provide for them just what they need to continue learning. It's operating your classroom with the understanding that your students are all unique in their needs, and that they all need something <i>different</i> from you in order to have a successful school experience. <img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=soarwithsnyd-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1575423952" style="border: none; margin: 0px; text-align: center;" width="1" /><span style="text-align: center;"> </span><br />
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According to Susan Winebrenner, author of one of the <i>most useful books</i> for educators <i>Teaching Gifted Kids in the Regular Classroom (2001), </i>there are five ways you can differentiate for students in your classroom. Differentiating through content, process, and product are the three most common ways teachers meet student needs. However, teachers can also differentiate the learning environment and the way student learning is assessed. All are important, and my subsequent posts will follow up on these key areas.</div>
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Differentiated instruction has a few key components that are important to consider as you get started (or continue your journey!).<br />
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One, the structure of your instructional time is <i>critical</i> to your success in differentiating. If you're providing different activities, content, or processes for learning, you have to allow time to give students different instructions for activities or processes, or you need to carve out time to deliver different content to individuals or groups of students. One way I provided for the element of time in my classroom was by setting up guided reading and guided math groups, or a Daily 5-esque structure of mini-lessons and independent work time. This allowed me to have all students in the classroom engaged in various learning or application opportunities while allowing me to work with individuals or small groups of students. The nice (and research-based) thing about providing students with small bursts of content instruction and then lots of time to apply their learning was that not only did it address students' attention span, it freed me up to work with students and support their learning <i>as it was happening. </i>I could interject help right as mistakes or misunderstandings were occurring, providing on-the-spot scaffolding. I could also provide hard enough content, activities, or experiences for my gifted learners so that they were challenged appropriately.<br />
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Second, differentiated instruction must be based on knowing your students. You have to know them really, <i>really</i>, well. This means you need to spend time getting to know them as people--personality, learning preferences, etc., and also as learners--what skills and strategies do they already know, and what do they <i>need to know </i>next<i>.</i> Learning what their previous achievement or IQ scores is helpful, for sure. Finding out this information is necessary so that you can plan for instruction, learning activities, and flexible groups in your classroom. However, please note: it is important not to group your students ONLY by their ability. Just because two students have an IQ of 130 doesn't mean they have equivalent skills in analyzing nonfiction text. It also doesn't mean that they are better at analyzing nonfiction text than your student with an IQ of 115. IQ is a measure of perceived potential, not of students' previous achievement. Aside from being an attentive teacher, one of the best ways you can get to know your students is by using formative assessment. The information you can glean from a simple pre-test is not only helpful, it is imperative. One of the worst things we can do for <i>any</i> student is to make them "learn" content or skills that they already know.<br />
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Finally, differentiation should involve student choice (at least sometimes!). Allowing students to choose what they're reading, what they want to research, or how they'll show their learning are just a few ways we can provide for students learning preferences and interests. And if we do this often, we find that our students are more engaged, more involved, and more receptive to learning new material--even when it's time to learn something they didn't have a choice about.<br />
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Differentiation is NOT...</h3>
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So, just like when we teach our students new vocabulary, we have students think of examples of the word, and we also strengthen their thinking by having them think about the non-examples. It's important to note a few important things about what differentiation is NOT. </div>
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Differentiation is NOT tracking students by broad ability, or even grouping them solely based on ability within the classroom. Like I hinted at above, these models don't allow for enough flexibility in meeting students' needs on a case-by-case or skill-by-skill basis. Further, tracking often results in children who are in minority populations or who have lower socioeconomic status being placed in lower groups based on teacher bias and then getting stuck there because they receive lower quality teaching (http://www.nea.org/tools/16899.htm). The alternative to tracking and ability grouping is flexible grouping, particularly in the areas of math and reading instruction. And IF students are grouped flexibly within their classroom, they should be matched to curriculum and instruction that is closely related to their needs (Tieso, 2005). Cross-grade grouping in reading has also been shown to be successful (Robinson, Shore, and Enerson, 2007). </div>
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Differentiation is NOT group work IF each group is doing the SAME thing! I've seen this happen many times. If they're working on different activities at the same time, great. However, if your intention is that they will all still complete the same activities, just at different <i>times</i>, this is NOT differentiation. You might as well just do several whole-group activities and save yourself some trouble because these are essentially the same thing. </div>
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Finally, differentiated instruction does NOT mean everyone in your classroom is on an IEP! While goal setting and progress monitoring are valuable tools, and individualization is ideal, it is not realistic to think that you will be able to fully differentiate every subject for every student every day of the year. You just can't. You're only going to frustrate yourself or burn yourself out. </div>
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If you're interested in learning more about strategies for differentiating, including tricks and tools for implementing them in your classroom, click here to visit the next <a href="http://bit.ly/preassessmentblogpost" target="_blank">post in the series about preassessment. </a><br />
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Sources:</div>
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Robinson, A., Shore, B. M., & Enersen, D. L. (2007). <i>Best practices in gifted education: An evidence-based guide</i>. Waco, TX: Prufrock Press. </div>
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Tiesco, C. L. (2005). The effects of grouping practices and curricular adjustments on achievement. <i>Journal for the Education of the Gifted, 29,</i> 60-89. </div>
Jenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06864046205728668957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1846154658030035687.post-91029767664306978792016-03-31T11:33:00.000-04:002018-04-05T10:55:01.505-04:00Why Are We Holding Back Our Brightest Kids? The Truth About Academic Acceleration and Your Gifted Child<div style="line-height: normal;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Think of some of today’s young talented celebrities: Lebron James, Taylor Swift, Dakota Fanning. These are people whom the country has deemed to have some sort of genius—athletic, musical, or dramatic. These are people who were given permission to reach their potential as gifted people at their own pace. Imagine someone telling Lebron that he couldn’t play basketball for the NBA right out of high school because he was too young – or because we were concerned that he wouldn’t develop good social relationships with his older teammates. Imagine telling Dakota Fanning (the youngest person ever to be nominated for a Screen Actors Guild award) that she wasn’t ready to be an actor because she might not fit in with her peers on the set. It sounds ridiculous, right? Yet teachers, parents, and administrators express these types of concerns about our brightest young people and hold them back based on these same presumptions each day. Most educators deeply mistrust the idea of accelerating gifted and talented children, believing (often incorrectly) that acceleration will negatively impact kids socially and academically. Today's post will explore some really important information that you should consider carefully if you are a parent or teacher of a gifted child. The majority of this post has been taken from a paper I wrote in grad school a while ago, but the information still rings <i>so very true. </i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Acceleration occurs when students are allowed to “progress through an educational program at rates faster or at ages younger than conventional” (Brown, 1993). Acceleration can apply to a wide range of strategies, beginning as young as kindergarten, and continuing through college. It can apply to 18 different strategies, including skipping entire grades, early entrance to kindergarten or first grade, subject acceleration, in which students are moved to higher grade levels only for particular subject matter, “telescoping” curriculum—that is accomplishing 3 years worth of curriculum in 2, participating in fast-paced extracurricular classes, or entering into college early (Robinson, Shore, & Enersen, 2007). Acceleration can also take the form of continuous progress, self-paced instruction, curriculum compacting, mentoring, correspondence courses, early graduation, concurrent/dual enrollment, advanced placement, credit by examination, acceleration in college, early entrance into middle school, high school, or college (Colangelo, Assouline, & Gross, 2004). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The need for acceleration of gifted students becomes evident when we consider several factors that we know about gifted learners. First, these students tend to learn more quickly than their peers. They can absorb and process information efficiently. Second, Gifted students are able to comprehend information in greater depth than other students. Third, talented students come to class with readiness that is different from that of average ability students. It has been noted that they come to class already knowing between 50 and 85 percent of the prescribed material (Den-Mo, 2007).