Teaching the Gifted and Talented: 33 Websites Where You Can Find Good Resources I wish the Internet was available to me as a kid in elementary school. In New York City, where I attended kindergarten through sixth grade, they called the gifted and talented class "SP". I remember being put into a class to learn French, but very little else. I figured out how ahead I was only when I entered junior high school in New Jersey. The French language I had studied for three years allowed me to coast through French class for the next four years. LESSON PLANS41 Ways to Go Beyond the Book Report Edsitement- from the National Endowment for the Humanities Gifted and Talented Education Lesson Plans Helpful Sites for Gifted Students Lesson Plan Resources- from Davidson GiftedMrs.
A Teacher’s Guide to Differentiating Instruction Introduction Does effectively teaching 30 students in one classroom require teachers to develop 30 lessons, one tailor-made for each student? Or should teachers “aim for the middle” and hope to reach most students in a given lesson? The answer is not simple. While most would agree it is impractical to try to individualize every lesson for every child, research has shown that teaching to the middle is ineffective. What is Differentiation? Simply stated, differentiation is modified instruction that helps students with diverse academic needs and learning styles master the same challenging academic content. How to Start Four planning steps set the stage for effective differentiated instruction. Vary Materials Author Joyce Van Tassel-Baska (2003) suggests that the selection of materials for use in the classroom is a crucial next step to effective differentiated instruction. Nonfiction and fiction, written at a variety of reading levels. Vary Process Vary Assessment Conclusion References Good, M.
Differentiating the curriculum The Policy and implementation strategies for the education of gifted and talented students: Support package: Curriculum differentiation (2004) (pdf 1345kb) provides an introduction to curriculum differentiation for gifted and talented students and is suitable for all stages of schooling. It needs to be read in conjunction with the Policy and implementation strategies for the education of gifted and talented students (revised 2004) and its companion document (2004) (pdf 270kb). The purpose of differentiating the curriculum is to provide appropriate learning opportunities for gifted and talented students. Three important characteristics of gifted students that underscore the rationale for curriculum differentiation (Van Tassel–Baska, 1988) are the capacity to: learn at faster rates find, solve and act on problems more readily manipulate abstract ideas and make connections. The creation of a differentiated curriculum requires some pre-planning. Definitions Article (pdf 25kb) Acceleration Web page
Differentiating Instruction Differentiating Instruction ... One Size Doesn't Fit All Effective Strategies to Improve Student Performance ! We have students in our classrooms who struggle academically and others who learn at an advanced level and accelerated pace. Testimonials about the workshops -- Fran McAleer is a valuable contributor to our work, training to create a new and better workplace in our schools. More! Franny McAleer has been providing staff development for teachers in the Berwick Area School District for the last four years, including whole staff workshops with the Six Thinking Hats as well as focused workshops detailing best practices with instructional strategies for gifted and honors students. AWESOME! Franny did a tremendous job of inspiring and engaging participants in a one-day training session on differentiation. The presenter knew her topic and was open to all questions. Franny McAleer is a dynamic presenter. "This workshop got nothing but rave reviews." Teacher and parent links are blue.
Gifted Students - How To Information Lessons Using Socratic Questioning for Gifted Students Socratic questioning is crucial to developing strong critical thinking skills, according to non-profit organization The Critical Thinking Society. The method is defined by a facilitator guiding students to evaluate their biases and reaching conclusions through a series of open-ended questions. Establishing a fair classroom environment in which all gifted students are able to speak and be heard is critical to the success of using the method. Strategies for Teaching Expository Writing to Gifted Students Gifted students typically master language arts skills earlier in life than their counterparts. How to Manage a Gifted Student When a person thinks of gifted children, advanced intellect is usually the first thing that comes to mind. How to Adapt a Lesson for a Gifted Student Testing for Gifted Students in Kindergarten High Achiever Vs. How to Motivate Teachers of Gifted Students How to Teach Children With a Natural Talent Cognitive Vs.
