While You Were Paying Attention to the Strugglers. . .

When we dive deeply into our student data, we learn so much about the kids we teach. It’s fascinating to put together the clues of a student’s assessment history. We notice trends in performance, uncover weaknesses, and make plans to rescue those who are struggling the most. We develop remediation plans. We target specific standards to emphasize and reteach. We identify the objectives most missed by our students and redesign entire lessons to make sure our kids learn what they don’t know. We become that guy from the sappy little parable, walking along the shoreline and frantically flinging starfish from the beach back into the water, determined to save as many as we can.

Meanwhile, the gifted kids in our classrooms often go unacknowledged, ignored, and unchallenged.

Helping struggling students grow is one of the most important things teachers do, but every student deserves to make at least one year’s progress during one year of school. While we are scrambling help our neediest, what are we doing to meet the needs of the kids who already get it?

Education has no finish line where kids get to stop and rest, satisfied that they know all there is to know and have learned everything. When we cap off instruction, putting a ceiling over our students, growth is stifled. Bright students become disengaged, bored, and apathetic. Some of them turn their attention to mischief-making and become your worst classroom management problems because gifted kids who want to cause trouble are often very skilled at doing so.

Gifted education guru Carol Ann Tomlinson says that differentiation, ultimately, is an act of empathy. Educators put themselves in the position of each student in the classroom and figure out what everyone needs. Then, they try their hardest to take care of each one, not because they are told to do so but because they know it's the right thing to do. 

It’s not easy to meet the needs of every student in a mixed-ability classroom, and secondary educators tend to be much less accommodating to diverse learners than our friends in elementary. Traditionally, secondary classrooms are a one-size-fits-all model, where every student receives the same instruction and does identical assignments. One popular solution to this—though not one I think very highly of—is to always have some extension work for students who finish early. This solves the problem of keeping every kids occupied, but the extra work seems more like a punishment than a blessing to the high school gifted student who soon figures out the way to keep from having to do more is to work more slowly. When the extension work is a meaningless diversion unconnected to the curriculum (puzzle pages, logic problems, crosswords, etc.), the purpose is clearly babysitting rather than growing learners. Elementary teachers understand that good teaching sometimes looks like a three-ring circus, with the teacher checking in on everyone and providing appropriate attention at just the right time to keep everyone progressing.

One of the ways I prefer to think about providing appropriate experiences for gifted learners is to consider depth and complexity:  How can this content, skill, or subject be viewed more deeply and in more complex ways?

Depth and complexity can appear in many guises, some of which can be uncovered by asking yourself questions like these:

• What does this look like when the experts do it?
• What’s the next step or the next level in producing a more advanced product or thinking about the topic?
• What do people who study this professionally argue or discuss?
• What moral or ethical issues are associated with this topic?
• What is ambiguous about this subject?
• What words do experts use to talk about this topic? 
• Are there exceptions to the rule, plausible non-examples, or variations you didn’t teach to the entire class but that are worth exploring?
• Who are some of the important thinkers, doers, or innovators in this field?
• What are some articles, books, or primary sources that would provide interesting additional understanding of the topic?
• What do your students wonder about this topic that could be explored more deeply?
• What does this topic look like in another locale, in a later time period, in a different situation, of from a different perspective?
• What influenced this? What did this influence?
• What’s the counter-argument, point of disagreement, or opposite viewpoint?
• How does this topic connect to other topics you’ve studied, to other subjects, or to the wider world?

Sometimes, differentiation for gifted learners is as simple as offering some choices that intrigue the students and pointing them in the direction of the right resources. The option to explore at a level that provides a worthwhile challenge—not more work but different work—might hook some of your gifted learners. Who knows? Some of your struggling learners might take up the challenge, too.

By all means, take care of your special ed kids, your English language learners, your at-risk students, and your underserved populations. Just don’t forget to also take care of your gifted and talented students. As much as anyone in your classroom, they need you to push them and motivate them to keep growing as learners.

Looking for Potential

Energetic. Enthusiastic. Hyperactive. Uncontrollable. Impulsive. Eager. Rambunctious. Vibrant. Wiggly. Kinesthetic. Athletic. Rowdy. Unfocused.

Curious. Questioning. Challenging. Defiant. Inquisitive. Searching. Intrigued. Intrusive. Disrespectful. Interested. Complaining.  

Chatty. Talkative. Verbal. Charismatic. Mouthy. Communicative. Motor-mouthed. Conversational. Social. Gregarious. Interactional. Unreserved. Rude.

Everyone has a series of lenses through which they view the world. We see what we want to see. We identify good in the things we value or that match our own viewpoints, preferences, and experiences. We frequently overlook the positive in what is unfamiliar, is different, or challenges our own ideas and views. What one person sees as a negative could be viewed as a positive by someone else.

Does society place the same value on an assertive man and an assertive woman? Do some groups of people receive praise for questioning or challenging authority while others are criticized for it? Do you look differently at a person who speaks passionately about political ideas you agree with while disparaging those who oppose your stance?

