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AUTHOR West, William W.TITLE Teaching the Gifted and Talented in the English

Classroom.INSTITUTION National Education Association, Washington, D.C.REPORT NO 159N-0-B106-0734-4PUB DATE BONOTE 49p.: A part of the Teaching the Gifted and Talented

in the Content Area Series, Fred B. Tuttle, Jr.,Series Editor. For related documents, see EC 131721-72B.

AVAILABLE FROM NEA Order Department, The Academic Building, NewHaven, CT 06516 ($3.50, Stock No. 0734 -4 -00) : Also apart of "Educating Gifted and Talented Students"(Edupak) comprised of filmstrips, cassettes, books(T,147.40, Stock No 070-1-00).

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MFO% Plus Postage. PC Not Available from DRSElementary Secondary Education: *English Instruction:*Gifted: *Informal Assessment: *Learning Activities:Student Evaluation: *Talent: Teaching Methods: Unitsof Study

ABSTRACTAs part of the "Educating Gifted and Talented"

seriem, the booklet offers guidelines for teaching English to giftedstudents. Following an introduction and a section on characteristicsof the gifted in English, procedures for identifying students giftedin English are discussed and a list of questions to ask whenobserving language behavior is offered. Activities for determiningstudent abilities in such areas as verbal fluency, originality, andflexibility are presented. Elements of a creative langauge artsprogram, including subject matter which is significant and oftenstudent selected, are reviewed. Elaborated is a design for a lessonsequence made up of interest arousers: oral language: group planning;research and creative activity: performance, presentation, orproduction: and discussion or critique. Suggestions for selectingunit themes are considered and activities are outlined for thefollowing areas: analysis skills, synthesis skills, evaluationskills, problem finding and problem solving skills, creative thinkingskills, and research skills. A unit procedure for handling the theme"Life in the City" is introduced. A discussion of basic skills asthey relate to the gifted'concludes the booklet. (SBH)

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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH.EDUCATION & WELFARENATIONAL INSTITUTE OF

EDUCATION

THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRO-DUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROMTHE PERSON C;.c ORGANIZATION ORIGIN.

W.14AT1NG IT POINTS OF VIEW OR OPiNIONSSTATED DO NOT NECE:.SARILY REPRE-

CNA,SENT OFFICIAL NATIONAL INSTITUTE OFEDUCATION POSITION OR POLICY

UnlitNIftocrie

Teaching theGifted and Talented

in theEnglish

Classroom

byWilliam W. iVest

"PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THISMATERIAL IN MICROFICHE ONLYHAS BEEN GRANTED BY

TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCESINFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)."

NL7A's Teaching the Gifted and Talentedin the Content Areas series

Editor: Frederick B. Tuttle, Jr.

ileaNational Education AssociationWashington, D.C.

Teaching theGifted and Talented

in theEnglish

Classroom

3

Copyright 0 1980National Education Association of the United StatesStock No. 0734-4-00

NoteThe opinions expressed in this publication should not beconstrued as representing the policy or position of theNational Education Association. Materials published aspart of this NEA multimedia program are intended to bediscussion documents for teachers who are concerned withspecialized interests of the profession.AcknowledgmentThe following material is reprinted with permission fromthe source indicated: "The Faculty Club, Wittenberg" byWilliam Gavin from English Journal, January 1967; copy-right © 1967 by the National Counril of Teachers ofEnglish.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication DataWest, William Walter, 1925 -

Teaching the gifted and talented in the English class-room.

Bibliography: p.1. Gifted childrenEducat'onLanguage arts.

2. Gifted childrenEducationEnglish language.I. Title.LC3993.27.W47 371.9'5 4 79-22396ISBN 0-8106-0734-4

Contents

Introduction 9Characteristics of the Gifted in EnglishIdentifying Students Gifted in English 11

(Activities to Determine Student Abilities)English Language Arts Activities for the Gifted 17Design for a Lesson Sequence 21

(Interest ArousersOral LanguageGroupPlanningResearch and Creative ActivityPerformance, Presentation, or ProductionDiscussion and Critique)

An Example of a Teaching Sequence 23Suggestions for Selecting Unit Themes 29Some Activities to Develop Upper-Level Skills 30

(Analysis SkillsSynthesis SkillsEvalua-tion SkillsProblem-Finding and Problem-Solving Skills, Creative Thinking SkillsCreative Thinking SkillsResearch Skills)

A Unit Grows 40(ActivitiesEvaluation)

The Gifted Student and the "Basic Skills" 46

The AuthorWilliam W. West is Professor of English Educa-tion in the College of Education at the Universityof South Florida, Tampa.

The Advisory PanelDr. Natalie C. Apple, English teacher, Allderdice HighSchool, Pittsburgh, PennsylvaniaDr. Allen Berger, Professor of Language Communica-tions, University of Pittsburgh, PennsylvaniaBonnie S. Dibble, English teacher, Seminole HighSchool, Seminole, FloridaJeffrey N. Golub, teacher of English and Speech, KentJunior High School, Kent, WashingtonIsabelle M. Kamm, Chairperson, English Department,Wall Township High School, Wall, New JerseyJohn B. Karls, Curriculum SpecialistEnglish Lan-guage Arts, Milwaukee Public SchoolsDr. ,Patricia 0. Tierney, English teacher, AllderdiceHigh School, Pittsburgh, PennsylvaniaGladys V. Veidemanis, Chairperson, English Depart-ment, North High School, Oshkosh, Wisconsin

The Series EditorNEA's Teaching the Gifted and Talented in theContent Areas series Editor is Frederick B. Tut-tle, Jr.Dr. Tuttle is Associate Professor at the State Uni-versity of New York, College at Brockport ; Direc-tor of the Program for Gifted and Talented in theFoxborough Schools System, Massachusetts ; andConsultant Boston College/Boston City SchoolsDistrict 3 Gifted and Talented. Among his publi-cations are Composition: A Media Approach,'Technical and Scientific Writing (with Sarah H.Collins) , and What Research Says to the Teacher :Gifted and Talented Students, published by NEA.

INTRODUCTION

The Fax:nilty Club, WittenbergThey say young Hamlet died. A pity, that.So handsome, young, and rich. I fear his mindWas never really on his books. He satAlone, rear of the room. You know the kind :

-3t much to say in class ; some days he'd mopeAnd pout and stare and never say a word.He failed test after test, then dropped. No hopeOf passing me. They say he knew the swordQuite well. I rarely find time to attendThe matches. A prince. To me, just one moreYoung man with too much gold and time to spend,The kind who whines that lectures are a bore.Did thoughts disturb that sullen, noble head ?I never did find out. And now he's dead. (4)

One can readily picture the complacent professor, hap-pily ensconced before a roaring fire at the club, hands foldedacross "fair belly with good capon lin'd," reminiscing aboutthe death of a former student. In the professor's few self-satisfied words, one relives with Hamlet the endless low-level lectures, the monotonous droning insistence uponconformity, and the tragic lack of challenge of the giftedyouth's school career :

Did thoughts disturb that noble, sullen head ?I never did find out. And now he's dead.To borrow the words of the United Negro College Fund,

"A mind is a terrible thing to waste !"And the tragedy is intensified if the wasted mindfrom

any person, black or white, male or female, rich or poor,young or oldhas the rare qualities of the gifted or poten-tially gifted. Lost, then, are both the gifted mind and thecontributions which only such minds can offer.

The difference between the gifted and the potentiallygifted becomes clear as one examines the behaviors of stu-dents. Gifted students are those who have developed (or aredeveloping) at a higher level than most other students.Potentially gifted students are those who have latent abil-ities, but who have notfor personal, familial, subcultural,

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social, or educational reasonsyet achieved sufficiently alongculturally approved lines to merit the label "gifted."

English language arts teachers have a doubly importantresponsibility in identifying, developing, challenging, andrewarding the gifted. Languagc. skill is not only frequentlya marker of giftedness, but it is also a desirable goal in itsown right. Moreover, it is the major vehicle both for therealization of giftedness in other areas and for the expres-sion and communication of insights from all areas. Finally,only by using language skillfully can gifted individualsexert leadership and stimulate the "corporate creativity"which marks modern culture. When an English languagearts teacher fails to develop language skills in a potentiallygifted student., not only do the "English" fields of language,literature, composition, reading, and oracy suffer, but theentire spectrum of human endeavor misses opportunities.Perhaps it is not too sentimental to mourn with ThomasGray that

Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest. ...

