Gifted Education

Posted by Douglas Parker

Future Studies, or Futurology is a study that attempts to hypothesize what will be taking place in the future by studying current and past trends in what has been taking place in the world. Gifted students are particularly good at thinking about the future and are motivated to help things go the right way.



Framing Future Studies for Gifted Students



Begin a classroom literary discussion using any apocalyptic story the students know about and enjoy. There have been any number of movies recently about asteroids blasting into the planet, and books about nasty viruses that enslave humankind. Even if the title is less than scholarly, it helps set the table for the next focusing discussion.



Next, ask the gifted students to think about the long-term consequences of the disaster, even if people were to survive the threat. What would the world’s drinking water supply be like? What would have happened to the animals, and more importantly, what happened to the animals that people eat to survive?



And, what would have happened to the crops?



Real Futurology Comes Alive



Explain to the students that people tend to think about systems as whole entities, so if everyone survives the fictional big tsunami from the underwater volcano, all will be well. In complex, interdependent systems, however, that is not always the case. So, if some disaster came along that threatened humankind, and we all somehow dodge the big bullet, the smallest of details like dead crops could spell disaster down the road.



Would the students agree that somebody should have thought about that ahead of time and done something about it? Fortunately, somebody did. Futurologists in Norway built a frozen vault to safeguard millions of seeds from disasters and wars.



That should kick start a healthy discussion.

Posted by Douglas Parker

I have written some articles on Future Studies and Futurism for Suite101 under the premise that this kind of emotional and intellectual stimulating can be extremely beneficial for gifted students. While I touched on the topic briefly, the other side of the coin is just as important in my mind.

What Happens in the Future?

The leadership of today can really become myopic in dealing with current issues, much less addressing those of the future. When it comes to gifted education, providing the resources and protection to nurture the country’s greatest intellectual ‘gifts,’ practically everything is left to the states and localities. In doing this, one of the victims of budgets that have been realigned down to zero dollars this year is gifted education and the thousands of boys and girls who have the potential within them to get our world back on track.

How is this possible? In a world that values instant success and achievement, it seems that our leaders are impatient with waiting for children to develop and are seeking all the answers now with the adults we already have. What other possible explanation could there be for a society that pays such little time and attention to the development of its young. Think back to the excitement of the early 1960s when there was such a fervent push for more math and science teachers when national resources were being poured liberally into education.

I have said repeatedly that gifted students are our greatest natural resource, and as such, what group is better prepared to think about the future and make plans that will benefit all humankind?

Posted by Douglas Parker

On Dec. 4, 1970 a new kind of politics was born in Washington, D.C. when William Ruckelshaus became the first Director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, setting the stage for what has been come to be known as the Green Movement. While none of the gifted children in schools today were alive when that happened (and I suspect that neither were many of their teachers) the significance of the event can be brought to life through storytelling.



While this particular assignment helps form students who respect our environment and take positive steps to care for our planet, any good cause can be explored through storytelling as a vivid method for not only having the students use their advanced language arts skills, but also employing their creative intelligences to develop awareness about important issues in the world today.

Green Storytelling!

The objectives for this lesson are to have students explore the Green movement (a topic that will appeal to gifted students on several levels of interest) and to write a story that will introduce a character who has encountered an environmental issue and has used his or her abilities or earth-friendly resources to correct the situation.

There is no end to the possible list of environmental issues today. For example, students could choose to explore how building Green works to reduce or eliminate the negative influence of construction on the ecosystem and human health. For research on this topic, students can visit the U.S. Green Building Council as it strives to make green buildings available to everyone within a generation.

Posted by Douglas Parker

For many years before television became the staple of family entertainment, the radio played a pivotal role as the source for news and amusement. There is a big difference between television and radio, however. On television and in many cases in theatre and even in illustrated books the author’s ideas and interpretations about a character or a situation are depicted visually and the reader or viewer simply has to accept that visual image as the ‘correct’ likeness. However, in storytelling the listener needs a lot of imagination to be able to create the images of the people and the events in his or her mind. This takes a little more work, but if the story is told well the listener can have an extremely vivid experience.



