Communication In Math Class

I once had a parent very upset with me because I gave her son a math assignment to do with a partner.  “Are you trying to teach my child math or are you trying to teach them social skills?”  Well, both.

Times have changed since I was a student and since many of today’s parents were students.  It is true that my middle school math class was silent.  No talking was allowed.  We all sat in rows alphabetically.  I sat behind the same boy for all of 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th grade.  I never talked to him or any other students in class nor did we ever share our ideas in front of the class.

If one talks to adult mathematicians, however, it is clear that the work of a mathematician is social work.  Solutions are rarely arrived at on one’s own.  It is through collaboration and discussion that solutions are found. 

The new Common Core Math Practices reflect this.  One of them reads: “Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.”  Students need to learn to clearly explain their thinking to others.  They also need to learn how to disagree with and question the work of others in a tactful manner.

My husband and I recently remodeled our 50 year-old kitchen.  He was very invested in the color of the new floor.  He really wanted a deep reddish color.  I wasn’t focused on the floor at all and was ready to go with the first color suggested by the contractor.  I was focused on the backsplash and what kind of tiles to use there.   My husband wanted the backsplash to be plain white.  By bringing our two different perspectives together, we were able to create a finished product that is more complete and more elegant than we could have done on our own. 

I know you have had this experience too.  You worked on a work project, a house project, or had a discussion with someone.  By bringing your ideas together the final result was much stronger.

A math problem flows in the same way.  Yes, we can often solve a problem by using algorithms to get the solution but another person might have a more elegant way of getting to the solution.  Their path might take into account patterns or ways of grouping numbers thus making the problem so much simpler than you originally thought.  They might have attended to a piece of the problem that you hadn’t considered carefully enough, making the final solution more complete.  In addition, the sharing of ideas makes each person reconsider their perspective in light of new information and either reject their first idea or add to it.

By talking about math with our children, we can also help them see new connections in math and think about concepts in ways that may be different or new to our children.  We also help them learn that math is part of the real world.  It is not just something that is done inside of a math classroom.  We can work together on sudoku puzzles on an airplane or play Blockus together in the evening.  It is more enjoyable if it is shared.

It is funny to think back to my middle school math classroom.  In addition to regular math class, I was on the math team.  The same teacher practiced with us after school, solving complex problems together as a group but during our regular class time we were in those rows.  Why did the teacher teach the two groups so differently?  The implication was that kids who were good at math should talk about it and those who weren’t should listen quietly to the teacher’s ideas.  Maybe those of us on the team got better at math BECAUSE we talked about it after school.

Common Core directs all students today to be doing math like mathematicians.  We want them to talk and share ideas and learn from each other.  Not only will this prepare them better mathematically but it will make math feel like math is a part of their whole lives, not just their school lives.

Building a Strong Mathematical Foundation

Before the days of GPS systems if you needed to go somewhere in a new town you would get out a map and take a look at what route you might take.  You might decide to take the freeway.  You would do that route for many days since that was the one route you had learned and each day it would get a bit more comfortable and familiar. 

After many days of following the same route, you would move to an abstract level.  You wouldn’t need to consult your map anymore to double check the name of the exit.  You would be sure to turn right at the T in the road rather than turning left.  If you wanted to stop and get a coffee on your way, you would know how to alter your route slightly to hit the Starbucks.   If you were on the freeway one day and there was a traffic jam, chances are you would have a good sense of how to exit and take some side streets because you had studied the map and had an idea of the surrounding area. 

Building a strong mathematical foundation with students proceeds in much the same way.  We want them to move from a concrete understanding to an abstract understanding but this process takes time.  We start with the students using tools and building models to develop their understanding of a concept just as you used a map to plan your route.  Once students develop some comfort and skill at this concrete level we can start moving them to more and more abstract levels of understanding just as you did when you were able to alter your route to grab a coffee on your way.

We want students to have a good sense of the surrounding area.  If they get stuck in one place, they should have ideas for how to go in another direction.  The new math practices call for students to “Use appropriate tools strategically.”  In order to chose a route and decide upon the best course of action, students need to have options available.  When we were in school most of us only learned one method for solving a problem.  Teachers have learned, however, that we do students a disservice when we only teach them one method of solving a problem.  If they get stuck or want to check their answer, they don’t have any other tools to choose from.

