Hava E. Vidergor
Gordon Academic College & Arab Academic College, Haifa, Israel
and
Carole Ruth Harris (Eds.)
G.A.T.E.S. Research and Evaluation, USA
This book is a comprehensive study and guide for the classroom teacher, the gifted
program coordinator, and the graduate student, who are challenged daily to provide
for individual children who differ markedly but come under the umbrella of giftedness.
It serves as a wellspring that derives from theory while it offers practical application
of theoretical construct in a wide variety of international settings from leaders in
the field who demonstrate implementation of proven and field-tested techniques
and alternative scenarios to accommodate every classroom situation. Contributors
are internationally recognized experts who have come together to provide a sound,
reliable source for teachers of the gifted that will be utilized time and time again by
practitioners and researchers alike.
Among internationally renowned scholars are: Joyce Van Tassel-Baska, Susan
Johnsen, June Maker, Belle Wallace, Linda Kreger-Silverman, Dorothy Sisk, Gillian
Eriksson, Miraca Gross, Gilbert Clark, Enid Zimmerman, and Rachel McAnallen.
Applied Practice for Educators
of Gifted and Able Learners
Applied Practice for Educators of Gifted and
Able Learners
Hava E. Vidergor, Ph.D., is lecturer of innovative pedagogy and curriculum design at
Gordon Academic College and Arab Academic College of Education and holds a Ph.D. in
Learning, Instruction and Teacher Education with specialization in Gifted Education
from the University of Haifa, Israel.
ISBN 978-94-6300-002-4
SensePublishers
DIVS
Hava E. Vidergor and
Carole Ruth Harris (Eds.)
Carole Ruth Harris, Ed.D., formerly Director of G.A.T.E.S. Research & Evaluation, is a
consultant in education of the gifted in Central Florida who holds the doctorate from
Columbia University where she studied with A. Harry Passow and A.J. Tannenbaum.
She has served as Associate in International Education at Harvard University,
Research Associate at Teachers College Columbia University, lecturer at University of
Massachusetts, Lowell and University of Hawaii, Principal Investigator at Research
Corporation of the University of Hawaii, and Director of the Center for the Gifted in
Ebeye, Marshall Islands.
Spine
33.782 mm
Applied Practice for
Educators of Gifted
and Able Learners
Hava E. Vidergor
and
Carole Ruth Harris (Eds.)
Foreword by Ellen Winner
Applied Practice for Educators of Gifted and Able Learners
Applied Practice for Educators of Gifted and Able Learners
Foreword by Ellen Winner
Edited by
Hava E. Vidergor
Gordon Academic College & Arab Academic College, Haifa, Israel
and
Carole Ruth Harris
G.A.T.E.S. Research and Evaluation, USA
A C.I.P. record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN: 978-94-6300-002-4 (paperback)
ISBN: 978-94-6300-003-1 (hardback)
ISBN: 978-94-6300-004-8 (e-book)
Published by: Sense Publishers,
P.O. Box 21858,
3001 AW Rotterdam,
The Netherlands
https://www.sensepublishers.com/
Printed on acid-free paper
All Rights Reserved © 2015 Sense Publishers
No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming,
recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the
exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and
executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work.
This book is dedicated to my parents:
Dov Horowitz and Ruth Horowitz
You have been the source of unconditional love,
encouragement, and inspiration throughout my life.
Thank you for the emotional and practical support
in undertaking this project.
Hava E. Vidergor
This book is dedicated to the memory of my beloved husband,
John Nathaniel Harris.
His support, his encouragement for all my endeavors,
and most of all, his love, will be with me always.
Carole Ruth Harris
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Forewordxi
Prefacexiii
Acknowledgementsxvii
Section 1: Curriculum for Gifted and Able Learners
1. Characteristics of Able Gifted Highly Gifted Exceptionally Gifted and
Profoundly Gifted Learners
Miraca U. M. Gross
3
2. Engaging Different Types of Gifted Learners
Linda Kreger Silverman, Linda Powers Leviton and Steven C. Haas
25
3. Who Is the Best Teacher of Gifted and Able Students?
Hava E. Vidergor
43
4. The Role of the Gifted and Able Coordinator
Hava E. Vidergor
57
5. Putting Together the Puzzle: The Logic of Design and
Development of Curriculum for Gifted Learners
Joyce VanTassel-Baska
6. Culturally Derived Program Development for Gifted Students
Carole Ruth Harris
77
87
Section 2: Units and Lessons Based on Curricular Models
7. Using the TASC Thinking and Problem-Solving Framework to
Create a Curriculum of Opportunity across the Full Spectrum
of Human Abilities: TASC – Thinking Actively in a Social Context
Belle Wallace
8. Developing Real-Life Problem Solving: Integrating the
DISCOVER Problem Matrix, Problem Based Learning, and
Thinking Actively in a Social Context
C. June Maker, Robert Zimmerman, Maria Paz Gomez-Arizaga,
Randal Pease and Edith M. Burke
9. The Integrated Curriculum Model
Joyce VanTassel-Baska
113
131
169
vii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
10. The Multidimensional Curriculum Model: Preparing Students
Today for Tomorrow’s World
Hava E. Vidergor
199
Section 3: Teaching Strategies
11. High Order Thinking, Problem Based and Project Based Learning
in Blended Learning Environments
Hava E.Vidergor and Michal Krupnik-Gottlieb
217
12. Creativity in the Gifted Child: A Kaleidoscope of Abilities
Carole Ruth Harris
233
13. Practical Strategies for Teaching Independent Study
Susan K. Johnsen
251
14. A Comprehensive Plan for Authentic Integration of Technology
in the Gifted Curriculum
Gillian Eriksson
15. Incorporating Alternative Assessment
Hava E. Vidergor
273
307
Section 4: Differentiation
Part 1: Adapting or Creating Units Derived from Models
16. Arithmetic Is Answering the Question Whereas Mathematics
Is Questioning the Answer
Rachel McAnallen
325
17. Language Arts for Gifted Students
Carole Ruth Harris
339
18. Social Studies for Gifted Students
Carole Ruth Harris
361
19. Developing Leadership through Global Awareness and Global Learning
Dorothy A. Sisk
391
20. Theory into Practice: Teaching Talented Visual Art Students
in Hong Kong
Gilbert Clark and Enid Zimmerman
viii
429
TABLE OF CONTENTS
21. Teaching Music to Gifted Children
Laura M. Schulkind
441
22. Interdisciplinary Units
Hava E. Vidergor
455
Part 2: Unique Courses and Projects
23. Excellence 2000: Nurturing Scientific and Mathematical Thinking Skills
among Excelling Elementary and Secondary School Students
Avi Poleg
24. Physics and Medicine in Industry: A Unique PBL Model that
Combines Science, Medicine and Entrepreneurship for High School
Gifted and Talented Students
Michal Krupnik-Gottlieb and Amos Cohn
477
527
25. Teaching a Second Language: Using Biographies of Eminent
People to Enhance Creativity
Hava E. Vidergor
543
26. Relate-Create-Donate: Promoting Social Responsibility in
Second Language Teaching and Learning
Hava E. Vidergor
559
27. Young Radio Broadcasters
Moshe Kastoryano and Hava E. Vidergor
573
28. The Ambassador: Leadership for Gifted and Able Students
Hava E. Vidergor
587
29. Individualized Programs for Gifted with Various Talents
Carole Ruth Harris
603
About the Contributors
619
Index631
ix
FOREWORD
This is a book that will greatly help parents and teachers of gifted children, and it
will also be of help to parents and teachers of many other kinds of children as well.
Let me explain why.
Ever since my book, Gifted Children: Myths and Realities, appeared in 1996, I
have received countless emails, letters, and phone calls from parents of highly gifted
children desperately seeking answers about schooling. I heard stories of principals
who denied the concept of giftedness with the pat phrase, “all children are gifted.”
I heard stories of skeptical teachers asking parents whether they had “trained” their
child through rigorous drill with flash cards. I heard stories of children bored in
school, hating school, begging to stay home, and feeling isolated and different from
their peers.
I tried my best to advise these worried parents. I told them that there was no
perfect solution because schools are made for the typical child, and their child was
not typical. I discussed with them the pros and cons of each approach, including
advocating for an advanced curriculum for their child so he or she could go at her
own pace in the classroom; grade skipping, and home schooling. Since most schools
resist grade skipping, and since most parents do not have the means to home-school,
the most obvious solution seemed to me to advocate for an advanced curriculum.
But most parents had no idea how to push back after being told that all children are
gifted.
And at this point I usually referred the parents to Carole Ruth Harris, Director
of Gifted and Talented Education Services. Carole could help the parents negotiate
with the school and she could develop just the kind of curriculum that the child
needed. I knew of no other service like this, but I often wondered why there were not
hundreds of GATES’s all over the country!
This volume, edited by Hava Vidergor and Carole Ruth Harris, is a rich sourcebook
for parents, teachers, and administrators filled with case studies and examples.
There are 29 chapters covering a very wide range of educational issues along with
practical suggestions for how to implement the changes recommended. You will find
guidance on developing intellectually challenging lesson plans and how elevating
standards and teaching to the top can benefit all, not only those identified as gifted;
how to teach to every child’s strengths; how to teach by having children solve openended real-world problems; how to develop meaningful and authentic assessment
measures that do not just measure but also enhance learning. There are also chapters
on enhancing specific kinds of gifts, including giftedness in mathematics, language
arts, leadership, technology, and creativity, even when the child has a profound gift
in one of these areas and weaknesses in others.
I believe that the recommendations in this book could also serve teachers of all
children, not only the gifted. Teachers could adapt these lessons for any kind of
xi
FOREWORD
child. After all, we want all children to be intellectually challenged, to solve realworld problems, to learn mathematics conceptually rather than by rote, etc. And
alternative forms of assessment that enhance learning are what all children need
so that we can go beyond standardized tests which assess learning narrowly and
certainly do not enhance learning in any deep way.
Ellen Winner
Department of Psychology
Boston College
xii
PREFACE
This book concentrates on practice with a view to maximizing the potential of every
gifted learner. It addresses many aspects of giftedness and can be applied in a variety
of settings using a flexible approach to accommodate the complex issues that arise
in planning, developing and carrying out successful programs. Intended to serve
as a resource and a guide for teachers, graduate students, counselors, parents, and
administrators, it is designed to assist and support educators in the difficult task of
providing opportunities for the gifted to find fulfillment in discovery and to reach for
the attainment of excellence in their endeavors.
The book does this by drawing from a variety of resources and takes the educator
of the gifted through applications that are grounded in theory and useful in practice
with attention to their interlocked nature. The book encompasses both the how and
the why of effective program development and application, along with provision of
the rationale for utilization of these methodologies in practice. The content offers
examples and models that function as blueprints, with frameworks built upon
solid, field-tested foundations. The intention is to furnish the tools for constructing
a comfortable and lasting learning environment appropriate for gifted students to
enable them to mature and grow as effectively as possible in a rapidly changing
world.
Section I provides guideposts for curriculum development through theory,
practice, and models. In Chapter One Miraca Gross connects the differing
characteristics of students with multiple levels of giftedness across a broad spectrum
and includes able, moderately, highly, exceptionally, and profoundly gifted students.
Utilizing theoretical constructs from Bloom and Williams the chapter demonstrates
applications and outcomes through the delineation of case studies and subsequent
discussion of potential problem areas in heterogeneous learning environments. In
Chapter Two Linda Kreger Silverman, Linda Powers Leviton and Steven C. Haas
discuss problems associated with the learning styles of different types of gifted
learners, such as visual-spatial learners and culturally different and diverse learners
and offer applications of methodology for engaging such students. Hava E. Vidergor
addresses the question of that which constitutes an appropriate set of requirements
for effectiveness in teachers of the gifted in Chapter Three and in Chapter Four
outlines specific expectations and responsibilities for the gifted coordinator’s role as
an enabler. In Chapter Five Joyce Van Tassel-Baska describes the development and
design of curriculum for the gifted and the processes necessary for implementation
of that design. The ethnographic approach for program development for children
identified as gifted in a poverty-stricken area with multiple complexities related to
cultural conflict is offered as an exemplar by Carole Ruth Harris in Chapter Six.
Section Two is devoted to units and courses based on curricular models. Belle
Wallace describes the methodological approach used in TASC – Thinking Actively
xiii
PREFACE
in a Social Context in Chapter Seven and takes an inclusive viewpoint through
the provision of offering stimulating and challenging opportunities for exercising
discovery through practice and adaptation that creates opportunities for involvement
and adaptation by utilizing thinking skills. In Chapter Eight June C. Maker, Robert
Zimmerman, Maria Paz Gomez, Randal Pease, and Edith Burke target the desire
of the gifted student to bring about change and provide lesson plans and activities
that have been field-tested and proven successful for immediate application in the
classroom using real-life problem solving and problem based learning.
