When speaking about giftedness, I am often told that “labels are harmful.” Here’s why I think labels have a powerful (but limited) purpose.
Year: 2016
Summer 2016 Reading Recs
Looking for something to read this summer? Here are a few sorta-teaching-related texts I’ve enjoyed.
Reader Question: Unusual Animals
A reader asks how we can take the typical “look up facts online and then present with PowerPoint” task to an appropriate level of challenge.
The Curse Of Knowledge
The Curse of Knowledge: once you know something, it’s hard to think from the perspective of someone who doesn’t know it. And the more you know, the harder it gets.
A Clock Math Project?
A reader wrote in, asking how to differentiate for a task like reading analog clocks. What to do with a student who has mastered this skill? What’s a good math clock project?
Creating Better Research Questions
Once students have a topic they’d like to research, how do we help them form more interesting questions?
Teaching Students To Explain Their Thinking
It’s a weird trap: because a child is “so smart”, everyone thinks any gaps in their skills are a result of laziness or defiance. But sometimes the brightest kid needs small group instruction for a skill the rest of the class already gets.
Giving Feedback When The Work Is Great
Our brightest kids can go through school without ever receiving meaningful feedback. This can set up a fear of feedback and a fixed mindset. Here are some ways you can chat with kids about their work…
What Could You Do With This Pancake Flipping Robot?
I love videos of robots messing up tasks. This one in particular struck a chord, because we get to see the robot learn from his mistakes. Let’s have students write him some advice…
Academic Love Letters
We’re going to take the Academic Valentine idea from earlier, and extend it into a full blown love letter – just in time for Valentine’s Day!