Additionally, teaching multiple strategies helps to meet the diverse needs of a class.  At any point in time students will be spread out along the continuum of understanding of a concept from concrete to abstract.  All students can be working on the same problem but they might not all be working on it in the same way, at the same level.  Students can learn from their classmates’ methods and ideas about solutions.  The whole group grows mathematically stronger as their consider the problem from different perspectives.

Recently I have been studying some of the math programs that are available for elementary schools.  Though Common Core standards are very clear about having students work at a concrete level before moving on to an abstract level, most of the math programs are not aligned with this thinking.

One program I reviewed had pictures of a few models but then when it came time for students to work independently, all of the work was abstract.  It takes time for students to move from a concrete to an abstract understanding.  Considering the example of the route in a new town again, you might have needed to consult your map each day for a few days before you could travel the route unassisted.  You traveled the route over and over and soon you became very comfortable with it.  We cannot just show students a few pictures of objects and assume that they are now ready for abstract thought about the topic.  Students need to build, model, and discuss their ideas.  They need to consider other students’ models of the concept and look at theirs in light of the new information.  The only way that students can build a strong foundation is to move through these steps from a concrete to an abstract understanding of the concept.

I see too many fifth graders who tell me they hate math.  It doesn’t make sense they say.  It isn’t interesting to them.  When I talk with them further I realize that most of these students never had an opportunity to explore concepts at the concrete level.  They were given algorithms and told to memorize them.  They were then able to apply those algorithms if the new problems looked just like the problems they had practiced.  If they hit a problem that looked slightly different or asked them to use their skill in a new way, they did not have enough of a mental image of the concept to be able to choose a new route.

Teaching students multiple ways to solve problems gives them a stronger mathematical foundation.  They can consider new problems from different perspectives and then choose the best method for solving them. They are flexible thinkers who can try new approaches when the one they are using doesn’t work out.  Teaching in this way also helps to meet the diverse needs of a group of students.  This is one of the strengths of the new Common Core Standards.

Culminations

Welcome back to school everyone! I am sure you have been busy preparing your children for school or preparing your classroom to receive new students. Bulletin boards are hung, curriculum has been planned, and nametags have been written. As part of your beginning of year preparations, I urge you to take some time to think about how you will celebrate learning with your students and families this year.

When I first started teaching, I invited parents into the classroom for everything. Every month we held an author’s tea and invited parents in to hear the writing we had done. Every time we ended a big project, we put on a show for parents. One year we studied the Olympics so we had a day when we dressed as the ancient Greeks did and held a party with traditional foods. Another year the students had learned some new dances in PE so we invited parents to picnic on the lawn with us and watch the new dances. Another time we had Book Character Day. Students dressed as characters from their favorite books. Parents came and read stories with us and we all tried to guess who the visiting characters were. I still have fond memories of those events. Parents loved them and students enjoyed them. It gave the students something to work for and livened up our routine.

It was, however, a lot of work. I began to wonder if all the time we spent preparing for these special activities might not be better spent on learning new things. When we practiced our dances for the 50th time, we weren’t learning anything new. We were perfecting our dances but we weren’t learning new steps. When we practiced performing our poems over and over for the author’s tea, we weren’t learning to love the language more or learning new vocabulary. We were learning to project and enunciate but was that worth the amount of time we put into it month after month?

In recent years I have done fewer and fewer big class events, preferring instead to push the student’s minds in new directions rather than perfecting known routes. I often found, also, that parents often didn’t see the genius that went into a story that was being shared or the amount of effort it took to get that sculpture to stand up. Those of us in the class knew because we had been there for the experience. It was more difficult to share this with parents who hadn’t been on the journey with us every step of the way.

Now that I am a parent, however, I see the deep pride on my child’s face as he shows me around his classroom during his school’s Open House. I see the excitement in his body as he prepares for his class’ Irish Dancing Performance for St. Patrick’s Day. I notice the sense of closure in the classroom as everyone closes up a chapter of learning and prepares to open another.

I sit in the audience and think, “What a wonderful teacher to bring this special experience to my child. Look at my child up there with all of his classmates. He will remember this.” I feel good that he has been part of this.

So, as you begin your year, be sure to plan in time for culminations. Celebrate all of the work you and your students have done together. Share your accomplishments with the parents, even if they don’t see the details that are meaningful to you. One teacher I know planned a “moon party” with her students complete with hot chocolate and telescopes to culminate her class’ astronomy work. Another teacher invited parents to attend the burial of a chicken her class had mummified as part of their study of Ancient Egypt. Another class dressed in period costume as they shared the work they did as part of their study of the turn of the century. How will your class celebrate their learning this year?

