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Gifted students are often well beyond their years when it comes to their ability, however they are not always mature enough to handle the assignments that go along with that ability. This brings about a problem of accommodating these students with sufficient enrichment or acceleration without using subjects that are too mature for their mental age. Gifted students can learn the same standards, themes, units and concepts as the rest of the class.
They will Just be allowed regular opportunities to become engaged with learning activities that require more depth and complexity. One way to accommodate a gifted learner In a chronological age-based assignment organization Is through the use of extension actively that will provide more challenge. Extension activities can be created and used In a variety of ways. Curriculum Differentiation Charts can be made to address the different learning styles of the students while addressing the key concepts of the unit or theme being studied.
Extension Menus can be made that offer different actively through the different levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Thinking. Students can also be provided with the opportunity to create a learning center. This would involve giving the students some parameters and guidelines for how to create the center and what needs to be included. When grading these activities and assignments it would be helpful to create a rubric that would be shown to the students before they begin the assignment so that they understand the criteria for which they are being assessed.
Enabling a gifted student to learn and progress through the curriculum at an appropriate pace for them can be difficult at times. It involves criteria that consists of presenting the students on units and deciding whether or not they can move on wrought the curriculum at an accelerating pace or possibly have the material for the year compacted so that they can learn what they need to learn in a given unit without having to sit through classes that involves information that the students already are familiar with. Another practice that can be used that is different from compacting is that of alternative assignments.
It is important that these assignments are not “in addition to”, but “different than” that of the original assignment or unit. For example, If a student has taken a pretest for a unit on the planets that shows that he or she knows at least 90% of the information that is going to be taught, then that students can do an assignment that will be In place of the unit. For Instance, making a diorama of the solar system and presenting a report about It to the class. This would Involve the student working Independently on an assignment that they have created with their teacher.
The student In return would be more engaged In his or her learning and would In turn learn more. It Is Important to document all presenting Information that takes place, as well as providing folders to keep track of extension and alternative work that Is completed. We as teachers must also realize that Just because the child Is gifted, It does not mean that they will not have questions on their alternative or extension activities. We must also provide time to conference with these students and to log how they are doing on their work.
As stated previously, the method that should exist to allow and cause the necessary modifications, of both an enrichment and acceleration nature is that of presenting. When a student is has been taught. They may also take placement test that would show where they are in a certain subject area. In order to accommodate the identified needs and necessities of the gifted learners that excel on pretests and placement tests, teachers must provide opportunities for differentiation of instruction, acceleration, compacting, and enrichment.
Learning Contracts are one method that can be used to accommodate gifted learners. These involve having planed extension materials for the chapter or unit. When a learning contract is developed it is specific to each individual student. It will have marked areas of weakness that the students have as pages that they would need to complete in their books. Other activities would be marked as extension activities, and then at the bottom of the learning contract there would be a section that has the working conditions that should be observed during the time when the student is completing their learning contract.
These working conditions exist because the student would be working on their own learning contract as the rest of the class is learning the information in class. The student and the teacher would then go over the contract together and agree to the terms by signing the contract. Presenting is not usually effective in situations where the detent has not previously learned the information. Therefore other compacting methods are needed in which the curriculum may be new, but gifted students can learn in much more quickly than their age pears.
In non-presentable subjects where the material is new for them, gifted students should be allowed to move through it at a faster pace than the rest of the class. The Study Guide method is great for this situation. The method allows you to compact in literature, science, social students, problem-based learning, and thematic, integrated units, reducing the amount of time fifed students must spend on designated content. Differentiation takes place in these subjects by allowing gifted students to work on alternate activities and explore topics of their choosing in greater depth.
With the Study Guide method, you have documentation that students have learned the required material, and they are held accountable for demonstrating that mastery on your timetable. It is alternative work that they are completing at a faster pace. The Study Guide can be used alone or with Extension Menus. The Study Guide method may be paired with the Independent Study Agreement, Evaluation Contract, Daily Log of Extension Work, and Product Choices Chart.
The Independent Study Agreement is designed to guard against misunderstands, disagreements, and claims such as a student telling you that, muff never told me I had to do that. ” All students that chose to use the Study Guide method must enter into an agreement that describes the conditions of their independent study, including both learning conditions and working conditions. Once students choose a project from the Extension Menu they indicate their choice on the Evaluation Contract. The contract lets them specify the grade they want to earn for their work, based on the kind of work they will do.
The Daily Log is useful as a record sheet for the student and in conferences with parents and administrators. All in all Study Guides are an excellent method to meet the needs and necessities of all of the gifted learners because they can be adapted to all subject areas and provide a way to monitor the progression of the gifted learner. Using the methods and strategies established in the two books will help teachers to provide instruction to gifted jugular education students because instruction was not being differentiated to meet their needs.
It is important to realize that not all students are going to be provided for when teaching the regular curriculum and that the teacher is going to need to branch off and create experiences for the different learners that come into their classroom. Provided different methods for instruction will benefit the teacher because the students will be actively engaged in learning instead of going through the motions of school and the classroom will start to run itself because everyone will be excited about learning and engaged.