Okay, I'm giving this a go, but there are a ton of questions
here. It's really hard to separate my ideals with the context
of my current job, because a lot of this really depends on the
students you're working with, but hth.

On 6/28/09, Laura wrote:
> Hello!! I am working on getting my gifted endorsement this
> summer and have to have some questions answered by fellow
> teachers. You do not have to be a gifted teacher to answer
> these questions. Anyone willing to answer these will be
> greatly appreciated. I would love to have you answer all of
> them, but if you just want to answer one or two of them
> then that is cool too! If you do decide to answer just let
> me know what grade you teach and the state. Thanks in
> advance!
>
> 1. How do you recognize and identify the outstanding
> talents and potentials in students?
Our district uses standardized screeners, plus classroom
teacher observation, and sometimes parent recommendations, to
begin the identification process for our GT program. I also
run an enrichment program which is offered to students who are
not formally identified for the program, but it can act as a
pool of students who might be recommended for testing.

Really, with a lot of them, you just know. A lot of these
kiddos have light bulbs over their heads just blinking "Gifted
Here!" They are not usually the kids sitting straight and
quietly in their seats, volunteering to answer the teacher's
questions. They are usually the kids writing original comic
books with vocabulary like "the pea-green explosives detonated
over Lake Toilet, resulting in mass exodus," who can still
answer the teacher's questions correctly if called on.

I am still working to develop awareness among classroom
teachers about what gifted behaviors can look like, since they
have the most consistent access to the students.
>
> 2. How do you recognize and identify children and youth
> having high potential in multiple areas?
>
Since our program does not address musical, artistic, or
athletic talents, we use academic measures, as well as looking
at things like critical thinking, problem-solving, and applied
creativity (a muddy field, to be sure).

> 3. How do you define gifted and talented?
Gifted students are ready for more in-depth and advanced study
than they receive in their regular classrooms. Talented
students benefit from enrichment services, and tend to be
highly motivated in particular domains.
>
> 4. What characteristics do you associate with gifted and
> talented children and youth?
> Perfectionism, intensity, sense of humor, quick to "get it,"
preference for complexity and depth. Frequently, dislike
repetitive work, have sophisticated vocabulary, gravitate
toward older students and/or each other and/or adults,
sensitive, logical, make connections that seem unexpected at
first and then seem inevitable.

> 5. How do you compare historical and contemporary
> identification of gifted and talented from the perspectives
> of both theory and research?

Concerns about elitism have continued to be an issue with
regard to gifted education, and this affects program
development, implementation, and populations. We've come a
long way since phrenology. :-)
>
> 6. What do you think are the best ways to develop
> outstanding talents and potentials in students?
>
Career awareness, as early as 4th grade; opportunity for
interest-based learning--NOT just product differentiation, but
topic and complexity differentiation; opportunity for
Renzulli's Type III investigations; pursuing problem-solving as
a process, and not only a means to achieve a correct answer;
teaching students to reflect, analyze, and listen--rather than
simply reacting; encouraging citizenship--not only as
participants in a democracy, but as people with skills to
contribute (this also includes things like manners, disagreeing
respectfully, responsibility, and so forth)

> 7. How do you select challenging instructional strategies
> and materials for your students?

I read an absurd amount of information about curricular
development and educational research, and then I usually create
my own stuff based on the needs of particular students. I
would like to do more things that overlap and connect with the
classroom learning, but time is a challenge there.
>
> 8. How do you choose to implement appropriately challenging
> instructional strategies, materials, and technologies to
> meet the unique learning needs of your gifted students?
>

See above. I reflect almost non-stop, and adjust. I love
having the freedom to do this. Differentiated instruction
takes a long time to master, and I don't pretend I've hit my
ideal, but I know the road I'm on is going in the right
direction. I guess the key to this (which seems very "duh,"
but lots of people don't do this) is to have clearly defined
objectives, and activities which are aligned with those
objectives, and to collect as much information about student
understanding as possible as you go. Then you adjust where you
need to.

> 9. How do you identify teaching models best noted for
> meeting the unique educational needs of bright learners?
> What strategies do you incorporate for differentiating
> content, process, product, and learning environment?
My master's degree in gifted ed. is from UConn, so I naturally
gravitate toward pieces from Renzulli, although my school does
not follow his model. I read often, and pull pieces that will
work for my students from various resources--Tomlinson, MMM &
PCM, and so forth. I love Carolyn Coil and Dodie Merritt's
stuff from Pieces of Learning, because they're set up to be
applied in many different contexts. I could be a lot more
specific with strategies, but it would take forever.
>
> 10. How do you use major programs and prototypes developed
> to provide differentiated instruction for gifted students?
> Um, I think the above pretty much speaks to that.