Joyce Van Tassel-Baska presents an integrated curriculum model in Chapter
Nine that incorporates advanced content and higher level thinking and derives from
research-based curriculum units of study. In Chapter Ten Hava Vidergor describes
the construct of a multidimensional curriculum model that portrays how experts
think through many lenses and points of view that provide dimension and fullness
for exploratory activities for the gifted to ponder and apply in the 21st century.
Section Three is concerned with teaching strategies. A review of the literature
on Higher Order thinking Skills is provided by Hava vidergor and Michal KrupnikGottlieb in Chapter Eleven, followed by delineation of specifics in academic
areas and concludes with practical guidelines for curriculum expansion. Susan K.
Johnson, in Chapter Twelve, outlines and guides the educator into strategic areas
of independent study that has as its focus proven models that utilize steps within
the process. The chapter also presents examples of these models in actual use
and suggests evaluation tools appropriate for determining effectiveness. Chapter
Thirteen is directed to the creatively gifted child. Carole Ruth Harris discusses the
multiple aspects of creativity in the gifted population including attributes that mimic
exceptionalities and social difficulties that stem from the unusual perspective of the
creatively gifted original thinker. The chapter includes case studies and provides
practical guidelines for nurturing creativity and strengthening self-esteem. The case
for urgency of designing a plan for integrating technology in the gifted curriculum
is presented by Gillian Eriksson in Chapter Fourteen. The chapter reviews current
research along with usable strategies that focus on integration of technology in the
gifted classroom and provides examples of workable lesson plans for the practitioner.
Chapter Fifteen is devoted to incorporating alternative assessment. Hava Vidergor
recognizes the need for utilization of other means of assessment that encompass
evaluation which reflects the real progress of the gifted learner and goes beyond
superficiality and number crunching. The chapter offers guidelines and templates
that help to guide the teacher to make use of meaningful and authentic assessment
tools in the gifted classroom.
Section Four of this book presents units derived from models with attention to
specific areas of learning in academic areas and in the arts. This section is a rich
resource for design and implementation of an educational setting that embraces
challenge and optimizes learning for gifted students. Chapter Sixteen utilizes
a creative approach to mathematics. Rachel R. McAnallen leads the student into
mathematical thinking through a conceptual rather than a procedural base with a
xiv
PREFACE
view to understanding and applying principals in lieu of rote learning. In Chapter
Seventeen Carole Ruth Harris presents language arts through genre with emphasis
on depth in analysis along with critical interpretation that utilizes hands-on
methodology and includes sample lesson plans that demonstrate differentiation for
the gifted according to developmental age and ability. In Chapter Eighteen Carole
Ruth Harris emphasises a global view for planning and developing Social Studies
units that focus upon adaptable thematic unit themes and exemplary lesson plans
coupled with suggested activities for outreach that are inclusive of cultural points
of view. Dorothy Ann Sisk creates a template for developing leadership through
global awareness and global learning in Chapter Nineteen through description of
the model developed by Sisk and Roselli for intermediate and high school students
with emphasis on key concepts and student self-assessment. The chapter illustrates
the model with units and lessons that are connected to definitions and theories of
leadership. Gilbert Clark and Enid Zimmerman delineate seven stages of art learning
and art making in Chapter Twenty by providing a description of their field-tested
model for teaching visually talented art students in Hong Kong. The chapter describes
and demonstrates how integration with the Kaplan Curriculum Model and academic
subjects promote sustainability and identity for gifted art students. Chapter TwentyOne by Laura M. Schulkind emphasizes the role of music in arts integration with
reference to theoretical constructs. The chapter utilizes music from diverse cultures
to illustrate strategies for developing units leading into outcomes that demonstrate
excellence and mastery, along with suggestions for refinement and evaluation of
instructional effectiveness. In Chapter Twenty-Two Hava Vidergor guides the
reader through the development of interdisciplinary units that encompass advanced
content as well as higher order thinking following a short theoretical overview. The
chapter demonstrates various curriculum models and outlines derivation of units
that utilize a process-product approach illustrated by exemplary lesson plans. Avi
Poleg, in Chapter Twenty Three, discusses Excellence 2000: Nurturing Scientific
and Mathematical Skills among Excelling Elementary and Secondary Students, a
unique enrichment program developed and implemented in the Israel Center for
Excellence through Education. The chapter provides a detailed description of the
program’s implementation, including principles, and elaborates these with examples.
A complex study unit is included in the Appendix. Physics and Medicine in industry
along with entrepreneurship are presented in Chapter Twenty-Four. Michal KrupnikGottlieb and Amos Cohn here present field-tested, highly successful curriculum
and planning structured to operate in a real world context that encompasses hightech industry and medical imaging in a health care setting. Chapter Twenty-Five
addresses methodology of teaching a second language to gifted students through
biography. Hava Vidergor utilizes the stimulation of introducing role models with
authentic language in this chapter to motivate the gifted to use research as a vehicle
to understand and absorb the meaning of greatness. Social responsibility is the
central focus of Chapter Twenty-Six by Hava Vidergor, with change as an outcome
for second language students to realize their potential by becoming leaders and
xv
PREFACE
role models through actions that produce a better society. Chapter Twenty-Seven
details the aspects of a program that gives gifted students and opportunity to become
radio broadcasters. In this chapter Moshe Kastoryano and Hava vidergor present a
rigorous plan of study that results in an actual product, a live broadcast produced
entirely by the gifted learners who meet success as its own reward in carrying out the
project. Entitled The Ambassador: Leadership for Gifted and Able Students, Chapter
Twenty-Eight describes a model that is focused on developing leadership through
practice of widening spheres of influence from school to community to country
and to the world. In this chapter Hava Vidergor builds upon theoretical models
and presents sample lessons along with alternative assessment that culminates in
students’ reflections. Carole Ruth Harris, in Chapter Twenty-Nine, recognizes that
there are students who have extraordinary strengths in one area while demonstrating
weaknesses in others. The chapter demonstrates how teachers can plan for these
students by pulling the weakness through the strength and integrating the factors
that influence talent development. The chapter provides exemplary units and lesson
plans that can be applied in a variety of settings, along with approaches to refinement
for use with cases that require customization for an individual student.
This book is intended as a practical model to introduce and assist educators to
understand and use the multiple aspects of gifted education in actual practice. It is
our hope that what is presented here will give educators of the gifted the means to
optimize the innate abilities of gifted students and serve as a vehicle for creation
of an environment that stimulates growth, love of learning, and a rewarding life
trajectory.
Hava E.Vidergor and
Carole Ruth Harris
xvi
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We would like to express our gratitude to the internationally renowned scholars who
have supported us in our long and difficult journey, and contributed their knowledge
and insights, offered comments and assisted in the editing and proofreading of the
book.
We would like to thank our family members, and especially our husbands, Itzhak
Vidergor and John Nathaniel Harris, for encouraging us to go on, even though, in
times it seemed impossible.
We would like to thank Sense Publishers, and especially Michel Lokhorst, the
Director Asia Pacific at Sense Publishers for realizing the importance of this book.
Without you the book would never find its way to the teachers, parents, and college
and university students trained to teach gifted and able learners.
Thanks to Jolanda Karada, the production editor, for your professional handling of
the various stages of producing this book. It was a pleasure working closely with you
knowing that the book is in good hands and the final product would be impeccable.
Last and not least; we beg forgiveness of all those who have been with us over the
course of the years and whose names we have failed to mention.
xvii
SECTION 1
CURRICULUM FOR GIFTED AND
ABLE LEARNERS
MIRACA U. M. GROSS
1. CHARACTERISTICS OF ABLE GIFTED
HIGHLY GIFTED EXCEPTIONALLY GIFTED AND
PROFOUNDLY GIFTED LEARNERS
I trust you’ll excuse me if I begin this chapter by briefly describing my own
experience as an academically gifted child and adolescent in Scotland where I was
born and grew up.
Aged almost 5 and in my first year of primary school (as was customary for
Scottish 5-year-olds at that time) I had a magical teacher called Miss Kay. She found
out, in the first week of school, that I could already read, and she responded quietly
and without fuss by putting me on an individualized reading program. I read books
that were usually read by second or third grade students. Did this make me arrogant
or conceited? “Not on your life!” as my mother would have said. “It’s good for her
to have to work at something!”
Sadly, I had only one year with my beloved Miss Kay; a year in which I felt as
if I was living inside a rainbow, surrounded by light and color. The following year
my class was placed with another teacher who believed firmly in rigid, lockstep
progression. The only differentiation she provided was for two boys with serious
learning difficulties. The bright students received neither acceleration nor enrichment
and I can say, truthfully, that during that year I learned virtually nothing in math or
language that I did not know already. I was made to re-read the books I had already
mastered in Miss Kay’s class because these were what the rest of the class was reading.
After a few weeks in which I came home each day crying with boredom and
frustration, my shy, rather socially withdrawn, mother plucked up her courage and
went up to school to ask whether I could possibly be given some more challenging
work. She received a curt refusal; the teacher told her sternly that to give advanced
work to one child and not the others would make the “favored” child conceited and
set her apart from her peers. My poor, brave mother tried to argue, politely, that
perhaps conceit was more likely to be engendered by the current policy of giving
me only work that I could master successfully without having to work at it but her
efforts were to no avail. I continued to be given only work which I could do without
trying… and unfortunately after a very few months I did, as my mother had feared,
become rather over-confident in my own abilities – and rather over-zealous in
displaying them. I was being given no opportunity to recognize my own limitations.
Not surprisingly, I didn’t have many friends! By the time I had worked out that
it was, at least in part, my own behavior that was contributing to my rejection I was
H. E. Vidergor & C. R. Harris (Eds.), Applied Practice for Educators of Gifted and Able Learners, 3–23.
© 2015 Sense Publishers. All rights reserved.
M. U. M. Gross
very lonely and very socially isolated… and sadly, this situation continued for the
rest of my time at that school… seven deeply unhappy years, as Scottish schools in
these days had no middle school structure. Students spent seven years in “primary”
school before moving on to “secondary” school which catered for students from 8th
grade upwards. My memories of primary school are mostly scar tissue.
Then something happened that changed my life. I won a place in a state secondary
(8th through 12th grade) school that catered specifically to students in the top 10%
of their age-group academically… and I remember thinking, after the first few
weeks, “Here, now, is where my life is really beginning.” The curriculum was both
accelerated and enriched; we had to strive and we loved it! In the first, joyful week,
I met three girls who became lifelong friends. We called ourselves “the quartet”
because there were four of us and also because we harmonized so well.
LEVELS OF GIFTEDNESS
This chapter introduces five students in the academically able and gifted range who
could perhaps have become a quintet if they had lived in the same neighborhood—or
even the same city—at the same time and attending the same school. It discusses
their similarities and differences both within the group and in comparison with
classmates of average ability, and proposes forms of curriculum differentiation
designed to respond to their advanced cognitive and affective development.
The children described in this chapter are real; not imaginary. I have had the
privilege of either teaching (in my 20 years as a classroom teacher and school
vice-principal) or (in my more than 20 years as a university professor and director
of a research center in gifted education) working with, and advising the parents
of, students at all five levels of giftedness: able, moderate, high, exceptional and
profound. However, to protect the privacy of the young people described below, and
that of their families, I have changed their names and a few other small demographic
details. They are all now adults and some have children of their own. They live in
different regions of my vast country – Australia is approximately equivalent in land
mass to the USA – but they have never met.
Researchers, school administrators and parent organizations involved in the
education of intellectually disabled students and students with some forms of
physical disability, explicitly acknowledge the various levels and degrees of the
condition. Hearing impairment, for example, is classified as mild, moderate, severe
and profound. It is important to note that this is neither intended nor perceived as
labeling but rather as a means of clarifying the degree to which the individual differs
from the norm in terms of his or her condition. I myself am hearing impaired and
my disability places me at around the 30th percentile of the “severe” classification.
I wear hearing aids in both ears but they cannot bring my hearing up completely to
the normal range so when, for example, I am teaching a group of university students
who haven’t worked with me before I briefly explain to them what I need them to
do to help me interact effectively with them. If their only experience of interacting
4
Characteristics of Gifted Learners
with a hearing impaired person is a grandparent whose hearing has deteriorated
mildly through aging they may have a quite inaccurate picture of my need for a
louder volume of speech! I’ve found that if I speak to them frankly and without
embarrassment about the degree of my disability and how to help me (speak up and
out and face me so that I can also lip-read), they respond willingly and, likewise,
without embarrassment. Some of them, as they leave the first lecture, come up to me
and say, frankly, “Thanks so much for telling us; that really helps.”
LABELLING OR CLASSIFICATION?
