C69: Designing for the Gifted Learner

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​Now that we’ve designed the learning environment for the language learner, let’s talk about the gifted learner.  I don’t like this designation, because I believe that all children are gifted in their own unique way and the PYP allows it to shine.  I know everyone who is listening totally agrees with my summation.  

We can picture specific learners in our class who are eager to learn everyday.  They are always present at school and voracious to learn.  They hunger to acquire knowledge and are naturally curious about the world.  Doesn’t this sound like every student you have?  Of course.  The difference is gifted learners regularly go above and beyond what is “required” for themselves and they are usually seeking ways to improve.  

How are you arranging the environment to bring about the capabilities of your gifted learners, so they are not forgotten while you support other learners? 

Roles

Roles have often been used to help learners to develop in a variety of ways while working in collaborative groups, accomplishing tasks, and assessing learning.  By providing roles to your gifted learners, you are providing them specific targets that feed in their need to excel and become better.  Let’s take a deeper look at what this might look like in your classroom. 

Jobs - I have merged jobs and classroom economy for most of my teaching career.  It helps to build learner awareness of their role within a community and the positive and negative consequences of not fulfilling one’s roles.  

• While living in Dubai, I labeled each table group based on the various regions of the city and their rent was relative to how close they were located to the point of instruction.  Each child had a specific job and were compensated based on present day salaries per month.  They were required at the end of the month to pay rent for their spot.  Each month, they could relocate if a space was available.  If a student did not perform their job, they would be given two warnings and afterwards, they would be terminated.  At the end of the month, if they didn’t have enough money, they would be evicted from their group.  I had extra desks around the room for them to go.  This not only taught them responsibility, but the reality of financial literacy. 

Helpers - at times, you may have a gifted student who is a bit socially awkward.  They relate well with individual peers or a small group, but have anxiety relating to a large group.  This is natural in the development process, so how can we offset it?  One thing I noticed, especially with gifted girls, is that they love to help. I would allow anyone to be a helper after-school one day a week and for some recesses and lunches.  We have to get a break too!

• This allowed those gifted learners a place where they could just breathe and do some good in my classroom.  I would have them set up and take down bulletin boards, organize my class library, tidy the classroom, cut out laminating, and help prepare materials for upcoming lessons.  This really helped the learners to feel that they had a purpose and could “help” the teacher in a special way.  I was one of those shy kids in helping the teacher, so I know how important those unique opportunities to help really matter. 

Leadership - our gifted learners are born leaders. They love to organize and sustain group work.  But, a big part of becoming a leader is not always being in charge of a group.  A true leader…
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• listens to everyone’s ideas and helps the group to come to a consensus that will reflect the group’s wishes.  
• Takes ownership of their mistakes and rely on the group to help them to solve them.  
• Understands the needs of each group member and leverages their strengths
• Don't take credit for the work, because it’s a shared effort.

Visuals

​All learners need visuals to guide their understanding of big ideas.  This is why we use anchor charts, unit walls, word walls, wonder walls, etc.  At the same time, all of this space can be quite visually overwhelming for a gifted learner unless there is a specific purpose for each space.  How do we create a connection for them? 

• Don’t Overstimulate - Less is more, which is the philosophy I have taken away from my many years in the PYP.  I was happy to ditch all of the pre-printed bulletin board sets I received along the way through my career.  As we have transitioned towards this movement, many teachers have replaced them with handmade anchor charts.  This has the same effect as the pre-packaged materials from a teacher supply store.  

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• As we put up anchor charts and other work, be sure that it’s authentic and related to the purpose of the current unit of inquiry.  I walked into a teacher’s classroom and they had close to thirty anchor charts up on the wall.  When we chatted about the display, I discovered that some anchor charts were used three months prior and left up for student referral.  What they didn’t realize is that many anchor charts can be quite overstimulating to their learners, because they don’t know where to place their energy and thinking.  Remember, less is more. 

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• Have a Purpose -  when putting up all of the visuals, consider the purpose.  This helps all learners, but your gifted learners are driven by purpose.  Their minds are continuously trying to unravel mysteries and puzzles.  They need to know why your visuals are on the wall and how they connect with each other.  Our boards are not meant to be a showcase, but an interactive tool to guide the unit of inquiry.  Hmm...that’s interesting.

Options

All learners deserve to have some options to choose from that will support their development and areas of interest.  You will see in certain areas that some learners quickly finish their tasks regularly and having them take out a book everyday is not the answer.  We have the privilege of challenging their young minds to explore beyond their present capability.  What can this possibility look and feel like in our classrooms? 

• Open-ended Tasks: our gifted learners crave a challenge.  They want tasks that have ample possible outcomes and they will explore each and every one of them until they find just the right one.  They are that thorough.  How are we challenging their young brains to tinker with ideas, go through the designing thinking process, draw diagrams, create models, and so much more?  This can be overwhelming to us if we’ve not considered these processes, so leave it up to them to decide.  Problem solved.  As a team, they will decide which tools to use to solve their problem and it will probably look better than you or I could design.  They have one major advantage to us...they are digital natives. 

 

• Stations: many teachers use small group time as part of their literacy and math block.  Why not leverage this time to differentiate learning tasks that tap into learner strengths?  This sounds easy, but how are we planning for the gifted learner in mind?  One thing that I did was differentiate the focus of each station to reflect different content areas, but they were united in a transdisciplinary work goal.  At each station, I provided some choices that were more directed and open-ended.  This allows agency for all and pushes you gifted learners to apply their understanding in a deeper, more meaningful way. 

 

• Genius Hour: one of my favorite ways to get gifted learners engaged into the learning process is genius hour.  I allow students to study whatever they are interested in for a 45 minute session, 2:00-2:45 on a Friday afternoon for the duration of a unit of inquiry.  They are given a scaffold where they must create a conceptual or debatable question that is worth of research, they must indicate their materials, process, works cited, evaluate their process, create a presentation plan, and reflect on the journey.  All learners benefit from this project, so I assign it to all.  The gifted learner excels in this type of open-ended project, because their multifaceted brain is free to create with no restrictions.  This is where magic happens. 

Is your brain bursting with new ideas?  Take a peek at your learning environment and think about how your gifted learners are being supported everyday.