Thursday, April 29, 2010

5 Ways to Differentiate

In response to Rebecca Alber’s blog in Edutopia (http://www.edutopia.org/differentiated-instruction-definition-strategies-alber) about defining differentiation, there has been some discussion about how to differentiate for GATE students.

Often when I am out working with teachers, I hear it is the GATE students they struggle with the most. Many teachers have ideas about how to meet the needs of students at the other end of the spectrum but they aren’t sure what to do with GATE students. Many teachers tell me they differentiate by having the GATE students help other students. Other teachers allow the GATE students work on more difficult material but those students must teach themselves since the teacher is busy teaching others.

To help those teachers who are wrestling with this issue and to help those parents who want more for their GATE children, I hereby offer five quick suggestions to help GATE students in the elementary school classroom. My hope is that every day every student will be given the chance to move forward on his or her own learning journey. GATE students need opportunities to learn, just like other students.

1.Curriculum compacting. This concept is simple. Give the posttest for a unit before you teach the topic. Maybe you only give it to five students whom you suspect already know the material or maybe you give it to the whole class. If any student scores 90% or above on the post-test before you have even taught the material, that student already knows it and can “pass out” of that unit and work on material that is more meaningful to them. (See suggestions below for what that might entail.)

2.Writer’s Workshop. I thought word about Writer’s Workshop had spread and everyone was using this for his or her writing program but I have recently learned that is not the case. Many schools are still using formulaic writing frames in which there is little room for a gifted student to go beyond the boundaries of the assignment or let their imagination soar. Writer’s Workshop allows students to work at their own pace and on material of their own choosing. Students can often choose what kind of text to write and how to put their piece together. Teachers conference with students individually about their writing. In this way, the individual needs of gifted students can easily be met. Perhaps one student is working on using quotation marks while others in her class are still working on periods. Or perhaps she has a great idea for a poem even though most of her classmates are writing narratives. There is room for these variations in Writer’s Workshop. If you have not yet read a book about writing by Lucy Calkins or attended the Teacher’s College Reading and Writing Project summer courses, do so!

3.Math binders. Math seems to be the subject that is the hardest for teachers to differentiate. It may be that a student’s strength in math is often very visible. They can compute faster than anyone in the class and with bigger numbers too. Teachers then feel a pressing need to provide work at the appropriate level. In my classroom I met this need by keeping a math binder for every student. Inside that binder was work appropriate to their level. Students could reach for their binders any time they were done with other work or needed different work from the rest of the class. (These were also great for substitute days too – everyone just worked in his or her math binder, no prep required!) . I filled the binders with work as I came across it. Maybe we didn’t get to spend enough time on measuring. Then I would put some extra work in everyone’s math binder. Maybe Josh is really struggling with his addition facts. Then I would put some of that work in his binder alone. Perhaps Rose really enjoyed the 100s chart puzzles we did. I would xerox a few extra and stick those in her math binder. Sometimes students would ask me, “Can I have some work on division? My big brother is doing it and I want to do some too.” That would go in their binder as well. Each student then had a personalized collection of math materials at their disposal. At the end of the school year, I would send these binders home. Parents were thrilled to have some summer work for their children that was “just right” for them as opposed to a workbook they might buy.



4.Choice. Provide choice within units of study such as individual research projects or choices about products students will use to show what they have learned. This is a place where gifted students can soar. We have all seen those classrooms where there are 22 clouds on the wall and each one has a poem about a cloud on it that starts exactly the same way. Let’s shake it up some more and challenge the students to bring themselves to the assignments! What about a research project into the different types of clouds? Or a month’s log about the weather and a discussion about what this might mean for this year’s peaches? How about an interview with a meteorologist and a report back to the class about their job. Gifted students love the depth and complexity of these kinds of assignments. Teachers can control the choices by offering just a few for students to choose from or they can let students write a contract about what they want to do. Teacher and student then sign this before the student takes off. All of this work can be displayed around the classroom in a poster, photographs, a Powerpoint, lyrics to a song, or an essay. It will be so much more interesting to view than 22 cloud poems.


5.Computers. OK, I must admit that I am not a big proponent of computers for young children. However, that they can be a great differentiation tool. Programs such as Renzulli Learning and Stanford’s EPGY program are specifically designed for gifted learners. They can be used by students on their own to learn about things at his or her level, at his or her own pace. Renzulli Learning works to pinpoint a student’s areas of interest and then provides activities related to those interests. Stanford’s EPGY program also offers courses in a variety of different subjects. I have used it with students mostly for the math portion. I wouldn’t park a student on the computer for large portions of the day but I do think for a small amount of time each week, this could be an area where a student really feels like they are working on something that is meaningful to them.

