Table Of Contentsmart b ored
smart b ored
&
are We Failing our High achievers?
By Samantha Cleaver Don Ambrose, now a professor of educa-
tion at Rider University in New Jersey,
B
ack when I taught a mixed- taught sixth grade, one student, Kevin,
ability group of fourth refused to do his work and disrupted
through sixth graders, I class on a daily basis. Then Ambrose
dreaded hearing the words overheard Kevin chatting about complex
“I’m finished” from my top outer space concepts and realized that
students. They would speed he’d underestimated his student. So
through their work, turning Ambrose came up with a plan. He set up
in their essays or math assignments long an outer space center in the back of the
waki before everyone else. While I worked room and told his students that if they
u one-on-one with my students who were finished their work early, they could
r
Ha struggling, my “fast finishers” were off study there. He never had a problem
Hi
C
He to educational computer sites or the with Kevin again. Sometimes motivat-
C
be: latest Hannah Montana book. And like ing high achievers is “a matter of being
o
dr many teachers, I felt a little guilty. more sensitive to what they’re interested
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wa Teacher Melissa Wagner also admits in,” says Ambrose.
o;
bit that filling that extra time gets tricky. “I But too often classrooms are not set
o
w never give them more work or tell them up for that kind of sensitivity. Research
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nife to help someone else,” she says, “I’m shows that our schools are consistently
n
G: je not a believer in that.” Wagner, who failing to provide opportunities for top
min teaches social studies at Falcon students to realize their potential. We
o
ro Middle School in Falcon, are teaching to the bottom half of our
G
d; Colorado, instead gives the classes with perhaps devastating rami-
r
o
G l students who finish early a fications. But here’s the rub: With all the
Gre challenging question from other demands on our time, how can we
©
os: the textbook and asks them maximize high achievers’ potential with-
Hot to research it. That way, out neglecting the other minds in class?
P
they stay focused on
Another Sputnik Era
the material and
expand their under- Right now, we’re rethinking how we
standing with teach high achievers. This isn’t the first
library or online time: During the space race, in a rush
research. to put a man on the moon, we increased
Of course, the focus on math, science, and gifted
some high education. Today, says Jean Peterson,
achievers aren’t associate professor at Indiana’s Purdue
as easy to University, “we’re entering another
engage. When Sputnik Era and are belatedly realizing
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cover story
that we haven’t been paying attention to could excel are bored or worse, and we
4 Myths About the best and the brightest.” In December are losing high-potential students from
2007, the Organization for Economic day one. According to the Jack Kent
Cooperation and Development and the Cooke Foundation’s September 2007
“Giftedness”
New York Times reported that students report “Achievement Trap: How America
in the U.S. scored lower than 16 other is Failing Millions of High-Achieving
countries in science and lower than Students from Low-Income Families,”
Myth:
Students who have been iden-
23 others in math. This kicked STEM while 28 percent of students from low-
tified as “gifted” are high achievers.
(science, technology, engineering, and income families are in the top quartile in
Fact: Gifted students are those “who math) programs into gear. first-grade classes, by fifth grade, nearly
have outstanding abilities, are capable In classrooms, IEPs and getting all half of those students have fallen from
of high achievement,” but who may or students to the proficient level on state that rank in reading achievement. And
may not achieve it. tests often override high-achieving stu- it’s not just students from low-income
Myth: dents’ needs. Wagner, who also handles families. “Seventy percent of the kids
Teachers can easily identify
the gifted and talented program at who are high ability are underachiev-
gifted children.
Falcon Middle School, says that because ing,” says Ambrose. When only 30 per-
Fact:
Teachers are more likely to of legal issues and IEPs, “I always look cent of high achievers are engaged, the
nominate children as gifted who have at my special education kids first.” vast majority are sliding through school,
good behavior, strong verbal ability, Even as we focus on math and tech- unchallenged and unengaged.
and high family status. That leaves
nology, and on the students who aren’t
many students from different back- the Problem With Grouping
up to par on tests or those with IEPs, we
grounds behind.
