This week my 7th and 8th grade students are practicing presenting their passion projects to the class. As a class we sat and listened to each group give their presentation, and gave them some feed back to help improve their presentations.
I know these group of students real well. I have had them for multiple years, and have built up a report with them that allows me to be straight forward with them in regards to their work. I think they appreciate it, and it helps us move on and get some productive changes done.
When in comes to their passion projects I told them to present their material in any form they want to, and that they feel most comfortable doing. Most are doing Google Slides, some are doing dioramas, and some are doing some short videos they made with some commentary.
What seems to be common among my gifted students is the fact they don’t have confidence in themselves. They know the material frontwards and backwards, but when it comes to communicating it to others they often revert to just giving the basic monotone presentation.
I have seen my students be passionate about the projects they chose. I have heard the passionate conversations between classmates that have turned into debates. I have seen the side of my students where they push one another to strive for the best their presentation can be. I wish I could get that passion in front of an audience.
I am sure part of it the issue is their age, and their personalities. But I know my students, when pushed or motivated can do so much more than they can realize themselves.
I am looking for some advice. If you know of a resource, or strategy to help me bring out the passion in my students presentations please let me know.
Gifted children aren’t the same. They may have similar qualities and characteristics, but they are very different. There are many different theories about giftedness. Here are a few.
The Cattell-Horn-Carroll Theory is a theory that that helps to test your child to find out which of the 9 cognitive abilities your child is strongest in.
Another is the Dabrowski Sensitivity Theory. There are five different sensitivities your gifted child could fall into. Each has a different characteristics and methods of assisting children who are living with these sensitivities.
There are more theories about giftedness such as ones from Joseph Renzulli and Gagnes which I hope that you will check out as well.
So why did I go through all of that? Because Giftedness Matters! Our gifted children are a unique student population that needs attention, understanding, and our time. Our gifted children need to be challenged, pushed, prodded, and at times let to fail. We all have these stereotypes of what we think gifted children are, but that’s what they are…stereotypes. Gifted children are real people, who live with the perceived advantages and disadvantages of being gifted every day.
Giftedness matters because of how they are taught matters. Gifted children need to be taught in a different way than other children. They need to be stimulated and challenged in many different ways. Teachers can’t teach to the average or below average children, and think that gifted children will show yearly growth. If they aren’t challenged they won’t grow. Instead, they will show behaviors that are unwanted in the classroom.
Giftedness matters because the educational setting matters. Some students need a small groups, large classrooms, and others need to be schooled at home. Whatever the appropriate setting to met the needs of the gifted child are they should be done.
The #ohiogtchat is having a discussion on this on Nov. 6th at 9pm ET. I hope that you can join this chat and further the conversation with us and our guest Celi Trepanier, author of Educating Your Gifted Child: How One Public School Teacher Embraced Homeschooling and blog Crushing Tall Poppies. I wrote a review on this blog about her book. You can read it here.
Follow @jeff_shoemaker and @HeatherCachat to get more information on this chat. You can also go to the #ohiogtchat website for more information as well.
I have been a middle school teacher now for 16 years. It is a population group that I enjoy being with, and teaching. For the past few years I have been mentoring new teachers in our district. I try to share my knowledge and expertise with new teachers in the hopes that they would not make some of the same mistakes that I have made in the past.
One aspect that I feel that I have to continue to educate new teachers on is how to work with middle school gifted children. There are a few things that I stress to new teachers that I feel they need to know.
New teachers need to understand that there are parts of gifted children’s personalities that are not like theirs. Gifted children, like all children, have various personalities. Some are unorganized, some are perfectionists, and some fall somewhere on in the middle. For teachers when you see a student who is unorganized and messy, and your classroom is meticulously organized please don’t stress over it. Let them be who they are. Give students expectations and stick to them, but also let them be who they are.
Focus on the positives when it comes to gifted children. Some gifted children may come across as crass, especially when they point out a mistake made by you. Don’t let that get to you. It may be just who they are. Instead, focus on the positives. Look for the good in each and every student you have. That will keep you from being a “negative nelly”.
Allow gifted students to struggle a little bit. Don’t rush in to save the day. Allow them to work through their frustration. By doing that you making them rely on themselves more and you less. If you are continuously helping them too much too fast they won’t have the opportunity to feel the stress and frustration that goes along with building a good work ethic.
Finally, design lessons that have stretch included. This gives my gifted students a chance to grow. If you always plan your lessons with the middle students in mind those gifted students will become discipline problems. They get bored, and you will have to rush to find something for them to do. That ends up being more busy work, and they will still be come a discipline problem.
Navigate the middle years carefully. They will be rocky filled with ups and downs, but they are definitely worth it.