Recognition of Individual Differences in the Classroom Recognition of individual differences is one of the hardest jobs that a teacher faces in the classroom. It requires a strong sense of instinct as well as the knowledge of characteristics of each of the specific differences. Without this, the teacher is unable to fulfill their job to the best of their ability because they are denying the students an environment in which their learning can flourish. One such difference that occurs in the classroom is giftedness. Giftedness is defined as Children who give evidence of high performance capability in areas such as intellectual, creative, artistic, leadership capacity, or specific academic fields, and who require services or activities not ordinarily provided by the school in order to develop such capabilities (Clark, 1992, p6.). Looking at giftedness in students between the ages of 12-18, we will discuss the nature of the attribute, the challenges it presents, strategies for motivation and the enhancement of learning within the psychological stage of Identity vs. Role Confusion. During this age group [12-18yrs], adolescents are beginning the process of developing skills for a meaningful role in adult society. They begin to ask the question of Who Am I?, as the options seem limitless compared to who their peers are, and where they fit in, in the grand scheme of life. There is a heavy dependence on peers and a strong need for the “self” to be accepted by them. This also includes concerns about appearance (thin girls and strong boys), self-consciousness and the development of active sexuality. In addition to this, the adolesc... ... middle of paper ... ...n stage of development, the examples of strategy and motivation are going to be effective in the secondary educational environment. Understanding and appreciating the developmental characteristics of adolescents, teachers of gifted students should be able to make a difference and enhance their learning, to keep them striving to their potential and protect them from falling into the trap of underachievement. References CLARK, Barbara.1992, Growing Up Gifted 4th ed., Macmillan Publishing Company, New York. SNOWMAN, J., BIEHLER, R. 2000, Psychology Applied To Teaching, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston. RAND WHITMORE, J. 1980, Giftedness, Conflict and Underachievement, Allyn & Bacon Inc., Boston. ZIV, A. 1977, Counselling The Intellectually Gifted Child, Guidance Centre, University of Toronto, Canada.
Plucker, J. A., & Barab, S. A. (2005). The importance of contexts in theories of giftedness. In R. J. Sternberg & J. E. Davidson (Eds.), Conceptions of giftedness (pp. 201-216). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Pfeiffer, S. I. (2001, April). Professional psychology and the gifted: Emerging practice opportunities. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 32(2), 175-180.
Gifted and talented programs are intrinsically valuable to many children’s education as they provide a system in which all students involved are engaged, challenged, and intellectually stimulated. In "How People Learn", Donovan, Bransford, and Pellegrino (1999) stress the importance of each student being given reasonable and appropriate goals based on his or her level of understanding and competency (p. 20). Gifted and talented programs help institutionalize the attempt to meet all student’s needs by providing uniquely appropriate challenges which aim to keep every student engaged, thus receiving the best chance at success. Although there are many valuable and important aspects of gifted education, there are also significant issues rooted in the base of America’s gifted and talented programs, one of which I will address throughout this paper. In my opinion, the most notable problem which troubles gifted and talented programs is the system by which students are selected to join their school’s gifted and talented program.
Response to Intervention (RtI) is a framework based off the problem solving method that integrates assessment, and targeted instruction, within a multi-tiered intervention system. Implementation of RtI in schools is crucial to identify which students need additional intervention that will help increase their literacy skills, and prevent them from falling behind. RtI is based off multi-leveled tiers that are each categorized by the intensity of the intervention that is being used. The RtI framework is also used as a valued tool in monitoring and improving student behavior in the classroom through a model known as Positive Behavioral Intervention Support (PBIS).
The Talents Unlimited Model was created under the philosophy that all students, both those identified as gifted and those not, would benefit from enrichment programs. The model is used to educate teachers on how to use differentiated instruction to use “higher order cognitive tasks to help students with varying abilities use their preferred thinking talents to manipulate instruction to solve problems, see broad relationships, evaluate varying perspectives, draw comparisons among disparate viewpoints, and predict causes and effects” (Schlichter, 2009, p. 434).