Differentiation in First Grade Math

Sometimes it is hard for teachers to know exactly how to differentiate in a classroom. This post explains what a series of differentiated lessons in math looked like in a first grade classroom.

I have been working with a group of gifted first graders for a few months now. From some early assessments, their teacher and I knew that they were working at a higher level than their classmates. We decided to put seven students in my group. The teacher took the rest of the students. The teacher’s group has been walking through the textbook. In this particular unit on addition, they are solving problems with regrouping such as 14 + 7= __________.

My group of students needed more challenge but I didn’t want them to stray too far from what the topic their classmates were studying so we started by solving regrouping problems with larger numbers such as 48+37= __________. We used place value mats and base ten blocks to model each problem. We have been doing lots of trading this year (trading pennies for dimes, dimes for dollars, etc.) so once I reminded them that they would need to trade, it was easy for them to solve these problems which all involved trading units for longs (ones for tens).

The next day the teacher’s group practiced different strategies for solving their two digit plus single digit problems (counting on and building with blocks).

My group was already proficient at counting on and building the easier problems with blocks. The next challenge for them was to solve problems that involved two trades – units for longs and longs for flats. These would be problems such as 129 + 83= ______________.

Before we started, however, I wanted to check that the students knew how to build the larger numbers. The students were confident using the base ten blocks to build numbers up to 100. With larger numbers, their understanding was not as solid. We practiced building and writing numbers such as 110. Many students built it correctly but then wrote it as 10010. Once they saw that their model only used three columns, they realized that the numbers they wrote down needed to correlate to their place value mat. They had one flat in the hundreds column, one long in the tens column and zero units in the ones column. They could then record this as 110. Next they were challenged to build 203. Some built 230 and some built 203. We continued to practice until they could build numbers up to 999 with accuracy. They were then able to solve the more complex addition problems confidently.

Throughout this process, one student correctly built and recorded each number without fail. I made a note of this student’s solid understanding of place value. This would help me plan next steps for him in math.

The next day the teacher’s group continued to need more practice with regrouping. It was clear, however, that my group did not need this practice. What they did need was to solidify their understanding of the place value of larger numbers that they had been building over the past few days.

I decided to have them work on counting strips. If it had been the beginning of first grade, I would have had them start their counting strips at number 1. Since we had been working on numbers over 100, I had them start with 100. They placed one flat on their place value mats. Then they added a unit and recorded 101. They then added another unit and recorded 102, etc. Soon the students were able to work abstractly and did not need the blocks to represent every number but used them at tricky times such as going from 149 to 150.

For the past few days, the class had been benefitting from the two math groups. At this point, it became clear that we needed to split yet a little bit more to meet everyone’s needs. The one child who had a solid understanding of place value from the start did not need to do a counting strip in base ten. I did, however, want to keep him on the same topic so I started him on a counting strip in base five. This would test his understanding of place value and strengthen it. He was thrilled to be working on something at his level and actually went home and asked him mom if he could do counting strips in bases two and three as well!

The day we started working on counting strips, the students in my group were beaming. They were so happy to be working on work that was just at the right level for them. They asked me why the one child was working in base five and the others were working in base ten. I told them that everyone’s brain was getting what it needed. They accepted this idea and continued to work quietly and happily for the rest of the period.

While this level of differentiation was achieved by having two teachers in the classroom, it could have easily been done by one teacher. One group could have worked with the teacher while the other group did some independent work (Marcy Cook math tiles, playing math games, reading, etc.). The teacher could then switch groups.

The biggest hurdle to differentiation is realizing that different students have different needs. Once a teacher acknowledges this, meeting those needs does not mean creating twenty different lessons. It does mean having two or three different levels of a topic available to meet the range of needs in the class.

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!

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.

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.

Training the Teachers

This month the principals of the seven schools in the San Bruno Park School District were all offered an opportunity to have training for their teachers in meeting the needs of gifted students. The training would be funded through a grant so would come at no cost to the schools. Not one principal jumped at the chance.

The same offer was going to be made to the principals in the Burlingame School District but no one there responded to letters and e-mails.

A principal of a school near Menlo Park attended a meeting with the parent of a highly gifted child. The principal told the parent that the teacher had direct orders from him not to modify the curriculum one bit for the child.



A traditional career path for a principal is a few years in the classroom, then an administrative position, then perhaps a move to a supervisory role (such as assistant superintendent) at the district office. When we consider that 61% of public school teachers have had no training in gifted education, then it comes as no surprise that principals are putting up barriers for gifted students.

