On our way to differentiating for our highest-ability students, there are a few tools and skills that help support our ultimate goal: successful kids.
Here are ten support skills that will help you along the way:
Gifted Learners' Social Emotional Needs
While gifted students look perfect on paper, their teachers know that in the classroom they are not all the academic angels and stellar scholars that people assume they are. Successful teachers of the gifted require a special understanding of their students' social and emotional needs. - Read moreā¦
How To Write A Lesson Objective
Creating a differentiated learning environment for gifted students doesn't mean throwing out everything you learned in your credential program. Learn how to add on to or adjust the base program, curriculum, or standards that any general education teacher uses. - Read moreā¦
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. - Read moreā¦
Practical Tips For Pre-Assessments
I get a lot of questions about the practical details of running pre-assessments and setting up multiple groups in a classroom. I brainstormed a big ol' list of tips I learned from my own experiments and those of my colleagues. - Read moreā¦
How To Pique Curiosity
In part one of this curiosity series, we explore the connection between curiosity, anticipation, and dopamine and discover why we remember things better when we are allowed to wonder. - Read moreā¦
Why I Had "Early Finishers"
Wondering what to do with your early finishers? This is probably the wrong question! - Read moreā¦
Where Do I Start Differentiating for Gifted Students?
I get lots of questions from overwhelmed folks who have suddenly landed in a new job in gifted ed and have had little training. "Where do I even start!?" is a very common cry. Here are three places to begin differentiating for gifted kids. - Read moreā¦
Acceleration - The Simplest (but Least Used) Differentiation Technique
Acceleration is a cheap and simple way to differentiate for students who are ready for something more. It can mean skipping a whole grade but is more commonly accomplished through subject-specific acceleration. Lots of people have weird arguments against acceleration, but the research shows that it works (when done well). - Read moreā¦
How I Evaluate Resources and Tools For Gifted Classrooms
When it comes to choosing which tools and resources to bring into a classroom of gifted kids, I have three rules. - Read moreā¦
Not Every Student Should Do Everything
If you want to differentiate, you have to be ok that *not every student will do every single task.* - Read moreā¦