How I Make Learning More Engaging for My Gifted Students

Key points:

Keeping gifted students focused and engaged in learning can be a challenge. They complete tasks quickly, are often motivated to delve deeper into a topic, and are prone to boredom if not challenged enough. This can cause a disconnect, especially for gifted students.

To better support my gifted and talented students, I have integrated the Talents Unlimited approach into my classroom practice. The Talents Unlimited educational approach was created by Dr. Calvin Taylor, who researched the thinking skills people need to succeed in the world of work. Specifically, the Talents Unlimited model identified the following five key thinking skills that lead to success: productive thinking, communication, foresight, decision making, and planning. Nurturing and expanding these talents can help students develop creative and problem-solving skills.

Below are some examples of how I am helping my gifted students by combining the Talents Unlimited approach and using Educational discovery experience To ensure the participation of all students regardless of their learning level:

Productive thinking

Productive thinking refers to a student's ability to think of many varied, unusual, or unique ideas. To support my students' ability to engage in productive thinking, I use the Z chart, which is one of Discovery Education's research-based strategy focuses. The Z chart is a graphic organizer that helps students summarize information using linguistic and nonlinguistic representations. The Z Chart strategy provides a quick way to present ideas. One of the best parts is that it works well as an individual reflection tool and as a tool for cooperative groups to use when discussing a puzzle activity. This ensures that students of all abilities can delve deeper into a topic together or through self-directed learning.

Communication

• The communication skills that Talents Unlimited seeks to develop are:
• Give many, varied, and unique words to describe something.
• Give many, varied, and unique words to describe feelings.
• Thinking about many and varied things that are like something else in the form of a simile.
• Let others know that you understand how they feel.
• Make a network of ideas using many, varied and complete thoughts.
• Tell your feelings and needs without using words.

Discovery Education Experience's DEmystified series features short videos (most are around two minutes long) that answer questions in a simple and direct way. I use these videos to model several great communication skills addressed by Talents Unlimited.

For example, when my students watch the video “Characteristics of Stars,” I challenged them to complete the simile “Stars are as hot as _________.” Students brainstormed things that might be hot to compare to the heat of stars. These are perfect attention grabbers as a hook for a unit study, a brain break, or even a rainy day recess!

Forecast

The forecasting component of the Talents Unlimited framework asks students to think of many, varied, and unusual ideas to examine cause and effect by answering one of two questions: What could have caused…? and What could happen if…?

I address this component of the Talents Unlimited framework using Discovery Education Experience's Life Skills channel. For example, I have shared with my 2nd grade students the video titled “Bang the Drums,” which is a story about the passion of making music. After the video, the class discussed and described the effects of finding our own passions and what steps should be taken to pursue our own passions.

Additionally, there are videos on goal setting, which help students see the importance of setting realistic goals. In both cases, my students have a great opportunity to think about essential predictions regarding their own lives.

Planning

Talents Unlimited seeks to help students develop their planning skills, as well as their ability to discern and the steps necessary to develop a comprehensive plan to carry out a decision.

To support the growth of students' planning skills, I use Discovery Education Virtual Field Trips (VFT) to transport my students beyond the classroom. Before the “trip,” my class and I discussed what things we would need to bring if we were actually going on a trip to one of the VFT destinations. Together we have traveled to places like the Arctic and Washington, DC.

Then we talk about what we plan to do on the trip, the order of the steps they must follow to do it, and we identify possible problems. These projects can become very detailed. For example, for my sixth graders' planned “trip” to Washington, DC, they created detailed budgets and researched flights, lodging, and food. After the tour, they used their communication skills and created travel brochures to encourage others to visit Washington, DC.

decision making

Helping students develop their decision-making capabilities is the most complex challenge when using the Talents Unlimited framework. It involves helping students think about things they could do, called alternatives. Students then develop questions that serve as a guide between choosing alternatives, then weigh those questions to make decisions, and ultimately support that decision with various reasons.

To support the development of my students' decision-making skills, I have created a simple chart that I use in lessons on decision-making. Students will consider each alternative and apply it to the criteria in a process called weighting. This will lead them to the final decision. Finally, they present the reasons for reaching this decision.

I have used two Discovery Education channels, National Parks and Sharks, to teach with this talent. Discovery Education's National Parks channel has informative videos about several of the parks. After seeing a few of these, we completed a decision-making activity about which park to visit. The alternatives were three of the parks: Yellowstone, Everglades and Olympic. Criteria for visiting each included: liking the temperature there, the park's proximity to home, and whether there are things there that students would like to see. After weighing them, students could make a decision on which park to visit. There are many other videos to which this model could be applied. Another of my fourth grade favorites is Shark Channel, where we have used decision making to determine which shark is the most dangerous.

I strongly believe in using the Talents Unlimited framework and Discovery Education can be used with all students at any grade level. Students of any age and skill level will enjoy activities like these and develop some critical thinking skills along the way.