I worry that as educators we allow ourselves to get in the way of seeing the potential in every student we teach. Worse, we find fault in places where we could be looking for greatness. What if we could train ourselves to look for potential in spots where we previously ignored it? What impact could that have on the kids we teach and how they view themselves?

I am not a confrontational person. I tend to avoid conflict, hate engaging in an argument, and am more likely to back away from any kind of disagreement until I am able to speak calmly. Furthermore, I’ve never been especially physical. Horseplay was never my thing. I wasn’t one of those kids who squirmed. I’d rather sit for hours with my nose in a book or at work on a creative project.

As a teacher, it’s easy for me to see the greatness in a student who comes to class, engages, and plays along. I can find a million positive things to say about students who are eager readers, thoughtful writers, and deep thinkers. I appreciate student creativity, especially if it makes me laugh because of its cleverness.

When things get heated in class discussion, however, my first inclination is to retreat into my shell. When students get uber-competitive in a game or get a little rambunctious during a class activity, I become a little nervous. I have to remind myself that the students who seem argumentative, confrontational, rowdy, and unruly to me during those activities could be passionate, principled, persuasive, engaged, energetic, and eager if I view them through a different lens.

  

Identifying and acknowledging our own biases is the first step in learning to seek the potential in everyone we encounter. Some biases are easy for us to spot; others exist on a deeper, unconscious level.

A 2016 study found that students of color are underrepresented in gifted programs nationwide. More specifically, black students are about half as likely to be identified as “gifted and talented” as their white peers with comparable standardized test scores. The researchers crunched all sorts of numbers to try to determine the cause for this disparity. Only one factor made a significant difference in identification of “gifted” black students: the race of their teachers. The put it more bluntly, white teachers aren’t good at spotting giftedness in non-white students.

This study has so many implications for the world of education. Not only does it underscore the importance of having teacher demographics that mirror student demographics, but it also invites all of us—regardless of our race—to examine our own implicit biases. It’s easy to shift the blame for this inequity to other people, but the data indicates that those of us who are pointing the fingers also need to take a look in the mirror.

Implicit biases are natural. Everyone has them. And because they are implicit, we usually don’t know we have them. These biases exist on an unconscious level. I’m not sure we can ever identify every bias we hold, but I do think that the important work for each of us involves acknowledging the existence of these biases, trying to become more aware of them, and then taking action to correct them.

Project Implicit, a non-profit research project led by professors from University of Washington, Harvard, and University of Virginia, has a number of tests you can take that are designed to help identify implicit biases. The information they gather from participants helps further their research. Always one to contribute what I can in the name of learning (but mostly because I was curious), I took a few of their tests. Of course, I was certain that the results would indicate that I was without prejudice or bias. That’s what we would all like to believe about ourselves, right? I was wrong. The tests pointed out some things that I’d never even considered to be biases I held. I have since shared the website with others, and what we uncovered made us uncomfortable and uneasy but opened up some extremely worthwhile conversations about our biases and, more significantly, what we should do about them. It was easy to beat ourselves up for having those biases, but we soon realized that our self-criticism was counterproductive without taking steps to change.

Trying to make the shift toward actively looking for potential in others—students, coworkers, strangers I meet at Kroger—has positively altered the way I see the world and the results I get from those around me. I’m not always great at it, but I’m working at improving. I’m sure it’s something I will have to keep working on forever. If it leads to finding more of the good in others and helping them find the good in themselves, the perpetual work will have been worth it.

Thank you for all the work you do to look for potential in places where it’s not easy for you to spot.   

How High is Your Ceiling?

Students are tired of bumping their heads on the low ceilings in our classrooms. Trying to learn in a hunched-over mental position prevents students from growing to their full height academically.

I'm not talking about a physical design flaw we should complain about to the architects. This low-ceiling phenomenon is completely our fault.

Sometimes, we assume our students can't do the thinking on their own, so we do it for them. In effect, we build a really tiny room so that everyone can easily reach the ceiling. Since there’s no need or expectation to extend and grow, students learn to live comfortably in a cramped position. It doesn't seem too bad while they're there. The problem occurs when they leave your room, go elsewhere, and realize they haven't grown enough to reach the things the world expects them to be able to reach on their own.

At other times, we give our students assignments or pose questions that have very clear and reachable endpoints. When students complete the assignment and there’s nowhere to go from there, they bump their heads on the academic ceiling we build above them.

If you’re intending to offer differentiation for your high-ability learners, there should be no ceiling. Removing the upper limits will allow these students to stand as tall  as possible and stretch beyond your expected boundaries.

I’ve always been a fan of setting high expectations for all students. I never know when a particular subject or assignment will pique the interest of a specific student who will take off and run with it. Some students, of course, will need a bit of a boost to successfully reach the level of expectation; that’s where scaffolding comes into play.

Many of the strategies AVID uses to engage students are designed to add that support when necessary. Most teachers feel comfortable and justified adding scaffolding to help modify or adapt the learning for those who struggle; however, many times we forget about the students on the other end of the spectrum.  