Guide to special needs apps Complete guide to educational and special needs apps With over 300,000 apps it's easy to become overwhelmed by the number of app choices. It's also easy to spend a small fortune on a lot of useless apps. As a special needs parent I wanted to get right to the "good stuff" and figured you did too. by Dawn Villarreal, One Place for Special Needs Android apps (all) Android does not have the nice interface of iTunes for viewing apps on the Internet as opposed to your device. Aphasia appsApps specific to those with aphasia Apraxia appsApps specific to those with Childhood Apraxia of Speech Articulation appsApps that focus on articulation. Assistive technology apps Here are a variety of assistive technology apps employing voice recognition, text to speech, easy to use technology for impaired motor abilities. Auditory memory apps Auditory memory is the ability to remember what you heard. Auditory procesing apps (all) This link takes you to all of the auditory processing related apps. Other resources
Differentiated Instruction with UDL By Tracey Hall, Nicole Strangman, and Anne Meyer Note: Updated on 11/2/09; 1/14/11; Please visit the AIM Center home page. Introduction Not all students are alike. This report on differentiated instruction and UDL begins with an introduction to differentiated instruction in which we provide the definition, a sampling of considerations and curriculum applications, and research evidence for effectiveness. The literature review in this paper is also available as a stand alone document, with annotated references. Top Definition To differentiate instruction is to recognize students' varying background knowledge, readiness, language, preferences in learning and interests; and to react responsively. Figure 1. Image description:This graphic organizer is entitled "Learning Cycle and Decision Factors Used in Planning and Implementing Differentiated Instruction" and is made up of a series of seven labeled boxes connected by arrows. Identifying Components/Features Content Process Products Figure 2.
Teacher’s recommendations for academic uses of 5 fun free presentation tools Course participants offer their ideas about ways to use these fun free tools in instructional situations and other academic applications. One of the most meaningful and informative types of communication that happens through education technology blogs like this one is when teachers share their experiences and ideas about how to use technology in the educational setting. Last summer, EmergingEdTech ran an online workshop in which participants learned about a variety of free digital presentation tools. With each tool, we got hands-on and created brief presentations, and then discussed our experiences and shared ideas on how we might use these tools in our professional roles. The participants shared a lot good ideas, and I’ve been meaning to share some of them here. Following are some of the tools we used, and some of the ideas offered for how to put them to use in education. “We are starting a new early college high school program. “… classroom ideas for Glogster use: Vuvox About Kelly Walsh
Dare to Differentiate - 50 Terrific Teacher Tips! Concept driven learning Some ‘big ideas’ about concept driven learning: (From this week’s little #pypchat on Twitter) The world is changing. Knowledge is changing. Big Ideas in the classroom. Since I no longer have my own class, I relish opportunities to get into classrooms. The first provocation is a video showing the effects of an electricity blackout. Rubi introduces a second provocation to further develop their thinking. Sorting Questions. With each question on an individual sticky note, the groups sort the questions in any way they like. Some groups sort the questions by topic, others by big ideas. To sum up the lesson, we ask students to give it a title. A conceptual central idea. We introduce the central idea: ‘Our use of energy has an impact on the planet.’ Each group now gets the whole class’s questions and the task is to sort the pile into two groups… Those that relate to the central idea (the overarching conceptual understanding.) and those that don’t. Key concepts. Big ideas about the learning: Like this:
Using Bibliotherapy with Gifted Children - Unwrapping the Gifted Hopefully we’ve all had that experience of reading a book that powerfully “spoke” to us, a book whose characters we could relate to, and whose struggles and triumphs we identified with. Taking this experience a step farther is the strategy of bibliotherapy, the process of helping the reader learn about and cope with any social or emotional struggles or developmental needs by identifying with a character in a book who shares a similar struggle or need. The reading is typically followed up by discussion with a trusted adult. Bibliotherapy of course can be done with all students, particularly students who might be experiencing a divorce in the family, a learning disability, adoption, etc. Today I want to talk a bit about using developmental bibliotherapy specifically with gifted students. A fair amount has been written already (see links at the bottom of this post) about what bibliotherapy is and why it's important to do with gifted students. * Who in the book do you identify with and why?
Digital Differentiation Technology is a tool that can be used to help teachers facilitate learning experiences that address the diverse learning needs of all students and help them develop 21st Century Skills. At it's most basic level, digital tools can be used to help students find, understand and use information. When combined with student-driven learning experiences fueled by Essential Questions offering flexible learning paths, it can be the ticket to success. Here is a closer look at three components of effectively using technology as a tool for digital differentiation. Note: The interactive graphics you see below have been updated. They can be found in a newer post on this blog. The goal is to design student-driven learning experiences that are fueled by standards-based Essential Questions and facilitated by digital tools to provide students with flexible learning paths. Essential Questions: Student-driven learning experiences should be driven by standards-based Essential Questions.