> 11. How do you synthesize the major learning realms
> (thinking skills, communication skills, and research
> skills) to optimize development of gifted students across
> the various curriculum realms?

Well, that is the million dollar question, right? I love
Understanding by Design, so I make sure I have worthwhile big
picture questions to explore, and then I craft activities which
will guide students toward the objectives. I lean toward
social studies/writing kinds of things as a personal
preference, so I'm always looking out to be sure I add in a
balance of other types of experiences. I also think about
places to incorporate elements of Systems Thinking tools, or
things like Thinking Maps. I think the work I do on my own
with students is reasonably effective, but it would be so much
better if it were more clearly aligned with the regular
classroom activities. However, I wouldn't want to sacrifice
the freedom we have to explore independently, either.
>
> 12. How do you plan, implement, and evaluate the teaching
> of gifted students?
>
Planning is non-stop, but the big picture stuff happens in the
summer, and I pull together or create the major pieces then.
As the units progress, I am often tweaking or subbing things,
based on assessments, student enjoyment, time, etc. We have
parent surveys about our program, and we have standardized
assessment data. I also collect as much information from
students as I can, to keep improving and making instruction as
effective as possible.

> 13. What multiple strategies do you use for assessing
> gifted student learning and program effectiveness?

They pull state testing data on the older students, and figure
we contribute to that in some way. They also have Tungsten
data in math and reading. The survey data above and the
informal information I get from students is the most valuable
piece for me, but I do look at standardized test data to see if
I can address and support specific skills within a larger
context of our theme units.
>
> 14. How do you provide qualitatively differentiated
> curriculum for the gifted/talented/creative learner?
>
We have a pull-out program. Each grade level comes once a
week. It's not ideal. I'm still working on developing
networks and systems to support students while they learn in
their regular classrooms. If schools were structured the way I
think they ought to be, I wouldn't have a job, because all
teachers would be differentiating and attending to gifted
needs, but that doesn't happen.

> 15. How do you synchronize the curriculum of gifted
> education with the general education curriculum?
>
I have very little, if any, common planning time, and my
students come to me from different classrooms--so the same 4th
graders could come from three different teachers who are not
always studying the same things at the same time. Most
synchronization happens with regard to affective concerns about
the students, although I would like to increase the amount of
communication and co-planning with regard to curricula.

> 16. Respond to this quote from Felix E. Schelling,
> "Pedagogically Speaking", 1929. Do you believe that we have
> made great strides in the education of the gifted? Why or
> Why not?: "True education makes for inequality; the
> inequality of individuality, the inequality of success; the
> glorious inequality of talent, of genius; for inequality,
> not mediocrity, individual superiority, not standardization
> is the measure of the progress of the world."

I would love it if our society really embraced the idea of
being unique and different, but for all our pomp about "be
yourself," and "I'm expressing myself so you can't argue with
that," we tend to be much more comfortable with sameness than
with differences, so that's an ongoing journey. I would not
use that quote in any gathering, because gifted educators are
constantly walking a tightrope to explain why our students need
different content delivered at a different pace with more
freedom and choices as they encounter information, without
offending people by talking about talents and genius. I can't
ever fathom why it's okay to accept that some people throw
better or run faster, but it's not okay to describe someone as
smart, because it might suggest that other people aren't. I do
believe all children have gifts, and as educators, it's our job
to develop them in every child. I wish I didn't have to even
say that, because it should be obvious. It's also obvious that
some people learn faster and know more, and if school is about
educating students, then those students need to learn new
things, too.
>
> 17. Note the impact you feel that the following concepts
> have on giftedness: Perfectionist, underachievement,
> stress, gender related issues, motivation, visual/spatial
> learners, gifted with ADD/ADHD, profoundly gifted, gifted
> students with learning disabilities, gifted students with
> Asperser's syndrome, gifted students who are culturally and
> ethnically diverse, linguistically different, and
> economically challenged, High Intellectual-Low Creativity,
> Low-Intellectual-High Creativity
Each of these is a dissertation or more. Really, it comes down
to seeing a child for the person he is, and providing the best
learning experience possible, given where he is and what he's
ready to do.

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