<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="text-indent: 36px;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">T</span></span><span style="text-indent: 36px;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">here is not much documentation on the history of acceleration. According to Brown, acceleration is a recent educational option—stating that, “the idea that children should remain with their chronological peers was not widely held before the mid-nineteenth century. It was expected that student performance would mandate where students were placed and when they graduated” (Brown, 1993, p. 3). It was not until later when school attendance increased because education for all became a mandate, and psychological theories about child development led to the creation of a more formalized age-grade structure (Brown, 1993). </span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The good</span></h4>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Much research has been conducted on the effects of acceleration in any of its forms, with benefits shown in most cases. In <i>A Nation Deceived: How Schools Hold Back America’s Brightest Students,</i> the authors conducted a meta-analysis of studies conducted on acceleration and found that bright students almost always benefit from accelerated programs of study (Colangelo, Assouline, & Gross, 2004, p. 29). On achievement tests, “accelerated students perform almost as well as their older classmates, even those with similar IQs—meaning that an accelerated 7-year-old with an IQ of 133 typically scores nearly as well on the same test as a 133 IQ 8-year-old who has had an extra year of school” (Cloud, Badowski, Rubiner, & Scully, 2004, p. 57). These same accelerated children far outscore their age-mates, who are equally gifted, but remained in their grade-level (Cloud, Badowski, Rubiner, & Scully, 2004). The meta-analytic studies conducted by the University of Iowa also showed that other provisions for gifted students were less effective than acceleration, with the average effect size being .41 for special programs of enrichment for gifted and talented students. The study also concludes that accelerated students are more likely to aspire to advanced degrees (Colangelo, Assouline, & Gross, 2004). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The most frequent refrain that teachers, parents, and administrators voice about acceleration is a concern for the social-emotional well-being of the children. While acceleration, especially radical acceleration (think 11-year-olds attending college), and grade skipping can come with potential issues, the research has shown that <i>in general</i> the benefits outweigh the negative effects—especially when plans are made carefully and several recommended factors are considered prior to moving the student. Researchers have found that there is almost no effect on the participation in school activities. Accelerated students participate as much in extracurricular and co-curricular activities as their non-accelerated peers (Colangelo, Assouline, & Gross, 2004). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The (temporarily) not <i>as</i> good</span></h4>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">There are several issues that may arise when a child is accelerated though they have usually been deemed small and short-lived in most cases. According to the University of Iowa study, the meta-analysis showed that students may experience a slight readjustment in their self-image because of the move to a more intellectually challenging atmosphere with academic peers. <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">The authors note that this effect usually seems to be </span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">quite small and short-lived, but that it <i>shouldn’t be ignored</i>, and that the profound benefits of acceleration outweigh the social risks in most cases (Colangelo, Assouline, & Gross, 2004). Some researchers have found a little-fish-big-pond effect on the self-esteem on some kids, but again, the effect is usually small and temporary. It has been speculated that this effect may even be healthy for the egos of these super-talented kids (Cloud, Badowski, Rubiner, & Scully, 2004)! In a 2010 article, researchers note, “To be clear, there is no evidence that acceleration has a negative impact on a student’s social-emotional development” (Colangelo N. , et al., 2010). This is somewhat of a contradiction to what I had previously stated, however, it may be safe to say that there is </span><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">little</i><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"> evidence that a child’s social-emotional development will be harmed in the process of acceleration, as long as their case is carefully considered prior to making changes in their educational plan.</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">How do I know if the gifted child in my life is a good </span>candidate for acceleration?</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">When it comes to deciding which students are good candidates for acceleration, several factors should be considered. Feldhusen, Proctor, and Black suggest that there should be a “comprehensive psychological evaluation of the child’s intellectual functioning, academic skill levels, and social-emotional adjustment by a psychologist” (2002). Following that, they make several recommendations about the child. They should have:</span></div>
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<li><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: inherit;">Intellectually, an IQ of 125 or higher or have a level of mental development above the mean for the grade he or she desires to enter. </span></li>
<li><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: inherit;">Academically, the child should demonstrate skill levels above the mean for the grade desired. If the child is high in several skill levels but low in only one, they child may be advanced to the appropriate grade level as long as private tutoring is provided in the area of weakness. Conversely, some children’s academic skill levels vary considerably. If they are far advanced in math, for example, but at- or below-level in language arts, subject area acceleration may be the most appropriate option. </span></li>
<li><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: inherit;">Socially and emotionally, the child should be free of any serious adjustment problems. Additionally, the child should demonstrate a high degree of persistence and motivation for learning. However, in specific cases, there may be serious adjustment problems caused by inappropriately low grade placement. In such cases, the problem may be alleviated by grade advancement. </span></li>
<li><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: inherit;">Physically, the child should be in good health. The child’s size should only be considered to the extent that competitive sports may be viewed as important in later years. The psychologist should determine that the child does not feel unduly pressured by the parents to advance. </span></li>
<li><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: inherit;">The parents must be in favor of grade advancement, but <b><i>the child</i></b> <b><i>should express a desire to more ahead as well.</i></b> </span></li>
<li><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: inherit;">The receiving teachers must have positive attitudes toward acceleration and be willing to help the child adjust to the new situation. </span></li>
<li><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: inherit;">Transitions should generally be made at naturally occurring points throughout the school year. </span></li>
<li><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: inherit;">All cases should be arranged on a trial basis, and the child should not be made to feel he or she is a failure if it does not go well. </span></li>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">All bulleted information: (Feldhusen, Proctor, & Black, 2002, pp. 170-171)</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The Iowa Acceleration Scale (IAS), created by Great Potential Press, Inc. is on of the best tools to help determine whether a child is a good candidate for subject-area and/or whole-grade acceleration. This tool takes what could be a subjective decision, left up to anecdotal data and presuppositions about the child, and changes it into an <i>objective</i> decision by quantifying information such as the child's birth order, extracurricular involvement, his or her feelings about acceleration, his age, size, and many other factors. The IAS combines that information with scores from grade-level and above-grade-level nationally normed tests. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="text-indent: 36px;">It appears that the case for acceleration is very clear, supported by </span><i style="text-indent: 36px;">years</i><span style="text-indent: 36px;"> of documentation of the positive effects. And yet, for the most part, general education practitioners often resist making this option available for their bright students, even though the research suggests that doing so is effective (Viadero, 2004). If we can’t provide children with neatly tailored educational packages designed only for them, then at the very least we should enable them to move ahead at a pace and to a level that meets their needs! Research finds little data to support the notion that people are affected negatively in the end. In fact, longitudinal research has shown that accelerated students attain advanced degrees, produce scholarly works, and contribute professionally at rates well above societal baselines (Feldhusen, Proctor, & Black, 2002). It is important to get the word out to educators and parents that acceleration is an option, and it is an option well worth considering.</span><span style="text-indent: 36px;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: 36px;">Success Stories</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="text-indent: 36px;">In my time teaching gifted children, I have been a part of acceleration teams in two different schools. We <i>always</i> used the Iowa Acceleration Scale, met with parents multiple times, had very open dialogue with the children in consideration for this academic intervention, and had honest conversations with teachers who would be receiving the accelerated children. I'm proud to say that (to my most up-to-date knowledge) every. single. case has been a success. </span><span style="text-indent: 36px;">I experienced the process both as a teacher sending the child up to a new teacher (or teachers) in the grade level above me, as well as a teacher on the receiving end of the acceleration, accepting the accelerated child into my class. </span><span style="text-indent: 36px;">Each time, I watched the acceleration play out just as the research has suggested it would. There was usually a period of adjustment in the beginning (going from the big fish/little pond scenario to the little(er) fish in a big(ger) pond), sometimes the child was reluctant at first to have to </span><i style="text-indent: 36px;">work </i><span style="text-indent: 36px;">at learning, or disappointed to get scores on assignments or tests that were slightly lower than what they were used to getting. However, it wasn't long before the successes started happening. In each case, not only did the child quickly assimilate to the next grade level up, but they also rose to the top of that class as well. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: 36px;">Do you have a success story? I would love to hear it! Leave me a comment below and tell me about your experience. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm3jqr_vX6AXyz1vnt_B-5BoNxxIAAYlYSfcWCahuV0pvWHXqkYWQXhdh_4f8P4FVoS61RUk3hNTsC3A3H5ADjW6o0qi-E0-EzBrdK-hFZxvNp3tRO7MbDMdTtI7es0dux8BJ1lT0O-zQ/s1600/Acceleration+Blog+Post+Images.009.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm3jqr_vX6AXyz1vnt_B-5BoNxxIAAYlYSfcWCahuV0pvWHXqkYWQXhdh_4f8P4FVoS61RUk3hNTsC3A3H5ADjW6o0qi-E0-EzBrdK-hFZxvNp3tRO7MbDMdTtI7es0dux8BJ1lT0O-zQ/s400/Acceleration+Blog+Post+Images.009.jpeg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: 36px;">You may be interested in reading more about people who have experienced the acceleration process. Here are some websites at which you can find more information: </span></div>
