Every gifted child is unique, with individual interests. Here are 100 online resources for gifted kids sure to ignite their dreams and fuel their passions.
Have you ever wondered if a gifted language arts curriculum could be a good fit for your homeschool even though your kids aren't necessarily gifted?
Whether your gifted child prefers logic, word, or strategy you'll find plenty of options with this list of 100 Games for Gifted kids.
New to gifted education? Read about the dos and don'ts of gifted education and how to best serve gifted learners.
About a year ago, I presented a workshop to my fellow teacher candidates on supporting gifted learners. I brought a bit of a unique perspective - I was a gifted learner, moved to a congregated class at the beginning of grade three. The congregated program had a massive impact on me. I went from crying about having to go to school to embracing the new challenges presented to me as my needs were properly accommodated. Here's what I've learned about supporting gifted students.
The workshop model is a great way to differentiate your instruction for all learners in your classroom. This post focuses on workshop for gifted students.
Learn all about differentiating the products that your students complete as part of their learning journey. I'll define it for you, give you some important tips, show you an example of how I did this in my gifted classroom, and I'll even give you a list of ideas you can use in your own classroom.
Most people have something they say they’d run back into a burning house for. For some, it’s photos or mementos. For others, it’s something of great monetary value.
Are you raising curious, creative, gifted kids whose quest for knowledge never ends? Check out this list of 100 educational YouTube channels perfect for fueling that insatiable desire to learn.
Look, we get it. Gifted kids are statistically fairly rare. It's not every day you meet a child who has memorized the periodic table or who can hold their own in a political discussion on the playground. A child with a high IQ can be a bit jarring to encounter, we know. We're fairly used
*The list keeps growing - there are six now! Ted Talks are increasingly popular with educators for use with the faculty as well as the students. However, it can be tricky to find just the right talk for the occasion since there are so many available. There's also the problem of occasional profanity or inappropriate ...
The simple formula that will turn your child into a lifelong learner.
It’s so helpful to see ideas from real, live teachers. I’m so excited to share these ideas with you for differentiating for the unique nature & needs of gifted students. The teacher I’m highlighting is Susan Day, a teacher at Fairview Middle School in Bremerton, Washington. I think we can all get ideas from what ... Read more
This post walks us through the benefits of the gifted education program in schools, and why should parents and children try for the Gifted program.
Teaching gifted kids in the regular classroom can be a challenge. Do you sometimes feel like you're "losing it"? Do you not really know how to meet the needs of these kids when you have so many kids who have IEP's, 504 Plans, or are in the RTI process? Don't despair, there is help!
When you're parenting gifted or twice-exceptional kids, you often feel lost and alone -- like nobody will ever truly get what you live on a day-to-day basis. I felt that way, and it's one of the reasons I created RLL in the first place... I hoped to bring other parents of tough kids together -- and to
Read about why you need to be okay with letting your gifted students learn new content, even if no one else is doing it.
Whether your gifted child prefers logic, word, or strategy you'll find plenty of options with this list of 100 Games for Gifted kids.
Unlock the potential of your gifted child with our comprehensive guide. Dive deep into understanding their unique needs, the balance of nature
Are you ready to support your gift learners? These easy to implement tips are a great place for you to start. Grab the FREE learning menu while you are there, too! Your gifted students will love the options.
Here are eight reasons why you should label kids as gifted. Although it's controversial, there are compelling reasons for doing so, and here they are.
Every gifted child is unique, with individual interests. Here are 100 online resources for gifted kids sure to ignite their dreams and fuel their passions.
We need to understand that gifted children are not just “bright” – a highly subjective label. 15 signs of a gifted child--read on to learn.
A Review of the book "On the Social Lives of Gifted Children" a guide for parents & educators of gifted children, help to understand their needs.
One of the hallmarks of giftedness is the need to learn new things constantly. YouTube is a great tool for the gifted parent's tool box!