It is very clear that teacher education programs need to include classes in gifted education. I have heard so often that we need to train teachers to work with inner city kids, not with “easy” gifted students. What this does not take into account is that there are gifted students in every school. Joy Oatman from Tilman High School in Chicago Illinois states, “People need to know that there are children with talents here. People who live in the inner city in the barrio, or on the reservation need to know that their children are smart. There’s too much raw ability going through the cracks. If a child we might lose had the ability to cure cancer but ends up joining a gang or dealing dope, that’s a double loss to the country.”

Yes, teacher education programs need to change but one area that we can start to change right now is to educate our teachers who are already in the classrooms. The parents of gifted students can do this. All parents of gifted students need to learn to advocate for their children. We need to start teaching the teachers that the needs of gifted students are different. We need to ask for enrichment programs, depth and complexity in the curriculum, and practice with critical thinking skills. We need to go into the classrooms and share our talents with the students and through our modeling, hopefully change the thinking of the teachers, a little bit at a time.

I recently suggested the idea of “compacting” to a teacher. This is a method often used to meet the needs of gifted students. She hadn’t heard of the term so I explained that she would give the post-test to her class before teaching the next unit. If any of her students scored 90% or above on the test, then they already know those skills and should be given the opportunity to move ahead with their learning rather than required to do the work as outlined in the textbook. She followed through with my idea and was surprised to realize that half of her class scored 90% or above on the post test before she even taught the unit. Wow!

What would it be like if we changed our goal from “high test scores for all” to “continuous academic progress for each student”? Many of our students are already performing well on the tests. How can we really say our students are “learning” when they are just doing work that they already know how to do? What could they do if we made sure that each day they learned something?

The San Bruno Park School District spends a huge portion of its budget on special education funding and roughly 1/15 of that amount on education for gifted students. Is it fair that all of these resources are being poured into some populations of students and not others? Let’s make “continuous academic progress for each student” our mantra and work together with our teachers make this a reality for our students. A few years down the line, this may pay off as one of these teachers becomes a principal and searches out programs for the gifted students, as well as the other populations in his/her school.

Underachievement

I recently had the pleasure of attending a few workshops taught by Sally Reis from the University of Connecticut. She was in California for the CAG conference and I went to every session she offered!

My favorite was a session on underachievement. Dr. Reis feels that this is the biggest problem facing gifted students and it is on the increase today because bright kids are not learning to put forth effort. I can only infer that this is due to the unchallenging curriculum offered in schools due to NCLB.

Dr. Reis encounters many gifted college students who have not yet learned to study because they have cruised through school. They have gotten 100% on every test with minimal effort. Due to classrooms aimed at students who are struggling, gifted students have missed out on learning study habits as well as things such as perseverance and resilience. She told the story of a pharmacology student who got an “F” on his first test, decided he was stupid, and was then ready to drop out of school. What he needed instead, however, was to learn how to study to improve his grades. It was the first time he had received less than an “A” and he just didn’t know what to do, attributing his difficulty to his intelligence rather than a missing skill.

I was grinning broadly as Dr. Reis said that activities outside of school teach that effort matters. For years, families of second graders have come to me frustrated because their children are having a hard year. These young children often learned to read early and so kindergarten and first grade, where much of the focus is on reading, came easily to them. It is not until second grade that they realize they really need to work in school and this feels hard to them. At this point I like to recommend piano lessons or sports activities so that students can learn the value of practice. We also need to help parents understand that it is actually a blessing if schoolwork feels hard (within reason). It means that their children are being challenged and are learning life skills in the process.

Dr. Reis’ definition of “achievement” is “the act of accomplishing something of merit by means of effort, skill or perseverance.” If we use this definition, many students still have not yet accomplished anything by second grade. Though they may have gotten good grades, they have not yet accomplished anything.

Some of the most successful students I have known have been gifted students with learning differences. They have had to work hard from the beginning. They are bright but they also know how to study and they know how to put forth effort, often producing great results.

In her research on underachievement Dr. Reis found that “busier adolescents underachieve less” and that “students with regular patterns of work in music or athletics develop positive self-regulation strategies in academics.” She also found that underachievement can be reversed in 70-80% of kids. Two important factors in this reversal are parental interaction and involvement in enrichment opportunities.