Without the communication skills which only skillful lan-guage instruction can promote, the gifted necessarily remaineither mute or less-than-realized, and giftedness in everyarea is frustrated.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GIFTED IN ENGLISH

A truism regarding teaching is that good teachingmagnifies individual differences. Because good teaching en-ables students to achieve to the level of their abilities andbecause abilities differ, good teaching increases the spreadamong individuals. In much the same way, one can say thatgiftedness magnifies individual differences. Because fewstudents are gifted in exactly the same ways and becausetheir divergent gifts permit them to grow rapidly in differ-ent ways, the differences among them increase. Consequentlyit is difficult to characterize the gifted, either in English orin any other field. Equally gifted students will be quitedifferent from each other.

Perhaps the one safe generalization regarding thegifted is that the gifted student is likely to adapt mostrapidly and most successfully to the total environment. Cen-

910

sequently, whatever the culture, by adapting rapidly andsuccessfully gifted students become ". . . almost invariablymore popular and more socially accepted than children atother levels of intellectual ability." (S) By adapting quicklyto responsive and receptive environments, such students be-come popular and accepted leaders.

On the other hand, some gifted students may be shy andwithdrawn. The generalization just noted may also explainthis quite different behavior. These children may also be"adapting rapidly and successfully," .if nonresponsive andncnreceptive elements in their environment are encouraginga different type of adaptation. Perhaps mindless demandsfor conformity mandate withdrawal as the only way ofpreserving individuality. Perhaps well-intentioned, but frus-trating, back-to-the-basics drills on previously masteredfundamentals make nunparticipation the only escape fromboredom. Perhaps a subcultural valuesuch as the PuebloIndians' shame at standing out from peers, or the em-barrassment of some Blacks at being identified with theestablishmentmay generate various kinds of withdrawal,noncooperation, or independent action. These, too, are waysof "adapting rapidly and successfully" to the total environ-ment.

IDENTIFYING STUDENTS GIFTED IN ENGLISHAlthough former U.S. Commissioner of Education

Ernest Boyer indNated that only approximately four percentof gifted students are receiving instruction in programsappropriate to their needs, many of the gifted reveal them-selves at once. The sifted in English often manifest thefollowing behaviors : they read avidlythough withoutguidance they often read less-than-challenging materials ;they write fluently and frequently, often composing experi-mentally for their own pleasure ; they enjoy participating inoral activities ; and they perceive and produce humor andlanguage play.

The potentially gifted, on the other hand, may possesslatent but undisplayed abilities, so the teacher needs to useall possible sources of information to aid evaluation. Thoughnot infallible, school records often provide insights beyonddirectly observable clues. By using cumulative and anecdotal

11

records, reports on standardized group tests, creativity tests,individual IQ tests, behavior rating scales, ant other evalua-tive measures, teachers may gain insights into undevelopedabilities. These sources, however, are no substitute for care-ful observation in locating such traits of the gifted whichGuilford describes as "ideational fluency, associative fluency,and expressional fluency." (5)

In addition to noting obviously outstanding studentsand examining school records, teachers must very carefullyobserve all students including those who are disruptive,withdrawn, passive, and constantly conforming. They shouldattempt to evaluate their behaviors in terms of their totalenvironments, insofar as is possible, in order to determinewhich students are adapting rapidly and successfully. Suchobservation will include individual conversations with thechildren, discussions of values and attitude: experimentspermitting self-selection of activities, and in dividualizationof personal planning and record-keeping o.:er a period oftime. It will include attempts to learn about students' homesand families and subcultures and behaviors in nonschoolsettings. It will also include the designing of little "experi-ments," such as the use of word games, to assess skills some-times hidden in formal academic situations. These types ofobservation are crucial, even as the teacher is making othei-direct judgments in terms of actual, observable languageuse.

In guiding observations of language behavior, the fol-lowing kinds of questions are valuable :

Lantpcage1.. Is the student acquainted with and responsive to

fluent, imaginative, creative, and colorful?2. Doe:, the student's language conform to the models

respected in the subculture? (These may differfrom stani:ard classroom models !)

3. Is the student, confident in expressing ideas in thefamiliar subcultural eilvironment ?

Literature1. Is the student acquainted with and responsive to

traditional literature of transescenc,... and adoles-cence beyond the leval of peers?

1 1 12

2. Is the student familiar with and responsive tovaried materials from different periods, locations,and genres ?

3. Has the student developed areas of special depthand interest?

4. Does the student enjoy listening to and watchingliterary performan -es?

Composition1. Has the student developed the basic mechanical

skills which provide Leedom and confidence foradditional growth? ("Perfection" would not be arequisite for a favorable response to this ques-tion.)

2. Does the student make artd support observationsand opinions beyond the capacity of peers?

3. Does the s'udent write independently? (Diaries,journals, imaginative writing)

4. Does the student respect writing and choose toengage in it for various purposes?

Reading1. Is the student confident of word analysis, phonics,

vocabulary from context, and other skills?2. Does the student have listening, reading, writing,

and speaking vocabularies beyond those of peers?Does the student possess abilities in comprehen-sion, interpretation, evaluation, and rate beyondthose of peers?

4. Does the student -have independent study, library,dictionary, and research skills ?

()racy1. Is the student confident in initiating purposeful

conversations with peers, adults, strangers?2. Does the student enjoy participating in

and conversations, and in delivering briefannouncements and literary selections?

3. Is the student comfortable with the courtesies andconventions of social intercourse?

4. Does the student use and appreciate humor inspeech?

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Special Interests1. Does the student work independently, persis-

tently, over a period of time on individually chosenpersonal projects?

2. Does the student seek details of and applicAtionsfor self-chosen areas of interest?

Activities to Determine Student AbilitiesThe foregoing questions should assist teachers either in

recommending students for specialized programs or in meet-ing the needs of the gifted within a self-contained classroom.In addition, student skills associated with giftedness mayalso be determined through some interesting, informal activ-ities. Here, for example, are a few fun activities usable atalmost every level to gain insights into student abilities.

Verbal fluencyTell students you will give them the name of one letter

of the alphabet. In three minutes they are to list all wordsbeginning with that letter, exclusive of inflectional ?rd.derivational variants (singular and plural of nouns, andlibrary, librarian, for example). Allowing for occasionalpsychological blocks and other inhibitory problems, thelength of individual lists roughly indicates verbal fluency.

OriginalityTell students you will give them the name of a common

object. In three minutes they are to list all possible uses of asingle such object, using their imaginations to conceive ofpossibilities rarely actually employed. Then give them thename of such an object as a single brick, a single paper clip,

a single sheet of paper, a single fork, or a single toothpick.After exhausting obvious uses, more imaginative studentswill expand possibilities either by transforming their ob-server point of view (a brick, for example, might do for arikouse to hide behind, or a toothpick might be a javelin fora cricket) or by transforming the physical state of the object(a crushed and powdered brick might be used either as anabrasive for sandpaper or as the pigment in lipstick). Again,the length of the lists correlates roughly with originality,although this ability changes with practice.

rt14

Ability to elaborateGive students a single, unusual, and perhaps connota-

tively directional name. Have them imagine and list thephysical and psychological characteristics of a person withthat name (Martin Chuzzlewit, Marjorie Morningstar,Uriah Heep, Hester Prynne). Whether names are imaginaryor derived from literature, a student's ability to elaborateshould be judged strictly in terms of length and internalconsistency of the list, rather than in terms of accuracy or"correctness."

Ability to synthesizeGive students the names of from three to five quite

different and unrelated objects (a ring, a small Japanesedictionary, a matchstick, a Phillips screw, and ,a fragmentof tapestry ; a seashell, a light bulb, a fragment of road map,a piece of agate, and a child's block). In three minutes, eachchild is to create a story explaining the presence of individ-ual items and the connections among them. You may providea setting, or context, for the items. ("These were found inthe pockets of a spy." "This collection was in the desk of awoman who mysteriously disappeared.") Younger childrenmay tell their stories ; older children may write theirs. Ifstudents are to write their storieswhich you may havethem do after they have shared by telling their ideastheywill require a good deal longer time. Ability to synthesize isevident from the degree to which the presence and connec-tion of the objects is clear and natural.

FlexibilityGive students one or more short quotations, such as

"Now is the time for all good people to come to the aid of theparty." or "Give me liberty cr give me death." In a certainperiod, students are to create complete, natural, and mean-ingful sentences (one or more) using the successive lettersin each quotation as the first letters in successive words.(For example, the beginning of Now is the time . . . mightstimulate the words "Next October. we intend sending Tomhelp each time in minor emergencies. . . .") Determine stu-dents flexibility from the length;' sense, and well-formednature of their sentences.