Rosina Lippi-Green's article "Teaching Children How to Discriminate - What We Learn From The Big Bad Wolf" (1997) examines the discrimination and stereotypes toward different race, ethnicity, gender, religion, nationality and region that Disney presents in their animated films. Lippi-Green also points out the use or misuse of foreign accents in films, television and the entertainment industry as a whole. Such animated films are viewed mainly by children. Lippi-Green makes a central argument in which she says that children are taught to discriminate through the portrayal of the different accented characters in Disney films.
Based from the information provided by VanTassel-Baska, et. Al. (2009), gifted and talented students face the same issues as their regular peers but they have different way of viewing these issues and it affects them differently as well. The book discussed different issues that gifted learners face and recommendations on how to address these issues were also available for teachers, administrators and other school personnel. Also, Carol Strip Whitney (2011) in her book entitle Helping Gifted Learners Soar discussed stress as a factor that can distract and overpower anyone including gifted learners and for the gifted learners, there are many reasons and causes of stress. In this reflection, I will focus on two causes of stress, which are gifted learners as social capital and issues related to race and achievement.
The district is now making all teachers use an assessment tool called iReady. It is a website that assesses students in math and reading. They are first tested on a kindergarten through fifth grade range to find out what they know. Then the program takes that score and determines the right level for the child and they are tested again on the level. Once all students have been assessed the program orders the students from highest to lowest and by average grade level skill they are on: early second grade, middle second grade, late second grade or any other grade. The teacher uses those scores to create her reading groups, math groups and the students she will give extra assistance to. They haven’t officially established how many times and when they will do this iReady assessment but for now they are doing it once a week for forty five minutes. The test also flags if they spent too long or too little time on a question. The ones that spent less than 15 seconds per problem are to go back and do the assessment again.
Plucker, J. A., & Barab, S. A. (2005). The importance of contexts in theories of giftedness. In R. J. Sternberg & J. E. Davidson (Eds.), Conceptions of giftedness (pp. 201-216). New York: Cambridge University Press.
The Integrated Curriculum Model has three main dimensions advanced content, process/product, and issues/themes. The first dimension, advanced content, is content that it at a higher level. In English Language Arts the readings are usually two grade levels above. Within advanced content, diagnostic-prescriptive approaches are used to promote new learning. Teachers are to continually pre-assess students before teaching content to make sure they are teaching at the appropriate level for the gifted students. In the second facet of the model it ensures that the students are thinking and processing information at higher complex levels. The third dimension of the Integrated Curriculum Model centers gifted and talented students learning around major issues and themes. To connect the themes and issues to real world applications is creating a deeper understanding of the material.
Special focus needs to be allotted to not only the kids struggling but the kids who are excelling. Learning is the sole purpose of school, and for advanced students who already mastered the classroom skills, they need an extra challenge so they are learning too. Gifted education is essential for fully developing and engaging precocious children. Lubinski said, “If you’re trying to solve problems in the world like climate change and terrorism and STEM innovation, and transportation and managing our health care, you want intellectually precocious youth who have had their intellectual needs
Renzulli, J. S., and J. H. Purcell. "Gifted Education: A Look Around and a Look Ahead." Roeper Review 18 (1996): 173-188.
Lovecky, D. V. (1995). Highly Gifted Children and Peer Relationships. Counseling and Guidance Newsletter. Retrieved March 10, 2003, from http://print.ditd.org/floater=74.html.
One of the components of this project was to gather information from a variety of sources. This included 2 ABC observations, 1 teacher interview, 1 student interview, and looking at the student’s file with regards to past schooling and behavior/academic performance. All of these sources helped me make a more informed decision making in what the problem behavior was and the conditions in which the problem behavior was occurring. For example, in the teacher interview, the teacher noted how the student we were observing liked to get up from his seat during group work and in the ABC observations, confirmed the teacher’s statement. We also observed how the student would hit other students and get up from his seat to get peer and teacher attention. During the student interview, the student stated how he found group too long and boring. Through the analysis of all these different sources, it became clear that the point where the most undesired behaviors occurred was during group work.
Parke, B. (n.d.). Challenging gifted students in the regular classroom. Retrieved March 1, 2004, from http://www.kidsource.com/kidsource/content/Challenging_gifted _kids.html