Gifted children may face social and emotional behavior issues due to their unique talents. Learn more about these challenges and how to manage them.
Teaching vocabulary to your gifted students is something you ay have pushed aside, but it is SO important for them! Read this second post in my series about how I teach vocabulary from start to finish!
Passion Projects were a staple in my gifted enrichment classroom in the 1970s. Back in those days, we called them Type III enrichment activities (Renzulli Enrichment Model) or Independent Studies. But thankfully, things changed as general education has embraced the concepts of thinking skills, creative production, and talent development. Today we see these activities implemented in all types of classrooms through Genius Hour, Passion Projects, and Maker Spaces. Whatever title you choose to give them, Passion Projects promote student-centered investigations. They are examples of personalized learning and differentiation at their finest.
Since I began searching for alternate paths of learning for my twice-exceptional son many years ago, and changed my thinking enough to gather the courage to pull him out of school to pursue homeschooling, I’ve watched the population of homeschoolers with gifted children grow. And grow. mce_preload_checks++; try { var jqueryLoaded=jQuery; } catch(err) { setTimeout('mce_preload_check();',
The National Association for Gifted Children reports that more than 3 million children in the United States are in fact gifted.
Your new favorite teaching strategy: This pared-down version of learning stations keeps the movement, interactivity and variety while minimizing the prep work.
This critical thinking activity is all about getting your students to think deeper and to synthesize in your elementary classrooms via forced relationships!
Differentiation and scaffolding can help students better understand and learn. Here are teaching ideas and tips to use in class.
Tackling vocabulary instruction in any classroom is a complex challenge. Add in students who function above or below the mean, and suddenly trying to meet everyone's vocabulary needs can feel pretty daunting! If you've ever felt overwhelmed by trying to figure it all out, you're not alone. I feeeeel ya! It took me some time, but over the years, I feel like I ended up with a sort of "system" of differentiated vocabulary instruction that worked really well for both me and my students. In the next few posts, I'd like to take you through my complete setup. In the Series... We'll start here with pre-assessment, and move on to instructional strategies here. Next up is independent learning activities, as well as some formative and summative assessment strategies used to measuring student growth. There are so many fun and simple things you can do with vocabulary instruction, I can't wait to share my ideas with you! I hope you'll join me as I spell it all out. If you have any questions along the way, free to leave it in a comment for me at the bottom of the post or send an email to me: [email protected] I would love to hear from you! First Things First Before I go around passing out new lists of words to my class, I spend time on something super important: FINDING OUT WHAT STUDENTS ALREADY KNOW! Ahh, sorry to shout at you there, but it's something that is SO important to me as an educator of any student, but especially gifted and talented learners who may come to you already knowing up to 80% of what you're planning to teach on any given day. There are many ways to quickly pre-assess. It can be as simple or as involved as you like. KWL charts, concept maps, graffiti walls, and formal pretests with multiple choice or short-answer prompts are some of the ways to check on students' prior knowledge. {Want to know more about this? Pop on over to this post here for more detailed information about pre-assessing student knowledge, including explanations for twelve different ways to do it.} My preferred method for pre-testing vocabulary is having students self-rate their knowledge of the word list. This is a research-based strategy credited to several authors (Blachowicz, 1986; Young et al. 2002, and Stahl & Bravo, 2010). The Self-Ratings Scale With a self-ratings scale, students are presented with the words and are asked to rate their knowledge and understanding of the words on a spectrum. It makes SO much sense if you think about your own understanding of words. Some words you have seen a zillion times, used them in your everyday vernacular, and could teach someone else about them in your sleep. Other words you may have seen and been able to infer the meaning in context enough to get by, and some words are completely new to you and you have approximately zero ideas of what they mean. Truly, we are the only ones who know the depth of our own understanding, so why not use this to our advantage in the classroom, and trust that students can be empowered to do the same kind of self-reflecting? Using a self-ratings scale can be done very informally using a fist to five-finger rating, with zero fingers up (fist) reflecting that a student has never heard or seen the word, all the way to a five-finger rating, meaning the