15 i4

Ability to reach closureGive students single-picture cartoons from which laugh

lines or captions have been deleted, and ask them to suggestappropriate labels. Have students supply missing final linesto couplets, quatrains, or limericks. Have students suggestpossible resolutions, or steps to produce resolution, for con-flicts from newspaper stories, literature, or experience. De-termine ability to reach closure from the simplicity, pro-priety, consistency, and probable effect of their suggestions.

The professional judgment of individual teachers shouldprobably be primary in the location of gifted students forspecial classesand will certainly be primary in determin-ing who receives special experiences within the self-con-tained classroom. Nonetheless, biographical inventories pre-pared by students, as well as student, parent, and peerrecommendations should also be considered.

These, then, are some techniques for locating and select-ing gifted and potentially gifted students in the Englishlanguage arts :

1. Use all the data-collection resources of the schoolsystem contained in cumulative and anecdotal records, in-cluding standardized group tests, creativity tests, individualIQ tests, behavior rating scales, and other institutionalizedevaluative measures.

2. Observe individual students and interpret theirverbal behavior in terms of their total environmentinsofaras it is possible to do so.

3. Supplement your observations over a period of timewith brief, focused fun activities which reveal attributes ofthe gifted.

One especially important euveat for teachers attempt-ing to locate gifted students is that greatness lies not in free-do:ri. from faults, but in abundance of powers. Few teacherstoday would equate "correctness" in language usage withgiftedness; it is equally to be desired that few teachers wouldreject gifted students whose language may not be consideredconventionally "correct."

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ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS ACTIVITIESFOR THE GIFTED

Two recent studies of the composition and literatureobjectives of the well-established gifted program in the cityof Pittsburgh list thirty different "Strategies for TeachingScholars English." (1,6) A quick look at the list readilyreveals that the activities utilized in teaching the giftedPittsburgh ;:cholars are not significantly different from thekinds of activities utilized in teaching all students. Perhapsthe same would be said of most gifted programs everywhere.Included in the Pittsburgh list are the following:

1. Teacher lecture 16. Sensory exercises2. Class discussion 17. R ole-playing3. Small group discussion 18. Pantomime4. Study guides 19. Performance of a play5. Reading quiz 20. Vocabulary enrichment6. Objective examination exercises7. Essay examination 21. Single paragraph8. Oral report by exposition

individuals 22. Multiparagraph9. Panel discussion exposition

10. Independent project byindividuals

23. Comparison andcontrast paper

11. Independent project by 24. Opinion papera group 25. Book report

12. Outside speaker 26. Descriptive paragraph13. Audiovisual aid 27. Narrative writing14. Games 28. Poetry writing15. Contracts 29. Research paper

30. Speech

Though extensive but not exhaustive, the list requiresan environment, or setting, including a kind of philosophyfor the teaching of language to the gifted in order to give itlife and meaning. Perhaps a good place to begin is withJohn Dewey's classic statement :

Think of the absurdity of having to teach language asa thing by itself. If there is anything the child will dobefore he goes to school, it is to talk of the things thatinterest him. But when there are no vital interests

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appealed to in the school, when language is used simplyfor the repetition of lessons, it is not surprising that oneof the chief difficulties of school work has come to beinstruction in the mother-tongue. Since the languagetaught is unnatural, not growing out of the real desireto communicate vital impressions and convictions, thefreedom of children in its use gradually disappears, un-til finally the high school teacher has to invent all kindsof devices to assist in getting any spontaneous and fulluse of speech. Moreover, when the language instinct isappealed to in a social way, there is a continual contactwith reality. The result is that the child always hassomething in his mind to talk about, he has somethingto say he has a thought to express, and a thought isnot a thought unless it is one's own. In the traditionalmethod, the child must say something that he hasmerely learned. There is all the difference in the worldbetween having something to say and having to saysomething. (2)

With Dewey's caveat in mind, then, we need some kindof construct to enable us to splice all the elements of a crea-tive language arts program into one seamless golden gar-ment suitable for the teaching of the gifted. Perhaps themnemonic acronym SPLICE-P3 will guide recall of the ele-ments of such a program.

S The subject matter of such a program will be signifi-cant and often student-selected. One of the tragicand self-defeating problems of a "back-to-basics"program is thatas important as capitalization,punctuation, and spelling are to the acceptance of acommunication and a communicatorin isolationeach element remains trivial and inconsequentialrather than significant. Effective teachers have longbeen aware that for many students the worst way ofteaching the basics is to teach these skills directly.The teacher of the gifted will look first for signifi,cant, sometimes student-selected and student-created subject matter andwhen necessaryguidethe improvement of basic skills within the context ofpurposeful communication.

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PSubject matter alone is not enough. Without purposeor plan the field lies inert, unmoving, and unchal-lenging. Admittedly, graduate scholars are moti-vated to kn iw all about a field to which they havecommitted their lives, whether or not there is anyforeseeable purpose in mastering all the dialects ofthe Ashkenazi or plotting the migrations of theKurds in the twelfth century. But for immature ado-lescents, bombarded every moment by challengesand stimuli from competing areas of interest, life istoo short to devote to purposeless activity. Theteacher of the gifted will quickly plan some purposefor concentration of effort on a given subject. Oftenthat plan or purpose includes the solving of aproblem.

LIf The Republic is ever to realize Socrates' (andPlato's) vision of rule by the wisest, the gifted mustbe trained in leadership. Although there are manykinds of leadership and many leaders who are not"gifted" in the academic, verbal sense, significantlanguage arts activities must include opportunitiesto develop and exercise leadership abilities. In thefirst place, the anguage arts are by definition social,cooperative, and concerned with communication, andwhen studei.b4 are placed in cooperative social set-tings involving purposeful communication, leader-ship emerges and leadership skills develop. Wiseteachers begin wirt institutional leadership by ap-pointing chairs and captains, but they train studentsto select democratic leaders, and they search for therare and dramatic charismatic leaders for whompivotal historic mo.nents wait.

1EIn solving significant problems, student leaders willnot be restricted by the limitations of the teacher orthe subject matter. Consequently, many studies willbe, in part, indepenclevt and interdisciplinary. Whenuniform in-class activity is productive, the teacher .will not hesitate to use all the traditional tools ofpedagogy, including lecture and d ill, but since theessence of language developn e.nt is independent and

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purposeful language generation, effective teachersknow when to devote class time to independent andsmall group activity and how to stimulate out-of-class production. Likewise, since language perme-ates all disciplines, and since "English" has nomonopoly on the stimulation of language, wiseteachers borrow from all relevant disciplines. Activ-ities will be partly independent and intediscipli-nary.

C-- Creating according to Webster, is the "bringing intoexistence, or the producing, or the investing with anew form" of some thing or idea. Such creating isespecially relevant to programs for the gifted sincecreation and creativity are attributes of the giftedas well as goals of gifted programs. Often, units ofstudy will have as their end the experience of crea-tivity and the actual creation of diverse and originalprojects.

EA major characteristic of productive and creativecooperative effort is the generation of energy andthe extension of powers and projects. In short, as inrhetorical synecdoche, the energy of a group is awhole that somehow becomes much greater than thesum of its parts. Sometimes called "synergy," thisextension and generation of energy from groupeffort both simplifies and complicates the teaching oflanguage arts to the gifted. Most educators haveexperienced instruction in which the instructor didmost of the work, so that many 'sessions began withthe lonely, difficult, and pitiable effort of teachersseeming to raise themselves and their entire class,without help, to the level of production. Languagearts classes for the gifted when they generatesynergyenergy and extensionlift themselvesdaily into productivity, move automatically fromproject to project, and inspire with a contagious vi-brance the visitor can feel. The teacher may some-times have difficulty channeling and controlling thesynergy of such a class, but how preferable it is tothe deadweight albatross of a listless group.

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It becomes clear, then, from the SPLICE part of theacronym, that projects in the teaching of language arts tothe gifted rarely are one-shot, one-period gimmicks to inter-est and inspire. Rather, significant learning emerges over aperiod of time as a group attacks a project or problematthe same time individuals use it as a point of departure fortheir individual pursuits and processes.

And that brings us to the final element of the SPLICE-P3formula :

PThe product is the terminal achievement of theSPLICE procedures. It is the outward and visiblemanifestation of the inward and invisible growth ofthe individuals during the series of lessons. In mostcases, the products of language arts units also beginwith the letter P: they are performances (plays,pantomimes, poetry readings) , publications (news-papers, magazines, books, reports, anthologies) , andproductions (models; drawings, paintings, catalogs,inventions, machines). Their cooperative creationinvolves the constant purposeful creative use oflanguage, and their demonstration and isplay elicitadditional language. Their critique, r: vision, andimprovement generate even more language.

