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It isn't either/or
8 years ago
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Session 1 - Question 3
How might we, as a district, improve our practices to best meet the intellectual and emotional lives of gifted children? Reflect upon your own practices. What have you done well? What will you do differently? Please relate your reflection to what you've read. (Don't forget to give us some page numbers so we can look back.)
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To better meet the intellectual and emotional needs of our GT students we might consider; making the science curriculum more project based for them instead of “learn the facts” based. Let them be “little scientists” with real problems to solve. Give them freedom to expand projects into areas that they are interested in. Let them decide how project should be evaluated. On page 31, Catherine dressing as Joan of Arc might be a way for students to be creative and still on task. Thinking should be encouraged and rewarded in GT classes.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to see the district have a workshop that reminds teacher's that GT students have, at times, questions that are not appropriate and some that may seem bizarre (p.8). On page 19 we learn that "Those who do not stop asking questions become scientists." I'd really like it if we could have time in our history curriculum to really imerse students in the people from the early years of our country. It seems that students just learn names, dates, and places; it would be so much better if they could learn about the lives of our Founding Farthers and research the times in which they lived. Sadly, we just don't seem to have the time.
ReplyDeleteThe quote on p. 19--"What can I do for excitement in this classroom--pass me the spitwads!"strikes home for me as I believe curiosity is a gift. It may not always lead to on-task questions or even appropriate questions but all can be used for satisfying that growing curiosity.
ReplyDeleteI'd very much like to see the district help us with lesson ideas that make use of experiental learning. What a great way to satisfy those curious young minds. The anecdote, p. 28, about the two boys and their continuing discussion. I also liked the comparison of Catherine and Maria, p. 31. Maybe that will help us realize passion for learning and intensity when we see it.
It seems like everyone has the same basic concern, time to do this type of teacheing. I think that the individual school administrators may be the people that can give us the freedom and time to try a new approach with the GT students. The schools schedules and focus are so varied I'm not sure the district could find a one size fits all solution.
ReplyDeleteOn page 14 it says, "For the gifted kids who have already mastered parts of the curriculum, they can "buy time" to pursue these interests by compacting out of lessons they don't need." In SBISD, we move children up in math to match their level of ability but we don't do that in LA/English, SS, or Science.
ReplyDeleteMaybe we should to better meet their needs especially when it is difficult to find the time. Even with TAKS testing, if they are more engaged and are being taught skills more matched to their level then we should see less boredom or off-task type activities. Scores should not be adversely affected.
I'd love to have more mixed age students in my classes if it is a better fit to their academic level. Engagement and excitement would be more of an everyday event.
To respond to cwegscheid, when I had kindergarteners or first graders that were reading higher than other students in my class, I would send them to read with older kids. For example, one of my kindergarteners would go read with a second grade teacher and one of her reading groups. Doing this, the students were able to read with others at the same level and talk about their thinking.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Mr. Oliver--I truly believe that school administrators have the power to change the time we have to teach. And I totally agree that there isn't a "one size fits all" that would work. I'd like to see more of an emphasis on our GT/PAP kids--a schedule change on our campus cut the time I have with my PAP/GT kids by 50%. And there's always TAKS looming over us.
ReplyDeleteI, also, believe we should provide time some how for students to be able to satisfy their curiosity within topics they are interested in. I teach Kindergarten and several years ago, I was in serviced on an idea called the Project Approach by Lillian G. Katz for summer school. It basically allowed the class in whole or small groups to do research projects on things that were of interest to them instead of required topics. The students brainstormed ideas that were of interest to them and then after choosing one they would brainstorm questions that they wanted to try to answer as they did their research. One school, Rummel Creek, in the district was even doing it throughout the Kinder grade level at the time. I do not know if it is still being done. This kind of approach or something similar would allow G/T children to "learn what she wants based on her interests" (p.10) as well allow us as teachers to differentiate our teaching for all our students.
