What it takes to teach gifted learners well is actually a little common sense. It begins with the premise that each child should come to school to stretch and grow daily. It includes the expectation that the measure of progress and growth is competition with oneself rather than competition against others. It resides in the notion that educators understand key concepts, principles and skills of subject domains, and present those in ways that cause highly able students to wonder and grasp, and extend their reach. And it envisions schooling as an escalator on which students continually progress, rather than a series of stairs, with landings on which advanced learners consistently wait. – Carol Ann Tomlinson
Model/Strategy- Resources / Description / Possible Advantages / Possible Drawbacks
Acceleration[i]
A Nation Deceived – free download - The Belin-Blank Center at U. of Iowa
Genius Denied – The Davidson Institute / Allowing the student to work on material that is a year or more beyond their expected grade level based on demonstrated need /
- Research indicates maximum learning benefit
- Many options are low cost because staff and curriculum are already in place
- Student motivation, confidence and scholarship improve
- Enable the student to experience and practice habits of mind essential for learning
- Skill gaps may need to be addressed
- Social stigma may exist depending upon the culture in the school and/or home
Whole Grade / Grade Skipping –the student demonstrates competency/mastery of the majority of skills and concepts taught at the next grade level and readiness for the following grade /
- Highly effective
- Low cost (staffing and curriculum in place)
- Enables the student to pursue high level interests and options sooner
- Requires willing student and staff to be successful
- Student may meet with resentment from other students, staff or parents
- Initially, student may need social support to nurture friendships
Subject area/Content Specific / The student’s instruction in a particular subject utilizes the curriculum at a higher grade based on demonstrated need /
- Highly effective
- Can be low cost
- Positive impact on student growth
- District has flexibility to deliver in an existing class at the higher grade (low cost) or have the current classroom or gifted teacher deliver the instruction
- Scheduling may pose challenges, especially transitions between buildings
Curriculum Compacting / A content acceleration strategy that enables students to skip parts of the curriculum they have already mastered and move on to more challenging content and activities. /
- Student moves at their own pace
- Can create time for self-selected, interest-based studies
- Positive impact on student growth and motivation
- Requires robust familiarity with multiple levels of content
- Requires significant planning to ensure coverage of all skills/concepts across grades
- Time intensive for staff (Costly)
- May require training for staff to execute effectively
Dual Enrollment
Community colleges may offer programs. / Student attends both the home district and college part time /
- Highly effective
- Builds independence
- Enables student choice/interest to be addressed
- Scheduling may be complicated
- Transportation (often provided by student or parent)
- Cost of college credits (often paid by parents)
Early Entrance / Allowing a student to begin Kindergarten before she/he has reached the age of beginners /
- Highly effective
- Immaturity – Usually gifted students fit socially with older students –impact of maturity has not been documented as a negative outcome
Differentiated Instruction
(Tomlinson @ U of VA) / Adapting content, process and/or product to address the readiness and interest of the student /
- Can be implemented by the regular education teacher with support from the teacher of the gifted
- Addresses student interests and allows student choice
- Students may remain with their peers studying the same topics at a higher level
- Requires extensive training and a high level of planning to be most effective
- Although it can be very effective for gifted learners, it tends to be utilized very infrequently for advanced students
- May require some significant adaption to content in order to meet the readiness level for many gifted learners
Independent Study
Contracts
Virtual learning / Student pursues topics of interest independently with direction from a mentor, teacher or virtual program /
- Highly individualized
- Builds on student interests and ability
- May provide opportunity for significant acceleration
- Some online content is free
- High motivation
- Open ended
- Limits interaction with other students
- Services may be limited by staff availability to monitor and supervise
- Some online content can be costly
Autonomous Learner Model (Betts @ U of CO in Greeley) / Learners accept responsibility for their own learning and develop the skills,
concepts and attitudes necessary for independent investigations. Key components include seminars, in-depth study, and enrichment. /
- Highly individualized
- Builds on student interests and ability
- May provide opportunity for significant acceleration
- Some online content is free
- High motivation
- Open ended
- Limits interaction with other students
- Services may be limited by staff availability to monitor and supervise
- Some online content can be costly
Enrichment
Mini-courses/units / Replacement activities that extend the curricula beyond the grade level requirements. May involve new topics or extend depth of regular curricula. /
- Lots of options for topics
- Teacher investment in the unit can be motivating
- Creating units is time intensive
- Quality of the unit is dependent upon staff expertise
Integrated Curriculum Model (VanTassel-Baska @ College of William and Mary) / A Product-oriented model - Emphasizes the combination of advanced content, higher order thinking, and overarching themes as the foundation for curriculum /
