Six must haves for gifted students
There is a great deal of research available about underachieving gifted students, and how potentially isolating it can be for them if they are not catered for. There is also a raging debate about how best to structure opportunities for gifted students in a school. Should we stream our classes according to ability? Should we remove students from classes for extension? Or, are we better off keeping gifted students with their peers and differentiating the curriculum to meet their needs? No matter which direction you go there are pros and cons. Most of the time these decisions are made based on school timetables and personnel available. So, while I don't have an obvious preferred structure, I can offer some essentials of what we should include when considering the needs of the gifted.
In order to cater for gifted students teachers need to have great curriculum to begin with. Adding stuff at the end of the curriculum design process is not an effective way to develop curriculum. So before we even begin, rule number one is to think about your gifted students as you develop the curriculum, not after.
The following are six must haves for gifted students as they learn:
High order thinking opportunities
Justifiable and authentic curriculum
Social interaction
Independent work
Research skills
Relevant assessment and evaluation
1. High order thinking opportunities
Gifted students need:
To understand the difference between low and high order thinking and to have lots of high order thinking opportunities
To understand the difference between critical (convergent) and creative (divergent) thinking
To understand that critical thinking preempts creative thinking
To apply a range of thinking tools and graphic organisers
2. Justifiable and authentic curriculum
Gifted students need:
To solve real world problems
To see the big picture idea behind their work
To generate and answer their own questions
To progress developmentally with content, processes and products becoming increasingly more complex
3. Social interaction
Gifted students need
To mix with classmates
To communicate and work alongside all students
Work with like-minds
4. Independent work
Gifted students need:
To work independently
Access to regular, targeted reflection time, as a regular feature of the school day
5. Research skills
Gifted students need:
Explicit teaching and instruction about how to find relevant information, analyse its authenticity and attribute it appropriately
Assessment tasks to be rigorous in order to avoid them finding, cutting and pasting information from websites without having to understand it
6. Relevant assessment and evaluation
Gifted students need:
Assessment tasks that make sense to them, that are relevant and stimulating
An idea from the outset where they are heading and what is required
Pretesting that is used to inform teaching
—Karen Green - MAPPEN Founder & Curriculum Specialist
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