DESIGN FOR A LESSON SEQUENCEWhether preparing lessons for sixth or twelfth graders,

the unit design is the same. Indeed, even the same subjectmatter, adapted to varying maturity and materials, can beused with several grades. Note that for development, exten-sion, and involvement, most lesson sequences must extendover a period of several days. Also note that sometimes suchlessons are not the exclusive concern of a class during agiven period rather, such lessons may coexist with numbersof other ongoing concerns so that the teacher, rather like ajuggler, maintains interest by handling a number of subjectsat the same time.Interest Arousers

Regardless of age, maturity, degree of giftedness, orlevel of sophistication, students must be directed toward,focused on, and interested in a subject, topic, area, or prob-

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lem. Many teachers build interest in a subject slowly over aperiod of time. Others pounce immediately on serendipitousevents, programs, news items, or fads. Still others carefullyschedule literature, films, speakers, recordings, videotapes,student performances, field trips, and other high-interestexperiences to initiate concern for a subject. In most cases,these techniques require a degree of preparation : explana-tion of concepts, history, vocabulary, significance, and con-nection with prior experience.

Oral LanguageClassical rhetoricians were trained to ask automatically

a series of questions on any subject they were given. In thisway, they learned to discover what Aristotle termed "all ofthe available means of persuasion." Although American stu-dents are given no such formal training in looking at sub-jects, yet in the natural give and take of exploratory discus-sionquestioning and responding, relating, comparing, con-trasting, analyzing, and so onthey automatically ask andanswer many of the questions rhetoricians took such painsto learn. By doing so, they explore the significance of a sub-ject, investigate causes and effects, perceive possibilities,make connections, observe details, and generate interest. Inaddition to being good practice in thinking and in using lan-guage, this step is essential is getting students to develop anemotional connection with unit subjects.

Group PlanningAlthough the teacher does a great deal of preplanning

(collecting materials, organizing concepts, allocating time,scheduling events, and so on), letting students help enrichesand enlivens subsequent lessons. Tasks they initiate, groupsthey form, responsibilities they planall are much moremeaningful and rewarding than arbitrary teacher-imposedassignments. Some groups can handle such planning easily ;some must be taught to do so. Let each class handle all theresponsibility it is capable of.

Research and Creative ActivityThis step changes the gifted classroom from the learn-

and-recite, the assignment-correction paradigm. The teacherallows class time for individual and group research and pro-

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duction. Nonetheless, this step cannot be restricted to thelimitations of the class period and the class room. Vieweddifferently from "homework," individuals and groups actpurposefully in moving toward closure on their projects.

Performance, Presentation, or ProductionAlthough the "P" stage is the last element of the

SPLICE-P3 system, it is the next-to-the-last element duringthe actual teaching sequence. The basic purpose of languageis communication, and purposeful communication is such astrong stimulant of language that with the goal of perform-ance, publication, cr production clearly specified and sched-uled, students are strongly stimulated to use language well.And the performance, presentation, and production generatestill more language experience in yet another step.Discussion and Critique (and possible revision)

This final stage involves all the thinking processes atthe upper level of Bloom's taxonomy : analysis of meanings,methods, implications, ideas in the "P" step ; synthesis ofideas from several different productions or approaches ;evaluation of performances, publications, or productions.This "student reaction" step provides both reward and moti-vation at the same time it stimulates additional understand-ing of concepts and improvement of process and products.

Students become aware of the importance of and oppor-tunities for polishing and perfecting, but teacher and classmay decide in many cases not to revise specific projects.They determine whether such a revision and the learning itwill stimulate are worth the additional effort.

AN EXAMPLE OF A TEACHING SEQUENCEThe lesson sequence just explored is especially produc-

tive if used with gifted classes, but it is also flexible enoughfor heterogeneous classes including gifted students. Indeed,the fact that gifted students have an opportunity to workwith and lead other students is sometimes an added value.

Here is how such a teaching sequence might evolve.

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22

I. Interest ArouserA. Over a period of time, the teacher has referred

to miscellaneous examples of unexplained phe-nomena : the yeti in the Himalayas ; the myste-rious footsteps leading to every house in Devon-shire, England, in 1855; the reports of flyingsaucers ; reports of poltergeists. At odd mo-ments, the class discusses these and otherevents. The teacher promises vaguely "some-time" to play the recording of Orson Welles's1938 broadcast "The War of the Worlds."

B. One day, with a minimum of preparation, theteacher plays the famous Welles record.

C. With the help of the librarian, the teacher dis-plays on a book truck in class a whole rack ofwhatever in the school is available on mystery,magic, science fiction, legend, and witchcraft.

II. Oral LanguageA. By laying the groundwork in advance and

spending little time introducing the record be-fore playing it, the teacher reserves time imme-diately following the record for oral languageabout it. The discussion is freewheeling andunstructured ; yet the participating studentscover the basic critical questions of literature :(1) What was the author-producer saying?(2) How was it said? (3) How well was it said?(4) Was it worth saying? In addition, they gobeyond the "text" to discuss their own priorexperiences with space and science fiction, theirhypotheses regarding why the program waspowerful, and their projections regardingspace, space-travel, and the existence of lifebeyond earth. They may also discuss the orig-inal effect of the production, in the context ofthe times, and their interpretations of theshape similar programs today might take.

B. Both the teacher and an official "scribe" keepnotes during the discussion, trying to preserveideas for investigations, projects, creativewriting, and other extension of the unit theme.

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III. Group PlanningA. The next day, after a cursory read-back of the

teacher's and scribe's notes, students list on thechalkboard or overhead projector ideas andprojects worth pursuing. Noted as questions,topics, hypotheses, projects, or assertions, theseideas are in no particular grammatical formand can be freely changed in any number ofways. A typical list might include such ideas asthese :1. Who was H. G. Wells and what else did he

write?2. Who was Orson Welles ? What is he doing

now?3. What are some of the things that happened

as a result of the broadcast? What has beenwritten about it?

4. What was going on in the world about thetime of Welles's broadcast?

5. Why were people so nervous and so willingto be panicked ?

6. What do scientists now believe about lifein outer space?

7. What is the current status of flying saucerresearch?

8. What have the Mars and Venus and Jupi-ter space probes revealed ?

9. What would happen if something similarto "The War of the Worlds" were broad-cast today ?

10. What equivalent kind of broadcast on whatkind of subject might cause a panic today?

11. Display? Pictures? Paintings? Creatures?12. Models of space ships? Satellite station?13. Poems about space?14. Science fiction available in our library?15. Interview program with "survivors" of

Martian invasion? Types of people? Reac-tions?

16. Humorous events ? One-act play, comedy,on humorous events':

17. Newspaper front page or original articlesbased on invasion ?

18. Original radio play for modern audience?TV play?

19. Original short story or narrative? Experi-mentation with point of view (perhaps aMartian tells a story and sees humor orirony in things we take for granted) ?

20. Description of creatures by us ; descriptionof us by creatures ?

B. Either in class as a whole, or in small groups,students select clusters of ideas and brainstormto develop them further. Students suggestsources of information when they can do so.(For example, for item 7current status offlying saucer researchone student may sug-gest the library card catalog, a recent encyclo-pedia, recent issues of Smithsonian magazine,the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature, thename of a local flying saucer buff who mighteither proV de information or agree to appearas a speaker.) They also suggest actual develop-ment of certain ideas. (For item 18originalradio play for modern audiencethey mightsuggest an impending China syndrome disasterin a nuclear power plant or a complete energyembargo.)

C. In a return to whole-class discussion, theteacher helps guide and schedule class activitiesso that individuals and groups can plan theirwork. Some guidance includes the following :1. Acquainting student.; with resources un-

familiar to them, such asa. Reader's Guide to Periodical Literatureb. Vertical filec. Annual yearbooks of certain encyclope-

dias (to help students determine eventscontemporary with the 1938 broadcast)

d. Annual chronologies in the World Alma-nac and Book of Facts and InformationPlease Almanac9

26

e. Current Biography (for information onOrson Welles and other figures)

f. Dictionary of American Biography forAmericans, Dictionary of National Biog-raphy for information on H. G. Wellsand other British figures

g. Special relevant Dewey decimal systemnumbers appropriate to the subject underconsideration

h. Use: of newspaper indexes, if appropriatei. Availability of materials from the local

newspaper archives (must, of course, bechecked in advance)

j. Use of such special subject indexes asGranger's Index to Poetry and Recites -Lions, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, En-cyclopedia of Social Sciences, and VanNostrand's Scientific Encyclopedia

2. Informing students of the general uniformclass activity schedule for reading and writ-ing over the next several days.

3. Ind;c.lting class time available for reading,writin1.-;, group work, and group presenta-tions.

4. Scheduling of any special films, recordings,or events related to the current theme. Forexk..mple, the 56-minute color film 1985 is afictionalized newscast produced by profes-sional television newscasters describing thedevastation of the modern world as pollu-tion and complexity overwhelm contempor-ary civilization.

