differentiating for gifted, high achieving, and high potential learners: quality, not quantity

Katherine R. Fielder, Ed.S.Piedmont College

July 31, 2010

Differentiating for Gifted, High Achieving, and High Potential

Learners: Quality, Not Quantity

Who is Gifted?

Area for most gifted

behaviors

Joseph Renzulli’s Three Ring Model of Giftedness

Who is Gifted?Grades Multiple

CriteriaPsychometric

K-2 A 90% or above in three out of the four following areas: AbilityAchievementCreativityMotivation

99% or higher composite score on the CogAT 90% or higher on the ITBS Math Total, Reading Total, or composite

3-5 A 90% or above in three out of the four following areas: AbilityAchievementCreativityMotivation

96% or higher composite score on the CogAT 90% or higher on the ITBS Math Total, Reading Total, or composite

Cognitive Traits Social/Emotional TraitsVery observant Very sensitiveExtremely curiousIntense interests

Interested in philosophical and social issues

Excellent memoryExcellent reasoning skills

Concerned about fairness and injustice

Usually intrinsically motivated Well-developed sense of humor

PerfectionismUnderachievement

Interpersonal problems

Well-developed powers of abstraction, conceptualization, and synthesis

Poor self-imageDepressionExcessive self-criticism

Quickly and easily sees relationships in ideas, objects, or facts

Nonconformity

Gifted Students

“…because of instructional requirements imposed by No Child Left Behind legislation, many of today’s teachers are asked to focus more on students who perform below proficiency than on those who excel. By requiring all students to be [mathematically] proficient by 2014, the law is, in effect, negatively impacting the education of those students who are already considered academically proficient.”

Rita H. Barger, 2009

No Child Left Behind?

“With the advent of No Child Left Behind (2001), increased pressure has been placed on educators to identify and remediate students who do not demonstrate mastery of curriculum standards, however, little attention has been given to advanced learners.”

Manning, Stanford, and Reeves, 2010

No Child Left Behind?

“The ‘love-hate’ relationship society has had with gifted education has led to both an energetic focus on gifted students and a near total ignoring of their needs.”

Colangelo & Davis, 2003

No Child Left Behind?

10%-20% of high school dropouts score in the gifted range on standardized tests.

40% of the top 5% of high school graduates will not graduate from college.

Over 50% of the gifted identified population do not demonstrate academic achievement commensurate with their tested ability.

Gifted elementary students have already mastered 35%-50% of the current grade-level standards before entering the classroom.

No Child Left Behind?

What is the answer?

Differentiation is NOTgiving students more

of the same types of problems

giving students busy work to complete when they finish assignments early

using advanced learners as peer tutors

a teacher’s response to learner’s needs

meaningful, respectful tasks for all learners

variety, choices, and options

flexible groupingongoing assessment

What is differentiation?Differentiation IS

What is differentiation?“Differentiation is not a

recipe for teaching. It is not an instructional strategy. It is not what the teacher does when he or she has time. It is a way of thinking about teaching and learning. It is a philosophy.”

Carol Tomlinson, 2000

Carol Tomlinson’s Differentiation Model

K KNOWU UNDERSTANDD DO

KUDs

The Students Will KNOW:

Knowledge/Remembering: Retrieving, recognizing, and recalling Terms, definitions, locations

The Students Will UNDERSTAND:

Comprehension/Understanding, Applying: Constructing meaning, interpreting, summarizing, inferring, comparing, explaining Venn diagrams, journal entries, essay questions

The Students Will DO:

Analyzing, Evaluating, Creating: Breaking material into parts & determining how parts relate, making judgments, reorganizing elements into a new pattern or structure

Role Audience

Format Topic

Magnet Refrigerator Explanation/Essay

“I’m stuck on you!”

South pole of magnet

North pole of magnet

Poem “Opposites attract”

South pole of magnet

South pole of magnet

Song “I’m just not attracted to you, but we can still be friends”

Magnet Classroom objects

Poster/Chart “Who am I attracted to?”

RAFTs

Jamie Miller, 2009

Optional Free Space

Tic-Tac-Toe/Think-Tac-ToeTrace the

Lewis & Clark Expedition on

a map.

Compare and contrast Lewis

& Clark and the Native

Americans of the time.

Discuss ways Lewis

& Clark impacted

our country.

Main Dish (complete all)

Side Dish (choose 2)

Dessert (you may do 1 or both)

Learning Menu

Questions?

Barger, R.H. (2009). Gifted, talented, and high achieving. Teaching Children Mathematics, October 2009.

Chapman, C. & King, R. (2008). Differentiated instructional management: Work smarter, not harder. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Manning, S., Stanford, B., Reeves, S. (2010). Valuing the advanced learner: Differentiating up. The Clearing House, 83(4).

http://differentiationcentral.com/http://renzullilearning.com http://www.odu.edu/educ/roverbau/Bloom/blooms_taxonomy.htm

References