All students need and deserve a challenge. The gifted students are the ones who least consistently receive one.

Those of you who've been around for a while have no doubt experienced the joy of the online bloodborne pathogens training we get to undergo each year. After a year or two of the same training, there’s not a lot learning to be uncovered in a repeat viewing of an online module. This yearly requirement, then, becomes a tedious drudgery because it’s not mentally engaging or academically stimulating. As I click through the slides and answer the simple questions at the end of the sections, I can feel the ceiling looming close above my head.

How often do our brightest students have this same experience in our classrooms? Do they feel stifled because their learning is limited? Bored because there’s no challenge? Complacent because there’s no incentive to go beyond the basic expectations? Do they speed through their assignment, reach the end, and either occupy themselves with something more interesting or zone out until the period ends?

Many gifted learners are wonderfully compliant and have learned that if they do what’s expected, they can rest comfortably for extended periods of time without having to exert much effort. Others become behavior problems as they seek to entertain their idle brains.

Here are a few ideas for raising the ceiling for your students:

Depth and Complexity:  GT Differentiation Buzzwords:  When you are considering ways to differentiate your curriculum for gifted and talented students, the key words to remember are depth and complexity. What are you doing to allow these learners to dive more deeply into the curriculum? Where are the points where some students can explore more advanced or technical aspects of the content? How can you challenge your students with advanced potential to see the nuances, make more thoughtful connections within and between disciplines, and consider varied perspectives?

What next?  I recently attended a training during which we were asked to share our experiences with particular teaching activities with others at our table. Some groups would no doubt finish before others. Our facilitator visited each table a few minutes into the discussion, checked in with the group to see how much more time they needed, and, if it looked like they were soon to finish, he provided a follow-up assignment (“What I want you to do next is….”).  Thus, there was never a point where a group would be completely finished because there were always more tasks. Following his example, if teachers have a seemingly inexhaustible series of increasingly challenging activities in their heads, students can work at full capacity throughout the class period.

Choices: Providing several ways for students to demonstrate mastery of course objectives is another way to meet the needs of a variety of students. Some students, of course, will try to take the easy way out, so in some cases, you might need to direct students to the best option for their ability level.

Formative assessment:  One important purpose for using formative assessment is to determine what your students know and don’t know so that you’ll know who needs differentiation. If you learn that some students are “getting it” more quickly than the rest, it’s time to pull out some differentiation tools to raise the level of challenge for them. If you find that only a few are lagging behind, keep things moving with the remainder of the class while you scaffold the learning for the stragglers.

Differentiated assignments:  One assignment or lesson might exist in several versions that approach the learning objectives at varied levels of depth and complexity.  A teacher might provide specific students with a differentiated assignment at a lower cognitive level for those who require more scaffolding and ramp up the mental challenge for those who can easily grasp the basics. The basic assignment looks the same to the learners, so no one has to know that some are diving more deeply. You could offer differentiated assignments to groups of students or individuals as needed.

Flexible grouping:  At times, ability grouping your students within a class for an assignment or lesson can permit easier differentiation. For instance, in a unit where the students are preparing to present about a topic to their classmates, groups composed of more advanced learners can receive topics which require more complex thinking or more challenging research.   

Independent study:  Once a student has demonstrated that he or she knows what’s expected, there’s an opportunity for that student to devise a learning goal for continued growth. Letting a student who is already interested in a topic explore that topic in more depth is an excellent way to promote learning and engagement. Allow the student to set some teacher-approved learning goals, and guide the exploration as needed to keep the student on track.  

Open-ended assignments:  Assignments and activities where students are expected to converge on one correct answer have a built-in low ceiling. Consider substituting assignments that have many possible answers and, if possible, the opportunity to extend beyond the minimum expectations.  

Crank up the Costa’s:  Spend some time examining the cognitive level of the questions and thinking in your classroom. Realizing that some students will struggle to master the Level 1 knowledge and skills associated with your curriculum while others will catch on quickly, come to class prepared to challenge your kids at whatever level necessary. Level 2 and 3 of Costa’s Levels of Thinking requires students to make connections (within disciplines and among them), draw conclusions, predict, create, suppose, and evaluate.  Providing increased opportunities to explore the curriculum at higher levels keeps the ceiling high above students’ heads.  

One quick caveat:  Differentiation shouldn't mean more work. The difference lies in the depth and complexity of thought required, not the amount. If differentiated assignments look like punishments, no one will want to do them. Think of it like an hour at the gym with a physical trainer. Each participant should work to maximum capacity during the hour so all can grow stronger.  No one gets to leave the gym early because he or she was stronger from the outset, and  no one has to stay late because he or she wasn’t very mighty to begin with. As a result, all are challenged, and all build strength and stamina.

Differentiation is definitely not a one-size-fits-all approach to learning. The first step to successful differentiation is awareness: knowing where the ceiling is in respect to the various learners in your room. Once you are aware of the limits you’ve deliberately or accidentally placed on your students, you can work on ways to systematically remove them.