5. Students discuss various projects, eliminat-ing some, expanding others, and graduallyselecting certain ones to work on either in-dividually or in different-sized groups.

IV. Research and Creative ActivityA. Because all geoups must have common mxperi-

ences to develop as groups, the teacher providesongoing common experiences during this incu-bation and development period.

27

B. Knowing both class time available and due datesfor presentations, students work both in classand outside class on their projects.

C. At regularly scheduled intervals, the teacherbrings additional materials to class, acquaintsstudents with other resources, calls for progressreports, and permits sharing of progress andproblems.

V. Performance, Presentation, or ProductionA. The individuals and groups present and explain

their various creations. When effort and attain-ment justify wider audiences, they invite otherclasses, circulate publications beyond the class,and arrange displays in the library, study hall,central corridor, or other common areas.

B. While all students remain responsible for listen-ing to and reacting to all presentations, certainindividuals have primary responsibility bothfor rewarding and critiquing certain produc-tions. They are taught, if necessary, that theirevaluations must be diplomatic, clear, incisive,and well supported. They know all generaliza-tions are subject to challenge and revision.

C. When possible, teachers save representativeprojects for future display and example. Theysee that suggestions for improvements areeither realized or recorded.

VI. Discussion and CritiqueDiscussion and criticism involve personal,

peer, and teacher evaluation, some of which is besthandled in personal confererce. Students critiquethemselves and their projects, indicating in writingtime and effort spent on their projects, degree ofcommitment to the enterprise, special problems en-countered, and judgment of the value of the projectand the worth of the experience. When possible,they list suggestions for revision or improvementor changes in procedures.

Two or more peers also evaluate each project,reacting in writing to what the creators have pre-sented. Evaluations are made independently but

4-)28

students later share impressions and resolve differ-ences.

The teacher makes an independent evaluationand then, when possible, shares impressions withthe evaluating team. Whenever possible, results arediscussed in conference with each student.

SUGGESTIONS FOR SELECTING UNIT THEMESUnlike schools and textbooks. the communications me-

dia must interest the public in order to exist. Consequently,editors, publishers, and producers have a pretty good idea ofwhat will "sell." The teacher can do worse than to adapteditors' and producers' insights to the needs of education,recognizing of course that of "human interests" to whichmedia cater, educational priorities always take precedenceover mere interest. One- communications list includes con-flict, progress, importance, people, age (young or old) ,animals, mystery, sex, personal significance, and the unusual.Because students are likely to be interested in the same humaninterest subjects as adults, an easy way for the teacher toproceed is to search the media constantly over a long periodof time and maintain files of topics and materials for classextension. Virtually all subjects about which individuals be-come emotionally involved can serve as stimulators to developlanguage, and though a single article will probably not pro-vide sufficient raw material for research, development, andproduction, a collection of such articles can certainly do so.

English teachers are especially fortunate in that theyhave both the methods and materials of literature as re-sources. Because literature by definition is concerned withemotion, literary materials properly handled are more ap-pealing to students and touch them more quickly than non-literary selections. Even when treating essentially "non-literary" materialssuch as the content of science and socialscience English instruction transmutes the material with apersonal and emotional approach. Thus, the English teachercares less about whether Balboa or Cortez "discovered" the

29

Pacific than about how the explorer felt as

He star'd at the Pacificand all his menLook'd at each other with a wild surmiseSilent, upon a peak in Darien.

This emotional approach of English even with "non-English"subject matter often allows students to relate rapidly anddeeply to all content, even that from other disciplines.

SOME ACTIVITIES TO DEVELOPUPPER-LEVEL SKILLS

Although devising separate isolated activities to developupper-level skills on Bloom's taxonomy is probably not agood idea, such activities inevitably emerge from a teachingsequence similar to that just discussed. The following listsuggests ways in which these activities might emerge froma number of such units.

Analysis SkillsStudent behaviors in this category involve the ability to

break down and describe the components of an item and therelationships those components have to each other and to thewhole. (See Program Design and Development for Giftedand Talented Students (7), p. 40.)

1. Sixth graders involved in a unit entitled "What Is aCity ?" refine the functions of a city and analyze thesefunctions into various components before beginningto plan and build a model city of their own.

2. Seventh graders, disturbed by the slaughter of whaleson the high seas, seals in Canada, and dolphins off thecoast of Japan, analyze reasons people war against na-ture. They then attempt to synthesize effective appeals tothe pe ople involved and to suggest alternative actions.

3. Eighth graders preparing individual vocations pamph-lets as part of a "Personal Futures" unit analyze the

desirable careers projections of the U.S. Office of Man-power Division and contrast them with a similar analy-sig of current local opportunities as revealed in helpwanted ads.

4. Ninth graders in a myth and folklore unit classify thethemes of various selections in an attempt to understandand define the major types of traditional stories and theirappeals to primitive peoples.

5. Tenth graders studying humor and satire collect con-temporary examples to classify and analyze as to subjectand appeal.

6. Eleventh graders studying Macbeth each take a charac-ter from the play and list and exemplify ways in whichShakespeare develops that character. Students then syn-thesize the results of their individual research to providea relatively comprehensive analysis of the developmentof each character in Macbeth.

7. Twelfth graders studying modern written communica-tions collect examples of kinds of business communica-tions both from local businesses and from library models.They classify them as to types and then analyze andspecify the characteristics of each type in a volume to beadded to the library's permanent reference collection.

Synthesis SkillsThis level of cognitive behavior requires ability to draw

together ideas or materials from different sources to createsomething new. (See Program Design and Development forGifted and Talented Students (7) , p. 40.)

1. Sixth graders in a creative writing unit experiment withdescriptive writing by specifying moods for various typesof stories, embodying those moods in appropriate direc-tional sentences ; by listing various details which wouldcontribute to those moods ; and then by writing one ormore descriptive paragraphs to capture and communi-cate such a mood without directly stating it.

31

They follow a similar procedure to develop charac-ters for their stories, utilizing description, words, ac-tions, symbols, and reports to communicate and supportcharacter.

2. Seventh graders studying television keep a diary of theirviewing for about two weeks. From the details they haverecorded, they generalize regarding their tastes andhabits. Also, they synthesize their findings regardingvarious channels, networks, advertisers, and programs.

3. Eighth graders examining legends, superstitions, andfolkways collect a large number of such beliefs, preparea questionnaire, administer it to people near the school,and infer conclusions regarding contemporary beliefs.

4. Ninth graders entering the college preparatory programwrite a number of letters regarding entrance require-ments to admissions officers of colleges to which theyaspire. They then synthesize a list of requirementF., in-cluding recommended high school courses.

5. Tenth graders studying biography and collective biog-raphy prepare lists of attributes, handicaps, areas ofexcellence, and foibles of various subjects whom theyindividually investigate. They then prepare some gen-eralizations regarding these people and their achieve-ments.

6. Eleventh graders investigating "Contributions of Scienceto Modern Thought" read independently in the history ofscience, in the biographies of scientists, and in the de-velopment of scientific thought. In addition, they inter-view scientists and teachers of science in an attempt todescribe specific steps in a number of important scien-tific developments and to synthesize a description of thescientific method (s) .

7. Twelfth graders, having each selected a different NobelPrize winning author, read a minimum of three booksby that author and prepare an essay attempting to definethe author's style and values.

Evaluation SkillsBehaviors in this category involve judgments about

value, purpose, or quality of an idea or item. (See ProgramDesign and Development for Gifted and Talented Students(7), p. 40.)

1. Sixth graders each select two different Newbery Medalauthors and read two books by each author. They thenprepare an essay indicating which author they prefer,specifying reasons for their choices.

2. Seventh graders introduced to Current Biography selecttwo figures from a field of their choice, read the entriescarefully, supplement the information with additionalresearch, and indicate which figure has so far made thegreater contribution to that field and why.

3. Eighth graders reading collective biographies take lim-ited notes on the entries about people in similar fieldsfrom such books as John Durant's The HeavyweightChampions (Hastings, 1975) , Donald McCormick's TheMaster Book of Spies (Watts, 1974) , or Milton J. Sha-piro's The Pro Quarterbacks (Messner, 1971). Eachstudent then selects a favorite person and prepares areport specifying the favorite and explaining and justi-fying the choice.

