Re: Help! Anyone else teach gifted K-5?
Posted by Jamie in MO on 8/20/08
I feel the stress--last year I had K-8, and I was it for my
district. Here's what I did--I chose a theme (not a topic--as
in, not "dinosaurs") built around an essential question. My
first quarter theme had a math emphasis, second had a social
studies emphasis, third had a language emphasis, and fourth had
a science emphasis.
For the first quarter, the theme was called "The Measure of a
Plan," and the questions were "What are the most efficient ways
to measure things?" and "How much is enough?" All the students
did different activities related to this theme. The 7th and
8th graders created scaled models of world landmarks (after
researching them). The 5th and 6th graders created a themed
interactive measurement event for younger gifted students--they
planned the events, the food, the invitations, the theme, the
budget, and everything. The 4th graders created measurement
books describing our measurement system for aliens from the
planet Math. The 2nd and 3rd graders experimented with the
same set of snacks to compare cost, weight, length, and other
attributes. Throughout, the students did some of the same
kinds of things--choosing tools and measurement units to use
for a given task, learning how to use rubrics, trying small
problem-solving challenges to practice various measuring tasks,
and so forth. With older students, the concept
of "measurement" moved beyond traditional and literal units to
less tangible things, and we had some conversations about what
is measurable (including intelligence, love, power, knowledge,
and so on).
The drawback to this approach is that you have to write units
from scratch each year, because some of the activities will
share across the grade levels, but I happen to like exploring
different things, so I didn't mind so much.
This year, I'm in a K-5 situation, and the department has a
more standardized approach that divides activities by grade
levels. I'm still using general themes, but the activities in
each grade level will probably vary much more than last year.
A good place to start is to think about what a gifted fifth
grader, gifted third grader, and gifted first grader should be
able to do at the end of the year. For example, should a
gifted fifth grader be able to present a speech? Should a
third grader complete a research project? Don't get too
specific or you'll make yourself crazy, but generally, if
students should operate at the advanced end of the grade level
spectrum in math and language skills, and have some specific
skill-sets (a particular problem-solving method, for example),
it gives you a place to start planning.
Sorry this is so long--hope it is helpful.
>
> On 8/18/08, gph wrote:
>> If so, how often do you see each of these grade levels?
>> How do you keep up with the planning involved in the
>> lessons? I feel overwhelmed right now. Any advice would
>> be appreciated.
>>
>> Thanks
Posts on this thread, including this one
- Help! Anyone else teach gifted K-5?, 8/18/08, by gph.
- Re: Help! Anyone else teach gifted K-5?, 8/20/08, by amy.
- Re: Help! Anyone else teach gifted K-5?, 8/20/08, by Jamie in MO.
- Re: Thanks to you both very much., 8/21/08, by gph.
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