Theater of the Mind



In radio, the expression was ‘theater of the mind,’ meaning that each listener was free to build the stage and actors any way imaginable as they listened to the words and sound effects coming from the big wooden box using only one sense - hearing. There were also numerous radio programs that told continuing stories much the same way that a television series would today.



As a focusing exercise, teachers should tell their gifted students about an evening in 1939 when CBS radio played an adaptation of H.G. Well’s science fiction classic The War of the Worlds. Instead of telling a traditional story, the director and narrator Orson Welles decided to present the tale by using news flashes that sounded real. So real, in fact that many, many people were fooled by the story and panicked because they were terrified!



The power of the spoken word is real, and stories are a great way to both entertain and to make a point for gifted students.

Posted by Douglas Parker

In storytelling the listener needs a lot of imagination to be able to create the images of the people and the events in his or her mind. This takes a little more work, but if the story is told well the listener can have an extremely vivid experience. For the gifted storyteller, it takes even more effort to find the words and sounds, the tone and articulation of voice, and sometimes the expressions and body language necessary to create the images in the listeners’ minds.

The Multiple Intelligences Used in Storytelling

The Multiple Intelligence Theory indicates that children can be intelligent in ways other than what can be measured on IQ tests, and several kinds of multiple intelligences are used when telling a story. The most common intelligence used would be Linguistic Intelligence, where written or spoken words are this child’s strength. These children like to read, talk, and write stories, and like to learn by verbal memory, hearing and reading, all of which would be a good fit with storytelling.

Another likely intelligence would be Interpersonal Intelligence, since storytelling is an interactive activity unlike acting. Working and socializing with other people and supporting the work of groups in accomplishing tasks, and communicating with others typifies this kind of intelligence in students.

While a case could be made for almost all of the multiple intelligences, children displaying Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence who enjoy sports and dancing and acting could stand out during storytelling enhanced with action, and students who learn through Spatial Intelligence by thinking things through, visual memory, engineering and wondering can create some imaginative tales for the class!

Posted by Douglas Parker

Allowing gifted students to study and work together, even if they are clustered together or spend only a few periods per week in a pullout class, can make a positive difference in their academic and social development. The two most common grouping methods involve using cluster groups in regular education classrooms, and performance and ability grouping pullout classes.

Despite the advantages, the question that almost always asked with grouping is if it is a form of tracking. It is not. Tracking refers to a process whereby all of the children are pigeonholed into the various skill and ability levels, or ‘tracks,’ for most or all of the subjects, and it becomes very difficult to move within those rank levels. Clustering or pullout classes involve only the gifted students, and only where and when the teacher deems it appropriate.

In many cases then, the real answer always comes back to the teacher trained in educating gifted children knowing what is best for an individual student, and maybe having some form of an IEP might help the cause. In public schools, individualized education refers to a student being assigned an IEP, or an Individualized Education Program or Plan. What some schools that value gifted education mean by Personalized Instruction, however, is that each student has a special relationship with an adult, either as an advisor or homeroom teacher that will work with him or her, his or her parents, and the school in making the best possible academic and social decisions about the learning environment. I have seen what kind of difference these dedicated teachers can make, and they would most likely agree that the best environment would include performance and ability grouping programs for their gifted students. It’s about doing the right thing.

Posted by Douglas Parker

Note: This is the third blog in a series of three critiquing the No Child Left Behind Act.

The teacher’s heart was suddenly filled with a sense of helpless dread, as she knew the young boy was correct.

“We must cross the threshold of statehood,” he replied, and by merely touching her hand, the class was suddenly transported to a neighboring state where the academic standards and expectations were far lower.

“I can finish my test now,” the boy said in an assured voice.

As the boy took his seat, the teacher’s mind was racing for a logical explanation for what had just happened; but there was none to be found.

The children all finished their tests at exactly the same instant, and as if by some powerful subterfuge, their exams were all scored as they sat silently and watched their teacher with appreciative eyes. She raced down the aisles grabbing the papers and staring at the grades.

While some might have received poor scores in her previous state, now their grades were just dandy, and she was a good teacher again, and the children had all learned their lessons and were making Adequate Yearly Progress.