4. Ninth graders in a journalism unit obtain from the ex-change editor of their school. newspaper examples ofstudent newspapers from twenty different schools. Eachstudent reads several newspapers carefully, works out aset of specifications as to what makes a school newspapereffective, and then selects a favorite and explains andjustifies the choice.

5. Tenth graders in a unit on "Problems and Young People"collect a number of Ann Landers or Dear Abby columnsover several weeks. By classifying both the kinds ofquestions and the kinds of answers, they prepare to ren-der a judgment as to the types of questions most com-monly asked and the value of the answers.

33

6. Eleventh graders in a journalism unit have discussed anddeveloped a set of standards for daily newspapers. Work-ing in teams, they examine five or six issues each of threeor four different large-city newspapers available in theschool library. By tracing the evolution of three or fourstories over several days in each of the newspapers, theyprepare to evaluate each newspaper, to indicate theirpreference, and to justify their choice.

7. Twelfth graders in a careers unit obtain all the help pos-sible from the guidance department, library, industry,and interviews to compile information regarding threepossible careers for themselves. They then analyze theirown interests and abilities and evaluate the three careersin terms of what they know about themselves.

Problem-Finding and Problem-Solving SkillsIn .working on solutions to problems, students may

find it profitable to follow a general procedure such as thefollowing- :

Identify a problem, focusing attention on specificaspects of a question or situation, especially ques-tions that should be answered.Identify alternative solutions, brainstorming manyways of overcoming the problem and answering thenecessary questions.Evaluate the alternatives, exploring positive andnegative aspects of each alternative.Select the best alternative, realizing that this selec-tion may be revised as new information is located.Try the alternative selected, evaluating its useful-ness in solving the problem.Recycle the alternative selected, reassessing thelegitimacy of the selection as it progresses throughthe steps. (See Program, Design and Developmentfor Gifted and Talented Students (7), pp 32-33.)

This is a general procedure for problem solving and will ofcourse have to be modified according to the specific prob-lem-solving situation.

3334

1. Sixth graders listen daily in class either to a local radi'anews broadcast or a tape-recorded reproduction of sucha broadcast. Each student keeps a diary of local concerns,and the entire class explores with adults and peers thenature and significance of local problems. Individualsand groups prepare letters to the editor on subjects aboutwhich they can take in intelligent stand or reach mean-ingful conclusions.

2. Seventh graders, after reading a number of books oncontemporary life, including such books as Jean-PierreAbraham's The Pigeon Man (Quist, 1971) , Nan HaydenAgle's Baney's Lake (Seabury, 1972) , Go Ask Alice(Prentice-Hall, 1971) , Dorothy E. Shuttlesworth andThomas Cervasio's An Ecology Story: Litter, the UglyEnemy (Doubleday, 1972), ,each select a contemporaryproblem, do research, and prepare a report.

3. Eighth graders record and discuss problems mentionedin the city newspaper's letters to the editor and trouble-shooter columns over a period of several weeks. Eachthen selects a problem to research and report on.

4. Ninth graders working on a unit on "My School andMyself" devise a questionnaire regarding school andschool improvement tc administer to teachers, upper-class students, and selected community members. Fromthe results they select certain specific problems, prepareprograms for improvement of these problems, and evalu-ate the success of the programs.

5. Tenth graders in a required social studies course on"Problems of American Democracy" coordinate a termpaper unit with assignments in the English departmentso that each student treats in depth with traditional aca-demic apparatus a library resources paper on a selectedproblem.

6. Eleventh graders keep logs over a four-week period ofcontemporary problems handled on such programs as"Lou Grant," "All in the Family," "One Day at a Time,"

35L4

and "Sixty Minutes." They then prepare a brief intro-duction to a paper by summarizing the attitude or solu-tion the programs seem to suggest, continuing with a re-searched analysis of the problem from library sources,and concluding with an evaluation of the program'streatment of the problem.

7. Twelfth graders procure, duplicate, and discuss copiesof the most recent Common Cause Citizen's Lobby ques-tionnaire. They rank-order the problems as to impor-tance, compare their conclusions with those of adults towhom they administer a questionnaire, and then preparereports to send both to Common Cause and to legislators.Individuals and groups select specific problems on whichto do library research.

Creative Thinking SkillsCreative thinking, essentially, is the kind of thinking

which permits the combination of previously acquiredknowledge and skills into new and original arrangements andpatterns.

1. Sixth graders, having read or listened to such stories asSwiss Family Robinson, Robinson Crusoe, "RobinsonCrusoe's Island" by Charles E. Carryl, "If Once You'veSlept on an Island" by Rachel Field, and having heardabout such stories as Shakespeare's Tempest, Golding'sLord of the Flies, and James Barrie's AdmirktbleCrichton, spend time daily in imagining, discussing, de-veloping, and recording life shipwrecked on an isolatedisland. They create a societ,-, drwelop a set of laws andcustoms, and plan a village.

2. Seventh graders studying the geography and history ofthe United States plan and take, in imagination, a year-long trip around the country. They determine how farthey can travel each day, where they want to go, whatthey want to see, and what they will do. As the trip getsunder way, various students research, create, report on,and record the sights and activities at each stop, as wellas the historical significance for the specific locations.

3. Eighth graders studying the westward movement inAmerica have read or heard James Daugherty's Of Cour-age Undaunted or Julia Davis's No Other White Men,both stories of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Theybegin to keep a daily journal of the trip, describing ad-ventures they have, country they see, and flora and faunathey collect. They plot the trip on a large map anti ar-range continuing displays of both art work and creativewriting, as well as commercial materials.

4. Ninth graders studying "Coming of Age" and "Prob-lems of Young People" read widely in the titles listedunder these headings in Books for You: A Book list forSenior High Students prepared by Kenneth L. Donelsonand the NCTE Committee on the Senior High SchoolBook list. They then list, classify, and analyze the variouskinds of problems young people encounter and respondcreatively to them. Different groups prepare volumes of"Spoon River Anthology" poetic monologues in whichvarious characters discuss their problems, Dear AbbyAnn Landers letters and responses regarding problems,imaginative writing and artwork based on student prob-lems, and a series of radio spot announcements, includinglead-in music and brief dramatizations of problems andsolutions.

5. Tenth graders exploring the values of television sitcomswork in groups, each group selecting a different seriesto view and interpret. After preparing a report of thevalues the series seems to promote and analyzing itsbasic features and design, each group prepares a scriptand produces either a satire or a serious program stress-ing those values and features.

6. Eleventh graders studying a particular period of litera-ture and history prepare a series of newspapers witharticles, news stories, editorials, and features based onevents and publications of that period. As a model, theygo to any Sunday supplement section of a newspaper,substituting articles appropriate for the period for thekind of articles in the original.

37

7. Twelfth graders in a humanities unit wo7..k in groups toselect a period, an event, a humanistic concept, an artis-tic development, or a social innovation to explain, illus-trate, document, and interpret in a multimedia presen-tation to be preserved and used with future classes. Theteacher shows some Encyclopedia Britannica humanitiesfilms to suggest how the use of visuals and narrationpermits a slide-tape production.

Research SkillsThe first emphasis on research skills should be to com-

bat the common student belief that "research" means"library research" exclusively. On the contrary, studentsshould be taught to begin with firsthand observation of thereal world, to raise critical questions about their observa-tions, to move to controlled manipulation of events and proc=esses in the real world (experiments) , and then to go tosecondhand source, such as interviews, surveys, and first-person reports, before going to printed materials, includingthose in libraries. This is not, of course, to minimize theimportance of library work or to traduce the developmentof traditional library research skills ; all are important.

1. Sixth graders, in connection with science study, conductcontrolled experiments and record their observations.They are taught early to use the following general reportform :

(a) What bothered, disturbed, or challenged me (inshort, why I did what I did or what I wanted tofind out).

(b) What I did.(c) What I obsarved.(d) What I concluded from what I observed.(e) What I shall do next, or what I recommend others

do (if appropriate) .Experiments may range from noting germination timesof seeds planted under various conditions, metamorpho-sis time of various cocoons, and incubation time of eggs,to effects of air pressure in collapsing evacuated cans, inholding paper covers tightly to inverted glasses of water,and in supporting tubes of mercury.

38

2. Seventh graders, introduced to the importance of usageand word choice in language, prepare a questionnaireincluding disputed and dialectal choices, and report onwho in the community approves which items in whichsituations.

3. Eighth graders, in a unit on local government, maketrips by appointment to city hall and the county court-house. They talk with both elected and appointed offi-cials and attorneys and prepare a list of information andservices available from various offices, as well as obli-gations of citizens to such offices. (The teacher calls thelocal bar association to get help with arrangements.)

