This time the prompt - from Tracy Riley - has reminded me of the importance of my tribe and how we as a group can be strong advocates for those who need their voices heard (there is a great article in this link). In this case, our gifted learners and also their teachers who believe in them need this advocacy.
8 years ago I watched this clip on YouTube and saw it gain great momentum. It is still one of my favourites and a great reminder that while it's okay to be the lone nut and the first follower, it's also vital that, as part of it, you can find your tribe or your professional learning network (PLN). Tribes can be powerful catalysts for change. Teacher leadership leads the change through support from the tribe.
Now, more than ever, our gifted students are relying on us to utilise the strengths of our tribe to enable their voices to be heard. We need to work with our tribe to create honest, open and reflective conversations and discussions around what it means to be gifted. These students are learners in our system who have unique social, emotional and learning needs. We have to increase our understanding and knowledge of specific types of giftedness - for example, our twice-exceptional students, our underachievers, the different cultural aspects of giftedness.
Often, we find ourselves being criticised for even mentioning the word 'gifted.' It's almost as if we are doing something wrong by daring to suggest that giftedness exists. But it does and we know it does - to deny it, in my view, is denying a group of individuals their right to an education that meets their individual needs.
One way of fighting against this - and we must fight against it - is to find your tribe, your PLN or be a part of a community of practice which has a common goal of working to create an equitable learning environment for our gifted students.
Finding our tribe helps us become part of a community of practice (different to our current CoLs).
A community of practice (CoP) is all about ownership and leadership. Everyone is on an equal footing and has something of value to share no matter whether you're a student teacher or a professor - what you think and have to say is valued and respected. Learning happens with others and through discussion and sharing of thinking, new learning and understandings can evolve. It is not a top-down model. That's a CoP in a nutshell. If you want to know more, the link below takes you to my presentation on CoPs which grew out of my Masters. I have an absolute passion for this form of a professional community because the learning is owned by its members.
Your tribe discussions will be some of the best professional learning you can get - if not THE best as you all own it and drive it.
They will challenge your thinking - and their own at the same time.
They 'get' you and understand and share your passions.
Your tribe provides a group of 'critical friends' who are there to help you reflect on your practice and be a reflexive teacher.
Your tribe contains a group of 'like-minds' who you can learn from and with.
Sylvia Duckworth (@sylviaduckworth on Twitter) sums up, in this sketchnote, the value of having a tribe and what it means to be a part of one...
We need to challenge the thinking that there's no such thing as giftedness or that 'all children are gifted' and the other myths out there. We need to fight it and with our tribe I believe we can do just that. We accept and value other groups of learners so:
...why is there such animosity towards the concept of giftedness when there is a wealth of research and other evidence to show that these students absolutely do exist.
To end this post, Seth Godin talks in this TED-Ed presentation on tribes being "Founded on shared ideas and values," and that ..."tribes give ordinary people the power to lead and make big change. He urges us to do so."
Our gifted students are depending on us - and our tribe.
I've read comments recently during a discussion on gifted education and gifted learners and it was interesting to read some from teachers who believe that there's no such thing as giftedness, that their students are fine and achieving 'where they should be' and are 'happy in the classroom' etc. That's fantastic. If they are doing all these things, if their teachers are meeting their needs and challenging them at the level they need to be challenged.
But how do they know? What is their evidence?
A test score? Observation - which is always subjective as is our nature as people. The questions that kept circling in my mind were -
Have you asked the students? Where is the student voice in this discussion? Where is the focus on the learning as well as the teaching?
Many of the comments focused on the teaching but not a lot on the learning.
Is it time for some very honest reflection and to increase the use of student voice?
Back in 2007 I read Michael Absolum's book Clarity in the Classroom. It changed a lot of my practice. I had always listened to my students - but had I really HEARD them? I reflected a great deal on this and have ever since. There is a questionnaire on page 41 (in the image below) which can be confronting but once you're in the habit of deep reflection it can become a starting point for change and one of the most powerful tools you can use.
Over the past few weeks, I've been reading through the student voice responses to another survey on giftedness. The results were, in the main, heartbreaking in relation to how these students perceive themselves, how they feel about school and how they feel their teachers perceive them. The survey will be collated and I'm hoping shared widely.
There are so many ways to give students a voice in learning and teaching and I've blogged about some of these before here. The list is endless but there's always a way to include student voice - the trick is that it must then be used - reflected on, let it challenge our thinking, confront us in some cases. We just need to be open to and expect it as part of the learning and teaching process.