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<span style="text-indent: 36px;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #162777; font-family: inherit; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px;"><a href="http://www.davidsongifted.org/db/Articles_id_10651.aspx" target="_blank">Whole grade acceleration success stories</a></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: 36px;">Read more about acceleration, including the follow-up publication to <i>A Nation Deceived: How Schools Hold Back America's Brightest Students, </i>titled <i><a href="http://www.accelerationinstitute.org/nation_empowered/" target="_blank">A Nation Empowered How Evidence Trumps the Excuses Holding Back America's Brightest Students. </a> </i><a href="http://www.accelerationinstitute.org/" target="_blank">This website</a> has all the latest information, including the poster below, which is an awesome summary of their research. </span><br />
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<a href="http://www.accelerationinstitute.org/nation_empowered/ne_poster.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkMeGmBjKWkusDugUP-w_adIhBM7BJzx0s6Onz4C_Ch6ULZaB8nCr8erI2G7uttbYp1xAOnSCCUOPaLEZNPXmtUSD5RJzjYLuRccGtyk9j6gVwuM9sQ45ubf__qpYK1ybXovQ2r2TloZI/s400/ne_poster.jpg" width="308" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Thanks for reading!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">~Jen</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: 36px;">Sources</span></h4>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Brown, R. S. (1993). School acceleration: What does the research say? <i>Scope</i> , 2-9.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Cloud, J., Badowski, C., Rubiner, B., & Scully, S. (2004, September 27). Saving the smart kids. <i>Time</i> , pp. 56-61.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Colangelo, N., & Assouline, S. (2005). Accelerating gifted children. <i>Principal</i> , 62-62.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Colangelo, N., Assouline, S. G., & Gross, M. U. (2004). <i>A Nation Deceived: How Schools Hold Back America's Brightest Students.</i> Iowa City: The University of Iowa.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Colangelo, N., Assouline, S. G., Marron, M., Castellano, J. A., Clinkenbeard, P. R., Rogers, K., et al. (2010). Guidelines for developing an academic acceleration policy. <i>Journal of Advanced Academics</i> , 180-203.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Den-Mo, T. (2007). Differentiating curriculum for gifted students by providing accelerated options. <i>Gifted Education International</i> , 88-97.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Feldhusen, J. F., Proctor, T. B., & Black, K. N. (2002). Guidelines for grade advancement of precocious children. <i>Roeper Review</i> , 169-171.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Gross, M. U. (2006). Exceptionally gifted children: Long-term outcomes of academic acceleration and non-acceleration. <i>Journal for the Education of the Gifted</i> , 404-429.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Guenther, A. (1998). What parents and teachers should know about academic acceleration. <i>National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented</i> . Washington, DC: Office of Educational Research and Improvement.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Robinson, A., Shore, B. M., & Enersen, D. L. (2007). <i>Best Practices in Gifted Education.</i> Waco, TX: Prufrock Press, Inc. .</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin-left: 36px; text-indent: -36px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Vanderkam, L., & Whitmire, R. (2009, August 12). What ever happened to grade skipping? <i>Education Week</i> , pp. 30-36.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Viadero, D. (2004, September 24). Report urges acceleration for gifted students. <i>Education Week</i> , pp. 5-5.</span></div>
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Jenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06864046205728668957noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1846154658030035687.post-20181960415789511022016-03-23T20:22:00.000-04:002018-05-24T08:51:34.639-04:00Helping Your Gifted Student Survive (and Thrive) During the Season of High-Stakes Testing: Fourteen Tips for Before, During, and After the Test<div class="separator" style="clear: both; display: none; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXZDcSFaLDdXVZt4DOWH26h6gRXwgzIBUMz1ppytyi2arNDYk4lgr8M4ZnnUTQqeV_zKzbL_VLx2Lh4Uk3q5Z7Rn0ZQkOghgUGQdaUX1sd1Dq94ECD6koNStQ7Qd6Ct4nhcAR1o6iQAUg/s1600/test+anxiety+blog+post+slider.001.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="325" data-original-width="575" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXZDcSFaLDdXVZt4DOWH26h6gRXwgzIBUMz1ppytyi2arNDYk4lgr8M4ZnnUTQqeV_zKzbL_VLx2Lh4Uk3q5Z7Rn0ZQkOghgUGQdaUX1sd1Dq94ECD6koNStQ7Qd6Ct4nhcAR1o6iQAUg/s1600/test+anxiety+blog+post+slider.001.jpeg" /></a></div>
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Feeling the Pressure</div>
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Children of all ages are starting to feel the pressure that surrounds this season of high-stakes testing.<br />
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Gifted children, in particular, may feel a <b>great deal of pressure to achieve</b> at the highest levels on these tests. Sometimes the pressure is self-imposed, stemming from an internal desire to live up to their "gifts." Other times, it comes from a longing to please their teachers and parents.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9InGWsOhT-OCVeBDi1UvsrQ4gP5xCY1Ep-mGe0oav8rQ3tZQyvOndAyPDKwJ4Sq2lIgLAq0_KJIpZFbRbIQSoTgdDMGUny2Zcn_HI7jwGJFRdxAExfeEGzErfwwBG_AiK-MivrDhpKAg/s1600/test+anxiety+blog+post+pinterest+image.001.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="850" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9InGWsOhT-OCVeBDi1UvsrQ4gP5xCY1Ep-mGe0oav8rQ3tZQyvOndAyPDKwJ4Sq2lIgLAq0_KJIpZFbRbIQSoTgdDMGUny2Zcn_HI7jwGJFRdxAExfeEGzErfwwBG_AiK-MivrDhpKAg/s640/test+anxiety+blog+post+pinterest+image.001.jpeg" width="337" /></a>And, unfortunately, <b>some school cultures</b>, even while trying to put a positive spin on the mandatory testing, <b>have caused our children to worry</b> that they will somehow underperform or let their peers down if they make mistakes on the tests. I've recently even heard of schools creating test-based competitions--children with the highest scores are rewarded with parties and prizes!<br />
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While no doubt, these efforts to increase test engagement are <b>coming from a positive place</b> of trying to motivate the students body as a whole to try to perform well on the tests, they end up <b>increasing the pressure exponentially</b> for gifted students, who are looked to as the people who are "supposed" to get the best scores. After all, they're so <i>smart, </i>right? And, even if you're lucky enough to be teaching in a place that doesn't place much importance on the tests, even if you give your <i>best</i> efforts to minimize testing pressure, your gifted students will STILL sense the weight of the tests, because of the nature of their giftedness and heightened sensitivity to external stimuli.<br />
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<b>Teachers and parents can try to <i>say</i> that the test scores don't matter, but if there is even a <i>hint</i> of inauthenticity to those statements, you can bet your gifted child or student is going to pick up on it. </b></div>
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I know that my gifted students, particularly my fourth and fifth graders, <i>consistently</i> expressed their worry about upcoming state tests, despite the daily reminders that these high-stakes tests were largely <strike>worthless, only measuring accurately the average income levels of students' parents,</strike> not a big deal. They had gotten the notion in their heads that if they were to underperform on the exams, they wouldn't be <i>gifted anymore</i>, and then they wouldn't be able to come to my classes any longer.<br />
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Can you imagine if that were true? Sorry, kids. You can't come to the place where your academic (and social-emotional) needs are truly being met. It's not illogical thinking, though, is it? After all, didn't a test get them <i>into "</i>the program"? So, we had many, many talks about how the results of the tests would be used, and how none of those uses included being used to disqualify them from being labeled as gifted.*<br />
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Telling the children these facts helped to ease some of their fears a little, but there are <b>some important things we need to know about our gifted children</b> as they face any testing scenario. I also have some suggestions for ways to help your anxiety-ridden child cope with their worries. </div>
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Tried and True Tips for Facing Testing Fears and Moving Forward</h3>
There are some important and helpful things you can do to help ease your gifted child's fears. Many of these are things I did in my gifted classroom with my students, so I've learned from experience that they really do help!<br />
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Before the Test</h4>
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1. First, no matter whether it is a high-stakes testing scenario or a pop quiz in your math class, it is important to acknowledge that the anxiety that your gifted student is experiencing is <i>real. </i>When a person experiences this type of anxiety, it can cause the body's fight or flight response to be triggered, which in essence renders the brain's critical thinking areas far less effective than normal. It's important that we recognize these <i>real</i> fears and <i>real</i> physiological responses instead of trying to minimize them or brush them off. </div>
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2. Help your gifted student become familiar with the test. It's easy to assume that your students already know the answers to many of these questions, but remember, when they're stressed, their critical thinking skills aren't functioning like they normally do! Allow your children to ask every. single. question. they have, and please don't make them feel silly for asking (see number one above). Here are some examples of things you may want to discuss about the test itself.<br />
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<li>What is the format of the test? What types of questions will they encounter?</li>
<li>How long will the test take? How many questions will there be?</li>
<li>Is it timed or do they have as long as they need to finish?</li>
<li>Can they skip questions and come back? </li>
<li>If the test is on a computer, what will happen if the computer has a problem? </li>
<li>If the test is a pencil/paper test, what will happen if they forget a pencil? What if the pencil breaks? </li>
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3. See if you can help the child identify their own internal dialogue--what are they fearful of <i>exactly? </i>What is that pesky little voice inside saying to them?<i> </i>Once you get to the bottom of what they're telling themselves, work toward changing the dialogue to something more positive.** Below are some examples of common things I heard my gifted students say:</div>
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<li>"If I don't pass the test, I might get kicked out of the gifted program at school." </li>
<li>"What if Johnny Gifted-Peer gets a higher score than me?" Or worse, "What if Suzy Not-Gifted-Peer gets a better score than me?" </li>
<li>"I'm afraid that my mom (teacher, dad, etc.) will be disappointed in me if I mess up."</li>
<li>"I'm not good at taking tests."</li>