4. Ninth graders, in a unit on biography and collectivebiography, become interested in the Hall of Fame, theNobel Prize, the Pulitzer Prize, the Drama Critics CircleAward, the National Book Award, and other honors foroutstanding achievement. Working in groups, they pre-pare reports on the various honors ; and as individuals,they prepare reports on outstanding honorees.

5. Tenth graders, having read or heard about such booksas Samuel Butler's Erewhon, Edward Bellamy's LookingBackward, George Orwell's 1984, and Aldous Huxley'sBrave New World, read widely among the titles listedunder "Utopias and Communes" in Books for You: ABooklist for Senior High Students prepared by KennethL. Donelson and the NCTE Committee on the SeniorHigh School Booklist. They then do additional researchon communes and utopias, research current thinkingabout the future, and prepare reports on their projec-tions for the next century.

6. Eleventh graders, in a unit on "Contemporary AmericanCulture," individually select aspects of American life inwhich they are interested (dance, art, city planning,transportation, sports). They research the area and writea chapterboth as a model of term paper form and asa survey of modern lifefor "A Survey of Contempo-rary American Culture," a volume to be bound andcontributed to the library reference shelf.

39

7. Twelfth graders participating in the kind of literatureseminar described in Brooke Workman's In Search ofErnest Hemingway (Urbana : National Council ofTeachers of English, 1979) proceed as a class througha series of reading and writing experiences which pre-pare them for individual research on a contemporarywriter to be selected with the teacher's help. Workmanrecommends John Steinbeck and J. D. Salinger as moreappealing to teenagers than F. Scotc Fitzgerald and Wil-iiam Saroyan, and he specifically warns against such

riters as William Faulkner, Henry James, and SaulBellow because of length and difficulty of their works.Workman's method presumes uniform class experienceswith a single writer, but the method is extendable toguided small-group or individual work.

A UNIT GROWSWithout presenting a fully developed unit, complete

with performance objectives, long lists of highly desirable(but virtually unobtainable materials), and suggestions forevaluation procedures, it is nonetheless possible to suggestthe way in which a teacher of the gifted takes a unit themeand works out a complete unitwith student help. Again,part of motivating students to do their best and providingthem with opportunities to exercise their leadership andplanning abilities requires that they be in on the develop-ment of a unit of study. The teacher will have in mind, ofcourse, a number of both general and specific objectivesbased on an evaluation of the needs of the class, but manyof these can be reached through a number of alternativemeans, the most effective of which may well be the meansselected by students.

Here, then, is one teacher's emerging unit procedure inhandling the theme "Life in the City."

Activities1. The teacher plays a number of musical selections which

3 9 40

center on cities. Suggested are the following :Bernstein, Leonard. West Side Story. The original sound

track recording. Book by Arthur Laurents. Lyrics byStephen Sondheim. Columbia Stereo CS2071. 2 s. 12"33I/3 rpm.

Copland, Aaron. Quiet City. Howard Hanson and theEastman Rochester Orchestra. Mercury StereoSR90421. 1 s. 12" 331A3 rpm.

Williams, Vaughan. A London Symphony. Sir JohnBarbirolli and The Halle Orchestra. Angel StereoS-36478. 2 s. 12" 331/3 rpm.

2. The teacher reads a number of poetic selections (or callson outstanding student readers previously assigned toprepare and read dramatically). Suggestions are selec-tions from the following works :Adoff, Arnold, ed. City in All Directions: An Anthology

of Modern Poems. New York : Macmillan, 1969.Brooks, Gwendolyn. Bronzeville Boys and Girls. New

York : Harper and Row, 1956.Larrick, Nancy, ed. On City Streets: An Anthology of

Poetry. New York : M. Evans and Company, 1968.

3. The teacher shows films or filmstrips or pictures whichcapture the flavor of the city or indicate the problemsor future of the city. Suggested are thr following :The City, the Artist's View. New York : Sandak (4 East

48th Street, New York 10017). 25 frames, color,35 mri. filmstrip.

1985. Crowell, Collier, and Macmillan. 56 min., color,16mm. film.

2000 A. D. New York : Newsweek, 1973. Filmstrip.23 Skidoo. New York : McGraw-Hill and Toronto : Na-

tional Film Board of Canada. 8 min., black and white,16 mm. film.

"Who Do You Kill?" ana "No Hiding Place" from TVseries "East Side, West Side." New York CarouselFilms (1501 Broadway, New York 10019). Both 50min.

"Sense of the City." Limited free loan from CBS-TV.28 min.

4. Students read extensively and individually in bookslisted in the following :Cianciolo, Patricia, and the Committee on the Ele-

mentary School Booklist of the National Council ofTeachers of English, Adventuring with Books: ABooklist for Pre-KGrade 8. Urbana : National Councilof Teachers of English, 1977. (Especially the sectionson "Contemporary Life," "Ethnic Groups," and "Bi-ography.")

Donelson, Kenneth L., and the Committee on the SeniorHigh School Booklist of the National Council ofTeachers of English, Books for You: A Booklist forSenior High Students. Urbana : National Council ofTeachers of English, 1976. (Especially the sections on"Problems of Modern Humanity," "Collected EthnicExperiences," "Urban Life, Urban Concerns," and"Utopias and Communes.")

5. Students read or listen to a number of high-interest shortstories concerned with citiez. city problems, and the fu-ture of cities. Possibilities might include the following :Benet, Stephen Vincent, "By the Waters of Babylon"Bradbury, Ray, "The Town WIlare No One Got Off" (in

Cities, edited by Edith G. Stull)Clark, Walter Van Tilburg, "The Portable Phonograph"Gregory, Dick, "We Ain't Poor, Just Broke" (in Nigger)Rosten, Leo, The Education of H*y*m*a*n K*a*p*l*a*n

(most chapters)

6. Students listen to attorneys, community officials, or serv-ice club members who present their visions of the chang-ing community and their hopes for the direction ofchange. If possible, they investigate any city planningdocuments for the future.

7. A small group explores the work of the local historicalsociro -, the available books and pamphlets on local his-

, , and local history experts.

8. Small groups explore a number of books dealing withcity planning and renewal, with theories of urban de-velopment, and with the sociology of the city. Recom-

merded are such volumes as the following:Greeley, Andrew M. Neighborhood. New York : Seabury

Press, 1977.Hughes, Helen. Cities and City Life. Boston : Allyn and

Bacon, 1970 (Sociological Resources for the SocialStudies Series).

The Community, by the Editors of Time-Life Books.New York : Time-Life Books, 1976.

Fishman, Robert. Urban Utopias in the Twentieth Cen-tury: Ebenezer Howard, Frank Lloyd Wright, Le-Corbusier, Robert Fishman. New York : Basic Books,1977.

Insel, Paul M. with Henry Clay Lindgren. Too Close forComfort: The Psychology of Crowding. New Jersey :Prentice-Hall, 1978.

Mumford, Lewis. My Works and Day. New York : Har-court, Brace, Jovanovich, 1979.

Lofland, Lyn H. A World of Strangers: Order and Actionin Urban Public Space. New York : Basic Books, 1973.

Munzer, Martha E. and John Vogel, Jr. New Towns:Building Cities from Scratch. New York : Knopf,1974. (Distributed by Random House)

Munzer, Martha E. Planning Our Town. New York :Knopf, 1964.

Stewart, Maxwell S. Can We Save Our Cities? The Storyof Urban Renewal. New York : Public Affairs Com-mittee, 1966.

Von Eckardt, Wolf. Back to the Drawing Board: Plan-ring Livable American Cities. New York : New Re-public, 1978.

Ward, Colin. The Child in the City. New York : PantheonBooks; 1978.

Weaver, Robert C. Dilemmas of Urban America. NewYork : Atheneum, 1967.

Wheeler, Thomas C. A Vanishing America: The Lifeand Times of the Small Town (Twelve RegionalTowns) . New York : Holt, Rinehart, and Winston,1964.

9. Students participate in group discussions regardingcities. Well in advance of the scheduled discussion, stu-

43

dents work in a planning session during which time theylist topics to investigate, questions to find informationabout, and problems to consider. Certain individuals andsmall groups volunteer to be responsible both lor findinginformation and leading the discussion on certain areas.Students may suggest topics and questions such as these :

a. When did cities begin to emerge? Why did peoplecongregate in cities? What needs do cities satisfymore easily than does rural life?

b. What services must cities provide in order to exist?In what ways has providing these services becomemore difficult recently ? Why?

c. What values of rural or small-town life are sacrificedfor large-city life?

d. What are some of the major "planned" cities of theworld ? What have thE.ir plans included? Why werethey developed?

e. What are some of the "new towns" being developedin this century? How and why have they been created?

f. What new considerations should be provided for infuture new town ;?

g. How can existing towns be improved? What kinds ofsocial and psychological considerations must supple-ment physical and architectural considerations?

h. How can education, recreation, culture, and enter-tainment be included in plans for cities?