can’t forget our high-achieving students In today’s classrooms, students are rare-
Myth:
Gifted students make every- who are talented in literature and the ly grouped by ability, and every class-
one else in the class smarter. arts, or who are great leaders or col- room has the full bell curve of aptitude,
Fact: laborators. We need to look at the entire from very low to very high. The average
Other students usually do not
spectrum of achievement, says Ambrose, first-grade classroom, says Deborah
look to gifted students as role models
or find their success motivational. because by not developing today’s high Ruf, author of Losing Our Minds:
achievers, we’re losing tomorrow’s sci- Gifted Children Left Behind, can have
Myth:
Gifted students don’t need entists, engineers, artists, writers, busi- as many as 12 grade-equivalencies and
help. They do fine on their own. ness leaders, and politicians. an IQ range of up to 80 points. Some
Fact: of those 6-year-olds are still learning
Many gifted students know the Hurried classroom
letters, while others are reading and
well over half of their grade-level
curriculum and are bored. The role of Today’s teachers are in a hurry to thinking analytically. The majority of
the teacher is crucial to their success. finish tests, increase scores, and get students are in the middle of that range,
through the curriculum before sum- says Ruf, and “when teachers teach, they
Source: www.ed.gov, www.nagc.com
mer vacation starts. In that rush, says teach to the lower third of the graph. So
Barbara Radner, director for the Center everybody at the top third of the graph
for Urban Education in Chicago, high- is doing a lot of waiting, getting more
achieving students slide by. No Child repetition.” That’s when boredom and
Left Behind has brought higher stan- bad behavior set in.
dards and more accountability into
What’s at Stake?
classrooms, but it’s also thinned and
narrowed the curriculum. “Schools have Ignore high-achieving students and they
hit a test barrier,” says Radner. “Scores may end up frustrated, disciplined for
did go up, but then they flattened out.” bad behavior, or even depressed. At
Along the way, she says, we have limited best, they’re bored; at worst, they won’t
our gifted population, offering fewer make it to graduation. If high-achieving
programs that enable them to excel. kids aren’t challenged in elementary
This shows up in the small percentage school, they turn off when they hit chal-
of students exceeding the standards lenges in middle or high school, says
on tests. Betsy McCoach, assistant professor at
the University of Connecticut’s Neag
Bored or Worse?
School of Education.
In the current rush to get every student Not being challenged in school is
on the same “proficient” page, those who more of a risk for low-income students
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inStructor march/april 2008
“
Teachers teach to the lower third
of the class. So everybody in the top third
is doing a lot of waiting.”
—Deborah Ruf
than for others. The Jack Kent Cooke its will support them.”
Foundation found that while 90 percent In the classroom, the answer is
of high-achieving high school students differentiation, which doesn’t come
attend college, regardless of income naturally. Teachers often think they’re
level, lower-income high achievers differentiating, says McCoach of the
are less likely to graduate. “We’re los- Neag School of Education, but they’re
ing an enormous pool of talent,” says not. Differentiation is more than giving
Josh Wyner, executive vice president of choices and grouping, and it’s not indi-
the Foundation and lead author of the vidualizing instruction for 30 different
“Achievement Trap” study. “And these kids. You can tell when you’re differen-
are students who are poised to be lead- tiating by the atmosphere in class. “In
ers.” Many students from low-income classrooms that are highly differenti-
families have the potential to help ated,” says Peterson, “high-achieving
bridge the gap between rich and poor kids may be comfortable, happy, eager
through education. “As a society,” says learners. Where there isn’t sufficient
Wyner, “we should always care when a differentiation, there can be bad habits,
pool of students obviously prepared to frustration, and depression, because
lead loses ground and ultimately doesn’t learning matters that much.” Still, it is
get that opportunity.” difficult. “Differentiated instruction is
When it comes to testing, not differen- good for kids,” says McCoach, “and it’s
tiating for high achievers can backfire. hard for teachers.”