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4. If the child is being tested on something he or she finds challenging, it's a great time to teach proper study skills like making flash cards, recopying notes, devising mnemonic devices, etc. If they feel really well prepared for the tests, the anxiety can be lessened. </div>
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5. Help your student practice asking for help if they need it. I know that this can be particularly difficult (I know this from my own experience! I didn't (and still don't) like asking for help). I found it helpful to develop a quiet signal that a student and I could use if they needed help. Sometimes it was as simple as placing a sticky note in a particular area on their desk or computer, maybe it was a baseball-coach-style ear tug or nose wiggle. Whatever it was, if the student was willing to ask for help after we minimized the risk of drawing attention to themselves for <i>needing</i> help, I was a happy camper. </div>
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6. Prepare physically for the test. This includes getting proper sleep, nutrition, and exercise in the <i>days</i> leading up to the test. </div>
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During the Test</h4>
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1. Have your student or child use breathing strategies to help ease the body's physical response.</div>
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2. Allow (and encourage) them to take breaks as needed. </div>
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3. Make them hydrate! There is scientific evidence that water acts like a mental lubricant--increasing brain efficiency and function. </div>
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4. Allow your gifted student to keep a small stress ball or other small comfort object nearby or in a pocket.</div>
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5. Help your child decide on a short phrase, an affirmation of sorts, to visualize or whisper as needed. </div>
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After the Test</h4>
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1. Debrief, but focus on the positive. What do they feel went well? (Teachers, be careful. Unfortunately, you will need to be sure you stick to generalities here. If you've ever proctored a high-stakes test, you know that the testing protocols are usually QUITE strict about not allowing any discussion of the tests' content <i>whatsoever.) </i></div>
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<i>2. </i>Rest. Test-taking is difficult for everyone, but it can really take a physical toll on children with high levels of anxiety. Allow time for your students to rest and relax. They need it (and you probably do, to!)</div>
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3. Move on. It's over now. There's nothing left to do. Remind your gifted child that they've done their absolute best and no matter what, your opinion of them won't change. Remind them that you're proud of them for facing their fears and getting through a tough time in their life!</div>
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<a href="http://eepurl.com/dijgLX" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="768" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvQ9KYj_CcLA01XwKVaDL1e1GlW-lAWAknt5lKbr-CukvH44xAVofmJtYsDOWrus5h1jdVrBfww9iRILML_MUqjiOZ4zaABOKJRmKCH3FwYuiaD7cuYp7Z9ikjbytARXJmhFb-ZHnWF7M/s400/test+anxiety+handout+cover+.010.jpeg" width="400" /></a>Phew! You made it to the bottom of the post! And good thing you did, because I have a FREEBIE just for you! Click on the image on the right to sign up for access a handout that contains the tips above written in student-friendly language. It's ready for you to print and use, then send home for parents to read with their kids! *Just to be clear, by clicking to get the freebie (and instant access to the growing collection of free resources in my library of subscriber exclusives), you're also agreeing to be added to my email list, where I'll send occasional messages with fresh ideas, tips, and other resources straight to your inbox. You can unsubscribe at any time.*<br />
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Thank you so VERY much for reading. I do appreciate it! If you like what you're reading, don't miss a post! Click the subscribe button on the right to get emails with my blog posts delivered right to your inbox!<br />
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*Thankfully, in Ohio the law protects children from the removal of the gifted label. The law is written so that once they are identified as gifted, they will always carry the gifted label.*</div>
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**It's important to recognize that while you can help a child practice changing the dialogue, they may really benefit from a visit to the school counselor or therapist who is better equipped to handle these things. Don't be afraid to refer the child for more help!</div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">References:</span></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://giftedchallenges.blogspot.com/2014/02/tips-for-taming-test-anxiety-because.html" target="_blank">Tips for taming test anxiety (because even gifted kids get anxious), by Gail Post, Ph.D.</a></span><br />
<a href="http://sengifted.org/archives/articles/keeping-a-healthy-perspective-on-stress-and-test-anxiety#sthash.4Fz98Nq0.dpuf" target="_blank">Keeping a Healthy Perspective on Stress and Test Anxiety, by Vidisha Patel</a><br />
<a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/gifted-ed-guru/201205/gifted-studentsscared-tests-part-2" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Gifted Students...Scared of Tests? Part 2, by Christopher Taibbi, M.A.T.</span></a><br />
<a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/you-illuminated/201010/why-your-brain-needs-water" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Why Your Brain Needs Water, by <span style="-webkit-transition: color 0.2s; clear: both; transition: color 0.2s;">Joshua Gowin Ph.D</span></span></a><br />
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Jenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06864046205728668957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1846154658030035687.post-24655038820454537922016-03-10T15:37:00.003-05:002018-04-05T10:58:31.628-04:00How I Use Bloom's Taxonomy To Reach All the Learners in My Classroom<div class="separator" style="clear: both; display: none; text-align: center;">
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If you're a teacher, there is a 99.234% chance that you've heard about that guy named Benjamin Bloom, creator of the infamous Bloom's Taxonomy. But have you actually used the taxonomy in your classroom? Like, really, thoughtfully used it? It's a great framework for educators to implement while planning for instruction and creating assessments that are aligned to the standards. First, though, it's important to have more than a vague idea not only of what each of the six levels of the taxonomy are, but what it means to create and implement lessons and activities that are both aligned with the <b>consistently</b> reach the <i>highest levels</i> of the taxonomy. Gifted learners NEED this consistency, and they really need to spend the <u>majority</u> of their learning time in the highest levels of the taxonomy. Due to their very nature as high-ability learners, it's likely that ( <a href="http://soaringwithsnyder.blogspot.com/2016/02/ten-things-i-wish-people-would-stop.html" target="_blank">if they don't already know it</a>) gifted children will move <i>very quickly</i> through the lowest levels of the hierarchy. In order to meet their needs, they need to be interacting with content and skills in deeper, more meaningful ways. Let's explore the taxonomy a little, and then consider some ways to strengthen the implementation of the taxonomy in your own lesson and assessment design.<br />
hierarchy of learning, and reaching towards allowing students to<br />
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Bloom's 101</h3>
First a little crash/refresher course, a Bloom's 101-ish type review of the important aspects of where the taxonomy originated, and how it has evolved.<br />
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Benjamin Bloom and some colleagues first published their framework for learning in 1956. Their motivation was really creating a way to categorize educational goals. They called it "Taxonomy of Educational Objectives", but eventually it became more widely known as Bloom's Taxonomy. (Am I the only one who feels bad for the colleagues of his who don't get much credit for this creation? Sorry, I digress.) It was created with six categories: Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation. The Comprehension level and every level above that Bloom considered to be skills and abilities; they were things that could only be achieved after the knowledge was already in place.<br />
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Here is a simple graphic I <a href="https://juliaec.wordpress.com/2011/03/23/blooms-taxonomy-encouraging-higher-cognitive-thinking-in-primary-school-classrooms/" target="_blank">found</a> that shows the original taxonomy:<br />
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Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching has a <a href="https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/blooms-taxonomy/" target="_blank">great article</a> outlining the six levels of the taxonomy. Here is an excerpt of their definitions of the levels, based on their interpretation of the original publication:<br />
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<div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"Here are the authors’ brief explanations of these main categories in from the appendix of<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Taxonomy of Educational Objectives </em>(<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Handbook One</em>, pp. 201-207):</span></div>
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<ul style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; line-height: 1.3; margin: 0px; padding: 5px 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong>Knowledge</strong> “involves the recall of specifics and universals, the recall of methods and processes, or the recall of a pattern, structure, or setting.”</span></li>
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<ul style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; line-height: 1.3; margin: 0px; padding: 5px 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong>Comprehension</strong> “refers to a type of understanding or apprehension such that the individual knows what is being communicated and can make use of the material or idea being communicated without necessarily relating it to other material or seeing its fullest implications.”</span></li>
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<ul style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; line-height: 1.3; margin: 0px; padding: 5px 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong>Application</strong> refers to the “use of abstractions in particular and concrete situations.”</span></li>
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<ul style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; line-height: 1.3; margin: 0px; padding: 5px 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong>Analysis</strong> represents the “breakdown of a communication into its constituent elements or parts such that the relative hierarchy of ideas is made clear and/or the relations between ideas expressed are made explicit.”</span></li>
