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What solutions are there for teacher to create instruction that is effective for gifted students?

There are many resources for teacher to use when teaching gifted students. Teaching for High Potential is a quarterly publican designed for educators with guidance and classroom-based materials to help challenge gifted students. The National Association for Gifted Children provides professional development in the form of training. They do this with webinars and also an annual conventions which gives educators a chance to network with one another. Gifted students should be given the opportunity to do extended activities that challenge them. This may be in the form of an independent project or different homework that covers the same instructional goal. Teachers should make sure that tasks are appropriate for the individual student and relates back to the instructional topic that other students are learning about. Gifted students may also benefit from academic competition. In addition to showing off the skills and knowledge that they have, they will be given the opportunity to meet other students who are like them and build a community. Gifted students may also benefit from having a mentor in a subject area that they are particularly interested in. Students at the elementary school level would benefit from connecting with a middle school or high school teacher in a subject area they are interested in. These early connections will benefit students in the future and allows them to gain more knowledge in a specific area. Teachers also need to be in communication with parents of gifted children to ensure that they are well informed about what their child is doing at school and as extension activities and assignments.

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What are obstacles that teachers face when it comes to creating instruction for gifted students?

There are two main obstacles that gifted students face, standardized testing and lack of individual attention. Gifted students are not able to show growth over the course of standardized testing as their peers are able to. They may show proficiency for year long goals during the first part of the year but are not given the opportunity to show how much they have grown over the course of the year. They continue to be tested on year long goals that they have already mastered and are not given any new goals to accomplish. When students are not engaged in learning they may have more behavioral problem or act out in class which is then a distraction to other students. A teacher’s attention is often placed on students that are below level in order to get them to be on level. Teachers also have to focus on the majority of their student who are on level. Because of this students who are gifted may feel neglected since they may not specifically need help with learning content. Students that are above level are not given the same opportunities to make a year’s worth of growth. Gifted students not being able to meet their full potential. When this occurs year after year gifted student lose the progress that they have made and are stagnant on skills until everyone else has caught up. The education system often forgets about gifted students and that they need to grow too.

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What does it mean for instruction to be good for gifted students?

One group of students that teachers need to consider when it comes to instruction being “good for children” is gifted students. Gifted students are those who have shown evidence of high achievement in one or more content areas. Their achievement must be accelerated by a grade level or more to be considered gifted. In the general education classroom teachers should find ways of extending learning to areas beyond the standard essential content to help students learn deeper and further in all gifted content areas. Provide students with opportunities for higher level thinking and independent exploration. This however does not mean that students are just given more work to do or that they have to complete more work. In math for example gifted students should not just be given more math problem to do but should be given more challenging problem based on the same topic. It is important that teachers understand the trajectory of learning starting with what content students learned in the grade before to where they are headed in the next couple grades. Gifted students also like to ask a lot of deeper level questions. Teachers need to find a time and place for gifted students to explore these questions and to find answers. Teachers may want to implement a journaling activity for gifted students to write down their question and then give them time and resources to find the answer. Teachers can then write back to the student in this journal to ask more questions about the topic or give comments or considerations for further studying. Once a gifted student has become an expert on a topic teachers should give them the opportunity to share what they have learned with an audience. This may be a presentation to the whole class or a smaller group of learners.

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Student-Centered Learning

Today is the official launch of a social media campaign that focuses on student-centered learning. The slogan of our campaign is “meeting the needs of diverse learners.” We want to emphasize in this campaign that all learners are unique individuals whose learning styles, backgrounds, and behaviors all vary. Therefore, teacher’s instruction should be designed around the needs of these unique groups of learners. Our first goal of this campaign is to help teachers to understand the perspectives of various learners in their classroom. Before teachers are able to teach their students, they need to understand where their students are coming from and how they learn. This way, the instruction will be the most beneficial to students. The second goal of our campaign is to challenge the way teachers define “good for the child.” This term is often discussed during teacher in-service workshops and daily conversations between instructors, but is never really defined. Finally, our third goal is to provide teachers with helpful resources that guide student-centered instruction. This way, there are practical solutions for meeting the needs of diverse learners. Starting in tumblr post two and throughout our campaign, each educator will focus on specific types of students including ELLs, gifted students, and those from a low socioeconomic status backgrounds. Post two will specifically define what is “good for children” and how teachers can refine their definition of this term. Teachers can then design and implement instruction that follows their philosophy behind the “good for children” definition. The third post of our campaign will address the obstacles that teachers may face in achieving the goal of meeting diverse learners and designing instruction that is “good for children.” The next post, hopeful solutions, will provide solutions for the obstacles addressed previously. This campaign focused on the needs of diverse learners will be wrapped up with a three section multimodal presentation. We are excited that you are joining us on this journey in meeting the needs of diverse learners! Use the hashtag #diverselearners if you would like to join the movement!