10 Students take a field trip either to a big city or to se-lected places in the city in which they live. For example,few students in most large cities will have visited thecity waterworks or sewage disposal plant. Few will havepersonal acquaintance with the variol .s wholesale mar-ket areas. Few will have any idea of the operations ofsuch offices as the sanitation department, the city plan-ning department, the engineering department, or thetraffic control office.

11. Students respond creative'y to various aspects of citylife. For example, after ha ying seen "The DehumanizingCity . . . and Hymie Schultz" from the Searching for

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Values Series, students write verse or stories about thefrustration of the modern individual in conflict withcomplex bureaucratic systems. (A selection from thefilm The Tiger Makes Out with Eli Wallach, this filmshows Hymie Schultz's futile attempt to fight backagainst bureaucracy. It is 15 minutes long, in color,available from Learning Corporation of America, 1973.)

12. Students examine zoning maps of their own city, con-sider i.rplications of rezoning, and attempt to work outa better, more efficient, and more productive arrange-ment. Various students role-play different types of citi-zens whose homes, businesses, or interests are to beaffected by the suggested rezoning.

13. Interested students research careers in city manage-ment, politics, and city planning. They attempt to pro-cure speakers knowledgeable in these areas.

14. Students participate in debates on various subjects.Each participant must prepare in advance a "brief" ofthe main points of the argument to be presented. Topicsinclude such propositions as the following :a. Life in the city is more rewarding than life in the

small town or country.b. City planning is preferable to haphazard, laissez-

faire growth.c. The right of eminent domain (the law permitting

governments to preempt private property for publicgood) should be extended to include all aspects of thepuPlic good, including recreation, aesthetics, etc.

d. Voluntary self-segregation in neighborhoods accord-ing to ethnic or religious background, race, and so-cioeconomic level is inevitable and constructive.

15. Students write letters to chambers of commerce in vari-ous cities requesting information regarding develop-ments which have recently improved life in the citiesand brochures regarding recreational and social oppor-tunities in the cities.

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EvaluationEvaluation will again be based on personal, peer, and

teacher judgment of the effort, depth, and value of each in-dividual student's production. As before, students will writeout a self-evaluation, referring specifically to research, re-ports, and written work, while peers independently writeout evaluations of the same materials. The teacher then pre-pares final individual evaluations, communicating them,when possible, to students in individual conferences.

THE GIFTED STUDENT AND THE "BASIC SKILLS"

Though most teachers of the gifted would argue thatthe "basic skills" are accurate perception, logical processingof information, and confident creativityor some suchroster of higher-level skillsthe fact is that state assess-ment and the back-to-the-basic movement have convincedthe public that the basics are "really" low-level reading com-prehension, spelling, capitalization, punctuation, usage,manuscript and letter form, and basic arithmetic. These arethe skills measured on most "competency' tests.

Since this entire publication is concerned with thehigher-level skills which most teachers of the gifted wouldconsider basic, perhaps it is in order to give some attentionto the "basics" as they are popularly understood. Whatabout gifted students and such low-level language arts skillsas minimal reading comprehension, spelling, capitalization,punctuation, usage, and manuscript and letter form?

Parents, administrators, and school patrons have aright to expect that the giftedas well as all other studentsbe well grounded in these basics. Unfortunately, teachersof the giftedwho a generation agt? might have assumedthat their students have already mastered these skillscan-not now do so! The reason is not that students or educationis worse than twenty years ago, but rather. that two factorsare operating: (1) the total culture today provides feweropportunities for experience with precision and depth inreading and writing and fewer rewards for achievement inthose areas, and (2) there is growing recognition that vir-

tually no one "masters" these areas at an early age so as tobe forever after free of need to focus c them. Some peoplewere shocked when the National Assessment of EducationalProgress disclosed that students in the upper grades seemto have as many problems with usage and mechanics asthose in the lower grades! But National Council of Teachersof English Associate Executive Secretary John Maxwellbelieves that the continuation of such errors is inevitable.As students write more maturely, address themselves tomore complex concerns, and experiment with more sophis-ticated linguistic forms, they will naturally err from timeto time. It is a part of the natural, inevitable growth andlearning process.

Nonetheless, teachers of the gifted neither must acceptsloppy work on basic skills as inevitable, nor must they bestampeded into overkill in an attempt through direct attackand drill to eradicate unacceptable forms and inculcatestandard ones. Indeed, either course would be disastrous.

Mechanics are important for the acceptance of a com-munication and for the credibility of the communicator. Ifthe gifted are to lead in the future, they must certainlyacquire the skills which gain them acceptance.

On the other hand, there is ample evidence to indicatethat the gifted will not be confined to basic drills and thatthe surest way to destroy their respect both for the basicswe wish to promote and the schooling we represent is tokeep them too long on too low a level.

There is evidence also that as students are actively in-volved in purposeful communication and as they receive thenatural feedback which purposeful communication gener-ates, their communications are, in large part, self-correctingand their skills self-improving. The teacher's role is to rep-resent the mass of largely conservative American "con-sumers of language" and to remind students constantly ofthe importance for credibility of standard edited English,occasionally to help with forms and distinctions, and fre-quently to provide interesting, enlightening, and active ex-perience when necessary. Occasional drills are perfectlyacceptablebut only when they are short, purposeful, inter-esting, and socialrather than long, useless, boring, andlonely. The gifted should be taught to be investigators and

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observers of language and sent often both to specializedvolumes for information and to the marketplace for observa-tion. As they become interested in and concerned with lan-guage, they will teach themselves.

References1. Apple, Natalie. "A Study of the Literature Objectives of the Pitts-

burgh Scholars Program in English, Grades 10 and 11." Doctoraldissertation, University of Pittsburgh, 1979.

2. Dewey, John. School and Society. Chicago : University of ChicagoPress, 1899.

3. Gallagher, James J. "Research Summary on Gifted Child Educa-tion." Monograph. State of Illinois, Office of Superintendent ofPublic Instruction, 1966.

4. Gavin, William F. "The Faculty Club, Wittenberg." English Jour-nal 56, no. 1 (January 1967) :37.

5. Guilford, J. P. "The Structure of the Intellect." Psychological Bul-letin 53 (1956) :267-93.

6. Tierney, Patricia. "A Study of the Composition Objectives of thePittsburgh Scholars Program in English, Grades 10 and 11." Doc-toral dissertation, University of Pittsburgh, 1979.

7. Tuttle, Frederick B., Jr., and Becker, Laurence A. Program Designand Development for Lifted and Talented Students. Washington,D.C.: National Education Association, 1980.

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This publication is designed for teachers of English lan-guage arts in grades 7-12. A guide to the identification ofstudents gifted in this area, it also offers an assessment ofthe kinds of objectives and activities which challenge theinterest and stimulate the growth of such students. Thematerial is adaptable either for homogeneous classes for thegifted or for heterogeneous groups which include gifted stu-dents ; it emphasizes a teachable developmental sequence,stressing the higher-level thinking skills, ant: the cooperativeclass development of units.

Teaching the Gifted and Talented in the English Class-room discusses characteristics of the gifted in English andprovides practical st..igg,cstions and activities to help theteacher identify these students. It also presents a design fora lesson sequence, an example of a teaching sequence, sug-gestions for selecting unit themes, and activities to developupper-level skills, as well as an emerging unit procedureincorporating earlier suggestions.

The author, William W. West, is Professor of EnglishEducation in the College of Education at the University ofSouth Florida, Tampa. The Advisory Panel for the publica-tion consists of Natalie C. Apple, Allderdice High School,Pittsburgh ; Allen Berger, University of Pittsburgh ; BonnieS. Dibble, Seminole High School, Seminole, Florida ; JeffreyN. Golub, Kent Junior High School, Kent, Washington ; Isa-belle M. Kamm, Wall Township High School, Wall, NewJersey ; John B. Karls, Milwaukee Public Schools ; Patricia0. Tierney, Allderdice High School, Pittsburgh ; and GladysV. Veidemanis, North High School, Oshkosh, Wisconsin. TheEditor of NEA's Teaching the Gifted and Talented in theContent Areas series is Dr.- Vre-aerick B. Tuttle, Jr., StateUniversity of New York, College at Brockport.

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