A gifted/talented education

[merithyn]

Teachers at the middle school where my kids go try hard at the differentiated teaching... or at least some of them do. The problem is the lack of policy on it. So far as I'm concerned, in a district like ours with incredibly low kids mixed in with incredibly high kids, every teacher should be required to do differentiation. Instead, it's merely suggested.

Another thing that some of the teachers are trying to do is Compacting. Basically, the kids take a short test to see where they are on the subject matters coming up. If they show that none of it is new to them, they are allowed to choose a project to work on instead of class subject matter. They are then graded on that project and relieved of the regular classwork. But again, none of this is policy. Teachers do it when they feel like it.

In Jeremy's case, they pretty much have to do both compacting and differentiated teaching or there's no reason for him to go to school. He hasn't learned anything in Science class in two years, and right now, he's helping teach the class. In Social Studies, the teacher (a good friend of mine) said that he had to compact with Jeremy or he was going to kill him. All of the stuff that they're going over is old news to Jeremy, so he sits there correcting the teacher on the minutiae to avoid boredom. It's annoying as hell for the kids and for the teacher. He's being compacted out pretty much to save everyone's sanity, and possibly Jeremy's life.

Next year, Riley will be coming into the same school, and she will have minimal support coming from a self-contained gifted class. Honors Reading and Math, but otherwise, unless the teachers choose to compact or use differentiated teaching, she'll be right back where Jeremy was at that age.

You're a teacher, Grumbler. Is it possible to make it policy to do those things in the classroom?

[grumbler]

You're a teacher, Grumbler. Is it possible to make it policy to do those things in the classroom?

It is possible, and it should be done.  It isn't easy, because teachers resist anything that makes them re-visit lesson plans they have used for years.  They do have to be trained in it, have the time allocated to creating the differentiated lessons plan (each of which is, in essence, three lesson plans), and have to have support in evaluating the products of differentiated lessons (ie they need help in developing a grading scale/rubric/descriptive comparison), because sometimes it is hard to give comparable grades to a dance and an essay!   

Plus, teachers often don't know what kind of recognition or feedback is meaningful to a gifted kid (who, being the snot-nosed bastards they all are, think they are smarter than the teacher and so don't thrill much to a teacher's "good job!")

But, yeah, it is possible.  I wouldn't try to spring it all on them at once, though.  Start with compacting, and require one or two lessons per quarter be compacted in every class, and give the teachers a professional day to figure out on a departmental basis exactly how to make that happen, and how to grade the project results.  Then, make sure that doing this is part of the teachers' evaluations.

[Caliga]

BTW, as an aside, AP courses (AP art courses excepted) are pretty much the opposite of what actual gifted students need.  Students who do well in AP courses are probably not gifted, just smart and motivated.

It's funny that you would say this.  I switched to AP English from AMG (i.e. gifted) English.  While the teachers I had for both were fantastic, I definitely got more out of the AMG course.  That class tended to feature much more lively discussion, for example.  AP English was more like "Ok we need to rush through this book, then we need to rush through that book."

[PDH]

Students should be forced to work alone in small room without a roof, devoid of any input other than random messages appearing on the wall in front of them (spelled incorrectly), bothered by the nose whistle of the student one room over, and given alternating periods of too much nonsense work and long sessions of boredom.

This will prepare them for the real world.

[grumbler]

It's funny that you would say this.  I switched to AP English from AMG (i.e. gifted) English.  While the teachers I had for both were fantastic, I definitely got more out of the AMG course.  That class tended to feature much more lively discussion, for example.  AP English was more like "Ok we need to rush through this book, then we need to rush through that book."

Plus, the tests are often ludicrous.

The association of university Latin teachers, whatever it is called, has terminated AP Latin, starting this year. May many subjects follow their lead!

[garbon]

Well yes, I always thought AP tests were just like the SATs. Something you did because it made you look good and that was about it.

[Ed Anger]

Students should be forced to work alone in small room without a roof, devoid of any input other than random messages appearing on the wall in front of them (spelled incorrectly), bothered by the nose whistle of the student one room over, and given alternating periods of too much nonsense work and long sessions of boredom.

This will prepare them for the real world.