Giftedness Identification Instructional Strategies

What is giftedness? Renzulli's (1986) Three-ring conception of giftedness Between 2-5% of students are gifted

Identifying giftedness A student who possesses demonstrated or potential abilities that give evidence of exceptionally high capability with respect to intellect, creativity, or certain discipline-related skills Identification and assessment should be carried out using multiple criteria and information from a variety of sources. These include several of the following:  Formal test results including indicators of cognitive ability, achievement, aptitude, and creativity  Teacher observations including anecdotal records, checklists, and inventories  Records of student achievement including assignments, portfolios, grades and outstanding talents and accomplishments.

Characteristics of the Gifted First-borns and only children more likely to be identified, as are children of gifted parents Visual-spatial learners more prevalent than auditory-sequential Emotional difficulties Approximately 1/6 of gifted children have some sort of co-morbid learning disability  i.e., Dyslexia, ADHD  Giftedness can mask these disorders and depress IQ scores making identification difficult

What to look for? The learning styles that help define students as gifted can lead to complex behaviours if early needs are not recognized and me t StrengthPossible Problem Advanced verbal skillsTalks too much, talks above the heads of age peers Long attention spanTunnel vision, resists interruption, stubborn Acquires/retains info. easilyInaccurate, sloppy, impatient with others, dislikes basic or repetitive routines Creative, inventiveEscapes into fantasy, rejects norms, may be disruptive Independent, prefers individualized work Unable to accept help from peers, nonconformist Critical thinkingCritical of others, perfectionist Prefers complexityResists simple solutions, bossy, complicates Sensitive, empatheticSensitive to criticism or peer rejection

How to help? Develop a student profile (class exercise)  Academic achievement  Interests  Learning styles and strengths  Special abilities  Visions and goals for the future Using...  Observations, assessment, portfolios, journals, tests, learning style inventories, interest inventories, rating scales of student characteristics, report cards, information from parents

How to help? Match the student profile to differentiation of:  Content (What the student studies)  Process (How the student works with the information)  Product (How students represent what they know)  Learning environment

Differentiating Content Providing multiple options for what the student is learning  Acceleration (providing advanced curriculum, skipping a grade, taking a course at a higher level)  Telescoping (reducing the time taken to cover curriculum – learning two grades in one year)  Compacting (spend less time on classroom assignments and more time on application)  Independent study (pursue areas of interest)  Tiered assignments (students work on same content but answer different questions)  Learning Centres

Differentiating Process Providing multiple option for how students process the content  Higher-level thinking (Bloom's analysis, synthesis, and evaluation)  Creative thinking (promote fluently generating wide range of ideas, being original, and elaborating on ideas)  Problem solving [divergent-convergent: (1) goal, (2) data, (3) problem, (4) ideas, (5) action plan]  Critical thinking (promote question asking – gathering information, organizing information, extending information)  Research skills (where to obtain info, how to record and organize info, methods of gathering new information)

Differentiating Products Multiple options for how students demonstrated learning  i.e., Models, diagrams, letters, videos, debates, displays, dramatizations, multimedia, concept maps, stories, sculptures, paintings, songs, scripts, classification systems, advertisements, cookbooks Real audiences  Letters to the editor, children's literary magazines, public displays, presentations to local groups, artistic performance for public, story telling in library, create oral history tape for library, etc...  Consider: Engage students in developing their own criteria Include student learning logs Developing portfolios

Differentiating Learning Environment Physical  Interest centres, variety of working spaces, full range of learning materials co-op, community mentors, acceleration, early graduation Social  Promote group planning, problem- solving  Time with intellectual peers Emotional  Study of famous people, bibliotherapy, grouping for instruction

Differentiating Learning Environment Physical  Interest centres, variety of working spaces, full range of learning materials co-op, community mentors, acceleration, early graduation Social  Promote group planning, problem- solving  Time with intellectual peers Emotional  Study of famous people, bibliotherapy, grouping for instruction

In-class exercise In groups or individually 1) Think of your lesson plan and identify ways to differentiate the lesson to support gifted students in your class. 2) You might want to consult with some of the resources at the front of the class when thinking through your design.

Reflection In one short paragraph outline:  The concepts from the readings/course notes that you were hoping to apply  Your contribution  How your contribution successfully applied those concepts