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<ul style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; line-height: 1.3; margin: 0px; padding: 5px 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong>Synthesis</strong> involves the “putting together of elements and parts so as to form a whole.”</span></li>
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<li style="border: 0px; line-height: 1.3; margin: 0px; padding: 5px 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong>Evaluation</strong> engenders “judgments about the value of material and methods for given purposes.”</span></li>
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<div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The 1984 edition of <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Handbook One </em>is available in the CFT Library in Calhoun 116. See its<a href="http://acorn.library.vanderbilt.edu/cgi-bin/isbn-search/0582280109" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(102, 153, 204); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #336699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">ACORN record</a> for call number and availability."</span></div>
In 2001, a former student of Bloom's decided to revise the taxonomy to include verbs as descriptors instead of nouns for each of the levels, because verbs imply action, and are more fitting to the fact that learning is an active process.<br />
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The revised taxonomy is summarized beautifully in this table from <a href="http://www.celt.iastate.edu/teaching/effective-teaching-practices/revised-blooms-taxonomy" target="_blank">Iowa State University Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching.</a> It's easy to see how the cognitive process moves from lower order thinking skills like remembering and understanding up into the highest levels of thinking: evaluating and creating.<br />
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<a href="http://www.celt.iastate.edu/teaching/effective-teaching-practices/revised-blooms-taxonomy" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="491" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnbGxqPKsQn6rEHdY5CZAKCPuqjqVJjYrwgIvj6q4lnzOoziuxFzJojiaJkxNCciBlD3A9wyGGc3HJ678RrGuVZSDJgjpE8wROYnMRysBqXczVXZ2vkCpj3QAW_bRNZaeG0eZS4drmlHg/s640/cognitive-process-table.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<h3>
So, now what?</h3>
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<a href="http://www.davidsongifted.org/db/Articles_id_10292.aspx" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOH1FG-GZJqLI5vO4wtNpZRnqogunlCqIPuDrDlCs10Zx8EmNJ9WWSQyiFYye9CxDL0RyzirhuEvoq8ZHJomguVQ92q4FXBi4gcX_47lN0wASZwThIj6HWUt5ZVg9RAJPwM7zveGlY9Us/s400/Bloom%2527s+Blog+Post+Images.001.jpeg" width="400" /></a>Now that you <b>remember</b> and perhaps <b>understand</b> the taxonomy, it's time to learn how to <b>apply</b> the learning. Start by <b>analyzing </b>what you're doing in your classroom already-- <b>evaluate</b> your current curricular materials, including your learning objectives and assessments. Are they helping you to reach the highest levels of the taxonomy? There is a good chance that the materials you're using are not going much beyond the first three levels of the hierarchy. So, now it's time to <b>create</b> materials and build lessons and objectives that help your students learn and achieve at the highest levels. </div>
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Getting into the habit</h3>
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Crafting Questions, Lessons, and Assessments That Employ Higher Order Thinking </h4>
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One of the first things I found helpful when I set a goal for myself to be more mindful of reaching for those higher order thinking skills with more intention was to first teach the taxonomy to my students. Yep. I said it. Teach it. To <i>them</i>. </div>
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You know how you have accountability partners when you start a new workout plan, or you have certain people in your life that you ask to help keep you on track when you're trying to reach new goals you've set for yourself? Well, aside from a teacher friend in your building to whom you can <i>talk</i> each day about how you <i>think</i> you did, or an administrator who can tell you how <i>they</i> think you're doing, there is an easy, effective solution to help get you started and keep you going. And the solution happens to be sitting right in front of you. Times 25. I'm serious. You can teach Bloom's Taxonomy to your students, and they will help you stick with it. </div>
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When I taught the taxonomy to my students, I used an analogy from one of my favorite teacher authors, Jen Jones from <a href="http://www.helloliteracy.com/" target="_blank">Hello Literacy</a>. She has a passion for literacy instruction, but she also has a background in gifted education, which is how I stumbled upon her years ago. She created a set of posters that equate Bloom's taxonomy to cell phone signal strength. So smart, right? It is probably difficult to find a child, even in the youngest classrooms, who isn't at least aware of those little bars on the mobile phone, right? Take a look at what the posters look like in my classroom: </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqdqYLqHWzYoVMG9kCoVvJqjF44OCj1iL3WGjKP3XVynzrJOtS65ZONVtGpywcdBx2-_Nk6HJ32VvGGZ7932lpA2BgipRQ-nDCp8erLZ6R7OdNYLPts51Wyn7Fi3zaeynv336QC6BHk2U/s1600/Bloom%2527s+Blog+Post+Images.003.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqdqYLqHWzYoVMG9kCoVvJqjF44OCj1iL3WGjKP3XVynzrJOtS65ZONVtGpywcdBx2-_Nk6HJ32VvGGZ7932lpA2BgipRQ-nDCp8erLZ6R7OdNYLPts51Wyn7Fi3zaeynv336QC6BHk2U/s640/Bloom%2527s+Blog+Post+Images.003.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Here is a closer look, right from Jen Jones' blog, Hello Literacy: </div>
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<span style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.helloliteracy.com/2013_09_01_archive.html" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh24Ao_VHv5QnFmPDGwKciHuRFtf65_rUDMf5GBnWbP9B02z0US550znrcAIau6GmuNIprDaFwmGRd4CkdQdG7A1BPY1Dbls-BPR72AeKHFR5-LW2zwUFTdOSb20KT9uAUEznn5L9x5ytw/s400/jjones+blooms.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div>
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SO great, right? (You can link to her blog by clicking on the picture directly above, and you can buy her posters for yourself <a href="https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Revised-Blooms-Taxonomy-Posters-for-Higher-Level-Thinking-348294" target="_blank">here</a>.) The nice thing for me about the posters, aside from how they made a really dynamic display on my classroom wall, is that they were a constant reminder for me <i>and</i> my students about our goal to strive for the highest levels of thinking each and every day. It's a little tricky to see in the picture, but there are verbs on each of the poster that also help us to do things like creating questions easily during a discussion of ANY topic, and design activities while lesson planning, keeping the levels in mind all the while. And the best part about using this in your classroom and getting the students involved? They will <i>help you</i>. With practice, they will use the display when developing their own questions, they will recognize when you are doing activities in the upper levels, and they might even call you out if they see you spending too much time on lower order thinking. It truly is amazing (and helpful) to involve your students on this journey. </div>
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Another thing that helped me design better lessons, activities, questions, and assessments was by having a (bigger) list of those verbs, along with a set of question stems and possible activities right in my plan book. One important thing to keep in mind as you're planning--it's really important when you're designing (or finding) curriculum and assessments for your students that you match the verbs in the standards to the verbs in your objectives and assessments. You can locate the verb on the Bloom's chart, and then make sure that at a very <i>minimum</i>, your students are able to complete tasks that are aligned in their depth and complexity with the expectations of your standards.<br />
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If you search Bloom's question stems, you'll come up with TONS of search results, but here are a couple of quick links: </div>
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<a href="http://www.bloomstaxonomy.org/Blooms%20Taxonomy%20questions.pdf" target="_blank">Bloom's Taxonomy</a> --These are aligned to the older version of Bloom's, but still very valuable, as the document contains questions, activities, and assessment ideas. </div>
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<a href="http://goldenwestcollege.edu/wpmu/iec/files/2010/04/Questions-Using-Blooms-Taxonomy.pdf" target="_blank">Questions for the Revised Bloom's Taxonomy</a> </div>
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<h3>
What kinds of activities are aligned with Bloom's? </h3>
The activities for the lowest levels of the hierarchy are fairly straightforward and likely to happen in the duration of a regular day. You know these ones--making lists, reading fact charts, doing worksheets, writing summaries, etc. So, in order to help get your wheels turning a little more here are some examples of activities I've done in my classroom that employed higher order thinking skills and, side note--these activities are FUN! And when children have fun in the classroom, they <b>learn better</b>! (You can read more about that <a href="http://www.edutopia.org/blog/neuroscience-behind-stress-and-learning-judy-willis" target="_blank">here</a>.)<br />
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Here, my fifth-grade students are playing with peer-invented board games. The games included the creation of complex math problems that aligned to whatever math topic we were studying at the time. And you better believe that they were not allowed to create problems that were lower than the application level of Bloom's!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZpXW9WrMTLbHhgqhyarUjez3uXpcPuvjtcVRVMjx1Hva7LyY1vAKUmhyphenhyphenGYr8jJ5Jb-5rPSpt3CEMf2JxkBSc-N3_LPF4G1aoCEhjzZewurouSAAWiyZQJGPsuE2iPtcxWQcUxN2fqoU8/s1600/Bloom%2527s+Blog+Post+Images.002.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZpXW9WrMTLbHhgqhyarUjez3uXpcPuvjtcVRVMjx1Hva7LyY1vAKUmhyphenhyphenGYr8jJ5Jb-5rPSpt3CEMf2JxkBSc-N3_LPF4G1aoCEhjzZewurouSAAWiyZQJGPsuE2iPtcxWQcUxN2fqoU8/s640/Bloom%2527s+Blog+Post+Images.002.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Below, students are also playing another student-created board game. They LOVED creating the games, and they also really loved playing the games on game day. I loved the activities because they were working on the highest levels of the taxonomy, meeting learning standards, getting extra practice with math skills, and of course, having FUN!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaeQ3pbvfsALItInrXvJUIiVvkSUFt3HccavnY8LMo5Yypqdfo_c2BOiEiEXqxJ3430bB7blSGyHGDULpeI83BjzCyKNu8luaWiDGbaWGVoGhmQm8aFs8MBZbxIWtJpdBibT7SQcWu4rU/s1600/Bloom%2527s+Blog+Post+Images.001.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaeQ3pbvfsALItInrXvJUIiVvkSUFt3HccavnY8LMo5Yypqdfo_c2BOiEiEXqxJ3430bB7blSGyHGDULpeI83BjzCyKNu8luaWiDGbaWGVoGhmQm8aFs8MBZbxIWtJpdBibT7SQcWu4rU/s640/Bloom%2527s+Blog+Post+Images.001.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div>