So, how can we use this information to guide younger students? Acceptance and rejection letters were sent out by Nueva School last week. I have received many phone calls from parents whose children did not get in. They are at a loss as to how to proceed. With all of California’s budget cuts, GATE programs have been eliminated in many districts in the Bay Area, leaving parents of gifted students with few options. Parents feel a responsibility towards their gifted children but feel frustrated about how to meet their needs in this economy. Listening to Dr. Reis made me realize that there is one big thing we can do. We can involve our children in learning the importance of effort and perseverance. Sign your child up for music lessons or a sports team. No one gets to be an expert piano player by just sitting down at the piano. They need to put in the work to improve. This is an important lesson we can give our children at this time.




For more on this topic read, Work Left Undone: Choices and Compromises of Talented Women by Sally Reis.

The Power of Biography

Every year in February I read my students the story of Ruby Bridges. She was a first grader in New Orleans, LA. She was the first African American student to go to a white school in the American South.

This is always one of my most powerful lessons of the year. The students sit with rapt attention as I read The Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles and George Ford. They are first struck by the fact that this is a first grader who is making a HUGE difference in history. Secondly, they are struck by the fact that she doesn’t get mad at the protestors. The images in the book show angry people waving signs and shaking fists at her as she heads to school. Her family is very religious and not only does she not get mad at the protestors, she prays for them. The third thing that strikes the students is the fact that the white families were so opposed to integration that they didn’t send their children to school for quite a while. My students cannot imagine a reason their parents wouldn’t want them to go to school. We discuss what their parents might have done and what they would have felt if they were some of those students. They wonder what it must have felt like to be Ruby Bridges at school, alone with your teacher, for weeks on end.

The last question they always ask me is, “Does anything like this happen today?” When I share with them that it does they are fascinated. Where? Who?

I love the story of Ruby Bridges because it brings up the difficult topic of racism in a kid-friendly way. I also love the power it gives to the children. “Wow! If Ruby Bridges could do something like that, what could I do?” They find inspiration in Ruby’s courage in facing so many people who were opposed to what she was doing.

Gifted students think differently from others. They will come up with original ideas and will face opposition. Hopefully with a little inspiration from Ruby, they will stand by their ideas and confidently share them.

I was reading recently about Leta P. Hollingworth. When she started a program for gifted students in 1935 in New York City, she had biographies as a big piece of the curriculum. She felt it was important for the students to hear stories of the accomplishments and life paths of others so they could start to envision their own paths. She also wanted the students to develop attitudes they would need throughout life. I think perseverance and courage are two attitudes that will serve gifted students well.

My reading about Leta P. Hollingworth reaffirmed my desire to have a yearly homage to Ruby Bridges. It also made me want to find other kid-friendly biographies that young gifted students will find to be inspirational. I have found Teammates by Peter Golenbock, which is the story of Jackie Robinson’s friendship with Pee Wee Reese. I also really enjoy The Genius of Leonardo by Guido Visconti and Bimba Landmann. This book is full of descriptions and pictures of Leonardo’s inventions and has a fun subplot about his assistant which students always enjoy. I also have been keeping my eyes open for biographies of Galileo. He was another gifted individual who faced opposition to his ideas. I loved reading a grown-up biography of him but haven’t yet found one for kids that is very accessible. Please share biographies you have found to be accessible and have found to have an impact on young students.

By reading biographies we all see the paths others have followed and begin to imagine our own paths. We learn that there are challenges and the road is not always smooth. We learn new strategies for approaching difficulties. We learn that people can do great things. These are all important life skills. It is worth taking time to share these ideas with our students.

Stories of Life With Gifted Children

Over the years, I have heard so many fun stories from families about the students that I teach. Of course, all children do funny things. Gifted students, however, often take things in a different direction than anyone would have expected or they have that unique blend of their physical age combined with their different mental age, which can lead to some comedic happenings.

I will never forget Back To School Night during my first year teaching at a school for gifted students. I was teaching first grade. A parent raised his hand and asked what to do when his daughter opens the refrigerator to get a glass of milk and then becomes so engrossed in reading her book that she just stands there with the fridge door open, reading, oblivious to the cold or her thirst. Her dad had recently found her like this and estimated she had been standing there for twenty minutes. The whole parent group burst out laughing.

I also remember talking with the parents of three highly gifted students. They were amazed at how other parents could take their children out in strollers. They said from the moment their children could walk, they didn’t want to be in a stroller. A stroller limits a child’s explorations. Their children wanted to be out and about, interacting with the world. My son was exactly the same way. It was so fun for all of us to find each other and feel connected over this fact because we had all often felt so different from the stroller-toting families we saw around us.