Discussing the degree of a student’s disability is not, then, labelling. In general,
teachers recognize that an accurate assessment of the nature and extent of a student’s
disability is a vital first step in discussing the types of support—and indeed the levels
of support—that the child may require if he or she is to achieve to the level of
his or her potential. Assessment is not undertaken only to find out more about the
student herself or himself; it is a vital first step in designing an individualized and
developmentally appropriate curriculum. Indeed, acknowledging an intellectually
delayed student’s degree of cognitive impairment (is the student’s degree of
impairment mild, moderate, severe or profound?) is an essential step in presenting
the student with work that will be accessible and enhance learning.
But while it is permissible to refer frankly and explicitly to levels of disability we
tend to be embarrassed—some of us, acutely embarrassed—by references to levels
of giftedness. Some teachers do indeed see this as labelling—and elitist labelling
at that! -and, in consequence, are reluctant to acknowledge the conception that
differences in ability may exist “even” among gifted students. And yet knowing
the degree, as well as the nature, of a child’s difference from his or her age-peers,
whether gifted or in some way disabled, can be of enormous assistance in planning
curriculum and programming. Indeed, I believe that the greater the degree to which
students differ from their classmates, the more important it is that teachers are fully
aware of the degree of that difference and the implications of this both for our
teaching and for the student’s learning.
BUT WHAT DO WE MEAN BY GIFTEDNESS AND TALENT?
The definitions of giftedness and talent used by education systems can vary
significantly across countries and even across districts within countries. In
Australia, where I live, the majority of education systems have adopted a model of
giftedness and talent developed some years ago by a French-Canadian psychologist,
Françoys Gagné. The Gagné model of giftedness and talent defines intellectually
gifted children and adolescents as those whose cognitive ability—their potential
for high performance in cognitively mediated tasks—places them in the top 10%
of their age-peers (Gagné, 2005) with IQs of 120 or higher. However, by contrast,
intellectually talented children or adolescents are young people who have already
5
M. U. M. Gross
been able to translate their high cognitive ability into high achievement. Within this
model giftedness equates with high ability or potential while talent equates with high
achievement or performance.
In Gagné’s model giftedness is translated into talent through a cluster of positive
environmental catalysts through which a child’s home and school environment
interact to facilitate the development of high potential into high performance.
However, such environmental supports are not by themselves sufficient to encourage
and scaffold talent development. Intellectually gifted children must also possess
facilitative intrapersonal characteristics, for example a delight in learning, an
enjoyment of intellectual challenge, the ability to experience a sense of pride (as
opposed to conceit) in one’s capacity to learn and the ability to resist peer pressure
to “dumb down” for social acceptance. Indeed, for intellectually gifted children or
adolescents, self-acceptance of their high academic potential is essential for the
development of that potential into high performance.
Schools therefore should provide, for gifted students, a curriculum that is
differentiated in level of challenge and engagement, delivered at a faster pace than
is generally required by their age-peers, and pitched at a level beyond the readiness
level of their classmates. Furthermore, if gifted students are to develop their gifts
readily into talents this thoughtfully developed differentiated curriculum should
be delivered within a learning environment in which their cognitive and affective
differences are understood and accepted by their classmates.
INTRODUCING THE CHILDREN
Matthew: Mildly Gifted
Matthew is 8 years old and in Ms Paterson’s Grade 2 class in a primary school within
his state’s government education system. His IQ of 118 falls within the “mildly”
or “basically” gifted range of IQ 115–129. Fewer than 15% of students reason at
this level. Within a school system that defined giftedness as having a threshold IQ
of 130, Matthew would not, sadly, have been classified as gifted and he might have
missed some of the learning opportunities he has, fortunately, been offered.
One of these opportunities is subject acceleration in his special field of talent;
mathematics. Matthew is one of three students in Ms. Paterson’s class who leave
her room and go off to Ms Jackson’s class –Grade 3 – for math each day. Matthew
loves Ms Jackson’s class. He has to work to succeed whereas earlier he “cruised
by” in math without having to try… and he was even becoming a little arrogant!
Notably, the conceit, and its manifestations in snide remarks to his classmates about
his superior abilities, stopped less than a week after the acceleration started!
Ms Paterson was impressed by how readily and happily Matthew and the other
two students adapted to their subject acceleration. (She had been privately a little
wary that it might be “pushing” the students rather than extending them.) “They’ve
just blossomed,” she says happily. “It’s not only Matthew who has befitted; the other
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Characteristics of Gifted Learners
two go off each day with a gleam in their eye that they just didn’t have before. I have
to say I was not too sure about the idea of acceleration but it’s worked. Next year I’ll
start looking for possible candidates a bit earlier rather than waiting until the bright
ones get bored!”
Matthew recently announced that he wants to be a math teacher when he grows
up so that he can help other children who hear what he calls “the music of math” in
the way he does.
Jacinta: Moderately Gifted
Jacinta’s IQ of 137 places her in the middle range of the moderately gifted spectrum
(IQ 130–144). Moderately gifted students appear in a ratio of 1 in 40 through 1 in
1000). In the first few years of school she was very lonely. Her interest in “the way
people in other lands live” as she put it, was not shared by her classmates. Now she
is a member of a fulltime self-contained class of gifted students in 4th grade. She has
changed from being a shy, introverted little girl who was bullied (because she was
different) in her first three years at school into a happy, confident young lass who
has friends both in her own grade and in the grade above. Her parents are delighted
with the change in their daughter. “She brings other girls home after school and it’s
so good to hear the shouts of laughter coming from her room,” says Jacinta’s mom.
“There wasn’t much laughter before; she was just so lonely and afraid.” Jacinta
recently told her parents she plans to be a teacher when she grows up – so that she
can help other students to be as happy and content as she now is.
Darren: Highly Gifted
Darren entered school eight years ago aged 5 (the normal school enrolment age in
Australia) and a few weeks later was accelerated straight into Grade 2 on the basis
of the school psychologist’s assessment that placed his IQ at 150, thus within the
highly gifted range of 145–159 and somewhere between 1 in 1000 and 1 in 10,000 in
the population. His school career has been highly successful and deeply enjoyable.
His social success was assured when he was found to be a brilliant natural cricketer
(the sport of cricket being as powerful within the Australian psyche as baseball is in
the American!) which allowed him to be “forgiven” for being intellectually brilliant!
Darren is now debating whether he should study medicine at university (one of his
deep interests) or whether he should play cricket professionally. “I really enjoy
breaking the stereotype of the non-athletic gifted nerd,” he grins. “I love cricket and
I love math probably even more but I don’t feel any angst about any of this; it’s just
two complementary parts of who I am.”
Aldo: Exceptionally Gifted
Aldo was born in Portugal and his family migrated to Australia when he was 6. At
first his remarkable abilities were not recognized; the only time he spoke English
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was at school and in the early years he was very unsure of himself. He was identified
as gifted in Grade 3 through a remarkable chance factor – and as in the case of
Darren, this was related to Australia’s passion for cricket! Aldo’s school was visited
by a member of the visiting Portuguese cricket team and Aldo, who was a huge
fan of the team, was understandably asked to welcome the honored guest in his
native language. The cricketer was amazed by the fluency of Aldo’s speech, as
well as his deep understanding of cricket and Portugal’s position within the sport,
and he made his point strongly to the school principal that here was a boy with
astonishing analytical abilities and a command of Portuguese that he would be
delighted to find in an adult native speaker of the language. Impressed by this (and a
little embarrassed that his school had not previously recognized the boy’s talent) the
principal asked the district’s school psychologist to assess the lad and he ceilinged
out, firstly on a non-verbal assessment and then on the Stanford-Binet Revision 4, the
then current version of the Stanford-Binet test of cognitive ability. The psychologist
also administered standardized tests of reading, reading comprehension and math
and Aldo ceilinged out on everything he was given. Finally, out of curiosity, the
psychologist administered the Stanford-Binet L-M, now many years out of date
but notable for its extremely high ceiling and Aldo scored in the 170s; within the
exceptionally gifted range between 1 in 10,000 and 1 in 1 million.
Aldo has a real flair for languages. At school he learned both French and German
and this, coupled with his fluent English and Portuguese, qualify him well for what
he hopes will be his career as a translator with a major international airline.
Heather: Profoundly Gifted
Heather, aged 34, lives in the same large city as Aldo. She was born and brought up
in Scotland and had her first experience of school at age 3, a few weeks before the
start of the school year when she accompanied her mother and her 5-year-old sister
Anna to the neighborhood primary school in order to enroll Anna in school – the
normal age for school entry in Scottish schools. Heather, who was academically
bright, was longing to start school and had already learned to read a few phrases.
While their mother was talking to Ms Fleming, the building principal, Anna and
Heather were looking at pictures on the wall of the classroom and Anna was reading
a few of the captions aloud to her small sister. Suddenly, Heather interrupted. “No, it
doesn’t say lovely,” she told her older sister earnestly. “It says lonely. See, the kitten
is alone and he has nobody to play with and that’s why he looks so unhappy.”
As it happened, Ms Fleming had a special interest in gifted and talented children
and Heather’s comment made her prick up her ears. “I think you understand kittens
very well,” she smiled. “I have a book here that has a story about kittens. Would you
like to read some of the story to me?”
The rest, as Heather’s mother laughingly says, is history. Ms Fleming assessed
Heather as having the reading skills of a 7-year-old (twice her age) including a deep
and sound understanding of what she read. Ms Fleming then organized for a special
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Characteristics of Gifted Learners
exemption to the school entry requirements relating to age and Heather enrolled in
school half way through the school year, spent the remainder of that year in first
grade and entered 2nd grade aged 6. She topped the class in virtually every academic
subject, excelling in both language and math. During that year, still aged 6, she took
the Stanford-Binet Revision 4 IQ test (as in Aldo’s case, this was the version then
current) and ceilinged on the test, making not a single error until she reached material
designed for 11-year olds. The psychologist returned to school a few weeks later and
re-assessed Heather—and she used the Stanford-Binet L-M on which Heather scored
above IQ 190—in the profoundly gifted range. Fewer than 1 child in 500,000 scores
at this level.
Heather accelerated twice more, skipping Grade 3 and Grade 6. In Grade 7 and
thereafter she was in a class with students 3 years her senior. She was highly successful
academically and socially very popular – in part because she has absolutely no conceit
about her extraordinary abilities. She required no further acceleration and entered
university aged 15, graduating with a Bachelor of Veterinary Science (Honours)
degree aged 19 followed by a PhD in a specialized sub-field of this discipline aged 23.
Now in her 40s, she and her partner Hamish (also a highly qualified vet) run a highly
successful practice in a major Australian city specializing in their two subfields. Both
regularly make presentations at national and international research congresses.
SUMMARY: LEVELS AND INCIDENCE OF GIFTEDNESS
The higher a child’s IQ score, the fewer children there are in the population whose
cognitive abilities are at that level. This has implications both for gifted children’s
socialization and for the curriculum the schools and their teachers will design in
response to their learning capabilities. The basically gifted child is likely to find
congenial companionship in regular education settings and their learning needs are
not so very different from those of age-peers as to require very significant curricular
modifications. However children scoring in the middle or upper ranges of the
moderately gifted distribution will certainly require thoughtfully planned curriculum
differentiation coupled with opportunities to work on these more challenging tasks
with students of similar abilities.
Table 1. Levels of Giftedness
Level
IQ score
Ratio to total population
Basic
115–129
1:6 to 1:30
Moderate
130–144
1:40 to 1:1000
High
145–159
1:1000 to 1:10,000
Exceptional
160–179
1:10,000 to 1:1 million
Profound
180+
1:1 million+
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For highly, exceptionally and profoundly gifted students schools must pay very
careful attention to the learning settings in which these children are to be educated.
It would be counter-productive to expect teachers to deliver a substantially
differentiated curriculum such as is essential for these young people in a mixedability class setting with age-peers. For highly gifted young people ability grouping
and some degree of acceleration is essential if they are to be presented with a
curriculum commensurate with their abilities. For exceptionally gifted children a
substantial degree of acceleration is required if the student is to have access to a
developmentally appropriate curriculum that will truly extend, as well as enrich, her
learning opportunities. For exceptionally and profoundly gifted children it is likely
that a blend of acceleration and ability grouping will be required from the early
years of school to ensure that the student does not “dumb down” her behavior both
in class and in the school yard in a bid to camouflage her significant intellectual and
emotional differences and secure peer acceptance.
CURRICULUM DIFFERENTIATION FOR
INTELLECTUALLY/ACADEMICALLY GIFTED STUDENTS
In the United States, the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) has
recently defined gifted students as follows. “Gifted individuals are those who
demonstrate outstanding levels of aptitude (defined as an exceptional ability to
reason and learn) or competence (documented performance or achievement in the
top 10% or rarer) in one or more domains.” Domains include “any structured area of
activity with its own symbol system (e.g. mathematics, music, language) and/or set
of sensorimotor skills (e.g. painting, dance, sports)” (NAGC, 2010).
