Entries Tagged 'Gifted' ↓

Today, when I went to get my first graders for TAG, their teacher invited me to be part of their class discussion instead of taking them.  What I witnessed was so simple, yet so amazing. 

Ms. G is one of the more tech-savvy teachers in the building, and her class is structured around the use of her laptop and projector.  She began by asking her students to think of three things they knew about spring.  After giving them time, she asked them to raise their hands if they had three things, then two things, then at least one thing.  Then she said “Good!  Everyone has at least one thing, so I can ask each of you without you raising your hands.”  She then brought up a simple Excel spreadsheet and typed “Spring” in the first cell.  As she adjusted the size of the cells, she talked about what she was doing with the students and talked about how the program was different on her new laptop, compared to the program they had been using. (Yes!  Her class of first graders uses Excel, Word and Powerpoint more fluently than some of the teachers!) She showed them step-by-step how to do the adjustments she was making in a kind of “think aloud” process.

After the page was set up the way she wanted, she asked each student for their response.  I know this may not seem that amazing yet, and part of the magic was actually being there, but it gets better.  The class was so engaged in what they were doing that they could hardly contain their enthusiasm.  After they came up with a list that including every student’s knowledge of spring, she showed them how she was going to put “boxes” around all of their answers, and sent the list to the printer. Before they left their carpet area, she gave them further instructions for the next task.  They were to read through their list and find the things that seemed to go together, like flowers blooming with trees budding.

While the student helper came back with the pages, she had them each get a large sheet of construction paper, scissors and glue and go to their “offices”. (This is what they call their table areas. They each go to their office to do their work.) The students immediately got to work, sharing supplies at their tables, with very few questions. 

What a great example of classifying!  They were engaged, using their own ideas, and showing their thought process with a finished product to share with the teacher and their families.  I had done a similar classification exercise for a TAG project, with ready made pictures copied from a book, but I much prefer the lesson I saw today, where the students made their own list to sort.

The best part for me was watching another teacher in action.  She never raised her voice, handled all problems as they occured in a calm manner that didn’t draw attention to the infraction, and kept the students on task throughout the whole lesson.  I’m so glad I had the chance to experience the artistry of a well-constructed lesson.  Anyone who has ever worked with first graders will understand why I was amazed.

In Roger von Oech’s post today, Creative Think: Flex Your Risk Muscle he tosses out a topic that I have been thinking about a lot lately.  “Bull’s-eye every time? If so, you’re standing too close to the target. If you’re not failing every now and again, it’s a sign you’re not doing anything very innovative. Everyone has a “risk muscle.” You keep it in shape by trying new things. If you don’t, it atrophies and you’re no longer able to take chances.” 

When we went in for a conference with my second-grade son’s teacher, she showed us his reading report for the quarter.  He had scored all points possible on almost every test.  She then said that she would rather see a few more 60s and 70s, because then she would know he was challenging himself with the kinds of books he was reading.  At that point, I became an even bigger fan of a teacher I already liked. 

I have said many times this year that I think GPA is the enemy of the gifted student.  They don’t risk taking the “hard” classes because it might lower their class rank, which in turn would hurt their scholarship chances.  I’m sure this isn’t the case everywhere, but I’m also sure it is fairly common in many schools.  It is the same reason that I am tempted to choose easier music for my choir, even though they won’t learn as much from it–it will sound better for a performance with less work for all involved.  The trouble is…this is cheating everyone. 

At a couple of different gifted workshops, presenters have mentioned the following adage: Steal their struggle and you steal their self-esteem. Our students will experience greater pride in their work if they know they have done work, instead of having a good performance handed to them on the “easy platter”.

I hope as I learn more about working with gifted students (and music students) that I don’t let my “risk muscles” atrophy, or allow my students’ to either.  Thanks, Roger for another great Whack!

ASCD Blog: McTighe on Making Assessments Meaningful makes a point that by the very nature of our profession as educators, we are ( or should be) interested in assessment, as an indicator of learning taking place in our classrooms.  His indicators of meaningful assessments are the same as we have been talking about in various high school professional development sessions, either locally, or those provided by our area education agency.  They include:

  Making assessments meaningful should also include pre-assessing, to determine the current skill level before beginning a new concept.  Why make students sit through material they already know and can easily master, when so much other material is available?  The clear learning targets would show what they need to work toward at each new level, and make differentiation that much easier. Giving advanced students extra work that is not directed toward specific learning targets is not serving their needs as a learner.

The comments so far on this blog article indicate that at least some teachers feel too much emphasis is placed on assessment already.  I don’t think McTighe is necessarily talking about formal, pencil and paper, standardized assessments.  I think he is talking about the questions we ask to check for understanding and the observations we are already making on a daily basis.  We just need to document this data a little better so that our next assessment will be measuring growth, rather than stagnation.