ReplyDeleteAs pcarr and I.oliver have commented on I think time is crucial. As an elemenatry teacher I think we have a lot more flexibility than most since we are self contained all day. We are able to move items around in the day in order to accomadate a subject lasting over an alloted time frame. The problem that we run into is the fact that we do not have pure GT classes or even a pure high achieving class. All our classes are mixed so when a project or question arises that would be great to delve into the lower learners either 1- get confused by the comparison/connection or 2 - can not spend time creating a costume (as in the book) due to the fact that they need to learn so much in order to just understand or get through the necessary information.
ReplyDeleteIntensity--GT kids are intense about learning something they are interested in. When they are interested in a subject, "they can make any subject important by their intense focus on it", p. 28. On p. 29, if you have had students who were so intense on "being heard", that they couldn't wait to raise their hand and wait to be called on, you know the feeling of having your class off balance. I try to keep in mind that their intensity is "the fuel" (p.34) to their learning. It pushes them to new discoveries that otherwise may be missed. I believe they bring energy to others and may even inspire their fellow classmates.
ReplyDeleteI love the description of the the classroom as an "exciting learning environment" on page 2, and would very much like to be able to use this phrase to describe my classroom. There are maybe 2-3 lessons/units a year that I would describe as exciting for the students (based on their reaction), but TAKS pressures and classroom management risks stymie my desire to take risks and create the type of environment described in chapter 2 starting on p. 11. On paper it looks great and inspiring, but I wish we had the opportunity to visit this type of classroom and see it in action. I would like to see where the teacher is? What the students are doing? Saying? How the students are behaving? What is the noise level? What is the teacher's role in action (not theoretically)? How does the teacher handle external interruptions? It seems that this type of observation experience could prove invaluable in terms of building teacher confidence and creating realistic expectations/goals for a classroom environment like that of Mrs. Carmichael (Chapter 2, p.11).
ReplyDeleteAS a district we can create an environment where teacher and admin feel free to try out these different kinds of instruction. In my school setting up time for teachers of the Gt students to meet and plan especially with someone who is experienced, would help get this kind of teaching started. Our problem here is htat we have so many low students tht aour teacher's time is taken up with remediation and remediation for the low kids and they have no time left to work on planning interesting stuff for the 'kid who will pass anyway'
ReplyDeleteAs a district we can continue to keep putting one foot in front of another and moving forward with our GT process....perhaps at a faster pace would be delightful...but just the same keep taking those steps forward for it seems that our district is miles ahead of others...but we must not stop and pat ourselves on the back as of yet. As for myself I am not currently in a classroom, but I have found myself willing to taking more than the required six professional development hours and have taken the State GT test. One of my favorite lines from the book thus far was the first sentence of the forward...page ix. My personal belief is there are many wonderful teachers and many wonderful GT teachers who understands that "curiosity can light many unexpected and fascinating fires" and "can be used to make other less interesting subjects more exciting to individual students." (page 13)
ReplyDeleteI think programs like History Alive have done a lot to tap into the curiosity of kids when it comes to historical figures and events in history. Supporting more interactive programs like this one is essential for motivating our kids. When reading the chapter on curiosity, I thought about my daughter's Pre-K teacher and how everything was a great adventure. I can remember her telling me that her teacher sleeps at school! When we showed up at school the next day her teacher greeted her with a face mask and curlers in her hair. All of this made the book, My Teacher Sleeps at School, come alive for the students. The same teacher had a twin sister named Super McAfee that showed up with great science experiments on a variety of days throughout the year. I think test restraints as the kids get older start to chip away at the necessity for creating these magical moments that develop the curiosity of our children. I agree with bcofer that a one step in front of the other plan is a good one when it comes to making strides in the education of the district's GT population. We need to be free to try new things especially when we are teaching students that as turtletracs said, "will pass anyway." All kids, however, deserve a time to explore their natural curiosity.