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The picture below is of an art project that a dear colleague and fellow creative thinker, Mrs. Scalli and I worked on implementing. We found the idea on <a href="http://illuminations.nctm.org/" target="_blank">NCTM's Illuminations website</a> and adapted it for our classrooms. Students had a list of "must include" geometrical ideas that they put into their paintings. We integrated a little art history lesson about an artist named Wassily Kandinsky, whose paintings were often created as interpretations of feelings he had while listening to music. Students also had to write an artist's statement to describe to us how their geometry elements and colors helped create the mood of their painting, using mathematically accurate and relevant vocabulary. Again, students were engaged in high-level thinking, with a fun and creative activity and the results were awesome, as you can see.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2KjgKbVKCHieZArokUPgvYjcIY4sEu8HcwV-UfZMtLwbRczDRKhsy1WcwpHiw1f7R2BiSnrz3jlWbRVyj6ByrIUFEr3ZPOX-g14TBhMoBAEH1cm4txCEHDdDFMlDVLNgN83AAQE_Ank8/s1600/Bloom%2527s+Blog+Post+Images.005.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2KjgKbVKCHieZArokUPgvYjcIY4sEu8HcwV-UfZMtLwbRczDRKhsy1WcwpHiw1f7R2BiSnrz3jlWbRVyj6ByrIUFEr3ZPOX-g14TBhMoBAEH1cm4txCEHDdDFMlDVLNgN83AAQE_Ank8/s640/Bloom%2527s+Blog+Post+Images.005.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Finally, like I've mentioned in previous posts, part of my mission is to help others use strategies in their classroom that are relevant and meaningful in meeting the needs of gifted learners, I will share with you here a book unit that I just created, with activities for EACH of the level in Bloom's Taxonomy.<br />
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Using picture books with Bloom's activities is a really great way to reach your gifted learners, particularly in the lower to mid-elementary age, because there are many picture books that are <i>filled </i>with rich vocabulary and complex concepts and ideas that your gifted children will really enjoy working with.<br />
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The <b>added bonus</b> is that some of the best picture books for young children are actually written at higher readability levels so you can give your littlest students books that are aligned with their instructional reading level. The other thing I love about using notable picture books with gifted children is that although the books are sometimes written at a fourth- or fifth-grade reading level, the <i>content</i> in the book is generally more appropriate than some of the other options. If you have been working with a gifted student (or you have one living with you at home), you are likely <i>very familiar </i>with the difficulty of finding content-appropriate books for your advanced readers (it can be SO hard sometimes, right?).<br />
I created the unit based on an Irish Folktale, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JV0YVSW/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?ie=UTF8&btkr=1" target="_blank">"Jamie O'Rourke and the Big Potato," by Tomie DePaola,</a> which is a story about a lazy man who gets tricked by a leprechaun into taking a magic potato seed instead of his pot of gold. It has lower level activities in it, like making a timeline of the story's events and answering comprehension questions, but it also has higher level activities like using descriptive language to create a soundscape for a favorite scene in the book. Children can also write a book review, but it has to be in the style (and length) of a tweet. Holding a debate, creating a board game, or developing an advertisement for the leprechaun's magic seed are also tasks that encourage lots of creative and critical thinking. You can click on the picture below if you want to know more. This is the first in a series I will be creating, so if you find yourself liking this product, make sure you follow my store, Soaring with Snyder, on Teacherspayteachers.com.<br />
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<a href="https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Jamie-ORourke-and-the-Big-Potato-Blooms-Reading-Toolkit-2437932" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-wnadzmcEi2J_M4V52YRLNXuj14mQLwY6OB-i9EzuAuu0avPKLo4MC01c7Z9qiC-3awrVuYWMHhl9xPwW2qes-a7VzWLRzFtaKVC19_i3h50kwS7Vl2cCTQ_jwZj7r1ouzyjS3EKUk0w/s320/Jamie+O+Pinterest+image.jpg" width="212" /></a><a href="https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Jamie-ORourke-and-the-Big-Potato-Blooms-Reading-Toolkit-2437932" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="308" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijqjNMcy-oD3rkXMyGIa0Kp0fmXH-stsm_xj7vOII89F5j82iAQE8cA0YYlTTNmXQpvOkzWCTSOYSOEMoorf9DkxqcCAmJPE1ofdNDN5M_sTw-OwrZg2d7RtePbDu-FJrUA_cUhPzqBU8/s400/COLLAGE+Jamie+O%2527Rourke+and+the+Big+Potato+Bloom%2527s+Toolkit.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span> <span style="color: #333333;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If you're into offering students choices and powering up their learning by using Bloom's Taxonomy in your classroom, here are just a few of the time-saving resources that are ready to print and go to work for you! Click on the pictures below to access these documents and others. </span></span></span><br />
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<a href="http://bit.ly/SoaringwithSnyderChoiceBoards" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFIwG893Cd47GvYFCBSpRbdefvUhR-tgC1AIX5K_wVN2Qn4m_Pptmaq4qSkaJbc98iwieWWATcj5I2kRIJs7A7ZYc6KzHSVCqtKk6u7YVPmovHQo2muLuLu5ctBLJZt86UhfHecH7c-vc/s640/Bloom%2527s+Blog+Post+Images.004.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.blogger.com%2Fblogger.g%3FblogID%3D1846154658030035687%23editor%2Ftarget%3Dpost%3BpostID%3D2465503882045453792&media=https%3A%2F%2F2.bp.blogspot.com%2F-kNI0TdTRl70%2FVul8y1o1uII%2FAAAAAAAABHE%2FfpVQCY2GL3U3YKOHhGeHE0dKo8iyKkfhQ%2Fs400%2FJamie%252BO%252BPinterest%252Bimage.jpg&xm=h&xv=sa1.37.01&xuid=g2pnJDDSu5zH&description=" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url(data:image/png; border: none; cursor: pointer; display: none; height: 20px; left: 220px; opacity: 0.85; position: absolute; top: 8285px; width: 40px; z-index: 8675309;"></a><a href="http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.blogger.com%2Fblogger.g%3FblogID%3D1846154658030035687%23editor%2Ftarget%3Dpost%3BpostID%3D2465503882045453792&media=https%3A%2F%2F2.bp.blogspot.com%2F-kNI0TdTRl70%2FVul8y1o1uII%2FAAAAAAAABHE%2FfpVQCY2GL3U3YKOHhGeHE0dKo8iyKkfhQ%2Fs400%2FJamie%252BO%252BPinterest%252Bimage.jpg&xm=h&xv=sa1.37.01&xuid=g2pnJDDSu5zH&description=" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url(data:image/png; border: none; cursor: pointer; display: none; height: 20px; left: 220px; opacity: 0.85; position: absolute; top: 8285px; width: 40px; z-index: 8675309;"></a>Jenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06864046205728668957noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1846154658030035687.post-53591074093425452072016-03-01T12:16:00.000-05:002018-04-05T10:54:09.388-04:00Take Time to Celebrate (and Still Meet Your State Standards)!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; display: none; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV6iTqBEeVqp8SR9vkvftBXkdMxsa5Pd7iLcd8Agm0nb0NH32uusosxGgM0nSVm0tklFu5GlLJ0ddKUUJ9gO7DlRwujy2aaua1Ocdd2IzS68TC2ncqUPZ80ea9otdCLaYNNmXTb6cX950/s1600/Blog+Sliders+.001.jpeg" style="clear: left; display: inline; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV6iTqBEeVqp8SR9vkvftBXkdMxsa5Pd7iLcd8Agm0nb0NH32uusosxGgM0nSVm0tklFu5GlLJ0ddKUUJ9gO7DlRwujy2aaua1Ocdd2IzS68TC2ncqUPZ80ea9otdCLaYNNmXTb6cX950/s1600/Blog+Sliders+.001.jpeg" /></a></div>
It's no secret that I love any excuse for a celebration! Especially at this time of year, when teachers are in the throes of test prep, taking the time to celebrate something special can be a welcome (and needed) respite.<br />
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Holidays can be a really great topic for exploration with gifted students, and there really are so many things you can do to celebrate a holiday, while still working on meeting necessary standards.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivpltDVjmyctcoDQz3F-SJv5m7Ni0qi-b_LCVdllw-g_xtVj7pYScwcEd-aPnEhGiOplYlS4q-oX0xHV6R3jp6U0G3n8K-YTjA0hjalXaPTtkfEfciZlWrySZl6w47jPQJwjD8RvOY01Q/s1600/carpe+diem+seize+the+holiday.001.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivpltDVjmyctcoDQz3F-SJv5m7Ni0qi-b_LCVdllw-g_xtVj7pYScwcEd-aPnEhGiOplYlS4q-oX0xHV6R3jp6U0G3n8K-YTjA0hjalXaPTtkfEfciZlWrySZl6w47jPQJwjD8RvOY01Q/s640/carpe+diem+seize+the+holiday.001.jpeg" width="249" /></a></div>
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Why Holidays?</h4>
If there's one thing you've probably noticed about gifted children, it's their innate curiosity. They are full of wonder and questions! They want to know how things work, why we do certain things. Cause and effect. They start their questions with phrases like, "I wonder...," and, "Why...," and, "But <i>how</i>...," right? One topic my students always enjoyed exploring was the origin of holidays and the roots of the customs that have become part of a typical holiday celebration. It's fun to stop and consider things like, why do we have Christmas trees, or why do we set off fireworks on the Independence Day?<br />
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Especially as the testing season is closing in upon us, it's easy to convince ourselves that we don't have time to spend "exploring" silly things like holidays, right? It's easy to get into the mindset that teaching to the standards or preparing for tests <i>and</i> having fun are mutually exclusive ideas. Well, I have good news for you! You can celebrate the holidays and <i>still</i> help your students prepare for the tests. You can help satiate their desire for exploration and learning while still meeting state standards. You can support the gifted child's need for choice and autonomy while developing critical thinking and close reading skills. One way to do that is to find (or create) high-interest reading material, and then create (or find) questions or activities that encourage high-level critical and creative thinking, analysis, and evaluative thinking skills.<br />
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I know that creating your own materials can be really difficult and time-consuming, which is why I've made it part of my mission not only to help educate people about the nature and needs of gifted children but also to spend time creating materials that teachers can use in their classrooms to help meet the special needs of this population of kids, while <i>still meeting the standards</i>. I'm not on this journey to become rich and famous--I truly want to help people learn about and serve gifted children.<br />
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An Illustration of How We Celebrate One Holiday in My Classroom </h4>
To help you understand how I made holiday celebrations in my classroom, I'll tell you about how we celebrated St. Patrick's Day.<br />
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Before starting, I spent time researching St. Patrick's Day and the traditional customs that we have in the United States--things like wearing green clothes, decorating with shamrocks, drinking green milkshakes, and going to big parades. As it turns out, many of the things we think we're doing because we're emulating or celebrating Ireland and Irish culture are actually rooted in America. Did you know that St. Patrick wasn't Irish!? He wasn't even born in Ireland! And he didn't wear green, he wore BLUE! I also learned that while we celebrate this day in March with raucous parades and green drinks, the holiday in Ireland was really a pretty somber occasion spent in reflection of the life of a non-Irish missionary on the day of his death. I don't know about you, but I find things like this to be fascinating, and I'll bet your students will, too.<br />