It is a delight for parents of gifted students to connect with other parents of gifted students and hear their stories. For this reason, I greatly enjoyed reading Karen L. J. Isaacson’s book about her gifted family. It is called, Raisin’ Brains, Surviving My Smart Family.

Isaacson has a lot of stories to share. She is a parent of five gifted children and comes from a family of talented individuals. Her book is easy to read and entertaining. Sometimes she gets so involved in sharing stories that her chapters lose their cohesiveness but readers will enjoy the stories, even without this organization.

I appreciated hearing about the experiences of Ms. Isaacson’s children in school. It sounds like their school does have a gifted and talented program but it is also clear she has encountered a few teachers who aren’t quite sure what to do with her children academically. Upon starting kindergarten, her oldest was already reading college textbooks. His teacher, however, wouldn’t let him work on anything more challenging than ABC’s claiming, “We need to make sure he understands his letters first.” Oh, yes, I think every parent of a gifted child has met a teacher of this type. I have met many of them through my work coaching teachers to work more effectively with gifted students. As a teacher, I must say in their defense that some teachers just haven’t met many gifted students and don’t know what to do with them. What these students need, to begin with, is a teacher with an open mind and a learning attitude. Once teachers have that mindset, gifted students will benefit immensely.

I also enjoyed Ms. Isaacson’s fresh, laid-back attitude. So many parents of gifted students are pushing the students to perform at the top of their class, participate in summer programs for high-ability children, and take classes on a whole range of topics. It was interesting to read about a family that was not engaged in this frenzy. While Ms Isaacson clearly sees her children’s various abilities, she mostly lets them travel their own paths. She is there as a supportive parent but is not engaged in directing their every move and ensuring that each activity provides academic stimulation.

I hope other books of this type will follow. All of us parenting and/or teaching gifted students will enjoy hearing the stories of others and feeling the warmth of connection that comes from knowing that we are not alone on our journey.

Differentiation

When I first started teaching, it was all I could do to figure out what systems I wanted to use. Was I going to give homework every night or give one large packet on Monday and have it due Friday? How would we figure out who would get to take out the two playground balls each recess? How would I communicate with parents in my class, many of whom didn’t speak English?

I was overwhelmed with the possibilities and drove my students a bit batty with my constantly changing systems. I had been trained to look at each child as an individual and meet his/her specific needs. Yeah, it all sounded good but in the moment I was not thinking about how to meet the needs of each child in my classroom. A colleague told me it takes three years to get settled and I found that to be just about right.

By the end of my first three years, I was feeling settled within my classroom. I had systems that worked for my students, their parents and me. I was feeling confident and I was repeating some lessons, doing them better each time. It was then that I began to think about differentiation and how to meet the multiple and varied needs of all those little people sitting in front of me.

Whenever you feel ready to start differentiating in your classroom, I highly recommend reading, Strategies for Differentiating Instruction by Julia L. Roberts and Tracy F. Inman.

The first few chapters of this book provide a great explanation for why teachers should differentiate. The authors draw examples from every day life and make a compelling case for changing our teaching to meet each child’s needs.

The authors then offer some practical ways to differentiate. I particularly enjoyed their chapter on Venn Diagrams. This is a tool that most teachers already use. A little bit of tweaking can make it a tool that can challenge higher level thinkers while still including students who are at the beginning stages of learning a concept. All students can be involved in studying the same subject, but in a different way. Students can then learn from each other as they share their work. All students will be engaged in the work they are doing yet all will still feel part of the larger lesson.

I was also very glad to see their chapter on Bloom’s Taxonomy. Since national testing currently focuses on the first few levels of the taxonomy, teachers are often unfamiliar with how to design experiences that address the higher levels. Roberts and Inman offer many examples that will help teachers become more familiar with this tool.

Using Venn Diagrams is another way to engage all students in the same topic yet provide more depth and complexity for those who are ready for it. While employing differentiation, I have always worked to keep my students engaged in the same topics at the same time. I think it builds community because students have common ground to share. I recently visited a Montessori classroom and I asked about this sense of community. Since the model of Montessori is that all students work at their own pace, often on different topics, I wondered how the teachers built community. The teacher I spoke with said that even in their classrooms, the students come together a few times a day to engage in a group activity or experience. This builds community, trust, and energy in the classroom.