ReplyDeleteI think that to improve our servicing the GT population of SBISD, we must truly understand and embrace the last paragraph on page 49. The paragraph deals with asynchronous development and to me, sums it all up. The adults, all the adults that deal with children in SBISD, really need to embrace our gifted population just as much as embrace every other child. We need teachers that "will allow them an opportunity to mature socially, emotionally, and physically at an average pace, even while their brains are racing ahead to embrace complex ideas beyond their years." I really wish this statement was embraced by all in SBISD. It would sure create a more positive environment. I am glad that our district has SPIRAL at Bendwood because based on what I hear from many home school teachers and from parents, their children have many unique learning opportunities while they get to work with and interact with their GT peers. This does so much for their social and emotional development as well.
ReplyDeleteDear Melissaa,
ReplyDeleteWhen I worked in a regular classroom, I absolutely loved History Alive, and my students worked with it everyday. My gifted kids (there were only a couple) especially would go overboard with the projects, and always went above and beyond. I felt like the History Alive program really worked!
We seem to have moved our gifted children backwards with state mandated testing. If we take a serious look at "the test", it is a test of minimal skills. Our gifted children are beyond the test, yet we make them complete hours of practice sheets, workbook pages and boring tasks so that we can make sure they can pass the test. They are going to pass the test with or without our assistance. We need to take them beyond the test and into areas that interest them. In ch. 2 it says "bring the WOW back into your classroom."
ReplyDeleteIf we all teach like we don't have a TAKS test to administer and we focus on good, quality instruction, our students will pass the test and be able to move beyond into areas that interest them.
I feel the district does a fairly good job dealing with out GT students. We have SPIRAL at Bendwood, which really allows the kids to interact with their GT peers. I would like to see the district offer some time for us to get together with other GT teachers and share what works, etc. Most teachers really make the effort to differeniate in all classroom. I think that as teachers we need 'skip the conventional, and go for the interesting' (p.14). It does not mean that we do not teach the curriculum- but our approach is more inquiry/reseach based. We take the role as a guide and let the kids discover the way. In my class, I use alternate activities/learning menu that is ongoing. The kids always have an activity that is going on to go back to. I also have inquiry groups, which meet 2 times a week and it is all done by them. They are able to reseach and come up with it all on their own. While some use a KWL, others may make a map of Lewis and Clark. I am there to help, but when given the opportunity the kids knock my socks off. I plan to try to allow/accept/celebrate the questions kids ask.
ReplyDeleteWhen teaching history in 5th grade I also used History Alive which lets the student (teacher too) get immerced in the period being studied. The kids all loved every minute of it and could tell you about the who's and why's of the American Revolution because we had participated in the activities suggested by History Alive. I wish we used it K-5.
ReplyDeleteI was most challenged and encouraged by the discussion of the intensities of GT students (p 26). It is easy to focus in on the negatives these intensities can bring but they can be quite positive if we nutrue their existance in the correct way. I fell that true interdisciplinary learning is one of the best wasy to do this, it that it would enable us to make connections from the high interest area to the necessary subject curriculum. I have found some frustration of the lack of encouragement we recieve to create an interdisicplinary learning environment...I feel that the very way we are planning now lends itself to a fragmented day and segmented learning. GT students need us to approach learning (and teaching) in a more intuitive manner.
ReplyDeleteI think there should be more of a strong push toward inquiry learning. Our district could do better when communicating what a classroom like Tamara's looks and feels like. Pages 20 and 21 really illustrate how open and fluid yeat structured this class can be, but I think teachers should be able to observe this in motion. Maybe we should be offering chances for teachers to show off these kinds of classrooms using Teacher Tube or something similar. I also think that teachers need to see how this kind of learning translates to grades in a gradebook.
ReplyDeleteJimmieo's comments about TAKS should be repeated at every faculty meeting across the state of Texas. It is certainly a tragedy if students who make 100s on every benchmark are asked to complete TAKS practice.
ReplyDeleteIt would be very helpful to have specific in service training for elementary music teachers integrating the latest in brain research and best practices. I plan to incorporate composition projects which will give opportunities for creativity and synthesis of music with core subjects.
ReplyDelete