Although high achievers may do well on For Kim Tredick, differentiation is a
a general achievement (IQ) test, if they daunting task. She has 30 students in
aren’t paying attention in class, they her fifth-grade classroom at Sulphur
won’t do well on standardized tests. In Springs School in Canyon Country,
the long run, if we let these students get California. Her students read from level
by with computer time when they finish 1.6 to level 12.8, and she has 12 gifted
early, test scores may actually decline. students. Each morning, all her students
Middle school teacher Wagner adds, start by working on their individual list
“We’re always worried about getting our of spelling words. Then they partici-
low kids up to proficient, but there are pate in a short group lesson about, say,
so many that could be advanced.” quotation marks. Using six example
sentences, Tredick asks students to
the Solution:
figure out the rules that govern quota-
Differentiation and Good Habits
tion marks and then complete a quick,
The good news from the Jack Kent independent activity. To keep the gifted
Cooke Foundation study: Students students from sacrificing accuracy for
who enter high school as high achiev- speed, the rule is, “show me what
ers are likely to graduate. Challenging you know and you don’t have to
them from the start and teaching them do it again,” she says. Then, it’s
good habits gets them through eighth time for reading groups. The
grade and beyond. “If they have a well- topic: Symbolism. With
established habit of achievement,” says lower-level students,
Purdue professor Peterson, “even if the Tredick discusses
bottom falls out, many times those hab- the symbolism
cover story
behind pictures, such as a heart for love. class. The groups can change, depend- and Talented at the University of
With the gifted group, she analyzes a ing on the topic and the kids’ strengths Connecticut. That could mean coming
Robert Frost poem line by line. in different areas. up with a campaign speech for a presi-
Though Tredick makes differentiation leave it open ended: Radner, of dential candidate or tackling a global
look easy, she admits that it’s taken her Chicago’s Center for Urban Education, issue like climate change.
years to refine her planning and lessons recommends giving students open-ended Start Slow: When you start to differ-
to incorporate all the levels in her class questions and assignments, more think- entiate for high achievers, take it one
and make sure that no one has extra ing time, and assignments without mod- lesson at a time. Reading and math are
time on their hands. els to follow, all of which will challenge good places to start. Let students who
high achievers. Allow high achievers to excel at math move quickly through the
Making Differentiation Work
grapple with more difficult questions or curriculum—there’s always more math
To make your class work on every level, assignments based on the concept that to learn. Students who excel at reading
consider these ideas from teachers and the class is learning. That way, all the can go deeper into concepts and themes
experts. students are working on the same basic by reading more challenging books and
Start aS SCholarS: At the start of each concept, but at their own levels. discussing more complex topics.
year, Tredick establishes an environ- Make it real: Too often, we push our Up the Challenge: Don’t let students
ment where everyone is expected to high achievers faster, skipping them think school is easy. “One of the most
improve, and success is based on effort. through grades or moving them through important reasons that we should dif-
“Part of the academic environment,” she the curriculum faster than their peers. ferentiate for high achievers,” says
says, is that “we’re always curious and Engage them in real-life problem solv- McCoach, “is because if they aren’t
there is always more we can learn.” ing instead. Let them “do what the big challenged early on, they get the impres-
preteSt: Find out who may know more guys do, even if it’s at a junior level,” sion that school is something that is not
than you realize. “If teachers gave pre- says Joseph Renzulli, director of the worth the effort.” This attitude toward
tests before they started teaching,” says National Research Center on the Gifted learning will only hurt them later on.
McCoach, “they could identify students “
who need something different, because
they would see who’s beyond the lesson.” Without sufficient differentiation,
plan early and often: Really get to
know the curriculum so that you can there can be bad habits, frustration,
extend it and create assignments that
and depression, because learning
go beyond basics. “You need to know
what the students need to know,” says matters that much.”
—Jean Peterson
Tredick, “and what’s coming up, and
how to extend it across disciplines.”
enCoUrage different learning
StyleS: Get a feel for what a student
wants to do and then let him or her work
in ways that reflect that, recommends
Carmen Garcia, curriculum director for
the Davidson Academy in Nevada for
gifted students. Some kids want to read
voraciously, so let them devour harder
and harder books. Other kids may want
to convert what they’re learning into
comics or plays.
groUp aCCordingly: Group kids based
on ability sometimes and by interests
other times. McCoach recommends
dividing your class into three groups:
one group that is following the curricu-
lum, one that’s working beyond it, and
one that needs more help. Then, you can
plan for those three groups, instead of
working on individual plans for every
high achiever and low achiever in your
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