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<a href="http://bit.ly/StPatsDayReadingComp" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBcyGTb0iYDkQVHTGVbuqH1sL5ZZ9WwBofGSpzMgmbldp4jrfOO7PtAZ00sRSoOi7fJWAt5u7ZSCA8TOjnVIsRh7L9NUF9lU883ch3Gke2By2DYv4CBhKxMjr5XKz56DcdcPimwMwRsDc/s640/st+pats+day+pin.001.jpeg" width="249" /></a>After researching the information about St. Patty's Day, I wrote three reading passages. They're all about the same topics and facts, but they're written on the 4th, 6th, and 8th-grade reading levels, so that the children in my class could access them on (at least close to) their independent reading level.<br />
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I also created a pre- and post-reading comprehension activity in which children read statements prior to reading the text, and make predictions about which statements they think will be true or false. Students read the text and then come back to the activity sheet to determine whether they still think the statements are true or false. They have to change the statements so that they are all true and cite the location of text evidence. I wrote these activity sheets on three different levels as well.<br />
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Finally (and this is my favorite part), I created a set of eight task cards based on the three highest levels of Bloom's Revised Taxonomy (analyze, evaluate, and create). The task cards include questions for reflection, writing, creating, and/or discussion. For example: Have you ever thought about a how holiday celebration gets invented? How do you think people get a new idea for a holiday? How to they decide the ways they celebrate the day? Another card suggests the students design a flow chart showing how St. Patrick's day has changed over time (past, present, and future predictions). Recently, I revised the file to also include activity sheets/recording pages for each of the eight tasks.<br />
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The beauty of engaging in activities like this is that teachers have tons of flexibility with how they employ them in their classrooms. There are eight different cards, so children could have a choice about doing one, two, or more. They could work independently, in pairs, in small groups, or as an entire class. Some of the cards could even be a jumping-off point for research. One of the cards asks students to research and reflect on how and why holidays aside from St. Patrick's day have changed over time. They can answer from personal reflection and observation, but they could also research how holidays have evolved over long periods of time. This would require more reading and text analysis, and if they use internet sources for their research, of course, you could throw in a mini-lesson about source credibility. All of these things are reinforcing standards in reading, writing, and social studies, engaging students in something they're interested in learning about, activating analytical and creative thinking skills, <i>and</i> allowing them choices about how they interact with the materials.<br />
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If you're interested in a closer look, you can link to the activity in my Teachers Pay Teachers store by clicking the St. Patrick's Day picture, you can take a peek at my entire store <a href="http://bit.ly/SoaringwithSnyderStore" target="_blank">right here</a> or check out how we celebrated some other holidays by clicking the pictures below.<br />
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Let me know if you have questions! Do you think you can see something like this fitting into your lesson plans?<br />
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Thanks for reading!<br />
~Jen<br />
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<br />Jenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06864046205728668957noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1846154658030035687.post-68849217457180687172016-02-23T15:57:00.000-05:002018-04-05T10:53:50.183-04:00Ten Things I Wish People Would Stop Saying About Gifted Students: Common Misconceptions about Gifted Learners Illustrated by Harry Potter and Friends<h2 style="text-align: center;">
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Having spent 10 years in the classroom, and six of those ten years in gifted education, I've heard many people--both parents and teachers--say things (whether they were 100% serious or not) about the gifted population that are just so untrue! My goal today is most certainly not to offend anyone in the education field, or any parents. I know for sure that for the vast majority of teachers and parents, we all want to do what is best for all children. Our intentions are innately positive. I also know that there is a huge lack of training in teacher education programs on how to meet the needs of gifted learners. And for parents, unless you seek out information from reputable institutions or gifted advocacy groups, you don't always hear this information, either. I hope that by writing this post today, with the help of some tongue-in-cheek memes of the archetypal gifted characters from one of my favorite book series, I can in some small way, help educate people about some of the most common myths that seem to come up over and over again. </div>
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1. They'll be FINE in the regular classroom. </h3>
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The truth is simple here. According to a national study conducted by The National Research Center on Gifted and Talented indicated that your highly gifted student comes to you knowing up to 80% of the material you plan to teach them this year. EIGHTY.PERCENT. There is a disturbing lack of urgency surrounding the need to provide gifted learners with NEW material! Think about this for a minute. You KNOW you've been to a professional development day or a staff meeting in which you already knew most of the material being presented. Lucky for you, the meeting or PD usually lasts for only a few hours, possibly up to maybe a few days. Were you bored? Did you benefit from sitting through those meetings? How did you feel? Bored. Frustrated. Despondent. You probably found other ways to entertain your self, right? Maybe you're reading my blog during one of those meetings. (If that's the case, don't stop--you'll probably learn something here today! Wink, Wink!) Now, multiply that feeling of boredom or frustration times 180 DAYS. The average school day for a child is somewhere between six and seven hours. Let's be realistic and say that you have only moderately gifted students in your classroom and they only know 50% of your curriculum. 180 days times 6.5 hours is 1,170 hours spent with you in a year. If they come in knowing 50% of the material, that means they're spending 585 HOURS <i>just this year</i> NOT LEARNING. I don't know about you--but seeing these statistics in black and white makes them even more stark. That's nearly FIFTEEN 40-hour work weeks! Imagine! We've GOT to work hard meeting these students where they are in their knowledge and move them forward. There's a chance that little gifted Joe will <i>seem</i> fine, because he's learned to be complacent, well-behaved, and respectful. Please believe me when I say that he will most certainly be worlds better if he's actually given the opportunity to learn something new. </div>
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2. They didn't get 100% on that test, so why should I give him special treatment? Or, geez, they bombed that assignment. I thought they were"gifted." Or, how can she be gifted? She's never had straight A's. </h3>
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First of all, using specific interventions to meet the needs of ANY learner isn't giving special treatment. It's best practice. Second, gifted students are human beings--prone to imperfection since the inception of our existence (even Wizards make mistakes). Third, gifted students can be underachievers. If they've been identified as gifted, it means that they have been identified as having a higher than average potential for learning. If they're not meeting their potential, that's a problem. There are many reasons why a gifted student may be underperforming in school, ranging from a loss of interest from being under-challenged for a period of time, to a child trying to fit in socially who masks his or her giftedness by making mistakes on purpose. Perhaps the child is finally being presented with complex information that he doesn't already know, and hasn't learned effective strategies for working toward understanding yet because it wasn't necessary. It could also be that the child has a learning disability that is impairing their ability to meet their potential. It's important to investigate which of these issues is at the root of the underachievement so that steps can be taken to fix the issue(s). </div>
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3. Their parents are SUCH a pain. Why won't they just leave me alone? Ugh. Helicopter parents. </h3>
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<span style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Ok, to be fair, if you've been teaching <strike>for a while</strike> more than five minutes, you know that there are a certain group of parents who can seem a little...more challenging. Sometimes, you truly do have a set of parents that seem to hover a little more closely to their child than what you'd prefer--you know them when you see them. They seem overprotective, perhaps sometimes preventing their child from feeling the sting of failure or cushioning their fall a little </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">too</i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> much. They may even blame circumstances or other people for their child's missteps, and bail them out a little <i>too</i> quickly. (If you're one of these parents, STOP IT! You're not helping your child!) </span></span><span style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">However, most of the time, the parent that wants to talk to you about their child is living out what's become their "normal." They know that they have an exceptional child, and they have learned early on that teachers sometimes have a lack of understanding of giftedness, and as a result, have a hard time meeting their child's needs. And because they don't want their child to sit through 585 hours of class this year </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">not learning, </i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> or because they need to communicate that their child has some </span><span style="color: red; font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://soaringwithsnyder.blogspot.com/2016/01/gifted-101-overview-of.html" target="_blank">intensities</a> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">that you </span>should<span style="font-family: inherit;"> know about, they've learned that they need to stay in close contact with the teachers responsible for spending 1,170 hours with their child this year. The best thing you can do is listen, be patient, be calm, and remind yourself that with great (proactive) communication, you can work together with parents to make this year a success!</span></span></div>
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4. Well, if they'd stop acting up in class, I would give them their <i>different/special/whatever </i>work. </div>
