Chapter #13:

Teaching Students with Special

Gifts and Talents

Rose Aldan

ED315-01

May 2nd

2013

BELL WORK

What is your special gift or talent?

Be ready and willing to share

• Explain the basic concepts of giftedness

• Outline effective inclusive practices for

students with special gifts and talents

• Describe appropriate classroom

adaptations for students with

special gifts and talents

Student Learning Outcome’s (SLO’s)

Warm Up

Draw and Share

What comes to mind when you hear

talented and gifted?

• Often used to refer to the heterogeneous spectrum of

students with exceptional abilities, although some

professionals restrict the use of terms such as talented and

creative, which are used to differentiate subgroups of gifted

people. (p. 407)

• Gagne (1995) described the relationship of gifts and talents in

the following way: “gifts” which are natural abilities

that the person displays, have to be developed to

become “talents”. These talents are the result of

proficiency that occurs through training

and practice.

Gifted Defined

Gifted Defined Cont.

• Federal Definition by Jacob K. Javits Gifted and Talented

Students Education Act of 1988:

Children and youth with outstanding talent perform or

show the potential for performing at remarkably high

levels of accomplishment when compared with others

of their age, experience, or environment. These

children and youth exhibit high performance

capability in intellectual, creative, and/or

artistic areas, possess an unusual leadership

capacity, or excel in specific academic fields.

Other Conceptualizations of Giftedness

Renzulli’s Three-Ring Approach

Sternberg’s Theory

Analytic Giftedness:

Ability to dissect a problem and understand its parts.

Synthetic Giftedness:

Insight, Intuitive creativity, or skill at coping with

relatively novel situations.

Practical Creativity:

Ability to apply aspects of analytical and

synthetic strengths to everyday situations.

Howard Gardner

Activity Time

Multiple Intelligence Test

Basic Concepts about Students with

Special Gifts and Talents

Misguided Beliefs

• People with special intellectual gifts are physically weak, socially

inept, narrow in interests, and prone to emotional stability or early

decline.

• Children with special gifts or talents are usually bored with school

and antagonistic towards those who are responsible for their

education.

• Students who have a true gift or talent for something will

excel without special education. They need only the

incentives and instruction that are appropriate for all students.

Public Perceptions of Giftedness

• Gifted in Movies

• Gifted in T.V. Shows

• Movies like: A Beautiful

Mind, Good will Hunting,

Little Man Tate, the Nutty

Professor or Searching for

Bobby Fischer.

• Various terms describing

children, adolescents and

even adults who are

gifted and talented are

referred to as “nerd” and

“geek”.

Media Images Technological Fields

Common Barriers

• Teachers lack knowledge

• Problems with classroom management when trying to

differentiate instruction.

• Misguided attitudes and beliefs about learning.

• Inability to modify curriculum appropriate for high-

ability students.

• The reality that differentiation is needed for an array of

students with diverse learning needs (Multiple

Intelligences).

• Obtaining and using appropriate instructional

resources.

• Lack of time to do adequate planning

• Teachers who were not taught how to

provide the type of instruction

• No support from the administration

• National Association for Gifted Children and Council for Exceptional

Children (2006) made some suggestions to prepare teachers who will

handle students who are gifted and talented:

• Ability to differentiate curriculum and instruction to meet the needs

and interests of these students, including selection of appropriate

methods materials.

• Ability to create an environment in which gifted and

talented students can feel challenged, encouraged,

and safe.

• Knowledge and skills to promote thinking skills,

develop creative problem-solving abilities of students,

and facilitate independent research.

Removing the Common Barriers

Promoting Effective Inclusive Practices for

Gifted Students

• Differentiated Programming (Instruction that matches the needs

of students and that typically does differ from the regular

education curriculum) Example: Pull-Out Program

• Continuum-of-Placement Options: (Having child spend time in

mentoring, internships, special tutorials, independent study, and

resource rooms) instead of in the general classroom.

• Programming Approaches for General Education

Settings:

Working in the Pull-Out Program or AP course

which implement acceleration, enrichment and special

grouping.

Programming approaches for general education settings

• Acceleration which refers to practice that introduces content,

concepts, and educational experiences to gifted students sooner than

for other students. (examples: early entrance to school, skipping

grades, mentorship, credit by exam, etc.)

• Enrichment which refers to techniques that provide topics, skill

development, materials, or experiences that extend the depth of

coverage beyond the typical curriculum. (example: Classroom

Strategies)

• Special grouping refers to the practice whereby gifted students of

similar ability levels or interests are grouped together for at least part

of the instructional day. (example: Cluster Grouping)

Addressing the needs of Special Populations

• Nurture student development:

-Create a supportive, caring, nurturing classroom

environment.

-Establish high expectations for all students in the general

classroom.

-Encourage students to do their best.

-Emphasize that everyone has strengths and areas needing

improvement.

-Identify areas of students interest. This effort

leads to recognition of areas where a

students finds some degree of success.

Addressing the needs of Special Populations

• Recognize hidden giftedness:

-Regularly examine the qualitative aspects of students’ performance on

academic tasks.

-Make sure that certain factors, such as a specific learning-related

problem (Memory Problems) do not mask strengths in a variety of

areas.

-Use a variety of assessment techniques for screening and eligibility

determination purposes.

-Seek parent input in student who are very shy and passive

in class activities—these students are often overlooked.

Addressing the needs of Special Populations

• Provide appropriate services:

-Consider a student’s personal style and cultural background

in the selection of various programming options—for

instance, heavy reliance on special ability group work

may not be the best first choice for some students.

-Be aware that some enrichment-related activities, while

perhaps engaging, may be in conflict with a student’s

family or personal beliefs.

Classroom adaptations for gifted students

• Creating a favorable classroom environment

• Managing & organizing effective classrooms

• Career Development

• Curricular & Instructional considerations

Activity Time (Be Creative!)

• Creating a favorable classroom environment

(Group #1/ Page 426)

• Managing & organizing effective classrooms

(Group #2/ Page 426)

• Career Development

(Group #3/ Page 430)

• Curricular & Instructional considerations

(Group #4/ Page 427)

Student Learning Outcome’s (SLO’s)

• Explain the basic concepts of giftedness

• Outline effective inclusive practices for

students with special gifts and talents

• Describe appropriate classroom

adaptations for students with

special gifts and talents

THANK YOU