Celebrating Success....and Failure!

I really enjoyed this post from Madelaine Armstrong Willcocks. It explores gifted learners and how they experience success. One of the most frequent things I've struck in my interactions with gifted kids, is their uneasiness when their successes are highlighted and celebrated in front of their peers. This seems to me to be particularly common to high school aged girls but knowing the desire of boys to fit in with their peers and not be seen as different, I'm sure there are boys who feel exactly the same way.

I've been thinking a lot about how can we celebrate the accomplishments of gifted kids in a way that allows them to feel deservedly proud without worrying about the reactions of their peers. Because when it comes down to it, that's what this is about, right? Worrying about what others think is what stops our gifted kids from celebrating their successes as they deserve to, free of anxiety about what others are thinking. So how can we address this?

There are two things that keep popping into my head as I mull this over.

1. Not everyone is going to like you....and that's ok. Maybe this is what we should be teaching our kids. If we keep this in mind, then maybe they'll be less worried about the reactions of others.

Then again, sometimes it is people in their own friend group who seem to struggle with feeling joy for their successes and in that case, telling our gifted kids not to care about their friends' opinions is not going to help one bit.

So then what? Well, here's an idea.

2. Let's celebrate our gifted kids' failures! Let's share when things go wrong for them instead of just highlighting their successes.

Ok, there are lots of things to keep in mind here. First and foremost, this approach needs to be used for all our learners so we are not perpetuating the very behaviour we are actually trying to minimise.....isolating the gifted learner by making them seem different to their classmates. Furthermore, this needs to be done sensitively and with the permission of the learners. But talking to the cohort about the struggles the gifted learner is facing and what they intend to do next to pick themselves up can only be beneficial for everyone. Talking honestly about resilience and the power of mistakes is so compelling and can send a great message to everyone about growth mindset and the power of yet. If sensitively sharing "failures" and disappointments becomes the norm for all students in our classes, then the group as a whole is more likely to feel joy for one another, gifted or otherwise, when a class member works through something to experience success. Mistakes are a great leveller and community builder! And it helps our gifted kids be seen as human, people who face challenge and experience disappointment, just like everyone else.

Of course, we might have search harder for the gifted kids' mistakes or failures than we do for some other kids. That's ok! (Nobody else needs to know that part!)

This approach relies on one fundamental thing; that we as their teachers are providing a programme which enables everyone to work at their own level and experience challenge. If our gifted kids are NEVER making mistakes and experiencing failures and disappointments, then isn't it our job as their teacher to reflect on whether we are providing a programme which challenges them enough?

Just sayin'......





  

Giftedness and High Achievers

Day 3 of the GiftEDNZ Blogging Challenge prompts us to consider the difference between High Achievers and Gifted Kids. 

Today's article is The Truth About Gifted Versus High Achieving Students.  This article is a really interesting one. The writer, Chris Croll, makes some very compelling points and I agree with many of her thoughts. The one point we differ on is that Chris makes a very clear distinction between gifted students and high achieving students; her post implies that there is very little overlap between the two. I'm not so sure about this.

I have been mulling this over since reading the article and wonder whether this calls for a visual response. Since I am the only member of my whanāu to have no artistic ability whatsoever, I'm turning to my trusty friend, Canva. 

I have drawn three diagrams which might help me to think more clearly.  These diagrams are truly primitive but hopefully, you get the gist!

1. We know not all gifted kids are achieving highly but are ALL high achievers actually gifted? Are high achievers simply a smaller subset of gifted students?

2. Or is it possible that some high achievers are not gifted at all? Are they simply kids who have learned to "play the game" of school and have mastered it, meaning they are achieving well across the board? If that's the case, go them, I say! 

3. Or does the answer lie somewhere in the middle? Are there some high achievers who are gifted and some who are not?

(I apologise profusely for being unable to work out how to colour the overlapping piece an orangey shade! This is really bugging me but for the sake of getting this posted, I'm going to let it go!)

In recent years, my thinking has started to become more in line with the first diagram (all high achievers are gifted) whereas before it was probably most like the third (some high achievers are gifted but not all.) I'm not thinking of high achievers as those good, solid students who maintain good grades with a lot of effort but rather the students who consistently achieve at a very high level across the board. Isn't it possible that all these very high achieving students are gifted? 

I wonder if it really matters for the high achievers that we define them? I mean, if they are working and achieving at such a high level and we are challenging them and keeping them engaged, then yay! Happy times! 

However, the kids this really does matter for are the gifted kids who are not achieving, those who are disengaged, not feeling challenged or motivated and who are really left feeling miserable in our current system.  These are the ones we owe it to to get it right. 

This blogpost really was a stream of consciousness and as always, I could, of course, be convinced otherwise so feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments. 

Ten Things We Should Never Say To Our Gifted Learners

Day 2 of the GiftEDNZ October Blogging Challenge featured a blogpost from Lisa Van Gemert entitled, "Top Ten Ways to Annoy a Gifted Child." I must admit, I initially found this post charmingly hilarious but I acknowledge that this response comes from the place of being an empowered adult with the confidence and life experiences to advocate for my own needs. It is not half as funny if you put yourself in the shoes of a young person without the resources and courage to fight for what they need to truly thrive in our schools.

