Gifted Weekly

Included in the December NJ Association for Gifted Children Newsletter

When my students come in excited about an issue or trend, I direct that energy toward a project that embodies a few of the practices and values in our class: I am responsible for my learning. My interests matter.Others have great ideas to share about my project. 

Last year a few students were obsessed with Fortnite, and we were able to direct that interest towards a game design and coding project. When another student wanted to learn chess, he built a tutorial to teach others so that he could figure out how to play as well. 

“Give the pupils something to do, not something to learn; and the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking; learning naturally results.”― John Dewey

Moving into the December holiday season, my enrichment groups take a break from larger projects and focus on building a tangible or digital object they can give to someone else to improve their lives. One year, a student 3D-printed a doorstop for his teacher, and another student made a fancy pencil case out of a cardboard box for his mom’s remote work desk in their living room. 

To shape these activities, I’ve created a gift-making menu for the students to get them started (see below). These serve as conversation-starters, launchpads, and scratch paper. I print these and share them digitally on Google Classroom.

The students begin to plan in groups but then develop their projects individually. They propose three ideas for discussion and then select one to start developing. If they complete and finish a project early, they start work on another.

The final requirement is that they write or type a note saying how they planned the gift and why they thought it was appropriate for that person. I check the note for grammatical errors, and then we print and decorate it to go with the gift.

The recipients always appreciate the thought that goes into the gift, and the students put their divergent thinking skills to work as they consider the interests of others. A win-win!