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Not-So-Lazy Days of Summer
If we work with our students to build on their interests, a few structured summer activities can help them grow rather than founder.
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Differentiation in Gifted Ed: Remember These 4 Approaches? (Part 3)
Exposure to the concepts behind differentiation is common, but the practical application can be unclear or forgotten amid other teaching demands. How many of these are regularly integrated into our lessons?
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Unlocking Universal Testing: Broad Criteria for Implementation
Questions continue circulating among gifted program teachers and administrators regarding the most accurate, fair, and cost-effective system. While universal screening is advocated as a means to enhance the gifted identification process (and rightly so!), practical guidance on its implementation remains limited.
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Differentiation – Various Approaches (Part 2)
Last week we considered the most common methods employed by teachers to support and develop ability in students, as noted in the meta-analysis conducted by Nicholas et al. This week, we consider the next three methods: open-ended, problem-based inquiry; resourcing that goes beyond; and inviting choice.
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Differentiation As a Tool to Unlock Potential (Part 1)
In their analysis of 38 studies published from 2000-2022, Nicholas et al. note that traditional notions of giftedness are changing, with a focus shifting from performance alone to recognizing its complex and context-dependent nature. This includes acknowledging socio-emotional factors and societal influences that may impact identification, which links to Grant’s…
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Vertical Differentiation: A Book Review
In her book, Emily L. Mofield has compiled a practical, realistic and highly readable set of 25 different approaches to that question in her Vertical Differentiation for Gifted, Advanced and High-Potential Students: 25 Strategies to Stretch Student Thinking. Almost any classroom teacher will find this useful…
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Be Specific: Planning for G/T Outcomes
In the latest Texas Association for Gifted & Talented (TAGT) podcast featuring Celeste Sodergren, Director of Advanced Academics in the Waco, Texas, Independent School Distirct (WISD), she explores the need to map specific projects to skill development, with each skill rolling up to a larger skill set.
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What is enrichment?
Although enrichment has taken up increasing space in student schedules, the goals of such programs are unclear.
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Motivation Matters for Gifted Growth
How many times have we second-guessed how to motivate and challenge the gifted child? Too much praise is problematic (Glass & Tabatsky, 2014), but we also want to recognize student effort and achievement. For gifted students, the student’s status and self-identification as a “gifted child” and how that impacts their…
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Gifted DEI Efforts: What Does the Admin Think?
“Equity” muttered with an eye roll is an unfortunate side effect of Diversity and Equity Inclusiveness (DEI) efforts over the past few years. I have heard frustration expressed by those across the political spectrum with DEI’s performative aspect, its ineffectiveness, and the polarizing nature of large-group equity conversations. During doctoral…
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Can Differentiation Improve Learning for All? Part One: A Short Introduction
While a homogeneous classroom of all gifted learners is antithetical to the pursuit of recognizing gifted potential across ability levels, effective differentiation requires an increase in human and other targeted resources to serve the variety of needs in our general education classrooms. Research indicates that differentiation is necessary to meet…
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iReady as an Indicator of Giftedness?
Districts have long searched for an online tool to support all assessments. Serving as a diagnostic Swiss knife, the online program should measure mastery of skills, remediate as necessary, challenge where appropriate, and provide fine-tuned data to allow a grade-level team to address learning gaps. For many districts, these tools…
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Overreliance on IQ Testing Leads to Unsupported Students
Assessments of the gifted should provide objectivity and a data point which can be consistent across a range of abilities. However, in some cases the test used to evaluate the level of ability in students is both inaccurate and limiting.
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Academic References of Gifted Weekly
Unless otherwise cited in the entry’s SOURCES Adams, M., & Bell, L.A. (Eds.). (2016). Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice (3rd ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203940822 Adelman, C. (1993) Kurt Lewin and the origins of action research, Educational Action Research, 1:1, 7-24, https://doi.org/10.1080/0965079930010102 Agee, J. (2009) Developing qualitative research questions: A reflective…
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Stay on the Move with Gifted Students
Human intellectual feats rise to their highest levels when accompanied by physical movement. We can model the importance of moving combined with thinking for our students. How?
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No Challenge = Low Growth for Gifted Students
It would be silly to argue that knowledge is finite and, therefore, gifted students learn less because there is only so much to learn. Nonetheless, this is an assumption that we live with in the typical, modern classroom. Time is spent on the critical task of bringing students up to…