Some of the ways I've used it in the past include:
It's important to find ways that ALL voices can be heard - particularly those of the students who may need ways to share that are private to them and their teacher.
Teachers want their students to achieve and be successful and they want them to be reflective learners. We need to make sure that we are also being reflective - even if that means we confront some of our own beliefs.
ReferenceAbsolum, M., (2006). Clarity in the Classroom. Hodder Education: Auckland, New Zealand
Day 5 of the giftEDnz October Blog Challenge is all about helping our students be themselves and 'come out of their shells.' It is inspired by this blog post from Vanessa White which has really struck a chord with me. Sadly, Vanessa's story is all too common.
As teachers, we try very hard to respond to individual differences but sometimes this can, unfortunately, be in the form of trying to get students to comply and act in the same way. With the pressures placed on today's teachers, this is understandable but it is not right. We can't do this. Not if we want all of our students to have a safe and nurturing learning and teaching environment. We have to really embrace and celebrate those differences otherwise our students lose their identity and self-esteem as an individual. See the person first - not the student.
We say that we have an inclusive education system in Aotearoa New Zealand...but do we really? Can we honestly say this - hand on heart - when so many of our children feel that they don't fit in? Student voice is a powerful tool and over the past few weeks, I've read too many comments (around 120 from a student voice survey) from a wide range of students at different ages and stages who are saying that they don't fit in - they don't feel included.
All children need a voice and need to know - and feel - that they fit in and are included as a valuable - and valued - member of the community, that they are equally as important as anyone else. As teachers, we can make sure that happens by increasing our knowledge and understanding of what it means to be gifted and/or multi-exceptional. So much confusion and misunderstanding exist around giftedness. If we deny that giftedness exists just as much as ADHD, Aspergers, Dyslexia, etc then we're denying that a group of individuals exist. This is not inclusive and can we really afford to be doing this?
So what can we do about this...
We can begin with empathy - all learning and teaching must start with this in my opinion.
We can challenge our beliefs about giftedness and multi-exceptionalities.
We can accept that giftedness is not just a name - it is a genuine category of people who have unique social, emotional and learning needs that are different to others - just as it is with ADHD, Aspergers, etc. We can accept this and work to meet the needs of these students - so why not our gifted students as well? We need to stop denying the wealth of research that is out there.
Discussion - be open to different ideas and thinking.
Celebrate, encourage - and EXPECT - our gifted children to be themselves. This needs to be done actively in all learning environments if we are going to see any change in our gifted children's self-esteem and development of strong identities.
Continue to push back on the amount of unnecessary administration so that we can place the emphasis firmly back on what we signed up to do - learning and teaching with inspirational and incredible individuals who need us to see them as people - not as data. Be very clear on the 'why' - if it doesn't impact learning, teaching and the well-being of our students then we need to question why we're doing it. This isn't easy, but the more of us who question is, the greater the chance we have of creating change - our students and their whānau need and deserve this.
We have a chance to change the environment and outcomes for our gifted children with the Draft Disability and Learning Support Action Plan currently open for discussion until the end of October 2018. We can't let this opportunity go by. It's time to challenge beliefs, understandings and misunderstandings around gifted education and gifted children, (particularly our own through reflection and reflective practice). If we don't, then we're not going to be meeting the learning, social and emotional needs of all of our students - and that's not who we are as teachers. It's not why we became teachers.
Today's post is inspired by a post written by Andi Delaune for this year's Gifted Awareness Blog Tour held annually in June by NZCGE - the New Zealand Centre for Gifted Education.
Andi writes about the crucial role teachers have to play in making sure that "everyone is invited to the party." Teachers work incredibly hard to make sure that everyone is included but 'we don't know what we don't know.' If teachers don't have the understanding of what giftedness is and what it means to be gifted then how are they able to meet the learning, social and emotional needs of this group of students? If they have misunderstandings around:
Here are a few resources that are particularly useful when we as teachers are thinking about how we make sure that our gifted students are included. The first one, a TEDxTalk really resonated with me and explains some of the differences so well. I would absolutely recommend watching this one, in particular, if you want to work towards a truly inclusive learning environment.