Having defined giftedness, the definition continues to discuss its development.
“The development of ability or talent (my italics) is a lifelong process. It can be
evident in young children as exceptional performance on tests and/or other measures
of ability or as a rapid rate of learning compared to other students of the same age,
or in actual achievement in a domain. As individuals mature through childhood to
adolescence, however, achievement and high levels of motivation in the domain
become the primary characteristics of their giftedness. Various factors can either
enhance or inhibit the development and expression of abilities.”
Professor Françoys Gagné, developer of the Gagné model of giftedness and talent
which examines how high ability (giftedness) in any domain may translated into
high achievement (talent) in fields related to that domain, has thoughtfully discussed
the place of motivation and environment in the translation of giftedness into talent
(Gagné, 2011). Motivation, as Gagné suggests, is certainly a critical element in the
successful development of potential into performance but it is unrealistic to expect
any student to be motivated by a curriculum set at a level he or she passed through
some time (even some years) before! Similarly students are unlikely to develop
engagement with a curriculum that is delivered at a pace much too slow to permit
any realistic level of intellectual engagement or enjoyment. Gagné realistically
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argues that giftedness by itself is not sufficient for its translation into successful
achievement; motivation to achieve to one’s potential, and an environment which
will both facilitate the development of such motivation and continue it, are essential
elements in the talent development process.
All five students introduced in this chapter are gifted or able young people,
albeit of differing levels of ability. Unquestionably, all require the presentation of a
curriculum set at a level, a pace and – importantly – a level of complexity that would
not be accessible for a student of average academic ability. VanTassel-Baska and
Little (2011, p. 10) propose four key questions that teachers should ask themselves
when considering whether a given body of curriculum (or even a specific curriculum
task) is appropriately differentiated for intellectually gifted students.
• Is the curriculum suitably advanced for the strongest learners in the group?
• Is the curriculum complex enough for the best learners, requiring multiple levels
of thinking, use of resources, and/or variables to manipulate?
• Is the curriculum sufficiently in-depth to allow students to study important issues
and problems related to a topic under study?
• Is the curriculum sufficiently encouraging of creativity, stimulating open-ended
responses and providing high-level choices?
If the answer to any of these questions is “NO” the curriculum the teacher is
proposing is not suitable or indeed adequate for gifted learners. Either (a) it is set at
too low a level to engage the most gifted learners in the class or group, (b) it lacks the
necessary complexity to engage and challenge gifted students, (c) it fails to facilitate
an in-depth exploration of the topic or issue, or (d) it does not allow for the student
who delights in “thinking outside the square”, expanding and elaborating on an issue
in her responses and selecting questions or tasks that will demand the employment
of analysis, synthesis and deeply thoughtful evaluation.
These four questions, of course, are of key importance when analyzing and
evaluating the suitability of a curriculum task for any learner, including gifted
learners, but when we are dealing, as we are here, with gifted students who differ
substantially – and in some cases immensely—among themselves in their capacity
to learn, it is of critical importance that we do not fall into the trap of seeing them
as “the gifted group” in our classes and expecting them to work together on tasks in
which they cannot reasonably be expected to participate as equals. This, incidentally,
is a telling argument for acceleration; it allows a gifted younger student to work with
older students who have already reached the younger student’s level of readiness in
a particular curriculum area and on a particular curriculum task.
Too often teachers allow themselves to be caught up in a debate as to the relative
merits of acceleration and enrichment and, consequently “which” of these paradigms
should be employed with gifted learners. VanTassel-Baska and Brown (2009) have
argued powerfully that a strong body of research exists that has demonstrated
potently the benefits, for intellectually gifted students, of a curriculum that is both
enriched and accelerated. The fear, among some teachers, that accelerated gifted
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students will “run” out of curriculum or have to repeat much of it the following
year is ungrounded. Indeed, requiring a child to stay with age-peers when he or she
is more than ready to move on and up to the work of the next grade is imposing
underachievement on the child through the imposition of unnecessary and tedious
curriculum review.
AN EXAMPLE OF GROUP-BASED DIFFERENTIATION
For two years, in an elementary school serving 600 students, I “filled in” for the
school’s regular music teacher whose husband’s work had taken her overseas. One of
my goals was to develop a range of differentiation in the school’s program of choral
music which would be a realistic response to the remarkable range of musical ability,
and enthusiasm for music, among the students (when I held an audition for the choir,
approximately 200 students turned up!) and with one of the teaching assistants who
was a highly gifted pianist we created not one choir but three!
How could an ordinary elementary school attract enough singers to support three
choirs?
Well, the Christmas Choir was the first choir we established and, democratically,
we decided that it should be open to any student who wanted to join – and oh! did
they join! They flocked in! My teaching colleagues teased me, good-humoredly,
that at the Christmas concert I should seat the choir on the floor of the hall—the
stage was too small for them!—and put the audience on the stage instead! (We
solved the problem by having two Christmas concerts, half the choir singing at
each!) Obviously, the repertoire of the Christmas Choir was related to the music of
Christmas and at first we used simple, easy to sing carols – but as the choir became
more confident we “spread our wings” (“an appropriate metaphor for Christmas”
said one of the brighter boys, drily). What did they sound like? Well, after the first
rehearsal when the choir had trotted off gleefully back to their classrooms Jenny, our
pianist, looked at me bemusedly and said, “I’d never realized before that the word
‘cacophony’ is onomatopoeic.”
The Regular Choir, by contrast, was composed of students with a “reasonable”
level of vocal skill and a love of singing. We required students to audition for the
regular choir which met every two weeks but the assessment was tempered with
generosity.
The Advanced Choir, however, served children with a very real level of vocal
talent. The repertoire of this choir was far beyond the capacity of the majority of the
students. Entry was open only to students who had a substantial level of aptitude. It
was accepted that access to the advanced choir should be restricted to students who
could sing the repertoire. Was this elitist? Probably, yes, in the literal sense! It also
made for a glorious choir!
When the music teacher returned from her travels she was delighted with the
expansion of choral music in the school! So were the other staff members – and
the parents, particularly parents of the Christmas Choir. “He always saw singing
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Characteristics of Gifted Learners
as ‘something for girls’,” said the mother of Dennis (nick-named “Menace” by his
classmates) bemusedly, “but his whole attitude towards it has changed. He’s proud
of his voice now instead of being embarrassed by it.”
When I returned to my classroom role—with my reputation among my colleagues
much enhanced ☺– I proposed that the school should develop a “pull-out program”
for academically gifted students. The students would be withdrawn from their
regular classrooms for two hours each week for enrichment work in their areas of
special aptitude.
The proposal aroused some “tut-tuttery” among my teaching colleagues; surely
my proposal of a special program for gifted students was rather elitist? However, as I
pointed out, good-humouredly but frankly, the Advanced Choir was singing material
that was very obviously far beyond the scope of the other two choirs and wasn’t that
elitist? What I was proposing was the idea of a group of students with particular
aptitude for academic work who would meet together for two hours a week for
advanced work in their particular area of talent. I pointed out, also good-humoredly
but frankly, that the work the gifted students would be presented with would be, in
terms of rigor, significantly more challenging (in other words, harder) than would be
accessible by the average ability students in their grade!
I also suggested that for the first year we would focus on subjects that were in
my own particular areas of strength – English and the social sciences – and in the
following year another teacher whose talents lay in math and the physical sciences
would take over. The reassurance that this was not just “Miraca trying to ‘grab’ the
easy job” reassured my colleagues and my proposal was accepted with something
approaching enthusiasm!
DEVELOPING A SUITABLY ADVANCED CURRICULUM
As Tomlinson has recently noted, the term ‘differentiation’, when it is used
specifically in discussions of issues in gifted education, has come to mean the
modification of curriculum and instruction to better respond to the needs of gifted
and talented students. “According to this expanded use of the term, differentiation
includes adaptations in content, process, product, affect and learning environment in
response to student readiness (proximity to learning goals), interests (my italics) and
learning profile (preferences for taking in, processing and presenting ideas) to ensure
appropriate challenge and support for the full range of learners in a classroom”
(Tomlinson, 2014, p. 198).
One of the key premises of curriculum development is that curriculum designed
for gifted and talented students should be differentiated in terms of:
• The content (the ideas, concepts and information) presented to students. To make
the content more responsive to the learning characteristics and needs of gifted
students it must be altered to provide more complexity, greater variety and a
higher degree of abstraction.
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• The process (the methodology through which the content is presented to the
students). The teacher can modify the way in which the material is presented to
the students: for example, at a faster pace, at a higher level of abstraction and
avoiding unnecessary repetition.
• The product (the response expected from the student). Tasks presented to gifted
students must be developed in such a way as to encourage responses that are
pitched at a higher level of analysis and synthesis in order as to demonstrate the
complexity of the issues being addressed.
• The learning environment. An optimal learning environment for gifted students
is one “in which they are free to be themselves and where it is safe to be smart”
(Clark, 2002). This requires that the teaching and administration staff of the school
must be fully committed to the premise that every child should be permitted,
encouraged and facilitated to develop their abilities to the fullest unhampered by
any feelings of embarrassment or shame at being “different” – in racial origin,
faith, family composition, appearance, hobbies and interests, or ability profile.
Some Real-Life Examples of Curriculum Differentiation: Bloom Taxonomy
Space does not permit a full discussion of the recent revisions to the naming and
content of levels in the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy but readers are directed to
http://www.kurwongbss.qld.edu.au/thinking/Bloom/blooms.htm. Doubtless there
are several American sites that provide equivalent information but this is the one
your friendly Australian writer has been using☺.
As outlined earlier, Matthew has a special talent, and keen interest, in math.
A useful project for him could be researching careers that involve “figuring the
odds” (no, not only gaming – it would be much wider than that!) An associated task
could be for him to investigate whether it would be possible to succeed in these
careers without knowing and applying probability theory. These tasks would involve
skills of analysis, synthesis and evaluation – the higher levels of Bloom.
As described earlier Jacinta was very lonely during her first few years in
Australia and she now keeps “a special eye open” for new migrants who have
joined her school and have come to live in the neighborhood. Noticing Jacinta’s
watchful care in befriending and assisting new immigrant students in the school,
her teacher suggested that she create a useful phrase-book with words and phrases
that have a special meaning in Australian “slang” with example of how they might
be used. This required her to employ skills of application, analysis and synthesis
– and, as Jacinta pointed out a few days after she had started, it required subtle
degrees of evaluation as well when she realized that (as she put it) “boys just don’t
speak girls’ language!”
Darren and Aldo were united by their passion for cricket and this was facilitated
by email and the world-wide-web. At the suggestion of Darren’s father, a cricketing
fan, they decided to create a phrase-book translating cricketing terms from English
into Portuguese and vice-versa. This expanded to include cricketing anecdotes and
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Characteristics of Gifted Learners
after a year or so it spread to include brief email interviews with noted cricketers,
likewise translated. Two years later they translated the phrase-book into their other
two languages, French and German (“Just for the fun of it, really,” explained Aldo,
“because France and Germany aren’t really cricketing nations!”) and were agreeably
surprised at the interest that was shown among their teachers who even used it in class.
“That was quite a compliment,” grinned Darren. “Both of us – each in our different
countries—were always being told to stop talking in cricket practice and now they’re
using what we were talking about!” The synthesis of analytic and evaluative material
in their phrase-book demanded high-level cognitive processing… and was highly
enjoyable to both boys.
From her early childhood years Heather demonstrated a deep love of, and
understanding of, animals and was distressed by their mistreatment. When she
was nine years old she developed, by herself, a research project which involved
investigating animals that were hunted for sport in a range of countries and writing
letters of protest to the relevant countries’ consulates. This, obviously, required
a sophisticated synthesis of arguments—and also a thoughtful evaluation of how
she could frame her objections without going “over-the top” and offending the
very people she was trying to influence! She was impressed by the courteous
and detailed responses she received from some of the embassies, some of which
included contact details of organizations in their own countries that shared her
own opinions.
These tasks, developed in response to the children’s special abilities and talents,
are set at a level rather beyond what would be achievable for age-peers of average
ability; it is in part the element of acceleration that would make them stimulating and
rewarding for these young people.
Some Real-Life Examples of Curriculum Differentiation: Williams Model
Unlike Bloom’s Taxonomy, which is well-known and widely used among teachers
in both the United States and Australia, the Williams model is comprised of three
dimensions: cognitive behaviors, affective behaviors and teaching strategies.
Famously, the cognitive behaviors comprise:
• Fluency: the generation of a quantity of responses to an idea, an issue or a question.
• Flexibility: the development of a quantity of ideas or a shift in categories and
directions of thought.