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Yes, you'd prefer that your students behave properly at all times. Who doesn't?! Here's the thing. If you consider the information above about <i>how much time</i> a child is potentially spending in your classroom NOT LEARNING, then it makes sense that you might have a problem with the student losing interest, and eventually finding ways to entertain themselves. I know I did this (and sometimes still do). I was a gifted high achiever. I wanted to please my parents and teachers and I definitely wanted to avoid getting into trouble. BUT, I also lost interest sometimes, because I already knew the answers to all of the teachers questions. So, I found quiet and creative ways to entertain myself during school. I organized my desk, and doodled on the borders of my papers, I even partnered with another gifted student in my class to make up our own alphabet so that we could write notes to each other in a "different language." You know when I wasn't doing these inventive little things? When the teacher gained my attention with new information in class, when they created projects for me to work on independently so I didn't have to read or listen to the content in the next chapter of the science textbook, when I got to choose a new topic to pursue on my own or with that gifted peer of mine. I know it may seem as thought you're "rewarding" their poor behavior choices. But you're not. You are, in fact, providing for them what they NEED. You are recognizing that behavioral problems they're exhibiting are likely CAUSED by the fact that you weren't giving them what they NEED. In the end, you, your class, and especially your gifted student will all be much happier once you start providing for the learning needs of your gifted student. </div>
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5. I wish they'd stop being so know-it-all and correcting me all the time!</h3>
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Well, this one is a little sticky. Of course your gifted student should learn to be respectful, try not to interrupt you, and definitely refrain from correcting you in front of the whole class, right? The thing that makes this a little trickier for gifted learners goes back to the nature of the gifted child in general. The traits that make them who they are, can sometimes interfere with the expectations for how you'd like to run things in your classroom. One of the traits of giftedness is that gifted children can be perfectionists. They have extremely high expectations for themselves and others when it comes to accuracy. Further, their little gifted brains have such a high capacity for learning and remembering things, and making rapid connections to previous knowledge, it may just be that they've had an epiphany of sorts and their excitement precludes their manners. Finally, it may be that your gifted student has <a href="http://soaringwithsnyder.blogspot.com/2016/02/gifted-overexcitabilities-psychomotor.html" target="_blank">psychomotor overexcitabilty</a>, and they have a hard time controlling their energy/impulses. In my classroom, we had many conversations about productive and appropriate ways to communicate with teachers (or others in general) when they disagree with what's being said. We took time to model how to address disagreements without being rude. Quite honestly, it never bothered me when a student pointed out mistakes to me, as long as they weren't rude about it (which we also rehearsed frequently at first). I am the first to admit that despite my own perfectionistic tendencies, I do sometimes make mistakes (I know--it's a shocker!), and with each mistake comes an opportunity for learning. </div>
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6. They just need to stop complaining about things not being fair! </h3>
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The ability to recognize social injustice or inequity is another gifted trait. It relates back to Dabrowski's <a href="http://soaringwithsnyder.blogspot.com/2016/01/gifted-kids-and-overexcitabilities.html" target="_blank">Emotional Overexcitability</a>. These children are exceptionally perceptive. They experience the world differently than a typically developing child. They are sensitive to injustice, and just as they called you out for making a mistake in your math equation five minutes ago, they will note any perceived injustice or imbalance in your classroom. Again, as teachers or parents, it's important that we step back and think for a minute--is this perception of what's happening something truly unfair? Is there an imbalance that needs adjusting? Or is it time to have a talk about what fairness truly means? One thing I really felt proud about as a teacher is that I felt like my students walked away with an honest-to-goodness sense of understanding that fair does not mean equal. It took lots of class meetings, modeling, and open discussions, but I do feel that students understood that fairness can take on different appearances, depending on the circumstances. </div>
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7. That kid is gifted? Well, not in <i>my</i> class, he's not. </h3>
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Asynchronicity is one of the hallmark characteristics of gifted children. In a nutshell, being asynchronous in your development means that parts of you grow or develop unevenly, or out of "sync" with other parts of your development. The resulting issue is that you may have a gifted child who can hold his own in an AP calculus class, but has a hard time writing a coherent paragraph. The child may not be able to complete simple computations yet, but has the emotional maturity to be able to keep up with adult conversations (and he probably prefers those conversations to those of his peers). The point is, you may have gifted students who are developing evenly all the way around--they're rockstars in every sense of the word. But more likely than not, you're going to see discrepancies, <i>sometimes significant</i>, between different aspects of the child's development. It's okay. It's normal. It's time to meet them where they are, and push them forward, no matter where the starting point.</div>
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8. You're a GENIUS! You just like, know stuff without even TRYING! </h3>
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Ugh. This. It happens all the time, and with the most positive intentions. You're trying to compliment a child you notice has a penchant for achieving. To the observer, the gifted brain can be like a sponge--rapidly soaking in all sorts of information. It looks like they don't even have to work hard at learning (and they don't always need to!). Even the term gifted, has connotations that this intelligence was a present from above, right?</div>
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There is truth to thought that gifted children are born with innate talents, but it's risky to focus so much on this inborn ability because it can undermine the child's motivation, and lead to Dweck's "Fixed Mindset," or the belief that their intelligence is set. So, if a child perceives herself as having this gift of intelligence, she thinks she won't ever have to work at learning. And if this same person fails at something, then she starts to question whether she truly is as smart as they she thought she was. Eventually, this could lead to the child taking fewer risks because he doesn't want to endure the experience of failing, they don't want to put in the work it takes to learn something they don't already know, and they may even start questioning their own self-worth. Not good, right?</div>
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Experts in the field, such as renown psychologist Carol Dweck, suggest that we praise students for their <i>effort </i>as opposed to their achievements. Others, like Alfie Kohn even suggest that we remove praise altogether, as it can be intrusive, manipulative, and ultimately take away from a child's intrinsic satisfaction. I think a middle ground is probably best. When you see a gifted child doing well, watch them. Really watch. Watch closely enough that you can provide specific feedback about that you see them working hard at improving. Don't overpraise, and try not to use praise as a form of manipulation, or create a situation in which complacency is rewarded too frequently.</div>
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9. Kids need to learn to be bored. It's a life skill.</h3>
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Bored feels like a swear word, doesn't it? The mention of the word can raise the hackles of even the most talented teacher. I don't encourage the use of the term, but if you hear it, despite how angry it makes you, you need to listen and reflect on what could be happening in your home or classroom.</div>
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There are many reasons for which a child may determine that they feel "bored," including feelings of sadness or anger, experiencing work that is too difficult, or perhaps they're overstimulated. What your gifted child could be expressing though, is their frustration at the lack of learning or progress toward learning. Which should lead you into a thought process that includes reflecting on why this child is frustrated at the lack of progress. Gifted children, pretty much by definition, learn faster than the average learner, needing only 1-3 repetitions of new material, instead of the typical 6-8. Not to mention (again) that this child <i>came to you</i> already knowing much of the content you were planning to present. It's important to consider all this when the dreaded B-word is uttered in your presence. Are you giving this child new material to master? Are you wasting their time by having them repeatedly "learn" material they've known for years? Perhaps they really are getting overstimulated, or maybe they're frustrated about something that's too difficult for them. Either way, we shouldn't be okay with kids being bored and we need to work understanding the cause, and working toward fixing the problem.</div>
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10. Acceleration? You mean like, grade-skipping? No way. He needs to be with his age-mates. Don't you think this will be bad for their social-emotional growth? </h3>
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Acceleration is the single most researched intervention for gifted students. It has been found time and again to be the BEST way to help highly gifted children grow towards reaching their potential. There is virtually no evidence that acceleration has a negative impact on a child's social or emotional growth. It's cost effective, and the results are overwhelmingly positive. In fact, when comparing the achievement levels of an accelerated child to the same grade-peers, the accelerated child's scores are in the average range in their first year of acceleration, and among the highest in the grade in all the subsequent years of their education, including college. Further, acceleration doesn't always mean grade-skipping! There are actually 18 different forms of acceleration. To name a few, there is subject-area acceleration, whole grade acceleration (or grade skipping), early entrance to kindergarten, telescoping (in which more than one year's worth of curriculum is learned in a single year), and radical acceleration (skipping more than one grade, or advancing at a very rapid pace through the curriculum). </div>
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Of course, acceleration is not a magic bullet. It needs to be carefully considered for each child. Using the IOWA acceleration scale is a good practice, as it quantifies factors in the child's life <i>other than</i> the child's academic achievement. </div>
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To be sure, this list is NOT exhaustive. Leave me a comment below with something you've heard about gifted kids which you know (or suspect) to be untrue! I'm curious!<br />
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Thanks so much for reading!<br />
~Jen<br />
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<br />Jenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06864046205728668957noreply@blogger.com21