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October 26

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October 9, Becca Hegman

   As a teacher how can I design and implement instruction that is good for my students, fits with my philosophy of education, and address the external mandates about technology? Using technology in my classroom is all about striking a balance between technology and other forms of learning. Students should not be using computers, iPads, and other forms of technology all day long, and to the other extreme students should not be in a fully technology free classroom. Again, it is a balancing act. The role of balance keeper falls to the teacher. It is his or her job to teach students using traditional methods but to also teaching students using technology as well as about how to use technology themselves.    Teaching students using technology gives teachers access to all sorts of resources. One resource that I like to use in my classroom is GoNoodle. This website offers brain breaks for my students, as well as myself. These videos get students up out of their seats and can help them refocus on the work they have ahead of them. If students have been sitting too long, give them a brain break. If your students are too ramped up after coming in from recess or lunch, choose a calming brain break such as yoga.    A teacher that uses technology also has the opportunity to make learning more enjoyable for their students. Using iPads during centers for math and literacy allows me as the teacher to set which games students are allowed to play and I know that while they are having fun, they are also learning. Teachers do need to be cautious when it comes to what games students are permitted to play. Just because a game is out there and says it is a math game, does not mean it is a good one. I would encourage any teacher that is going to use iPads with their students to do some research about apps before loading them on the iPad.    Technology is also a topic that students will need to know about in the future. Most likely the occupation that most students pick when they are older will involve technology in some way. It is our job as teachers to prepare our students for jobs that may not have even been created yet. Teaching students how the technology works and how to use it will help them in the future.    It is also important that students have time away from technology. If a teacher were to only show their students videos and only given them iPads to learn from, would they really be learning? My answer to this is no, it would not be teaching. Reading books, using crayons and markers and scissors and glue to do activities, getting your hands in the dirt and experiencing life with all five of your senses, now that is truly learning. Students need time to play, explore, and imagine. They do not always need technology to imagine and explore for them. Striking this balance is just that, a balancing act. When we as teachers take that task seriously, our students are the ones who truly benefit.

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September 24, Becca Hegman

How do you as teacher create effective instruction that is good for children and maintain the integrity of your teaching philosophy within the constraints of a district and other external mandates?

After reading this question and thinking about what it is actually asking, I would rephrase the question as; How do districts and external mandates use standards and how would I as a teacher use standards and turn them into authentic instruction for my students, while keeping in mind my philosophy of teaching? This question is multifaceted and I plan to answer it in the following sections.

First, what are the mandates and standards that teachers need to abide by? Here in the state of Pennsylvania, there is the Standard Aligned System (SAS) which was developed by the Pennsylvania Department of Education. According to the PDESAS website, the SAS is “a comprehensive, researched-based resource to improve student achievement” (“Standards Aligned System,” 2017). These standards cover all content areas. Because of this, it is important that educators are familiar with the standards for their specific grade level and content area or areas. The PDESAS website is one great tool that educators can use to find out more about the standards and is filled with other helpful resources and assessment tools.

Second, once a teacher has a grasp on the standards they need to meet it is important that they look at the curriculum given to them by the school district or principal. A teacher should make sure that the curriculum that they are being asked to teach does indeed align with the standards. It then comes time for teachers to write their instructional plans, complete with instructional goals, essential content, and lesson plans. As a future educator, I feel that is important that we take courses such as Instructional Design, in order to fully understand the process and work that it takes on the part of the teacher to plan effectively for instruction.

Finally, comes the actual instruction and interaction with students. Teachers should be thinking about their individual students all throughout the planning process. Teachers need to know their students well in order to plan instruction that will really work for them. In class, we frequently talk about getting to know what your students like outside of school. Do they play an instrument? Do they love dogs? These simple facts can make all the difference when it comes to motivating students and really being able to connect with them. It is worth taking the time to get to know your students on a personal level because it will help you and them in the long run. Teachers also need to be willing to break the class into smaller groups to work. This should be done by academic skill level some, but not all of the time. Give students a chance to learn from each other and not just from you, the teacher.

Overall teachers need to keep the standards as the foundation from which they pull their content from but then it is important that they take a step away from there and move towards actually doing and trying different instructional tools and strategies with their students until they find what works for each one.