Joy had returned!

The Big Conclusion

We hope that you all have enjoyed today’s scholastic allegory for the peculiar federal system that punishes states with higher academic expectations and standards. While we would love to tell you that this tale is entirely imaginary, in the new dimension of the No Child Left Behind Act, the argument is that states should set their own educational standards rather than having a national curriculum because they pay for a lot of their students’ education.

Not even Rod Serling in his heyday could paint a tableau this macabre.

Posted by Douglas Parker

Note: This is the second blog in a series of three critiquing the No Child Left Behind Act.

… math teachers had slipped into a new dimension of paper and scan sheets where instead of leading the boys and girls to the heights of their potential, they were struggling mightily to survive.

She had done the best she could with what little money they had, but her school existed in a state that held high standards for its students, and even though the children were on a par with those in states around hers, they simply couldn’t keep up with the yearly progress levels they were expected to make. And as a result, their funding had suffered.

Perhaps it is wishful thinking, but the teacher reminisced about when she was a little girl and her teachers had taken her by the hand to safely navigate the perils of long division and quadratic equations. Maybe some educational leader would come along and once again take her by the hand and guide her to the place where learning and reasoning were still valued.

But instead of a leader, it was the young boy who had put down his pencil and ventured forward to meet his teacher. She could tell that the boy had been upset by his reddened eyes, but then he presented as calm and assured.

“What is it, son,” the teacher asked quietly, not wanting to disturb the other students. “You know that the rules state that you cannot leave your seat during the test.”

“The answer does not exist here,” the boy answered. “You need a sense of belonging some place away from this school.”

“But, what must we do?” she asked a quivering voice.

Posted by Douglas Parker

Submitted for your consideration, imagine a place where rules don’t always apply. Portrait of a school, in any given town just down the street from any given town hall. A boy of no more than ten is taking a standardized test that when added with his classmates' work, will determine if his school receives the much-needed funding it desires to be able to pay its teachers. The boy also knows that if he does not perform well on the test, that he himself can be sent into a different dimension of pens and rulers for his schooling next year.

The hands on the clock seem to freeze into the beige background that was once a pristine, freshly painted white wall. But, that was years ago, and the money hasn’t been there to touch-up the dingy walls. The boy squirms in his seat as the numbers on the paper seem to be running together, and nothing is making sense in his young mind, until he suddenly has a moment of clarity and begins to smile.

The good teacher sat at the front of the class keeping a boldly optimistic smile on her face to encourage her students as they bravely push through their examinations. Her nightmare had begun years earlier when her progressive lesson plans for teaching young boys and girls how to decipher the mysteries of math had been shelved in favor of new texts that had been published by friends of the local politicians that pushed test-taking skills more than math manipulations. Math teachers are a special group of people - they have grown up loving and respecting the purity of thought and reason that math concepts embrace, but now…

Posted by Douglas Parker

When things begin to settle down after a crisis event, the students will invariably begin asking questions about what happened. Because middle schoolers are changing in so many different psychological and physiological ways, their curiosities can get the best of them. Further, their egocentrism can lead them to believe that they are in danger as well. Middle school teachers will need to reassure them that just because something bad happened to someone else, it does not mean that it will happen to them



To help the middle schoolers deal with a crisis, this is a list of suggestions for teachers:



-If a student needs help, don’t hesitate to send him or her to the counselor.



-Tell the students that they are safe in displaying how they feel. Have a lot of tissues available.



-Do some fun things. Play. Sing. Draw.



-Address rumors immediately. In many cases, they can be used to initiate a discussion.



-Be honest, but not to the point of telling the students too much.



-The standardized tests and unit exams can wait – cut them some time to deal with the crisis.



-Conduct large and small group discussions about dealing with stress.



-Supply as much as possible correct information to the students.



-If the crisis event was a suicide, a special protocol needs to be established. Get help!



And, always remember that the distressing pain the students feel takes a long while to heal, and that like an emotional time-bomb sometimes some students might not display a distressed reaction until much later and in a situation that is completely unrelated to the current crisis. As teachers and parents, be ready!