Why Gifted May Not Be What You Think
10 Social and Emotional Needs of the Gifted - from Ian Byrd (Byrdseed)
This is a great video to share and create discussion around - great for a professional learning and development (PLD) session where a starting question could be similar to what Andi states in her blog post -
"If joy was a party...then the teacher was the one to make sure that everyone not only got the invitation, but was partaking of this joy while they were there." A. Delaune (2018)
One of our fundamental roles as teachers is to help every single student find the joy in their learning and make sure they are all included and their differences celebrated. If we build our own knowledge around what it means to be gifted - in all its forms - then we really can't go wrong.
Gifted students have it easy - right? They're well-organised, popular, are our natural leaders, a dream to learn and teach with, often the go-to person in the classroom and they always get the best marks. Right? No. They don't. These are our high-ability students and there IS a difference. This is such a misconception and it puts our gifted students on the back foot right from the time they enter the classroom. If they've been identified at some point and then don't meet teacher expectations there can be a break down in relationships, both with their teachers and their peers and the damage done to self-esteem and identity can be hard to rectify.
So what do we need to do as teachers? I've thought about this a lot over the years. Some of this thinking is based on research, reflection and my own learning but some thinking is also based on the gut instinct we develop as teachers. Here are my thoughts:
1. Don't assume
I love this quote from Alan Alda - “Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in awhile, or the light won’t come in.” ~ Alan Alda, actor
The student that struggles with reading and writing could still be a gifted writer. They just need a different platform to share their ideas. That student who's 'always in trouble' could also be a gifted student who is showing his or her frustration in a different way. The autistic student could be the next top computer programmer. Sometimes our assumptions that a student CAN'T do something can cloud our ability to see what they CAN do.
For more on this, please read this powerful post...
2. Don't read the report comments from the last teacher/school until well into the first term
This might be controversial but it's honest and not meant to offend.
By all means, respect the basic data/professional judgements and anything essential but we all know that personalities come into play in learning and teaching. That student that "...has not reached his/her potential...' could just need a different teacher with a different perspective. We can't be precious about this. It's just a fact of life and it's normal. If we see it as any other way then we might just miss that gifted student who just needs a fresh start or that new perspective.
3. Know our students as people first - students second
Who is this awesome person in our room - what makes them tick? I used to get my students to write to me on the topic of "What I wish my teacher knew about me." It was one of the most powerful learning activities I've ever done. It gives you a real insight into who these amazing human beings are.
4. Be open to possibilities - be open to the possibility that a student may be gifted.
This links in with not making assumptions. We need to address our assumptions in terms of gifted students coming from so many different
5. Listen, observe and question
Teachers are great at talking - I am very much guilty as charged in this respect but many years ago I was reading about the power of listening in the classroom and it really changed how I interacted with my students. It's still very much a work in progress because I can't help myself but it was amazing what I picked up by being quiet and just listening and observing.
6. Surround yourself with as much knowledge as possible.
This is sometimes not as easy as it sounds. Teachers are under so much pressure to raise achievement levels of students who are below the expected level, deal with a myriad of neurodiverse students and meet all the other administrative requirements of their profession. This is where our gifted students often fall between the cracks if we're not careful. We can make sure this doesn't happen by learning from others asynchronously through our online professional learning networks (PLN) as well as in more formal learning situations. There is a myriad of groups and pages where information can be found on learning and teaching with our gifted students. Just a few are linked below...
If you suspect that a student may be gifted utilise your PLN, your colleagues, the student's whānau and other resources to help with identification. Be clear in your own mind that there is a difference between gifted and high-achieving students so that your gifted students aren't missed. It is a question of equity in education that the needs of our gifted students are met.
Today's prompt is one that could make you laugh...or cry...depending on the way you look at it and also what your background experience is. The 10 ways to annoy a gifted child are listed below. I thought about ways to reflect on these statements. The author's (Lisa Van Gemert) perspective is funny with a touch of sarcasm. But this is a serious issue and after nearly 20 years in the profession, I've decided my reflection will be a serious one - with hopefully a dash of humour and a whole lot of positivity around how we can make things better - for our gifted students and also ourselves. First of all, I was going to reflect on how I have seen every one of these statements for myself over the years - and often despaired - but it's not in my nature to be overly negative. I'd much rather reflect on what I've learned - and am learning - and create solutions for these points. Have I been guilty of some of these? You bet I have - you don't know what you don't know, or so a very wise colleague said to me one day when I was beating myself up over something. So here goes...