• Elaboration: the embellishment of improvement of ideas; inclusion of details.
• Originality: unusual and/or unique ideas or responses; movement away from the
obvious.
In the following section on teaching strategies I have not “oriented” the strategies
towards the five “target” children and their levels of ability as this would make this
chapter even longer than it is already ☺ However, this could be an interesting and, I
think, enjoyable exercise for you, the reader. I have, however, developed activities at
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a level of rigor and complexity that I believe makes them specifically suitable for use
with intellectually gifted young people – some of them being particularly rigorous.
Teaching Strategies and Examples
Paradox. A statement or proposition that at first seems to be self-contradictory but
that might express a truth
e.g. Ice can both help and hurt; give examples and explain your reasoning
Attribute listing. Inherent properties or identities that must be open-ended
e.g. What characteristics must a fairy-tale have to be popular across cultures?
Analogy. Finding similarities between things or situations that might otherwise be
different
e.g. In what ways is a baby’s first laugh like lark-song?
Discrepancy. Gaps or missing links in given knowledge.
e.g. We know the name of the first man who walked on the moon but who was
the first person who proposed it?
Provocative question. Inquiry to incite curiosity and exploration
e.g. What would happen if Australia decided to celebrate Christmas in winter,
as they do in the Northern hemisphere?
Examples of change. Show the dynamics of things; make modifications, alterations
or substitutions
e.g. In what ways did the invention of the pneumatic tyre change our lives?
Examples of habit. Build sensitivity to habit-bound thinking.
e.g. If Australia was a society in which women did not yet have the vote, what
laws might not have been passed?
Organised random search. Structured case study for new courses of action
e.g. Interview at least six teachers regarding what improvements they would
make in teacher training. Use your findings to make recommendations for
improvements in teacher training to your regional teacher training institution.
Skills of search. Research on something done before: trial and error on new ways.
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Characteristics of Gifted Learners
e.g. Interview six parents of school-age children. How would they improve the
education of children in their first two years of school? What similarities and
difference can you note in their views?
Tolerance for ambiguity. Pose open-ended situations
e.g. What if your pet was able to speak? What advice would it give you about
how to be a better pet-owner? (Or does your pet think it owns you?)
Intuitive expression. Expressing emotion through the senses; guided imagery,
role-playing.
e.g. You are a musical instrument. What does it feel like to you to be played by
a beginner with little skill? What does it feel like to be played by a professional
musician? Describe what you see, what you hear and what you feel in both
situations?
Adjustment to development. Examine or play back mistakes or failures.
e.g. Look back on a memory of when you did something for the first time. How
would you plan to improve it if you did it again?
Study creative development. Analyze the traits of creative people; creative
processes; or creative products.
e.g. Interview someone who has had a work “published”. e.g. the author of
a book or short story; a painter whose picture has been in an exhibition or a
musician whose work has been performed. How did the final work differ from
how it was planned in its early stages?
Evaluate situations. Extrapolate from ideas and actions; analyse implications or
consequences.
e.g. How effective are you in getting school projects handed in on time? If
you’re less effective than you’d like to be, what changes could you make in
how you go about things?
Creative reading skills. Read again a non-fiction book that interested you the first
time you read it. Is there anything you remember differently on the second reading?
What might be some reasons for this?
Creative listening skills. Ask your parents to find you a record or tape that you
haven’t listened to before. Write down something you like about it and something
you like less about it. Three weeks later, listen to it again. Are there any changes in
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your feelings (liking or disliking)? Can you think of any reasons why your feelings
have changed?
Creative writing skills. Write a children’s book about how something “came to be”
and the mythical reasons (for example how winter came to be cold or why tortoises
hibernate). Use your creative imagination.
Visualisation. Express ideas in three-dimensional format or non-traditional format.
Help to design and create a mural for your classroom that illustrates important events
in your school year. Attach to the mural (so that they look as if they are “in” it) reallife artifacts which can symbolize the events.
Individual Research Projects
Students seem either to deeply enjoy research projects or to dislike (and even
resent) having to undertake them. However, individual research projects can
(at least from time to time) be centered on the student’s hobbies or special
interests. Essential elements of math and languages can sometimes be scaffolded
by relating them to “passion” areas. For example, as a fairly bright student in
high school French classes that seemed (to me) to be too focused on unnecessary
review (“Oh no, not this again; we covered it in the last test and I scored 95%!”)
I would send my mind away on fantastic journeys. One term (to keep my mind
alive!) I developed enjoyable projects for myself by inventing imaginary letters
written by ballet impresario Sergei Diaghilev to some of the dancers in his Ballets
Russes company in which a key common language was French – the language of
choreography. However, that year’s French teacher discovered this and began to
participate good-naturedly in the fantasy. One day when I had written a letter that
she considered was a tour de force she dropped me a note in French informing
me that I was being promoted from corps de ballet to soloiste. What a teacher!
I thought the world of her and wept when I had to leave school and move on to
college. French in college wasn’t half as challenging, for me, as French in Ms
MacLeod’s class had been!
While delivery of an interest-based curriculum can certainly have a positive effect
on student engagement (Gross, 1993, 2004) a number of studies conducted over the
last few years have suggested that when an interest-based curriculum is matched
with student readiness, interest and learning styles more substantial effects can be
noted (Marulanda, Giraldo & Lopez, 2006) particularly for high school students
(Rasmussen, 2006). The majority of these studies have been conducted in elementary
and middle schools but in the high school studied by Rasmussen the drop-out rate
was reduced and student participation in the Advanced Placement program rose by
almost half.
18
Characteristics of Gifted Learners
I can vouch personally for the effectiveness of an interest-centered curriculum
presented as an enrichment strategy for students of all ability levels. As a classroom
teacher in an elementary school in Adelaide, South Australia, I facilitated
individual research among my 5th grade students by introducing to the students
a cardboard calendar representing a Scottish terrier and cut out in the shape of a
dog. I announced that this was Mr McDougall and that he had come to be our class
friend and mascot.
A few days after McDougall’s arrival, when my class arrived at the door of our
classroom after a school assembly (which, “mysteriously” I did not attend) they
found the glass panel of our classroom door masked by paper with a notice telling
them to line up and wait for me to join them. When I opened the door I told them
that something of “mystery and magic” had occurred; on my table I had found a note
from Mr McDougall which he wanted me to read to them.
Dear friends and colleagues.
Sitting up on the wall here watching and listening to you I’ve become aware
(I’m a very observant dog-person) that you are a class that loves finding out
new things. Mrs Gross and I have done some planning together for a very
special challenge. Somewhere in our room I have left a special letter just for
you; it has your name on the envelope.
In my letter I’ve asked YOU to find out (Grossy calls it “research”) something
about a topic that I think will interest you. Everyone has a different topic! In
four weeks’ time I’d like you to give our class a 5-minute talk about your topic.
I’d like you to make it as interesting as you can. Grossy will help you both as
a class and individually.”
I’m looking forward to learning a lot from your talks. (Grossy calls them
“presentations”). This is going to be fun!
Yours woofingly,
Mr McDougall
The students were entranced! When I opened the door they streamed in – an
orderly stream ☺ but excited and delighted. They helped each other find the
letter with their name on the envelope and they showed each other, with delight,
their special letter. Two sample letters appear below, showing something of
the range of challenge “McDougall” provided for individual students and how
a student’s special interest could be “woven into” the task. Over the next four
weeks we worked on research skills and presentation skills. In the fifth and sixth
week we held the presentations; three each morning and three each afternoon
until every student’s McDougall talks had been presented, eagerly listened to and
enthusiastically applauded.
19
M. U. M. Gross
Dear Aldo,
Mrs Gross (I know some of you call her “Grossy”) has asked me to find out
something and suggests you might help me.
Have you ever wondered what happens to a letter when you put it in the mailbox?
A dog friend (she’s a corgi) told me some mailmen open the mailboxes and
take the letters away to a special mail centre… but what happens to them there?
Are parcels handled differently to letters? I’d love to know.
Can you make a 5–10 minute presentation (interesting talk) on this to our
class on Monday, May 30 in four weeks’ time. Grossy will give you any help
you need and we’ll all be practicing how to synthesize (put together) the
information we find and how to plan our presentations.
Yours woofingly,
Mr McDougall.
Dear Betty,
I have a friend who was born in Glasgow, Scotland (she’s a Scotch terrier).
She gets really homesick and I thought it would be nice if I could find out a bit
about her hometown so that I could talk to her about it next time I write to her.
What is Glasgow like? If we went there, what could we see and do?
I think our class would be interested too, so can you make a 5–10 minute
presentation (interesting talk) on this to our class on Tuesday, May 31st in about
four weeks’ time. Grossy will give you any help you need and we’ll all be
practising how to synthesize (put together) the information we find and how to
plan our presentations.
Yours woofingly,
Mr McDougall.
Of course one doesn’t need a fantasy figure like Mr McDougall to scaffold research
projects!
Heather and Hamish have two children – both highly gifted. Fiona, aged 11, is
in a full-time self-contained class of gifted students in a state government school…
what Australia appropriately calls an Opportunity Class. In general, Opportunity
Classes are taught by teachers who have postgraduate qualifications in gifted
education.
Australia is part of the British Commonwealth of Nations and has a substantial
Scottish population. Recently Scotland voted in a national government referendum
to decide whether they should break away from the rest of the United Kingdom (UK)
and be completely self-governing.
Fiona’s teacher gave her class an interesting topic for research. She pointed out to
the class that what is now the United States of America was once a colony of Great
20
Characteristics of Gifted Learners
Britain and asked them to work in small groups to discuss how Scotland might have
voted if they were given the opportunity not only to break away from the UK but
also to merge with the USA and become the 51st state of the Union! (Fiona and her
classmates decided that Scotland would probably vote to retain the status quo but it
provided a thought-provoking and lively discussion!)
As a result of the interest that this discussion aroused in Fiona and some of her
friends, their teacher allowed them to present their hypotheses to the class and the
result was a thoughtful but quite impassioned discussion. As many teachers have
noted with gifted students’ capacity to engage passionately with issues that would
rarely excite their classmates “everything matters and it matters that it matters.”
This ability (and indeed the tendency) of gifted students to build in challenge
for themselves by reasoning at a more advanced level than their classmates and,
in addition, “thinking outside the square” is in general, not sufficiently recognized
by the authors of books on curriculum differentiation. Welcome exceptions are
Juratowitch and Blundell, authors of Make a Twist: Curriculum differentiation for
gifted students (2014). This practical text, addressing teachers in upper primary
and middle school, demonstrates how to scaffold the creative differentiation of
curriculum through providing a highly practical guide to identifying, selecting
and implementing differentiation strategies that are aligned to curriculum content,
process and product development.
SUBJECT ACCELERATION – A WONDERFUL VEHICLE FOR
DIFFERENTIATED CURRICULUM DELIVERY
Before I became a university professor I spent 20 happy years as an elementary
school teacher. This included six extremely happy years at a school in Adelaide,
South Australia, where the principal, Alf Pearce, was a true visionary – a creative,
enthusiastic, thoughtful innovator who was dearly loved by his teaching staff.
One of his innovations was the structured, daily use of ability grouping and
acceleration. For the first half hour each day every class went to its “home room” so
that the class’s own home–room teacher could check the roll and spend some special
time with their class. Then the students separated into their “special” math class.
Some students stayed at their grade level, some went to the grade below for review
of material they had not mastered, others went to the grade above for accelerated and
extension work. This lasted for an hour, then we had morning break.
After the 20 minute morning break each student went for the next hour to his or
her “special” English language classroom. As with math, some students required
review and worked with a younger class while others required extension and worked
with an older class. Regular evaluations were made of students’ progress and at
the end of each three month school term students would move to a class that was
working at their particular level in a particular subject area; no one had to stay in
a class that was covering material that was too simple or too challenging for them.
21
M. U. M. Gross
This allowed children who were particularly bright in math or English to accelerate
in those particular subjects – and also allowed children who were slower learners or
who were having difficulties in a specific subject area to work at a level that more
appropriately responded to their particular learning needs.
The students loved their gentle, thoughtful principal dearly and the teaching staff
adored him. The challenge created by the subject acceleration was a delight to bright
students who might not have been suited to overall grade-advancement but who had
been bored in the regular classroom by having to spend many hours waiting for their
classmates to be ready to move on to tasks for which they had been ready months
before. Equally, it was a true gift to students who were rather slower in some subjects
than in others. For the teachers, the freedom of being able to select which level one
could teach at in different subject areas was a true joy. I had a talent for working
with children who found math difficult and who needed substantial, thoughtfully
presented review, and that was exactly what I was scheduled to do. My other talent
was for working with children who “heard” and “sang” the music of language and
I was scheduled to work with these young people on the English curriculum of the
grade above – material for which they were more than ready.