Math binders, writer’s workshop, research projects, and computer programs are all things that will challenge gifted students. They are also projects that students can work on independently, with some teacher check-ins along the way. Get these things rolling in your classroom and when a student “passes out” of a unit, send them to do work in their math binder, write a story, do more research into their topic, or work on their Renzulli activities. This will keep them moving forward on their own learning journey.

See my next post for two more complex ways teachers can create a classroom that will meet the needs of ALL students!

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Why Should We Care About the Gifted Kids?

Most people would agree that all children are entitled to an opportunity to learn. What then does it mean to learn? The dictionary defines learning as “acquiring knowledge or skill.” When gifted students are sitting in a classroom being taught material that they already know can we say that they are “learning”? Aren’t they then being denied a basic right that we believe all young people are entitled to?

I have been stunned lately by the disregard for gifted students in our public schools. I hear, “But they can already pass the tests.” or “ We need to focus on the lower students to bring our test scores up.” I even heard, “Let’s just have the gifted students teach the struggling students. That will give the gifted students something to do and will bring up our test scores.” It is well known that people learn material better when they need to teach it but if our gifted students are spending their time being ignored and teaching others, when are they given the opportunity to learn? This goes beyond funding and test scores. This is a civil rights issue and it criminal to have these students sitting in classrooms day after day spending their time doing work that keeps them busy but does not contribute to their learning.

The San Bruno Park School District has budgeted over $300,000 dollars for Special Ed Funding for the 2010-2011 school year. Special Ed. Funding is federally mandated so the district must follow the guidelines and the money must be spent. Funding for gifted education is not currently federally mandated. Guess how much the San Bruno Park School District will spend on gifted education next year. The answer is $0. I do not deny that students in special ed. need special services but it neglect to have so many services for those students and none for the gifted students.

If we think about 100 as a median IQ, students who are two standard deviations below the mean (IQ of 70) are required by law to have special services. Students who are two standard deviations above the mean (IQ of 130) have no federal protection and thus have no services. If a student has an IQ of four standard deviations below the mean (IQ of 40) they would be in a special day class and it would be unlikely that they could be mainstreamed into a regular classroom. For students with an IQ of four standard deviations above the mean (IQ of 160), they are usually stuck in regular classrooms doing the same work that their classmates are doing. Or they are home schooled because parents cannot find a place that will work for them in the school system. Laws have been enacted to make sure that some students are given the opportunity to learn but they have neglected to extend that right to all students.

Underachievement is the number one problem facing gifted students and it comes from the students being denied the opportunity to learn important skills such as perseverance, study skills, and the value of practice. These skills would be learned by engaging in challenging work that is commensurate with a child’s academic needs.

The bigger issue for me is the waste of these young minds. Imagine what a gifted student could do with years of learning under their belt. If they were given the opportunity to make continuous progress in school year after year imagine what they would be capable of by the end of high school. Now imagine the opposite, what they will have gained from years of classroom experiences in which they haven’t been challenged in the least? Gifted students are going to be movers and shakers in our world. They are bright. They are intense. They are able to take many different parts of a problem and put them together in a coherent whole. Why aren’t we shaping this and giving them the tools to learn to be leaders in our world?

This week a group of gifted first graders dutifully completed the page in their math book. They had to circle whether the crayon was “next to” or “far from” the glue bottle. Then they had to circle whether the marker was “in front of” or “behind” the scissors. These are words these students learned when they were two and three years old. I don’t see how this work guides them on their educational path. I don’t see the critical thinking skills and higher order thinking that I would hope would be part of the tool box of tomorrow’s leaders.

I fear for our future. If our students, all of them, not just the gifted ones, are only being taught the most basic material and how to be experts at filling in the blanks, I don’t know how they are going to solve problems in our world that are big and messy and don’t have simple solutions like a fill-in-the-blank worksheet. As we sit and focus on test scores we are losing sight of the fact that we need to teach students to think.

Creating the internet, inventing a computer, developing a hybrid car. I can guarantee these were not things people learned how to do from a worksheet. Who knows what challenges we will face in the next thirty years as the world becomes increasingly complex but I know that I want creative, bright, resourceful people leading the way. It is essential that we fight now for all students to have the opportunity to learn so that we will have skilled leaders to guide us in the future.

Monday, April 5, 2010

Ingredients for a Great School

I know that my ideas about what one would find in a great school are not unique but I have been touring schools this year and have been so surprised to find that very few schools actually employ current methods and thinking about education. So, I hereby submit my list of ingredients for a great school. I hope my children have the opportunity to attend a school like this some day.


1. A clear mission and vision. A clear mission and vision are the steadying forces that guide a school. When a parent advocates for a special program or desired additions, the mission and vision can help a school decide whether these new additions make sense. Without them, schools try to become all things to all people and end up with frenetic programs. Be clear about what kind of school you are. If parents aren’t interested in what you offer, they will go somewhere else.