1. Force them to remain at the “right” grade level.
This is a curious one. Why do we do this? Often we hear it discussed that it's because students 'wouldn't cope with different-age peers' but hang on...what about the mixed levels in smaller rural schools? Students have been coping exceptionally well in these learning environments. In fact, when I was head of Year 7 in a large College a few years ago it was always quite easy to identify learners from these environments as they were often - not always - but quite often, more comfortable around people of all ages. It was what they were used to. So what's stopping us?
2. Insist that they show their work.
This is another interesting one and one that has, in the past, been dictated by people other than those at the whiteboard face of teaching and learning. The Numeracy Project was good for this. I remember during one interview where students have to explain their thinking/strategies a student asked me why I needed them to do this. My reply was the standard one about needing to know what strategies they could use so that I could find the right level for their next learning. The next statement from the student really made me think - they were one of those amazing students that just 'got' the answer. A truly gifted mathematician by every definition and description. The response - "But is the answer right?" "Yes," I replied. "Well then telling you how I got it isn't going to change it to being anything else then is it?" The student had a point.
I think with gifted students it's very different. With a student who is struggling, explaining or showing their thinking can really help them understand what they're learning and how something works. For gifted students, this just frustrates the heck out of them when they are more than ready to move on to the next challenge.
3. Force them to read along.
Fortunately, I've never done this (quickest way to kill a passion for reading) but I have seen it happen so many times! Back in about 2003, I developed a NZ version of Literature Circles. One of the guidelines was around just this. The group could only DISCUSS what their group was reading up to the part where the slowest reader in the group was up to - and being a slower reader was also a cause for celebration as they were often the ones who were also picking up the finer details as much as the gifted readers. We really pushed and valued this in my class. It was always something to be as proud of as being a gifted reader. The more capable and gifted readers could read as much as they wanted. It was all about flexibility.
You can read more about this version of Literature Circles by clicking through the presentation image.
There's differentiation and then there's real differentiation. It's not about giving more of the same to our gifted students or slightly harder work. It's about truly knowing our students and differentiating to meet their specific needs. This is becoming increasingly challenging as class numbers increase and the primary sector relies more on relief teachers to fill gaps.
Differentiation is not about putting our gifted students in the 'top group' or mixed ability groups all the time. To really meet their needs, our classrooms need to be organised to have clusters of gifted students in them so that they have the opportunity to learn and teach with like-minds. This is crucial for their social and emotional development and careful grouping - and ranges of grouping are key. Differentiation is all about differentiating the content, process and product. The toolbox link below explains qualitative differentiation for our gifted students really well.
We may have better opportunities for this with the new FLEs (or ILEs/MLEs depending on which acronym you use). However, a caution with the new environments is that they may not suit all of our gifted students - particularly the twice-exceptional (2e) students, and there has yet to be a significant amount of research conducted into their effectiveness. I'm excited about the possibilities though - but we need evidence and we also need professional learning and development (PLD) in order for these to work well as they necessitate a shift in pedagogy.
5. Make passive aggressive comments about their intelligence.
There's not much to say about this one. We've all heard one of our colleagues say this and it is not acceptable. Even as a joke. Gifted students can often be very sensitive and this is just damaging to identity and self-worth. Never start a sentence with "But you're so smart..."
6. Only allow same-age friends.
This goes back to #1 but it is also more than that. In order to be able to interact with like-minds it's crucial that students can interact with all ages. Sometimes it's often by this interaction that we as teachers can start to identify a gifted student - or very importantly - one who has been flying under the radar and not indicated a great deal of giftedness in the classroom setting. These are often our underachievers or students who may have behaviour issues. Because gifted students often develop asynchronously, it's vital to let them find their 'tribe' - people who can meet their social, emotional and intellectual needs.
7. Don’t let them linger over things that interest them.
This is such a tricky one and the cause of this happening is so often beyond the control of the student's teacher. The pressures from curriculum and assessment demands have, in the past, put enormous pressure on teachers to 'get through the work'. It's honestly crazy. The changes since I began teaching in 1999 have been enormous and the workload and expectations are sometimes out of kilter with what we know to be absolute best practice in teaching and learning. I hope we can push back on this a little now that National Standards have gone but there's going to need to be professional learning for many who trained under the NS system so that the focus goes firmly back on our fantastic - and I still believe - world-leading National Curriculum.