Other subject fields were taught on a whole-class basis by the class’s own homeroom teacher so the students had a range of “learning settings” that allowed both
age-based and ability-based curriculum differentiation.
For me, my six years with Alf and the wonderful staff of gifted teachers he
attracted was the highlight of my 20 years as an elementary school teacher.
From Miss Kay to Mr. Pearce… two gifted educators who taught me what it should
be to be a teacher. I wish all my own classroom teachers had been as thoughtful, as
sincere and as professional as these two wonderful people. They weren’t – but in
those days colleges of education did not offer courses in how to identify and respond
to gifted and talented students. It is probable that they simply had no idea of what
to do with “the brighter ones”. If only a book like the one you are holding had been
available then.
REFERENCES
Bloom, B. (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals. Handbook
I: Cognitive domain. New York, NY: David McKay.
Clark, B. (2002). Growing up gifted (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill/Prentice Hall.
Gagné, F. (2005). From gifts to talents: The DMGT as a developmental model. In R. J. Sternberg &
J. E. Davidson (Eds.), Conceptions of giftedness (2nd ed., pp. 98–119). New York, NY: Cambridge
University Press.
Gagne, F. (2011). Understanding giftedness as the foundation of talents. In T. L. Cross & J. Riedl-Cross
(Eds.), Handbook for school counselors serving students with gifts and talents (pp. 3–9). Waco, TX:
Prufrock Press, Inc.
Gross, M. U. M. (1993). Exceptionally gifted children. London, England: Routledge.
Gross, M. U. M. (2004). Exceptionally gifted children (2nd ed.). London: Routledge Falmer.
22
Characteristics of Gifted Learners
Juratowitch, M., & Blundell, R. (2014). Make-a-Twist: Curriculum differentiation for gifted students.
Retrieved from www.openleaves.com.au/products/Make-a-Twist:-Curriculum-Differentiation-forGifted-Students.html
Marulanda, M., Giraldo, P., & Lopez, L. (2006). Differentiated instruction for bilingual learners.
Presentation at the Annual Conference of the Association for Curriculum and Program Development,
San Francisco, CA.
NAGC. (2010). Definitions of giftedness (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Loyala University, Chicago,
IL. Retrieved from http://www.nagc.org/resources-publications/resources/definitions-giftedness or
talents
Rasmussen, F. (2006). Differentiated instruction as a means for improving achievement as measured
by the American College Testing (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Loyola University of Chicago
School of Education, Chicago, IL).
Tomlinson, C. A. (2014). Differentiated instruction. In J. A. Plucker & C. M. Callahan (Eds.), Critical
issues and practices in gifted education (pp. 197–210). Waco, TX: Prufrock Press, Inc.
VanTassel-Baska, J., & Brown, E. F. (2009). An analysis of gifted education curriculum models. In F. A.
Karnes & S. M. Bean (Eds.), Methods and materials for teaching the gifted (pp. 75–106). Waco, TX:
Prufrock Press.
VanTassel-Baska, J., & Little, C. (2011). Content-based curriculum for high ability learners (2nd ed.).
Waco, TX: Prufrock Press.
23
LINDA KREGER SILVERMAN,
LINDA POWERS LEVITON AND STEVEN C. HAAS
2. ENGAGING DIFFERENT TYPES
OF GIFTED LEARNERS
INTRODUCTION
In the dark ages of education, school was teacher-oriented, rather than studentcentered. The role of teachers was to pour knowledge into the empty vessels with
folded hands seated in front of them. The student’s role was to master the skills of
reading, writing, spelling, and calculation through rote learning and repetition, at the
same rate as the rest of the class. Those who mastered these skills faster were forced
to sit and wait for the others or were given “More Of The Same” (MOTS) work
to keep them busy. Those who mastered the skills more slowly—and who learned
differently—were publicly humiliated. In some settings, the enterprise of schooling
has not progressed. Marginalized, unique learners who were schooled in this manner
still bear the scars.
The 21st century has born witness to heightened awareness and appreciation of
learning styles, as well as variations in rates of learning. However, this enlightenment
is spotty: it is found in some schools with some teachers, not others. A case in point:
a profoundly gifted visual-spatial learner with dyslexia and dysgraphia attended a
prestigious private school in the United States. His mother wrote that the Head of the
School:
was adamant that “her teachers didn’t have time to deal with different learning
styles.” Any child who didn’t fit her mold of sitting quietly in class, doing what
they were told, not asking questions…was simply to be bullied and shamed
into submission. (GDC Parent Questionnaire, October 22, 2014)
The gifted do not just “get there” faster; they learn in a qualitatively different manner.
They yearn for complexity and abstract concepts, and they become disengaged with
rote memorization and the practice of skills. However, not all gifted children are
alike. “The range of scores of children in the top 1% on IQ—from 135 to more than
200—is as broad as the range of scores from the 2nd percentile…to the 98th” (Gross,
2009, p. 338). Five different levels of giftedness have been identified (Wasserman,
2003), and each requires specific educational modifications. (See Silverman, 2013
for more information.)
H. E. Vidergor & C. R. Harris (Eds.), Applied Practice for Educators of Gifted and Able Learners, 25–41.
© 2015 Sense Publishers. All rights reserved.
L. K. Silverman et al.
Levels of Giftedness
120 – 129 IQ mildly gifted
130 – 144 IQ moderately gifted
145 – 159 IQ highly gifted
160 – 174 IQ exceptionally gifted
175+
IQ profoundly gifted
Giftedness occurs in all ethnic, linguistic, geographic and socio-economic groups;
it is color blind and gender fair. Natural propensities, unique interests, and the
drive to absorb all that is known about a topic, lead the gifted in a multitude of
directions. Access to Internet and early reading ability can diversify this group even
further. “The higher the IQ or greater the intellectual capacity, the more individual
differences” will be found (Tolan, 1999, p. 148). Auditory, visual and kinesthetic
modalities vary dramatically within this population. A child with a brilliant mind
may be unable to write. A growing number of gifted students have disabilities: the
twice exceptional. Gifted children have different learning styles: some learn more
effectively in a sequential manner, while others are more spatially oriented and
struggle with sequential learning. An effective program is tailored to all of these
individual differences.
DIFFERENT WAYS OF LEARNING
The field of gifted education has embraced many models that honor various
constellations of learning strengths. One way of conceptualizing the multiplicity
of abilities is through theories of multiple intelligences. In 1938, Louis Thurstone
constructed a theory of nine primary mental abilities. Thurstone opened the door
for many theorists who followed. By far, the most ambitious theory of multiple
intelligences, Joy P. Guilford’s (1956) The Structure of Intellect, described 120
intelligences; the model eventually expanded to 150 intelligences. The Structure
of Intellect Learning Abilities Test (Meeker, Meeker & Roid, 1985), based on
Guilford’s model, has served as a method of qualifying for gifted programs. Dr.
Mary Meeker, a student of Guilford’s, and her husband, Robert, founded SOI
Systems in Vida, Oregon, which provides training in the model, the assessment tool,
and instructional programs (www.soisystems.com). In Frames of Mind, Howard
Gardner (1983) postulated seven intelligences; two more have been added, and
others are under consideration. Several books and articles are available to guide
teachers in customizing education to multiple intelligences (e.g., Armstrong, 2009).
Françoys Gagné (1985, 2012) created the Differentiated Model of Giftedness and
Talents (DMGT). DMGT includes six domains of giftedness, along with nine talents.
It serves as the theoretical basis for many gifted programs in Australia.
Personality theories gave birth to learning style models. Carl Jung (1923/1938)
conceived of two basic orientations: extraversion and introversion. In addition,
he described four functions: sensing, intuition, thinking and feeling. Katherine
26
Engaging Different Types of Gifted Learners
Cook Briggs developed a typology based on Jung’s constructs, adding another
dimension—judging versus perceiving—attitudes she felt were implicit in Jung’s
theory (Myers and Myers, 1980). Katherine, with her daughter, Isabel Briggs Myers,
devised the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) (Myers, 1962). The MBTI is the
mother of most modern assessments of personality type and learning style. Its four
dimensions yield 16 personality types—different combinations of extraversion vs.
introversion, sensing vs. intuition, thinking vs. feelings, and judging vs. perceiving.
These 16 personality types have been translated into learning styles, spawning many
books for teachers on differentiating for personality types (See Dunning, 2008; Kise,
2014; Lawrence, 2009; VanSant & Payne, 2009.) As there is considerable overlap
between personality types and learning styles, some use the term synonymously
(e.g., Bireley, 1991).
For a decade, beginning in 1976, the measurement of learning styles was in its
heyday. Excellent inventories were developed during this period—unfortunately, all
bearing the same or similar titles: Learning Styles Inventory (R. Dunn, K. Dunn,
& Price, 1979; Kolb, 1976; Renzulli & Smith, 1978); Learning Styles Inventory:
Primary Version (Perrin, 1982); The Learning Style Profile (Keefe & Monk, 1986);
and The Learning Preference Inventory (Silver & Hanson, 1978). The instrument
constructed by Rita and Kenneth Dunn and their associates (1975/1979) emerged as
the most popular in gifted and regular education, and stood the test of time. Rita Dunn
(1983) defined learning style as “the way individuals concentrate on, absorb, and
retain new or difficult information or skills” (p. 496). Her Learning Styles Inventory
is comprised of a complex matrix of 24 environmental, sociological, physical and
psychological elements. While it is easy to administer (30 – 40 minutes), application
of the thousands of combinations can be daunting.
Shortly after the rage of learning styles inventories, another way of looking at
modes of learning emerged: the exploration of modalities. Two gifted education
leaders, Walter Barbe and Ray Swassing, developed the Swassing-Barbe Modality
Index (SBMI) (Barbe, Swassing & Milone, 1979a). They defined a modality as
“any of the sensory channels through which an individual receives and retains
information” (Barbe & Swassing, with Milone, 1979b, p. 1). The three modalities
vital to education are visual, auditory and kinesthetic. The kinesthetic modality
consists of large muscle, small muscle and tactile abilities. A modality strength is the
most efficient or dominant mode through which an individual processes information.
Visual learners learn by seeing and watching demonstrations, auditory learners
through verbal instruction from others or self-talk, and kinesthetic learners by doing
and direct involvement.
For the remainder of this chapter, we will focus on the nucleus of our work:
visual-spatial learners. The model differentiating visual-spatial learners (VSLs)
from auditory-sequential learners (ASLs) originated from observing test protocols
of gifted children and relating these observations to brain research (Silverman,
1989; 2002). The left hemisphere of the brain functions sequentially, while the
right hemisphere functions spatially (Levy, 2000; Ornstein, 1997; Springer &
27
L. K. Silverman et al.
Deutsch, 2001). Spatial information is apprehended visually. Terms such as
“visuo-spatial,” “spatial visualization” and “visual-spatial” are used to describe
the inextricable connection between visual and spatial. The relationship between
auditory and sequential is a gift from the field of audiology (Northern & Downs,
1994). Phonemic awareness and spelling both involve the ability to sequence nonmeaningful sound bites. ASLs have stronger left hemispheres, while VSLs have
stronger right hemispheres.
School primarily addresses left-hemispheric strengths; right-hemispheric
strengths, such as those involved in the arts, are often seen as tangential. Children
with excellent auditory-sequential abilities are more comfortable with the medium
of words than VSLs. Gifted ASLs access words easily, efficiently and quickly. Their
verbal fluency assures greater ease at public speaking and allows them to be more
verbally assertive in discussions. ASLs have good auditory skills and excellent
phonemic awareness, which enables them to master reading phonetically, as it is
usually taught. They tend to have a good sense of time, be punctual, and turn in their
assignments in a timely manner. Fast processors of information, they enjoy contests,
like “Mad Minutes” (timed math facts). They are likely to be neat, orderly and wellorganized—sequential attributes. They can show their work, because they take a
series of steps to reach their conclusions (Silverman, 2003). ASLs “easily follow
others’ verbal explanations and remember step-by-step directions, pay attention to
details, naturally categorize, and know a mountain from a molehill” (Maxwell &
Punch, 2012, p. 10). Gifted ASLs are more likely than equally capable VSLs to
be high achievers in academic subjects, to be selected for gifted programs, to be
recognized by their teachers as having high potential, and to be considered leaders
(Silverman, 2009).
All in all, school is usually a positive experience for ASLs. The structure and
demands of school make sense to them. The school curriculum is sequential, the
textbooks are sequential, the teaching methods are sequential, and most teachers
learn sequentially themselves. Therefore, we do not provide guidance for teaching
ASLs; teachers do an excellent job reaching this population. We believe that most
indigenous cultures are strongly right hemispheric, and that visual-spatial methods
are culturally relevant. This model is easy for teachers to implement, because they
only need to plan for one new type of learner.
