Watching these videos on "Giftedness" was really enlightening because in many ways, they are the least accommodated group of students in many school situations. Just because every student is held to the standard of achieving at a high level, does not mean that each student's "high level" is the same. Something that I learned in these videos was that IEP's and 504 plans can be used to help target both learning disabilities and areas of giftedness by giving accommodations for the students to keep learning and excelling.
These videos also helped debunk one of my prior misconceptions, one that many others may have as well. It was that there can be a high level of misdiagnosis in students or individuals that are gifted because many of the "symptoms" of being gifted are similar to those symptoms of disorders like Asperger's Syndrome or ADD, especially when individual's IQ is really high such as over 130. Personally, I guess I had the incorrect belief that learning disabilities and giftedness both appear in students at the same time; however, they can also occur separately. Another misconception that I had was that gifted students have a hard time making friends, and I was informed that in reality this is not always the case. Yes, they can struggle socially causing them to not be very good at making friends. However, I am now aware that gifted students don't just have a general inability to make friends it is just more normal for them to often only have one or two good friends or to try to make friends with people that are older than them because they feel like they are socially understood by these older people or other gifted students.
These videos also helped debunk one of my prior misconceptions, one that many others may have as well. It was that there can be a high level of misdiagnosis in students or individuals that are gifted because many of the "symptoms" of being gifted are similar to those symptoms of disorders like Asperger's Syndrome or ADD, especially when individual's IQ is really high such as over 130. Personally, I guess I had the incorrect belief that learning disabilities and giftedness both appear in students at the same time; however, they can also occur separately. Another misconception that I had was that gifted students have a hard time making friends, and I was informed that in reality this is not always the case. Yes, they can struggle socially causing them to not be very good at making friends. However, I am now aware that gifted students don't just have a general inability to make friends it is just more normal for them to often only have one or two good friends or to try to make friends with people that are older than them because they feel like they are socially understood by these older people or other gifted students.
A student can be both gifted and learning disabled. Therefore, in my current placement and my future classroom I need to know the students personally in order to not foster mismatch between the student and the assessment. Students may be gifted in the fact they are able to think and comprehend on a higher level than the average student; however, their learning disability may make it hard to see that on paper. Consequently, accommodations may be necessary for the student. This is where technology can help assist me and the gifted students in my classroom. For example, when giving an assessment I can have different variations of the test for various learners. This may look like 2 option multiple choice for the lower tier, 4 multiple choice options for the average learner and 5 multiple choice answers for the higher tier. This extra answer would be like "both a and b," or "all of the above." With this extra option, easily added on online assessment creators, I can test students at higher levels of understanding when necessary. Also, I can provide a variety in my assessment techniques. Only ever offering multiple choice or written exams will not always benefit the gifted and or learning disable students. For example, I could offer oral exams and or individual projects. Technology can also help reach the higher level students by creating a webquest with various options for different groups of students. These groups would be determined by a pre-assessment, and then the gifted students could do a more open ended project to extend thinking into higher, more challenging levels.
Another topic for consideration in my current and future science classroom is the concept that gifted students often struggle with social interaction, fear of failure and perfectionism. Consequently, they often want to work individually because they think differently than other students. Therefore, when it comes to projects, I can give the option to do a group project or work individually. This will give the gifted student an option to work alone and only be responsible for oneself. With technology I can easily differentiate the extent of the project to suit the groups needs. For example, the presentation or project could be done using PowerPoint, Prezi, Padlet, etc. However, the required length or how open ended the project is would be determined by the size of group and learning traits of the group. When learning about Earth's Systems, I could have the gifted students not only learn about what the 4 main systems of Earth are but I could also have them apply it to their daily life and depict interactions of systems via video presentation or blog posts. The videos were describing that gifted students are often into online games. Therefore, I could harness their love for the online world and use it for productivity in science class. By assigning them to keep classroom blog posts instead of a hand-written science journal, the gifted students would get the chance to be part of the online community and express their ideas not just in words but also by video or pictures embedded in their posts. This can help combat their learning disabilities of getting their knowledge out on paper or into words. Overall, its important to remember that normal is a relative and subject ideology. We need to make sure as educators that we are accommodating all students' "normal," especially the often over-looked gifted students. In relation to science, us educators need to be able to recognize gifted students, and push them to excel in their field of excellence such as STEM.
Here is a helpful video on some techniques teachers can use to teach gifted students.
Another topic for consideration in my current and future science classroom is the concept that gifted students often struggle with social interaction, fear of failure and perfectionism. Consequently, they often want to work individually because they think differently than other students. Therefore, when it comes to projects, I can give the option to do a group project or work individually. This will give the gifted student an option to work alone and only be responsible for oneself. With technology I can easily differentiate the extent of the project to suit the groups needs. For example, the presentation or project could be done using PowerPoint, Prezi, Padlet, etc. However, the required length or how open ended the project is would be determined by the size of group and learning traits of the group. When learning about Earth's Systems, I could have the gifted students not only learn about what the 4 main systems of Earth are but I could also have them apply it to their daily life and depict interactions of systems via video presentation or blog posts. The videos were describing that gifted students are often into online games. Therefore, I could harness their love for the online world and use it for productivity in science class. By assigning them to keep classroom blog posts instead of a hand-written science journal, the gifted students would get the chance to be part of the online community and express their ideas not just in words but also by video or pictures embedded in their posts. This can help combat their learning disabilities of getting their knowledge out on paper or into words. Overall, its important to remember that normal is a relative and subject ideology. We need to make sure as educators that we are accommodating all students' "normal," especially the often over-looked gifted students. In relation to science, us educators need to be able to recognize gifted students, and push them to excel in their field of excellence such as STEM.
Here is a helpful video on some techniques teachers can use to teach gifted students.
Hey Courtney,
ReplyDeleteI really like your accommodations for these gifted students ! I had not thought of adding an extra multiple choice for the gifted students so thank you for sharing that. I also did not know the IDEA or 504 could help these students so I too am happy that I am aware of that because it will for sure be able to benefit students in my future classroom.
Many schools use 504 or IDEA for gifted students without LDs too, but some schools whose admin.s don't understand giftedness won't, so it can vary. Ideally, all schools would use these tools to accommodate gifted learners.
DeleteConsider more open-ended assessment questions for gifted students rather than more multiple choice options. Some gifted students think so differently that they struggle with multiple choice because they can see a connection to each answer and then explain it to you. (!)
Courtney, your comments are right on target! Your examples to use in the classroom are excellent, keep thinking in these ways for your future gifted students, even when you don't hear them mentioned much in the education community. Gifted students are still there - whether or not there is funding, focus, knowledge or resources for them.
ReplyDeleteAre there different types of giftedness that I should be cautious of? If and when I do have a gifted student, is it my responsibility to push for them to maybe receive a 504?
DeleteThe best answer if a gifted student has any disability, including anxiety disorder, should be written up, and the giftedness also included.
DeleteBy the way, that video was a great find! Thank you. I will use it in the future. :)
ReplyDeleteThank you!
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