This curriculum allows for passions and interests to be followed. Genius Hour and Passion Projects fit so well into this. It has differentiation and personalisation at its heart. It was designed to begin with the Key Competencies and build the curriculum for our learners from there. There's always 'wriggle room' in our planning and assessment. Imagine the power of that!!
No one is perfect and most certainly I am not! I have learned so much more from failing than I ever did from getting things right - something I've had to work on being the perfectionist that I am. We need to take the negative pressure right off our able and gifted students. They are individuals and a human being first and foremost. If we don't remove that pressure or teach them how to combat serious perfectionist tendencies then we are contributing to the mental health statistics.
10. Make them repeat the same things over and over.
I will not dye my teacher's hair red.
I will not dye my teacher's hair red.
I will not dye...
Oh - not THAT kind of repetition!!
Repetition kills the joy of learning. Yes, some students need repetition to help them master new learning but not all do. We have to ask the question "What is the point in repeating something that a student already knows or has mastered?"
I think the key point in all of this - and helpful in not always annoying your students (let's be honest, we're human, we all annoy each other at some time!) is to keep them (individually and as people) at the heart of everything we do. If we do that then we can't go wrong - and we'll only annoy them a little bit.
Since I watched Rita Pierson's TEDTalk many years ago, I've been inspired by what she had to say and it's made me reflect deeply on the purpose of being a champion for our students and which students need that champion the most. Of course, all of our students need a champion but there is a group which, at the moment, are in very real danger of being forgotten. These are our gifted students.
I've been thinking about why this is the case and there are many reasons and issues. A common belief is that "All children are gifted, they just unwrap their gifts at different times." Unfortunately, this belief has taken hold and doesn't account for the unique social, emotional and learning needs of this group of students. Yes, all children have or are gifts but not all children are gifted. There is a wealth of research and information on this, some of which I've listed below, but still, the misinformation persists. Why?
During recent discussions, I've come to understand that it seems to be a lack of knowledge through the professional learning and development gaps. I graduated from university in 1998 and we were exposed to very little information on gifted and talented students. In fact, the quote in the image above was frequently used. I think it's like many things...if used enough it becomes a self-perpetuating belief that many grab hold of. After all, we're teachers and we believe in every one of our students and we know that they have gifts. That's of course as it should be, but by denying that truly gifted students exist by definition and identification we are perpetuating this myth and also taking a rather large risk with the specific social, emotional and learning needs of this group of students. It then becomes an issue of equity.
We always champion our students and I've blogged about this in the past (here, here, and here) but have I really championed the gifted students I've learned and taught alongside? Could I have done things differently? Of course, there are always things we can do better. I had a large group of gifted Year 5/6 students in my class in 2011 and I think, together, we really enabled them to shine, to share and value their learning from their one-day school and to make connections between the two learning environments. There were so many lessons I learned from them and from fighting for them and their peers to be recognised in the school. These are lessons I take with me today.
Prior to this, I was differentiating and personalising the learning for all of my students and they always planned the learning alongside me but knowing what I know now, I could have done it even better and made a real impact on how and what they were learning and how they were recognised and valued. This understanding of gifted students and how to be a champion for them only came about through my own need to learn. There was very little organised for us in terms of professional learning and development (PLD). I think in the whole of my teaching career I have only attended one PLD session on gifted students. One session - a one-off - does not ensure that changes in practice are made or are even sustainable. Having the knowledge and understanding about giftedness and gifted students helps us to be better champions for this group of students.
'Kids don't learn from people they don't like'. This is an often-quoted statement from the late Rita Pierson. I wonder what happens to our gifted students who know they are different, who feel that they don't fit in if we as teachers don't acknowledge that giftedness even exists? What does that do to a student's self-esteem and identity? To their understanding of who they are? What impact does that have on their love of learning and of school in general? These are all questions that need further thought and research - and most importantly, input in the form of student voice. For me, being a champion for our gifted students means that we open up the debate and have honest reflective discussions around our own beliefs and understandings - this can be quite confronting but our students need and deserve this. We need to share as much evidence as we can about what the experiences are for this group of students. We can say that we're differentiating the learning and personalising it but unless we understand the specific needs of this group of students, I'm betting that we have a way to go - but isn't that the great thing about learning? A champion is someone who will always have their students' backs and fight for what is their right in the education system. They help give students a voice. That is currently leading to some fantastic debates on social media. The more we can have these conversations, the better chance we have as champions for gifted students.
