Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Is differentiated instruction a hollow promise?

My older son has been in some successful differentiation situations because 4th -8 th grade the two schools clustered all the gifted students into one class....then they fill in the remaining seats with high achieving probably just not identified students (my son started out in 4th grade as a filling in the class student and was tested the next year). The teachers taught to the gifted kids and the other kids kept up. The teachers were either endorsed gifted or working on it...most of the time they were flexible, sometimes not. Some were more gifted as teachers than others. I think the clustering/ability grouping or even multiage grouping is the key.

My younger son has had random differentiation, some that was terrific and some that was okay and then none at all. Luckily he is one of those easy going kids that just thrives anywhere and you can't keep him from learning. He had one of the most talented 2nd grade teachers who was a pro at differentiating. This year other than being in the highest reading group and getting computer time when he was done with work...not much but he just skipped a grade so maybe he didn't need as much. The computer time was above level work. He isn't clustered because he is in a different elementary school from my older son and we will probably home school him for middle school.