The visual-spatial learner construct bears most similarity to the modality strengths
model. Recently, one member of our team added a third learning style: the tactilekinesthetic learner (Leviton, 2011, 2014). This cements our connection with learning
modalities. Tactile-Kinesthetic Learners (TKLs) learn best through sensations, action,
physical experience, touching, moving, doing something, manipulating objects, and
application to real-life situations. TKLs often excel at sports, dance, mechanics and
laboratory science. While TKLs clearly have specific learning needs, space does not
permit our addressing them in this chapter. (See Leviton, 2014 for more information.)
Like visual-spatial learners (VSLs), TKLs are usually more right hemispheric;
therefore, most strategies proposed for VSLs will be helpful for them as well.
28
Engaging Different Types of Gifted Learners
VISUAL-SPATIAL LEARNERS
Visual-spatial learners (VSLs) are individuals who absorb, organize, process, and
communicate ideas, concepts, and information in a holistic way, thinking in images,
seeing patterns, grasping ideas all at once instead of step-by-step. Although VSLs
tend to think in images, some rely on intuition or feelings—also VSL strengths. They
can transform images in their mind’s eye, seeing them from many perspectives. It
takes more time for VSLs to translate their mental pictures into words, and word
retrieval may be somewhat difficult (Lohman, 1994). Under the pressure of timed
tests, their pictures often disappear (Leviton, 2003). They do not have a linear, clockdriven sense of time, but, instead, see time as a flow of events. And they demonstrate
superb awareness of space. Their learning takes place in great intuitive leaps, when,
all of a sudden, they have an “Aha!” moment and see the “big picture.” Since they do
not learn sequentially, they are at a distinct disadvantage on achievement tests that
require them to show their work. They learn best by understanding relationships, not
by memorization. Complex concepts are easier for them to understand than simple,
sequential skills. They may master calculus before their times tables. It is easy to
see why these children suffer in school. They tend to be late bloomers, often getting
smarter as they get older (Silverman, 2002).
Characteristics Comparison
The characteristic differences between VSLs and ASLs have emerged from 35 years
of observations and interviews, and the clinical analysis of the protocols and parent
questionnaires of over 6,000 gifted children. The model has been refined through
two decades of empirical investigation by an interdisciplinary study team (Haas,
2003b).
Visual-Spatial Learners
Are whole-part learners
Are keen observers
See the “big picture”
Learn concepts all at once (“Aha!”)
Think in images or feelings
Solve problems in unusual ways
Often lose track of time
Arrive at correct solutions intuitively
Struggle with spelling
Need to see relationships to learn
May appear disorganized
Learn whole words easier than phonics
Read maps well
Are good synthesizers
Auditory-Sequential Learners
Learn in a step-by-step manner
Are good listeners
Attend well to details
Learn by trial and error
Think in words or ideas
Are comfortable with one right answer
Are conscious of time
Show steps of work easily
Can sound out spelling words
Excel at rote memorization
Are well organized
Have excellent phonemic awareness
Follow directions well
Are good analyzers
29
L. K. Silverman et al.
May have messy handwriting
Interweave thought and emotion
Learn complex concepts easily, but may struggle with easy skills
Write quickly and neatly
Compartmentalize thought and emotion
Progress sequentially from easy to difficult
(Silverman, 2009)
Many gifted students—particularly the highly gifted—demonstrate attributes
from both lists, but some clearly lean toward one set or the other. School is easier for
gifted ASLs, whereas gifted VSLs are more often counted among underachievers,
gifted dropouts, twice exceptional children, dyslexics (Eide & Eide, 2011), children
with AD/HD, creative nonconformists, and bright children from culturally diverse
groups (Silverman, 2002). More talented children from low socio-economic groups
are identified by spatial tests than by verbal and mathematical measures (Webb,
Lubinski, & Benbow, 2007).
The Visual-Spatial Identifier
In 1992, an interdisciplinary group began construction of the Visual-Spatial
Identifier (VSI), a 15-item inventory for quickly identifying visual-spatial learners in
the classroom. The VSI is available in two forms: Self-Report and Observer-Report;
it has been translated into Spanish. The instrument has been validated with 750
students in urban and rural settings (Haas, 2003b; Silverman, 2002). About one-third
of the student population in the United States are strongly VSL and two-thirds have
at least a slight preference for this learning style (Haas, 2003b; Silverman, 2002).
Among the gifted, there is a higher percentage of VSLs. The highest percentages
of VSLs have been found in twice-exceptional and culturally diverse groups (e.g.,
Native Americans) (Haas, 2007).
CULTURALLY AND LINGUISTICALLY DIVERSE CHILDREN
Research conducted under the auspices of the Institute for the Study of Advanced
Development shows that nearly 80% of Native American children in the U.S. are
visual-spatial learners (Haas, 2007, 2014). These results come from working with
indigenous children, primarily Navajo and Northern Arapaho, but also diverse urban
Native children and Coeur d’Alene tribes in the U.S. and Ojibwe First Nations
in Canada. Abundant anecdotal information also suggests that a predominance of
visual-spatial learners can be found among other indigenous peoples throughout
the world, such as Alaska Native tribes, Canadian Inuit and Metis, Australian
Aborigines, New Zealand Maori, Southern African Bushmen, Mexican Yucatec
Mayan and other Mayan peoples of western Central America, South American
Quechua people, mixed Gulf peoples of the United Arab Emirates, and many of the
567 federally recognized tribes in the United States.
30
Engaging Different Types of Gifted Learners
The predominance of holistic, visual-spatial learning among indigenous peoples
may contribute to a different appreciation of giftedness. Instead of the characteristic
of an individual demonstrating outstanding levels of aptitude or competence (NAGC,
2015) or high achievement capability (United States Department of Education
(2004)), American Indian genius springs from community:
A person steeped in traditionalism of his or her people relating to values of
the tribal community, and the manifestation of individual expression through
individual actions of the person who represents deep inner thought on a frequent
basis that also enlighten one’s family, relatives, and community. (Fixico, 2003,
p. 74)
Strength-based, culturally responsive instruction for Native American children starts
with visual-spatial pedagogy, closely intertwined within an instructional system that
includes emphasis on place, culture, 21st century skills, project-based learning, and
problem solving. Such an instructional program instills confidence in young Native
American learners. Standardized tests indicated a significant increase in achievement
for many of these students.
This section provides classroom examples of best practices, profiling the cultural
adaptability of instructional strategies designed for Native American children. Each
of these lessons is deeply visual-spatial. Following each description is a YouTube
link where the classroom video of the example can be viewed.
Visual-Spatial Instruction
Young writers in a 3rd grade class on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming had
the assignment of writing an essay about a family outing or activity. But before
taking pen in hand, the class was shown a series of brief video clips and slides taken
of Native children and their families engaging in a wide range of activities, from
backyard BBQs to camping adventures and a tribal pow-wow. Then, with whimsical
music playing, they were asked to visualize their own family on an outing or activity.
This was the first in a series of translations from one medium to another to transform
their visual ideas into written essays. They could “see” an activity that had occurred
or “imagine” one that they would like to happen. Then all the students used large
drawing paper and colorful pens (because visual-spatial images are always in color)
to draw what they saw in their heads, a second translation. This translation also took
what may have been a mental video running in their heads and selected a screenshot
to capture on paper. On the back of the drawing, each child then took time to put
down as many “-ing” words as s/he could think of that jumped from the drawing.
This third translation was the first time they had written anything for this assignment.
Once a full list had been compiled, the students strung the “-ing” words together in a
written story (fourth translation), scrambling the words to rearrange the order so that
it made sense to them (http://youtu.be/qQN02hrt4Aw).
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Spatial Aspects
Visual refers not just to things that can be seen by the eye, but to those that exist only
in the mind’s eye, and to those abstract concepts that must be envisioned. Spatial
learning is strongly relational, to place, to people, and to time. Any role-playing
exercise in class lends itself to spatial learning. For instance, a 12th grade history class
studying the Nazi rise to power in 1933 assigned roles to each of the students – Nazi,
Gestapo, industrialists, socialists, communists, Jews, Bavarians, trade unionists, and
Catholics – and let them talk amongst themselves in anticipation of the open election
of November 1932 that eventually brought Hitler to power the following spring.
On the video of the class that day, the coalitions were fully visible and the
isolation of some students was palpable and distressing. When the public vote took
place, the majority – even including the Jew – voted for Hitler, vainly hoping to
avoid “consequences.” Then, for the rest of the class period, one by one, each was
taken and put into an enclosure marked with masking tape on the floor. That exercise
served as the springboard to a probing discussion of the tribe’s own experience with
genocide during the white settlers’ seizure of land and the atrocities committed
against their Native ancestors (http://youtu.be/SSE_AARaVqU).
In another more benign example of spatial learning, 6th graders learned about
the Greek counterparts to their own tribal gods and the relational hierarchy in both
systems of deities. Importantly, they also gained a more profound appreciation of
their own individual relationship to their tribal gods, and by extension of ordinary
Greek citizens to their gods on Mount Olympus (http://youtu.be/gtMCKud2Rdc).
Culture
In culturally responsive education for diverse indigenous children, cultural content
can become the centerpiece of a classroom lesson, as it did for a kindergarten class
studying the use of symbols and color in their tribal flag. By learning the origins of
the flag and the deeper meaning of its symbols, they found an appreciation of the
tribe’s history and culture. Since their tribe’s flag incorporates distinct geometrical
shapes, the children also saw their tribe’s connection to geometry and other
principles of mathematics. The colors of the flag show up repeatedly in tribal regalia
and ceremonial situations, as well as in everyday use. So, the children developed
pride in those colors and color combinations whenever they saw them displayed.
As the lesson progressed, the teacher asked the children to follow along by drawing
their own copy of the tribal flag at their desk, as a way of taking note of what they
were learning (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3rCqQEj4S4).
Place
Place is the pivot point for indigenous children’s learning and understanding of
their cultural connectedness to location, to personal and cultural relationships, and
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to the flow of time (Deloria & Wildcat, 2001, p. 33). That sense of place begins
early and is a recurrent theme in visual-spatial culturally responsive education,
as a class of 1st graders learned with an astronomy lesson. Using a SmartBoard
to depict star clusters, children were able to draw in constellations and then see
the shapes where they got their names. In a simple, low-tech demonstration,
the teacher projected an image of the night sky onto a screen and then, using
a flashlight, showed how close stars were brighter and distant stars fainter. For
the children, what had been a two-dimensional screen suddenly acquired three
dimensions, and Earth with the children on it found its place in that cosmic
display (First segment on Sampler Video at “http://youtu.be/Ex3T2sUg6G8).
Twenty-First Century Skills
Preparing children to thrive, contribute, and be happy with their lives in the 21st
century is a much bigger task than just helping them acquire tech savvy. In addition
to technology, it includes info literacy, communications, collaboration, critical
thinking, problem solving, creativity, and career skills. With the advent of a handheld digital world, that technology is becoming the breakthrough tool of humanity’s
next age. An 11th grade business class of Northern Arapaho students explored the
visual power that technology offers, as those students in real time recorded statistics
(shots made/missed, offensive/defensive rebounds, steals, and blocked shots) of a
video recording of a National Basketball Association title game. Teams of students
initially plotted data on a large poster board but then transferred that data to a
SmartBoard for analysis of relative strengths and weaknesses and input for coaching
decisions. One of the major problems that Arapaho high school teachers face is low
attendance rates. The class began with only four of the 11 enrolled students in the
room. But word traveled fast. Little by little, their friends (even some not enrolled in
the class) came to see what all the commotion was about. Even in a content area of
high interest to boys, the girls in the classroom engaged vigorously in the tech-based
problem (http://youtu.be/aSXgCqrjkqs).
Project-Based Learning
An urban middle school class of children from mixed tribal origins tackled the
project of using digital storytelling to create an interview that would become an
intergenerational record of events of lasting importance to family, elders, community,
and tribe. Working over a period of weeks, students began from scratch and had
to find a topic that resonated for them and a suitable subject to interview. With a
storyboard, each child mapped out a line of questioning for the interview, conducted
the interview while simultaneously holding the palm video camera, edited, and
produced the finished product. One student’s work, “Grandma with the Fry Bread,”
was an endearing interview with a survivor of the Native boarding school experience
(Sixth segment on Sampler Video at http://youtu.be/Ex3T2sUg6G8).
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Problem Solving
When students get too used to the teacher supplying answers, any attempt to shift to a
more problem-solving approach can be difficult. One solution is to inject an element
of competition into the learning process, in which teams compete to find a correct
solution path quicker than other teams. In many indigenous cultures, competitive
behaviors are discouraged, so this instructional technique needs to be introduced
with a culturally sensitive light touch. In a 5th grade class, students were using colorcoded cards with spelling words with the same sounding vowel blend, but derived
from five different vowel combinations. For the competition, the cards were shuffled
and dealt facedown for a Concentration-type game. Each team needed to figure out
the code that unlocked the spelling game. By the time the final two teams faced
off in the championship, the focus of both participants and spectators was intense
(http://youtu.be/NxQ-4Jxk4To).