- Well researched and developed for gifted learners including low income students
- Districts may purchase individual units
- Aligned to CCSS
- No staff ownership of units
- Training is required
- Specialized/Purchased materials
Parallel Curriculum Model / A Paradigm-oriented model – Curriculum is modified through four parallel lenses – core, connections, practice, and identity - with the goal of moving from novice to expert along a continuum of ascending levels of intellectual demand /
- Aligns with current curricula
- Flexible - Can be used at any grade or in any subject
- Targets thinking with ascending levels of intellectual demand
- May not require additional materials
- Created by a team of experts in the field of gifted education to model best practices
- Teacher training is essential
- Collaboration among teachers improves the richness of the curricula, but requires time
- Does not have a large body or research to support the model as a whole
School-wide Enrichment Model(Renzulli @ U of CT) / A model that introduces interested students to a wide variety of enrichment opportunities. Based on the Triad model, SEM aims to address student achievement, motivation, and ability to produce creative products /
- Helps students determine what motivates them
- Engages many students – not just gifted learners
- Connects students with experts
- Coordination of the program with GIEP goals requires specific attention
- Depending upon which interests are addressed, certain students may be overlooked or require additional services
Mentorships/
Apprenticeships / Experts in a specific field work with the student face to face, in a work setting, and/or online to give authentic experience /
- Highly authentic, real world exposure to practitioners
- Allows depth of study based on student interest
- Low cost because mentors usually volunteer their time
- Flexibility in scheduling
- Can help student build a strong resume for future aspirations
- District may have little control over the content
- Coordinating mentor work requires staffing, especially when the work must be aligned to curricula
- Scheduling can be a challenge – May need to be extracurricular and/or virtual
Grouping Strategies /
- Interaction with like-minded peers is essential for gifted learners
- Establishes a teacher responsible for meeting the needs of the gifted learner
- Possible resentment from other students
- Possible parental pressure to include under-qualified students
Full-time Gifted Class/
School within a School/
Magnet School / Gifted children from several schools are grouped in one building and take all of their courses together /
- Teacher uses curricula that are specially adapted or replaced based on needs of gifted learners
- Cost effective because it utilizes few extra services beyond the regular classroom
- Pacing easier to adjust than in mixed ability class
- Teachers selected based on expertise with subjects and with gifted learners
- Initial creation of content may be costly
- May still require additional accommodations to meet individual needs
- Transportation may be required
- Possible conflicts with home school or other classes in the building
- Significant separation from age peers
Gifted Support
Resource Room / Students visit a specialist on a regular basis for a specified amount of time weekly in a separate classroom /
- Opportunity for in-depth study
- Teacher usually has some training in gifted education/GIEPs
- Pacing easy to adjust for small group
- Scheduling may be a challenge
- Regular education teachers may require students to complete work for lessons taught in students’ absence
- Caution – May be a program, not a plan
Itinerant pull-out/
push-in / Teacher travels to different schools to serve gifted students /
- Provides a teacher with expertise in a building that may otherwise not have one
- Opportunity for classroom teacher support with either acceleration or enrichment
- Teacher usually has some training in gifted education/GIEPs
- Intermittent exposure to the teacher may limit effectiveness of instructional interventions
- Coordination among teachers is required to ensure alignment with standardized curriculum
- Regular education teacher may require additional training to fully address student’s needs in GIEP
- Caution – May be a program, not a plan
Cluster Grouping / Gifted students in mixed ability classes are clustered together in the same classroom rather than spread evenly among the teachers in the grade /
- Very cost effective because it utilizes regular education teachers to deliver high level content for gifted learners
- Students have regular contact with age peers
- Allows teachers to target small group instruction to the level of the students
- Extensive training of classroom teacher in advanced strategies to be effective
- The gifted cluster may need to move faster than the other groups/classes
Alexander, Deal, Doherty, and HoyPage 1
[i]An Important Note on Acceleration from “Acceleration: What we do versus what we know” by Karen B. Rogers ASCD October 1992 | Volume50| Number2 Untracking for EquityPages 58-61
Teachers and administrators have a research-supported menu of accelerative practices to select from that result in substantial academic achievement gains for students. Very few options, however, appear to directly affect students' social skills and self-concept. If teachershave avoided offering these practices to bright students out of a concern for the social andemotional effects, such misgivings should be laid to rest.
Those who wish to enhance outcomes in affective areas for accelerated students, however, might consider the assistance of a school counselor or a support group. With careful attention to the cognitive, social, and emotional needs of prospective
accelerated students, teachers and administrators can recommend from an array of practices with the confidence that the child will not only survive but will thrive in a more challenging learning environment.