Lisa's post is an important one and I imagine we'd be hard-pushed to find a single member of the gifted community who has not experienced at least a handful of the items on her list.

So I thought I'd add to the list, this time focusing on ten things that a gifted learner should never hear us teachers say. I wrote this list in consultation with some of the gifted young people I've had the privilege of working with. These learners are now in high school so they are particularly sensitive to any sort of feedback that singles them out from the rest of their class, as well as any comments that bog them down under the weight of their teachers' high expectations.

For the sake of ease, I've called this student Barbara which coincidentally is the name I use in my classroom when I need an example from a "hypothetical" student. I hope all Barbaras will forgive me; it just rolls off the tongue easily........



Without further ado, ten things we should never say to our gifted learners........


1. "Don't worry about that question now, Barbara! You'll cover that in next year's curriculum."

2. "Does anyone besides Barbara have an answer for my question?" (Said with a scathing tone after Barbara has offered answers to a number of questions.)

3. "Why are you struggling? You should know how to do this! You're smart."

4.  "Look at Barbara's work. Isn't it amazing? Barbara always does such amazing work......"  or anything which suggests favouritism or singles Barbara out from the rest of the class.

5.  "Don't stress about the test. You're so capable; you'll crush it! I just know you'll get top mark."

6.  Followed closely by, "I have to be honest, I thought you'd get a better mark than that, Barbara."

7.  Please don't EVER email me in my weekend asking for help with your homework."

8. "Barbara! You're reading AGAIN? I never see you without your nose in a book."

9. "I'm offering a chocolate bar to anyone who gets 100% on the test."

10. ""I believe all kids are gifted."


What would you add?

Five Practical Ways to Be a Champion for A Gifted Child- Teacher Version

I have long been a fan of Rita Pierson's TED talk Every Kid Needs a Champion With close to 9 million views, it is clear that her simple but compelling message resonates.

How does Pierson's wisdom apply to our gifted learners? Sadly, we're all familiar with the common scenario of gifted children being left to their own devices in contexts where the prevailing feeling is that they are doing "just fine" and are not "at risk." I'm not throwing any shade here......I know that we educators are frequently stretched thin, with far too much on our plates! It is not at all surprising that when teachers are swamped and forced to prioritise, the gifted kids who, on the surface, appear to be bright and making progress are often left to fend for themselves.

I know that I'm preaching to the choir here; I don't need to explain why not meeting the needs of gifted learners (and indeed any learner) is a tragedy and an issue of social justice.  We're all on the same page and want to be champions for our gifted learners. The question is not Why but How? How do we advocate for our gifted kids? How do we become their champions and support them as they strive to meet their potential?

Here's five practical ways educators can become champions for our gifted learners- needless to say, these ideas will work for any learners in your cohort.


1. Interview all the kids on your GATE register-

This is something that I had the privilege of doing with our GATE co-ordinator, Pauline Dann. We asked questions such as-

• What are you curious about? 
• How do you find the challenge level in your learning? 
• What do you want your teachers to know about you? 

The process was insightful, revealing, inspiring and in some cases very sad....it spurred us into further action and made us reflect on whether we were meeting the needs of our gifted cohort.

2. Communicate frequently with the whanāu of your gifted kids.

Parenting gifted children can be incredibly difficult and even isolating at times. Consider surveying the families too. Support each other as you work to achieve great outcomes for your gifted kids.

3. Offer programmes that will challenge your gifted kids-

There is an abundance of programmes that help gifted kids make the most of their strengths and develop new ones, as well as providing opportunities for them to work with like-minds. Programmes include Tournament of Minds, Kidslit Quiz, Philosophy for Kids, Cantamaths, Brainbee and my personal favourite, Future Problem Solving, ........

Reflect carefully on your selection process. You might consider allowing children to self-nominate for some of these programmes....whatever you do, please don't select these kids based on some form of one-off test or worse, a school entrance exam!  Keep an open view of how giftedness presents itself. Many of our most gifted kids do not test well in formal testing situations but thrive in creative thinking programmes so please do give a lot of thought to how learners are selected. 

4. Ensure that your classroom programmes meet everyone's needs-

High ceiling- low floor tasks are brilliant for ensuring everyone can work at their own level. Offer open-ended tasks such as passion projects, genius hour etc but ensure that you provide adequate scaffolding and accountability checks for all kids.  There is sometimes an assumption that gifted kids will automatically know how to master open-ended inquiries and projects and be able to organise themselves with minimal teacher support. Don't fall into this trap. Check in frequently and provide mentoring and coaching to help all kids meet their potential.

5. Read, read, read! 

Learn all you can about how to meet the needs of gifted kids. Follow teachers on Twitter who have an interest in gifted kids. Join Justine Hughes' amazing Facebook group, a true treasure trove of resources and conversations that will help us be true champions for our gifted learners.

What ideas would you add to this list?