Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy List of tips to schools to help gifted students

Before this coming school year, I want to start a list of tips for schools to help gifted students.

The tips are meant to keep the gifted children as happy as possible and to not feel traumatized (sorry, if it is too strong a word) by being in regular classes or regular school environments.

The intention is to find a best way to inform schools of the differences that gifted adults have noticed, that schools or other parents might not be noticing, and to make the schools user friendly for everyone regardless of IQ and at the same time understanding any differences (allergies, over-sensitivities, quirks, ticks, speech problems, poor eye-sight, whatever is going on to make that high IQ child have a different experience than considered the norm (also the same list that gets these children picked on)).

Maybe it could be thought of as a Bill of Rights and it might end up helping all students. Although, since the powers that be consider the gifted brain to not be the norm, I am assuming that the way they have always set up schools is geared for the masses, the large group in the middle in the average range which depending on stats might be 89 to 119.

To be clear, the schools seem to be considering gifted at 130+.

We would like to see if maybe this generation of gifted students could be spared the bad feelings they might have about the way they are treated in school.

A positive change might have a rewarding positive impact. We want all people to be happy and reach their full potential.

When I talk to gifted people who are in their later years, they might not have even realized what their potential was and / or they had parents (perhaps immigrants new to the USA) who stopped them (in their opinion) from reaching their full potential.

I would like to see schools take the issue of the high IQ students seriously from pre-K through the end of 12th grade. We need some support. It is very uncomfortable advocating parent to school district and I am not sure it is working.

A detailed list might help for future conversations - parent to school. Thank you for any tips or pointers to make the list.

I've seen a ton of resources along these lines from professional development for teachers to books to bullet lists. Differentiation is very buzzy right now; if it is in the mind of your district things can be much easier. Acceleration is mapped out and sold pretty clearly in "A Nation Deceived."

One concept I've rarely seen emphasized and that may be one of the biggest key differences between the typical student population, high achievers, and the intellectually gifted:
Extrapolation - Less is often more as a gifted learner will typically connect A to C without being told about B. If they make that connection themselves, they'll learn it deeper and better and may even bring fresh insights to the table and figure out D and E as well. Iterating on A, B, C will serve them far less well.

My tips:



1. Don't assume that "high potential" = "high achievement."

2. Also don't assume that "gifted" = autodidactic. This is as silly as assuming that a Subaru needs a skilled driver and that a Ferrari does not. Some highly gifted children DO still need mentoring, teaching, and guiding.

3. The largest educational difference between highly gifted children and more neurotypical children is the RATE at which they learn-- not the LEVEL at which it is occurring. This leads to problems in placement that are rarely remedied by a single placement decision, no matter how sound/good-- unless that placement is with true peers (similar in BOTH age and ability).

4. For industrious and energetic bright youngsters, differentiation via more work than classmates MIGHT be appropriate-- but it is rarely so for truly gifted children, and the higher the level of cognitive ability, the LESS appropriate it is to add repetition. Think of it this way-- if you took a group of adults at random- just picked 40 people who happen to be 30-32 years of age, I mean-- and then signed up the entire cohort for 6 months of, say... Driver's Education or something. What would that look like? Would the expert drivers be bored? Oh, you BET they would. What would you do as they raced through the material that the non-drivers were still LEARNING? Give them MORE exposure to the same topics and concepts? Right-- that's how most classroom differentiation is supposed to work. It's fine-- for people who are, in fact, LEARNING the material. Not-so-fine for those who truly have mastery of it. For then, piling on MORE worksheets, adding multimedia presentations, art projects, etc. etc. without any new CONTENT in those assignments? It's just irritating as all get out. Gifted children have the same problem.

5. If you give gifted children space to be themselves-- they will make everyone's educational experience richer and more meaningful. Their insights will be atypical and fresh. Let that happen in a classroom-- really, it's a force for good in the framework of inquiry-based learning.

In-class differentiation is a false utopian myth, in most cases. It is far more effective to group school children by ability in separate classrooms, and teach to each group's level.

That said, you may not know everyone's true ability level (e.g. entering kindergarten, if if tested). School's need to figure out how to create an environment where a child can reach their potential, even if they're not sure what their potential is.

One tip may be to highlight that although teachers may not have learned about gifted children while obtaining their degree(s) in college/university, there is a wealth of information available for them to read and digest. Starting places may include articles on the Davidson Database, lists of books on Hoagies Gifted Education Page, the Davidson Educators' Guild, and publishers such as Great Potential Press, Prufrock Press, free spirit publishing, and Gifted Education Press.

Another tip may come from the book, The Essential Guide to Talking with Gifted Teens by Jean Sunde Peterson which at one points asks potential teachers or leaders a question along the lines of: Can you avoid feeling competitive toward gifted children?

Another tip may be to realize that children may develop asynchronously, and to teach a child at his/her level of readiness and ability in each area. (Do not hold a child back in an area of talent due to a lesser degree of readiness/ability in another area.)