Of course, when one has different students engaging in different activities, the real question is assessment. How does one compare apples to oranges? Roberts and Inman see rubrics as the solution and they provide many samples in their book for teachers to use. One school I was at used narrative reports in place of report cards. This allowed the teacher to write about each child’s work, their strengths, and their challenges without needing to compare apples to apples. It is time consuming but maybe if we are differentiating to the fullest, then the students’ report cards should be differentiated as well.

Throughout the book the Roberts and Inman repeat that a teacher’s expectations should be continuous progress for all students. I would add “in all areas” to that as well. As a teacher I have always felt that “continuous progress” is a goal for me too. This book provides many ideas that will help teachers in their journey to continually improve their practice.

Searching for Mentors

Recently I have been feeling let down by the Baby Boomer Generation.  They were there to help me learn to tie my shoes, write an essay in French, manage my checkbook, and apply for a job.  Teachers, parents, my friend’s parents.  It felt as if there were a net of adults helping me along my way.  But as I near forty, it seems as if all that guidance has fallen by the wayside. 

PROFESSIONAL

I recently finished Carol Dweck’s Mindset.   Wow.  She describes some bosses and managers who are so inspirational.  They surround themselves with the best talent they can find and hope that they, along with the employees will all learn in this type of environment.  They understand that mistakes are part of the learning process and encourage innovation.  She describes managers with a fixed mindset on the other hand, who surround themselves with incompetent people and squeeze out those who really know their stuff.   The focus of those with a fixed mindset is on preserving their own superiority.  This is often accomplished by putting others down. 

A person in a management position has such potential to be a positive influence in people’s lives.  They can encourage, inspire, and promote and atmosphere of learning.  They mentor others and help them reach their professional goals.  I want to work for someone who encourages me to do my best and appreciates my efforts to extend myself in new ways.  It saddens me that I haven’t yet had the opportunity to work for someone like this.

I do have one professional mentor who has been a guide for many years.  She shows me possible next steps, shares her wisdom and experiences.  She has been a guide from my early years in my career through to present day where I am now looking to change directions and move onto a different arena in the field of education.  I am grateful to her guidance.  She never was my manager but is a more experienced teacher who has been willing to share her experiences with me.

PARENTING

Another area where I would like some guidance is in the arena of parenting.  I would love to hear from some old hands about their parenting experiences.  My parents are strangely silent on the issue.  I think they don’t want to influence me but truly, I’d rather hear 100 stories and draw ideas from them, than none.  Most people I know are in the throes of parenting young children but it would be great to hear from those with more perspective.  We have the close-up right now and I’m sure there are pieces we cannot see because we are so close to it.

MARRIAGE

How about the issue of marriage?  As I look around I only find one Baby Boomer I know who is still married.  A little guidance here, please.  Modeling?  Some advice?  None.

Most people I know of my generation are married.  I think getting married was a leap of faith on our parts.  We have a desire to not end up divorced like our parents.  But it will be challenging to maintain strong relationships without models of how to do so.  I have learned a great deal about the emotional path of families involved in divorce.  I’d rather be learning about the path of families that stay together.

LOOKING AROUND FOR MENTORS

How about some guides from the public sphere?  The Obamas hold promise. Michelle is well educated, raising young children, and reaching out to others.   But I keep waiting for the other shoe fall for some reason.  I hope it doesn’t.  Hillary Clinton?  I heard her speak in college and she moved me to tears.  She was such an inspiration but then I disagreed with some of her positions that would affect mothers and families.   Who else?  My mother in law suggested that perhaps we cannot look to public figures as mentors.  She suggested I look to people who are less well known and are perhaps humming along in their own quiet way following their values and inspiring those around them.  My next step is the biography section of the library.  Perhaps I can find a bit of guidance there. 

Part of me wonders if this is just what happens at midlife, that one’s relationship to other adults shifts.  One realizes that all adults are flawed and one starts to find guidance from within.  But then I think it just cannot be true.  There have to be elders to look up to and admire throughout life.  There will always be those who are older and could share a nugget of wisdom or two.

I was recently asked, “Who are your mentors?” and “To whom are you a mentor?”  As a teacher I have thought that I was doing my job but also doing community service at the same time.  I don’t have time or energy to do more with kids outside of school.  But now I am thinking that there is even more I could do in the classroom.  I have been teaching kids how to spell and borrow and carry but have I been doing enough to model for them what it means to be a person of integrity?  To carry oneself in a respectful manner?  To make hard decisions, which are sometimes unpopular?  To be a good friend?  These are the pieces that are harder to teach.  Students won’t pick these up playing an educational game in their free time at home.   Perhaps they are more important to teach than the next lesson on fractions.