Mathematics
For visual-spatial students, mathematics presents a unique set of challenges – overreliance on rote memorization of basic math facts, algorithmic rules, formulas and
equations, and insistence that students show step-by-step solutions. Algebra is the
worst offender, but even two-column geometric proofs can confound highly visualspatial indigenous students (Haas, 2003a). Two examples of more engaging visualspatial math lessons are given below.
For a 4th grade class learning about ratios, the meaning of whole and part,
numerator and denominator, and ratio and equivalents were causing difficulties
until each child could work with a bag of multicolored pre-counted M&Ms.
Following visual counting and sorting work with the sample, students transferred
that knowledge to their own sketches. The real connection of the math concepts with
physical objects made it easier for the children to grasp those concepts and eventually
to abstract those ideas into the meaning of ratio, disassociated from any applications
(http://youtu.be/4vmMFomxOxY).
In a fairly advanced topic from statistics, a 9th grade class was studying tagging
and sampling of a population of unknown total to determine population size. A
formulaic approach to the subject provides an answer but no understanding of the
math principles. The students used Swedish fish candy and clipped tails off of a
small sample. Through successive sampling, they calculated a converging value
for total population. Students were also able to explain the deeper meaning of the
statistical principle, confirming mastery of the topic (http://youtu.be/f69bHLb5x0).
With large numbers of indigenous children, strength-based visual-spatial
instruction in a culturally responsive classroom environment ensures engagement
and in-depth learning. Visualization, visual materials, manipulatives, and projectbased learning are all essential. For learning to be meaningful, it must be culturally
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relevant. Visual-spatial strategies, such as those described above, can bring all
subject areas to life. (Please see www.VisualSpatial.org for free downloads of
visual-spatial teaching strategies. Go to www.islaproject.wikispaces.com for more
information about the Indigenous Students Leap Ahead program, on which this
section is based.)
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS IN TEACHING VISUAL-SPATIAL LEARNERS
Visual-spatial learners (VSLs) are among our most creative and divergent thinkers,
yet they often feel excluded from mainstream education. Because they often don’t
fit teachers’ preconceived ideas of how children learn, they may be perceived
as rebellious, underachieving or slow. They are rarely acknowledged for their
innovative ideas and unique solutions because they work slowly or fail to show their
step-by-step work; they might have embellished the assignment in ways that the
teacher finds distracting or non-compliant. These “commandments” provide some
insight into the right-hemispheric world of visual-spatial learners, as well as ideas
for engaging their imagination and enthusiasm for learning.
Create Visual Materials to Present Ideas and Facts
The visual-spatial learner (VSL) translates experiences and words into pictures; this
allows memories to create an internal structure. When VSLs are asked to describe
an event, they will first recall their mental “video” of the whole experience, and then
find the needed facts within the context of that experience. This elaboration in image
form takes longer than auditory-sequential processing (think computer download:
compare download time and storage memory for a page of pictures vs. a page of
words). By pairing pictures with words or movies during the presentation of an idea,
VSLs are assimilating the information more directly and are more likely to anchor it
in their long-term memory. Pictures require little or no repetition in order to be saved
in memory. This is one of the reasons that VSLs rebel when forced to do repetitive
work; either they have it in the mental photo album or they don’t.
When teaching vocabulary, present the word list with the option of writing the
definition in a sentence or creating a game out of the word. To reinforce spelling,
have students place spelling words below pictures and visualize them together. If
they can create a whole word picture, it is easier to recall the spelling. Other ways to
reinforce vocabulary words and spelling are crossword puzzles, word searches, and
Mad Lib-type fill in the blanks (which add humor and knowledge of parts of speech).
Present Ideas, Facts and Information within a Context
VSLs see the world as a whole, and then fill in the pieces of the puzzle. Because
of this, they need to understand how a fact or idea fits into the big picture. In the
classroom, this sometimes comes in the form of wanting to know why they need a
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skill, or when they are likely to apply that information. Teachers sometimes find this
kind of question annoying, but it helps VSL students to place the task into a mental
construct of the world. For VSLs, everything is connected in some way, and the
teacher helps them learn to mentally organize information in the context of their lives.
An example is an Art History program maintained by parents at Van Gogh
Elementary School in Granada Hills, California. The overall program involved
selecting 20 artists per year who had diverse styles, colorful personal lives, and used
accessible materials. The children were given a ten-minute history of the artist with
an emphasis on colorful personal facts (such as why Van Gogh cut off his ear, or that
Monet had poor vision) and how his art was related to his life. (e.g., Picasso started
painting his blue period when he broke up with his girlfriend). Next they were given
an art medium that artist used (e.g. pastels, watercolors, acrylic paint, etc.), shown
pictures of his art and allowed to create an original piece of art. The lesson became
vivid, engaging, and memorable because facts were associated with humor, human
interest, contextual awareness, personal creativity and actual hands-on manipulation
of materials.
Metaphors Work Like Magic to Illustrate Ideas
Metaphors are a highly effective way to illustrate relationships, patterns, and ideas.
Metaphors allow VSLs to compare experience and understanding. In addition
to stimulating right-hemispheric conscious thoughts, they also work to unlock
unconscious associations. These unconscious associations create new associations
and understanding long after the conscious process has finished working; this is
basically how dreams help us to work through concerns.
The most reinforcing metaphors come from the children themselves. A good way
to model this is by including familiar metaphors or similes in explanations. (e.g.,
Anger: “He exploded like a volcano.” Brainstorming: “To solve this problem, we
need ideas to light our minds like fireworks light up the sky.”)
Use Humor, Costume, Storytelling to Entertain and Inform
Probably the most entertaining and effective way to illustrate an idea or to present
information is by using cartoons or humorous stories. Even difficult concepts can
easily be clarified with the right joke and will melt the anxiety that often accompanies
confusion.
The use of costume is particularly useful for enhancing attention and memory for
VSLs. Teachers can use hats, costumes, props or puppets to demonstrate different
characters in a story, or when changing subjects. Costume references to literature
or famous people can anchor an idea in a spectacular way. For example, when
assigning groups, a Selecting Hat from Harry Potter can bring pleasant associations
to the process.
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Engaging Different Types of Gifted Learners
Current events and history are especially well suited to teaching in costume and
illustrating ideas through cartoons. Humorous pictures or cartoon captions can be
supplied by students. Teaching history lessons in costume, giving extra credit to
reports presented in costume, and using period videos all are more easily accessed
by VSLs. Presentations not only take on new meaning when the student has to dress
the part, and present “in character,” but taking pictures of the presentation also helps
jog memory for later retrieval.
Inductive Logic: Inspiring Curiosity from the Right Hemisphere of the Brain
Deductive logic is the sequential method of using reasoning to develop a rule. Using
deductive logic, the conclusion follows from, is deduced from, or is inferred from the
premises. The deduction starts as a specific statement or statements, and ends with
a general statement.
Inductive logic is when the conclusion “goes beyond” the premise; it is more like
a puzzle in that it includes a challenge, rather than a statement. An easy way to apply
this technique is by playing “What’s My Rule?” In this game, examples (such as
math equations) are given and the students must use inference to uncover a general
rule from these specific statements.
2×7=7×2
6×4=4×6
8×5=5×8
What’s My Rule?
(See Silverman, 2002, pp. 283–286 for more examples.) The rule can then be tested
by applying real numbers, or concrete examples. Another form of using inductive
logic is to provide an answer and challenge the student to figure out the question or
problems that will result in that answer. (E.g., “The answer is 42. How many creative
ways can you arrive at this answer?”)
Games and Puzzles Reinforce Concepts and Inspire Curiosity
A wonderful way to reinforce skills and engage creative VSLs is to allow them to
show what they know by creating a board game or puzzle that illustrates the concept
or skill, and is enough fun that kids will want to play or solve it. The game must
include whatever is being studied, all the covered material, and not be any more
difficult than the test on the subject is likely to be. It also must be small enough to
fit, with all its pieces, in a 9 × 12 inch manila envelope. Even if only some of these
games turn into winners, eventually there is a set of reinforcing learning materials
available for years to come. Name the game after the student: “Johnny’s Fraction
Game” or “Susie’s Cell Parts Game” and use it as an incentive to finish assigned
work early. (Note: the game board usually has to be folded to fit into the envelope;
but that is another problem for the child to solve.)
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Simulate, Demonstrate, or Manipulate Something to Explain It
Some of the most exciting educational programs use no words at all: a presentation
for Heschel Elementary School in Los Angeles about the California missions was
completely mimed by a “Spanish Conquistador.” The actor used a walking stick and
grunts to supervise making adobe bricks and building an actual adobe wall around
what later would become the garden of maize they planted. (They eventually cooked
tortillas from the corn they grew and ground up using a rock, on a fire they started
with a real flint!) The amazing thing was that the children in the class who became
the “interpreters” and, therefore, “foremen” for the adobe-making were the VSLs
who spoke English as a second language—children often behind in school because
of their English deficiencies. In this context, they had an advantage—they were keen
observers, and had already learned the nonverbal skills necessary to make meaning
from context alone.
Utilize Visualization and Mnemonic Techniques to Aid Memory
Short-term memory is often a problem for VSLs. But, once an image is associated
with a fact or idea, it enters long-term memory. While it may take VSLs longer
to access memories (they have to sort through a lifetime of saved images), often
memories are more vivid and complex.
The most difficult facts to learn are numbers (dates), names, and anything out
of context; adding a picture or related context can help. For instance, have VSLs
imagine each spelling word as skywriting, or associate a picture with it and place
the letters inside the picture. The computer is a fantastic tool for writing and spelling
because it allows students to “see” the word and to edit and reorganize their writing
by moving words or sentences around in different configurations. Images from the
Internet are readily available to aid association.
For names, VSLs can associate memory facts with humorous acronyms. The
order of the planets is memorable as “My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us
Noodles,” otherwise known as Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus,
and Neptune. Or, use rhymes (e.g., “Columbus sailed the ocean blue in fourteen
hundred and ninety-two”). Music is another wonderful mnemonic and rap music
integrates facts by using both rhyme and rhythm. (Remember the Alphabet Song?)
Model a Variety of Ways to Organize Thoughts and Ideas
Most of us learned to organize our thoughts by creating an outline—a sequential
and logical process that simply doesn’t match the way a VSL thinks. Two
alternative ways to organize ideas recreate their “thought-burst process.” Tony
Buzan (1991, 1996) has written extensively on his Mind-Mapping method of
using pictures and something like a firecracker design to organize subjects and
thoughts. Another organization technique uses a tree (trunk is the main topic)
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and branches (the paragraphs), with smaller branches (sentences), and leaves (the
details or descriptors.) Students can also make up their own organizing metaphors.
Brainstorm subjects and associations, and then use their personal metaphors to
organize the results.
If an outline is an important skill to master, teach VSLs to put their ideas on
3 × 5 inch cards as they think of them; lay out and move the cards until they suggest
a good outline. Or use the computer program, Inspiration (www.inspiration.com),
which automatically does the translating for them.
Honor Differences, Reward Innovations
It’s ironic that visual-spatial students (often the least likely to get positive reinforcement
from their teachers) are among those who are best motivated by encouragement
and praise. VSLs tend to respond with enthusiasm when their creativity, ideas and
innovations are acknowledged; they are commensurately sensitive to being hurt by
criticism and disapproval. Often, just noting what is “right” will be enough to let
VSLs know what they did wrong. Empathy, patience, approval, positive incentives,
encouragement, and acceptance not only inspire VSLs to work harder, but often have
a lasting impact on how they perceive their entire school experience.
One way of honoring their different way of thinking is to give multiple grades,
such as one for content and one for mechanics. Or give one for originality and one
for following directions, or partial credit (honorable mention) when the student has
created something original, but hasn’t completed the assigned task.
Students deserve to be taught in the ways they learn best. Sometimes this involves
thinking creatively. Involving the student in the process can often make it a positive
experience for both teacher and student.
CONCLUSION
Gifted education was founded on the principle of child-centeredness (Grant &
Piechowski, 1999). Leta Hollingworth, the foremother of our field, created special
classes for the gifted, and ensured that they were culturally diverse (Klein, 2002).
She was “free to maximize the potentialities of the students by individualization”
(Harris, 1985, p. 8). Hollingworth predicted that in the future, “The school will be
fitted to the child” (1932/1940, p. 48). We now have the capability and the technology
to fulfill that prediction. We only need the will to make it a reality.
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