2. Faculty and staff who act with integrity. The adults in a school environment should be models for the students. It’s as simple as that.

3. Involved parents. There is such a thing as parents who are too involved. However, I have also seen the other extreme where a school has too little energy because of the lack of parental involvement. Parents are needed to help in classrooms, plan science fairs, bring in speakers, and create community events like the pancake breakfast. In this tough economic time, parents are also essential for raising money to bring programs to the school.

4. Respect for students. OK, doesn’t this seem obvious in a school? Recently a first grade boy asked the principal of his school for some new balls to use at recess. The balls were promised. Two weeks later the little boy still skipped to school each day, eager to see the new balls but they had yet to arrive. Adults who work in schools must always remember that they are creating an environment for little people. Things that may not matter much to us mean a lot to them. A gentle tone of voice, promises kept, a celebration of student work on the walls, all of these things mean a lot to a young child. They want to be proud of their school. They want to feel like they belong. They want to feel like they matter.

5. Teachers who are learners. Colleagues who want to learn from each other. I swim on an adult swim team. I am quite good at all the strokes but my backstroke has never been fast. I recently took a swim lesson to improve my technique. It was so hard for me to do all the things the coach was asking me to do. It was a great experience as a teacher, however, to be in that position again and realize how it feel to my students day after day as they try to do things that are challenging for them. In addition to empathy for our students’ experiences, teaching is a profession that is always changing. Teachers must continue learning to do their best to meet the needs of their students.

6. High expectations for students. Jaime Escalante and Erin Gruwell have proven that if we hold high expectations for students, they can do more than we have dreamed. Maintaining low expectations only ensures that our students achieve at a low level. Even high test scores do not mean that we can now sit back and relax. There is so much more to learn than those items that can be tested. We must expect that each student will move forward on their educational journey every day and we must create the conditions for that to happen.

7. Small enough class sizes that each teacher can truly know their students. A teacher cannot teach students whom they do not know. They need to know what their students already know about a topic under discussion. They need to know their students’ motivations for learning. They need to know a bit about what their students do outside of school. They will bring all this information to bear as they design the most effective lessons for these students. Without this information, the teaching will be flat and less effective.

8. Curriculum based on essential questions. If you haven’t yet read the work of Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe, do so. In their book, Understanding by Design, they lay out the simple, yet often ignored idea that teachers should be clear what they want their students to learn and work towards that end. They state that we cannot teach every fact or detail so we must teach larger enduring understandings which students can them use as a framework for understanding new ideas.


9. Creativity. In A Whole New Mind, Daniel Pink advocates that we emphasize creativity in our classrooms. In the near future, jobs such as computer programming will be shipped overseas. What will be needed are people who can solve problems, work well with other people, and design new products and processes. We need to start teaching our students these skills when they are young. Everyone can fill in the blanks on a worksheet. Learning to use our creativity to solve problems takes more practice.

10. Differentiation. The best classrooms are those in which teachers are able to differentiate to meet the needs of different students all within the same room. It takes experience to do this. Without it, a group of students is always left out. This group is often the gifted students.

11. Something extra. Every school should offer something extra to its students. It could be a focus on science or a second language or a large arts program. It could be a focus on learning about the world or a focus on social and emotional learning. These things do not necessarily cost a lot of extra money but they do make the families feel like there is something special about their school. It helps families feel like there is a reason to be at that school rather than the school down the street.

12. Opportunities for inspiration. Authors who visit and share about their work. Conservationists who talk about their work with orangutans. Artists who show us how they create their paintings. A book arts class led by someone from the San Francisco Center for the book. A field trip to help at a shelter. All of these out-of-the-ordinary events feed the mind of a young child and open them up to possibilities. Last year my class was able to hear a conservationist speak. This inspired a group to have a bake sale to raise money for the orangutans. They decided this all on their own and with a little adult guidance, were able to pull it all off. We never know how these “extras” will resonate with the students. They might be the seed that blooms into something great later on.

13. Space. Children need lots of room to run and play. State regulations require a certain amount of outdoor space for children to play. School-imposed rules about the space, however, often leave children with little else to do than sit quietly. In addition to needing space to unleash one’s wiggles, children also need natural spaces. In Last Child in the Woods, Richard Love tells us about how children have lost their connection to nature and it is actually leading to increased levels of ADHD and depression. One school in Palo Alto has a whole garden and a farm. They are growing vegetables and welcoming bees into their hive. They have two goats, chickens, two sheep, and a duck. And yes, the rest of the playground is a blacktop playground but a corner of it has been cut out for the farm. At that school there is lots of room to connect with nature and lots of room for wiggling.