So, with the new year upon us, I ask you, “Who are you mentors?” and “To whom are you a mentor?”  What can you do to share your life knowledge with others?  We will build stronger connections, communities, and people if we start to think about these questions.  I have made a new year’s resolution to find some mentors for myself and to reach out to some who need mentoring. 

Reflections on "Living With Intensity"

I just finished reading Living With Intensity, edited by Daniels and Piechowski. I thought that this was an older book that I just hadn’t gotten around to reading yet since I have seen it referenced in so many places but it turns out that it was published this year. It is getting a lot of attention!

For those of you familiar with Kurchinka’s term “spirited child,” parts of this book will sound familiar. Kazimierz Dabrowski was a psychologist who developed a theory of personality.  In it he describes "overexciteabilities" or areas in which a gifted person may be particularly intense.  "Overexciteability means that life is experienced in a manner that is deeper, more vivid, and more acutely sensed."  (p 9) His theory delineates five overexciteabilities: imaginational, physical, emotional, sensual, and intellectual.  Having worked with Kurchinka's term "spirited child" for some time, I was excited to discover how Dabrowski takes the same idea and breaks it into five areas.  I had found so many of my students to fit under the term "spirited" but in many different ways.  Dabrowski's theory adds more nuance so that we can better understanding of individuals.  We can think in terms of one overexciteability or a combination of a few.

The little boy I had last year who kept drumming upon his desk every chance he got and played on three different sports teams after school definitely had physical overexciteability.  The young girl who often cried as we read stories together as a class and could not join us for the Halloween Parade because of the the intensity of her fear of some of the costumes had emotional overexciteability.  What a new way to think of my students!  It also helped to validate their intensities by seeing them as one of five that many others share. 

One of my favorite chapters is Daniel's chapter entitled, "Overexciteability, Giftedness and Family Dynamics."  She cites research that "parents with strong overexciteabilities are likely to have children with strong overexciteabilities."  She describes a few families in depth.  I wish she had ten more case studies to share.  It is fascinating to see how the different combinations of overexciteabilities in a family play out.  A child with emotional overexciteability may be especially sensitive to a sibling's rambunctuous physical overexciteability.  A parent with intellectual overexciteability may be exasperated by a child's sensual overexciteability and desire to change socks and clothing often because they "don't feel right."  The same parent, however, might be lit up by another child with intellectual overexciteability who wants to discuss their favorite books or something they heard on the news that night.

I think this area is ripe for research.  Even just a book full of case studies would help parents feel that they are not alone and that their are others wrestling with similar challenges.  Research into the most effective parenting techniques to use in some situations would be extremely helpful.

Often, as a teacher, I think only of how giftedness plays out in young children.  They are my day-to-day reality and I want to gather as much information as I can about them as young children to help them at this point in their lives.  Ellen D. Fielder's chapter entitled, "Advantages and Challenges of Lifespan Intensity" and Stephanie S. Tolan's chapter entitled, "What We May Be: What Dabrowski's Work Can Do For Gifted Adults" really opened up a whole new aspect of my thinking about giftedness.

I always thought that we worked as a school to help a child through to eighth grade.  We nurtured their gifts and helped soften their rough edges and, in my mind, by the time they graduated, we were sending off a more polished version of the child we had received in PreK or K.  This child could function like an adult in the world.  Incessant conversations about geography had been tamed (not turned off but brought more in line with conventional conversation).  A child who lived with the fairies in her mind, now joined the world in which the rest of us lived.  A child who only wanted to do math computation would now engage in a writing project.  Fiedler and Tolan helped me realize, though, that each child's overexciteability would stay with them throughout their lives and continue to affect the way they interact with the world.  While I still believe that it is much easier to find a niche in the adult world where one's quirks function best than it is to find that niche in the elementary classroom where one must study all subjects and interact with 20 other students on a daily basis, I do see now that the road continues to be interesting after eighth grade.  I look forward to reading more about giftedness in those older than elementary school.  How come I had limited myself to the age I taught?

Nonfiction is not usually my favorite reading genre but each night I couldn't wait to get back to this book.  I saw so many of my students and friends reflected in its pages.  This book also gave me a great sense of optimism.  The student who drummed on the desk all year tried my patience some days.  The child who asked me questions about current politics daily exhausted me.  However, Dabrowski, feels that these overexciteabilities are necessary to move to the next level of development.  Without this intensity, some people will not progress.  I know that those students whose intensities made them to stand out in my eyes are well on their way.