Another tip may be to understand that if a child is "bored" this is not a statement against you, personally, and does not call for retaliation. Rather, the child may be treading water while waiting for other children to catch up. The child may prefer to have the mental stimulation of learning something new. This is not an opportunity to shame the child or lecture him/her about the value of patience, but rather an opportunity to present new material so the child may continue learning in the topic/subject at hand.

Another tip may be that assigning gifted kids as tutors for other children is rarely an appropriate educational strategy and may both deprive the gifted child from learning new material in the topic/subject at hand and may also set the stage for negative social consequences. Voluntary opportunities to peer tutor are great, however use of class time for learning new material in the topic/subject at hand is essential.

Another tip may be to encourage asking questions, so that admitting what one does not know and asking for help are seen as admirable qualities, essential for learning, and are rewarded. (Do not belittle a gifted child with statements such as, "You're so smart, you should know that!")

Another tip may be that the gifted children in your class are not subjects on which to perform research, studies, and experiments as you work on your higher degree. Please respect the privacy and the personhood of each student and do not treat them as objects as you work to advance your own position. While a child may be one of thousands in your classes over the span of a career, their names and faces long forgotten after a decade or more, to the child this is their life unfolding and experiences will tend to be remembered.

Another tip may be to listen to and partner with parents. Flexibility and a sense of each learning from the other may be key to successful team work with a child, toward instilling in the child a sense of pride, confidence, and ownership of their education (internal locus of control). In working with parents and/or with gifted children who self-advocate, teachers have the ability to role model teamwork for children.

Another tip may be to realize that giftedness and opportunity, while related, are two different things. (The thread on myths and realities of giftedness can be read and interpreted as more tips.) We strive to create opportunity for positive growth and achievement of all, including the gifted.

Another tip may be to anticipate and accept that gifted kiddos will tend to keep teachers/schools/districts and others with whom they come in contact on your toes; this is not a bad thing.

Many gifted kids have more aware of the subtleties in your voice and actions than you think possible - they will know when you feel threatened by them and/or are intimidated by them and will pick up on the slight differences in the way you treat them, which will turn them off from you and your class.

Remember that the parents of gifted kids are not "that parent" who think that their child is amazing and has nothing to back it up with. Along with this listen to what they are saying so that you can actually understand the child in your class rather than just nodding and saying "oh, I've had loads of gifted kids before I know all about them."

Don't be afraid to ask the child if his/her needs are being met and if not how things need to change to make the situation better.

"Differentiated instruction" has been promoted so strongly that it may be best to pay it lip service. Even if you divide 60 children in a grade into three ability groups for reading and math, there will still be variations in ability and background within the 20-student classes. So let teachers "differentiate" as best they can, but make their jobs by reducing the range they need to deal with. After all, even believers in differentiation don't take 300 children in grades 1-5 and assign each teacher 4 children in each grade (for a total of 4*5 = 20 per class).

In short, ability grouping and differentiated instruction can be viewed as complementary.

The real problem is when in-class differentiation is seen as a complete solution that precludes any need for ability grouping, acceleration, etcetera. That's the false utopian myth.

Exactly, Bostonian and 22B.

Synthesis of those ideas brings me to this tip:

* don't view acceleration, differentiation, or enrichment as "or" items-- but as "and/or" ones. Different children may need radically different strategies, and even the same child might need a different mixture of those things for different subjects, or for different points along their developmental arc.

I also thought of another one:

* Because gifted children are not "like children ___ years older" than themselves, nor are they like children their own ages, they are following an idiosyncratic arc of development-- NO single strategy is likely to work perfectly-- or, in some instances, for long-- but sometimes the goal is to improve the child's circumstances, not to "perfect" them.

Just because a gifted student is placed in the highest level group in their class (or even for their grade) doesn't mean that level is high enough for that student.

I agree with what everyone has said about differentiation - it doesn't truly exist for most of us and what little the teachers might do is not nearly enough. It is not the be all-end all solution. The same goes for gifted pull-outs. A gifted child is gifted all day, every day not just when they are allowed to do differentiated work or during their pull out.

I also agree with the statements that gifted students differ from the other student population in that they pick up on concepts quicker and they don't need to be subjected to mundane repetition.

I like this one from HK -


You can't spot a gifted child by their ambition to please and great grades. They might not be the student considered "teacher's pet". They are not going to always be the ones with straight A's that turn their work in on time and then ask what else they can do. They are not always the ones with their hand in the air trying to get picked to give the answer. Basically, what most typical public school teachers think they know about being gifted and what they think a gifted student looks like is probably completely wrong. I bet they could spot an advanced student easy enough, but not a truly gifted student. With all that said, one last tip I would have would be to educate your educators!!!!! When a person is going to school to be a teacher, whatever meager (if any) training on gifted students and gifted education they receive is not adequate.