What Does the Perfect Gifted Program Look Like?

What does the perfect gifted program look like? It quickly became apparent that describing the perfect program was not hard at all. Now, finding somewhere that one existed … that was a different story altogether! Most people agreed that one-size-does-not-fit-all. There were many paths that could be considered excellent choices, but each child had to find their own. A full transcript of the chat may be found here.

Some of the various programs that were considered included pull-out (good for peer relationships), acceleration (great choice for those who were achievement-oriented), ability grouping within the regular classroom (when inclusion was the only option), multi-age classrooms (great when available, but few and far between), special schools (charter, cyber, private … great, but potentially expensive), and homeschooling (good choice when families were committed and able to do so).

A multitude of resources are available online and many are shared below. Several links were added after the chat for specific programs. The NAGC (US) and the CEC proved to be excellent sources of information.

In closing, a comment from Cybraryman ~ ” “A beautiful thing is never perfect.” We need to constantly change, adapt, amend to make a program better.”

Links:

FAQs @NAGCGIFTED (U.S.)

Gifted Program Standards from @NAGCGIFTED

“What to Look for in a Gifted Program” from the CEC

Montana Gifted Program Planning Guide (pdf)

“The Effects of Participating in Gifted Programs Extend Beyond Academics” from @DukeTIP 

“In Search of the Perfect Program” (pdf) Silverman 1991

The Iowa Acceleration Scale

A Nation Deceived

Cybraryman’s Cooking and Recipes Page (see transcript)

Top 10 Advocacy Tips for Parents of Black & Hispanic Gifted Students from Dr. Joy Davis

Building a Joyful Learning Community from Justin Schwamm

Comprehensive Curriculum for Gifted Learners by Van-Tassel Baska (Amazon)

Handbook of Gifted Education by Colangelo (Amazon)

The Differentiated Classroom: Responding to the Needs of All Learners by Tomlinson (Amazon)

Teaching Models in Education of The Gifted by Maker (Amazon)

Twice-Exceptional Gifted Children: Understanding, Teaching, and Counseling Gifted Students by Trail (Amazon)

Can Gifted Learners Really Be Challenged in the Regular Classroom?

This year’s Back-to-School #gtchat discussed whether or not gifted learners could really be challenged in the regular classroom. Many different opinions were expressed including the belief by many that it was possible, but rarely occurred.  A full transcript may be found here.

Most participants agreed that gifted learners do in fact learn differently; although several teachers pointed out that all children learn differently. This conclusion laid the basis for discussing various instructional strategies; their appropriateness and viability in the classroom over time.

Differentiation seemed to be the most widely used strategy for working with gifted students. A timely blog post by Ginger Lewman, “A Case Against Differentiated Instruction“, posed an alternate view.

Everyone in the chat seemed to agree that two factors … professional development in gifted education for teachers and teachers’ attitude toward gifted students … played a critical role in the delivery of services.

Links:

Instructional Strategies for Gifted Students 

High-Achieving Students in the Era of NCLB

Differentiation for Gifted Learners (Fall 2013) from Richard Cash 

Tips for Teachers: Successful Strategies for Teaching Gifted Learners from Davidson Gifted

Instructional Strategies for Gifted Education from the #gtchat Blog

What All Teachers in Regular Classrooms Can do for the Gifted

High Ability and Gifted Students in the Regular Program: Left Behind?

The Plight of the Gifted from Georgia Tech

The Miseducation of Our Gifted Children from Davidson Gifted

Gifted Kids and Elementary School from the Berkeley Parents Network

CCLebrate Learning 2013 – 2014 Parent Handbook (pdf)

Motivating Without Grades from IEA Gifted

Promoting a Positive Achievement Attitude w/Gifted & Talented Students from Davidson Gifted

How to Build a Culture of Thinking

The ‘Culture of Thinking’ movement began in 1993 with the publication of a book by Ron Ritchhart. Today, it is encapsulated in the Project Zero at Harvard University’s School of Education. It is funded (through the end of 2013) by Bialik College in Melbourne, Australia under the patronage of Abe and Vera Dorevitch. A full transcript of this chat may be found here.

Links:

The Thinking-Learning Connection / Creating a Culture of Thinking (1993)

10 Ways to Create a Culture of Thinking

‘Creating a Culture of Thinking’ (pdf) Ron Ritchhart

Cultures of Thinking Project Zero Harvard Graduate School of Education

How do you help engender a culture of thinking within your learning community? TED Conversations

“Thinking Deeply in Kindergarten”

Thinking is Contagious! How our Cultures of Thinking Journey Began

Structure and Purpose of Thinking Routines (RRR # 1)

Creating Cultures of Thinking: The 8 Forces We Must Marshal to Truly Transform Our Schools

An Overview of Ron Ritchhart’s Keynote Talk at Project Zero Classroom 2012 (YouTube)

Trending: Do you agree with critical thinking?

Special Guest: Dr. Lynne Kenney, author of BLOOM

Global #gtchat welcomed Dr. Lynne Kenney to our chat to discuss her new book, BLOOM. The book is available in digital form on Dr. Kenney’s website (see link below) as well as at Amazon for the Kindle. Much of the information in the book is relevant for parents of gifted and twice-exceptional children. One lucky chat participant won a copy of BLOOM during the chat! A full transcript can be found here.

The first question to be considered was how parents can move from a punishment-reward paradigm to a more positive type of parenting.  Dr. Lynne explained that focusing on the connection between desired behaviors and attachment is key with gifted kids. She also stated that we need to think beyond rewards and into relationships building, collaboration and thinking skills. The moderator noted that if reward-punishment systems worked, we wouldn’t be seeing the increase of poor behavior in kids that we do today.

Other issues discussed included the importance of having an organized home for the atypical child, how parents can help children to build communication skills, and how to stop ‘setting off’ our children with the ‘tell, don’t yell’ strategy. Please check out the links below.

Links:

BLOOM at Dr. Kenney’s website – Full graphical version & stream-lined graphics version

BLOOM Kindle Edition (Amazon)

Co-author, Wendy Young’s website Kidlutions

DrLynneKenney on Blog Talk Radio from TheCoffeeKlatch

Play Math from @DrLynneKenney

The Family Coach Method (Amazon) from @DrLynneKenney