Use this information to look for indicators
of gifted potential in students!
Factors Influencing Achievement:
 Belief in self
 Personal characteristics
 Support systems
 Participation in special programs, extracurricular activities, and summer
enrichment programs
 Appropriately challenging classes
 Realistic aspirations
Characteristics of Creativity in Culturally Different Students:
 Repeats activities so that he or she can do them differently.
 Invents imaginative lies
 Shows that he or she sees hidden meanings, cause-and-effect relationships
that are not obvious
 Writes and illustrates stories without being asked to do so as an assignments
 Utilizes free time by making up games or making something from paper and
material scraps as opposed to more structured activities.
 Finds many answers to a situational questions
 Lets his or her imagination “run” when writing a story – sees more
possibilities
 Finds activities for spare-time work with little or no additional help
 Decorates the border of his or her paper when doing an assignment
 Doesn’t copy other children’s ideas in art
 Builds and constructs things using unusual materials; uses ordinary
materials in different ways
 Interrelates his or her experiences and draws on them with ease in
discussions
 Doesn’t let classroom events go unnoticed; questions them
 Accomplishes things on his or her own without help
 Writes poems and stories in his or her spare time
 Asks unusual questions during class discussions
 Makes up his or her own ideas when the class does a project together
 Suggests to the teacher alternate ways of doing an activity
 Is willing to risk friendship to express his or her feelings or thoughts
 Enthusiastic about new activities in music and art
 Goes beyond what is required in class assignments; makes his or her work
“fancier”
 Comes up with fresh, original comments or an unusual correct answer when
there is more than one correct answer
 Finds new ways to get attention
 Tries original ways to get out of work he or she doesn’t want to do
 Takes the initiative when he or she wants to know something; reads or asks
questions without prompting
Use this information to look for indicators
of gifted potential in students!
*From J.E. Swenson, “Teacher-Assessment of Creative Behavior in Disadvantaged
Children,” Gifted Child Quarterly, 22 (1978), 338-43.