Gifted Endorsement: Elective Hours 

Over the summer, I participated in a 5 hour online PD course offered by PLB . This PD, Differentiation for Gifted Learners in the Classroom, was composed of four lessons. These four lessons included 1. Characteristics 2. Personal, Social and Cognitive Needs 3. Special Populations and 4. Practical Strategies. For the purpose of this assignment, I will focus on practical strategies.

Much of this was fairly obvious and included pretesting, H.O.T questioning, compacting, tiered lessons, and learning contracts. The one section that did stand out was Morning Minute. These daily starters reminded me of the recently  discussed “Concept Attainment” and are used to invoke curiosity. Also mentioned was the use of SCAMPER to enhance creativity.

In my classroom, I currently have one labeled gifted, one talent, and five accelerated in the area of math. For my accelerated students, I am compacting the fifth grade curriculum to provide time to teach six, 6th grade standards. I also utilize math projects, differentiated math centers, and tiered lessons.

When a student is labeled gifted, how should we proceed as educators? Should it be based on specifics? Or should pull-out programs be utilized? 

When is it acceptable to do what everyone else is doing?