student knows the word and it's definition and can teach it to someone else/use it in a meaningful sentence. For me, though, I like having a paper record of which words students are familiar with, and which ones are not known as well. It's nice for me to hang on to for my records, and it's fun for students to see their own growth before/after the unit. For the paper version, students are presented with a word (or words) and then they take a moment to reflect on their current understanding of the word. Then they give themselves a rating--this can either be done with a number scale or on a chart. Ratings range from students never having seen the word, to seeing it before but not really knowing what it means, to seeing it and being able to define it, to knowing it so well that they can both define the word and use it in a meaningful sentence. When students indicate knowing the word, it's meaning, and the ability able to use it effectively in a sentence, I do prefer them to prove it by defining the word and using it in a sentence so that I can judge whether they truly know the word or not. However, if we were ever short on time (who isn't?!), I developed a quick color-coding system for students to use. With their highlighters, students marked words with red (or pink), yellow, and green to indicate how well they knew each word. If they didn't know it well enough to define and use the word, it was highlighted red, if they kind of knew it and/or could figure it out in context, they marked it yellow, and if they 100 percent understood and could use the word, they colored it green. Words rated red or yellow or marked below 4 or 5 (students being able to define and use words in a sentence) became the targeted words they were responsible for learning during that vocabulary cycle. You can make your own ratings sheet or develop your own system, but if you're short on time, feel free to check out the one in my free resource library by clicking the image above or click here for your copy. *Just to be clear, by clicking to get the freebie (and instant access to the growing collection of free resources in my library of subscriber exclusives), you're also agreeing to be added to my email list, where I'll send occasional messages with fresh ideas, tips, and other resources straight to your inbox. You can unsubscribe at any time.* You may be thinking that students might try fib a little on these self-ratings scales so that they have fewer words to study. I'm sure someone might try it, but because students knew that they were really only hurting their own learning, in the end, I really never had a problem with it. Thanks so much for stopping by today! You can find the next post in the series here. Don't forget--if you have a question or comment, feel free to leave it for me below. I love hearing from you! SaveSaveSaveSave
If you are the parent of a gifted child and haven't learned about gifted intensity you most likely have experienced it. Emotions are a part of every human life. Emotional Intensity is as natural for a gifted individual as breathing. Children who have minds that process neurological functions at a faster rate also process emotions at
Learn how one educator uses G Suite for Education to help students overcome their negative self-images and embrace learning.
This post contains affiliate links to products I recommend. Read my full disclosure statement. Kids LOVE learning about the human body. It's so fascinating! Videos are a great way for them to learn about different body systems and organs. Here is a list of human body videos for kids on YouTube that are a perfect
How to help your child find the right learning styles to enhance their potential in school and to prep the brain for higher learning. Learning is unique and different for each child.
Wondering what skills you must teach your gifted child? Don't worry about reading or STEM as much as these lessons I learned growing up as a gifted kid.
This critical thinking activity is all about getting your students to think deeper and to synthesize in your elementary classrooms via forced relationships!
Consensus among researchers is that dyslexia is neurobiological in its origin and evidence-based reading interventions are currently the most effective
Instead of saying, "Here is the knowledge; now go practice it," inductive learning says, "Here are some objects, some data, some experiences...what knowledge can we gain from it?"
Teaching with depth and complexity requires your students to think critically and problem solve. Students must explain and justify their thinking.
Do you see this boy with the peace sign? It's a ruse. As a teacher or parent of a gifted child, you will have no peace if you do any of the following things guaranteed to annoy a gifted child. Intrigued? Follow our ten-step plan guaranteed to annoy every gifted child you know or your money back.
Are your worksheets contributing to meaningful learning, or just keeping students busy?
Thank a teacher with these books! Check out our list of recommended books on the science of learning, find out why you should read the Powerful Teaching + Make it Stick duo, and explore a random collection of our all-time favorite books.
