Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Session 2 - Question 1

The topics stressed in Chapter 4 apply to parents and other caring adults. What “golden nuggets” will you incorporate into an educational setting? Remember to give the page numbers to support your answer and help others locate what you referenced from the chapter.

17 comments:

  1. Chapter 4 contains past learning and new insights. For me, it is always enjoyable to read about Maslow’s Eight Hierarchy of Needs. The four basic needs listed on page 68 are crucial indicators of the stability and growth of an individual, especially a child. Gifted youth can be found in all types of socio-economic backgrounds. For some, creating a space where the student feels safe and protected, say against bullying is crucial to their focus and ability to do their school work. The four advanced levels of Maslow’s Hierarchy (page 70) are always exciting…especially when discussing the gifted individual. The last two paragraphs on page 71 strike at the core of what everyone in education can do to help gifted children achieve a transfer of motivation whether the adults are in a classroom or pushing a broom.

    Chapter 4 is rich with information and other areas of interest for me were relationships (page 60), stress (page 59), and the last two paragraphs on page 61 discussing underachievement in school. My favorite quote is the first sentence in the last paragraph located on page 61. This quote makes me wonder why all educators are not willing to meet the needs of all children…including our gifted. Perhaps the best “golden nuggets” were all the questions the author asked and for me taking a few moments to reflect in depth how I would answer those questions.

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  2. There are plenty of "golden nuggets" to incorporate in my classroom. I picked a couple as follows:
    Golden Nugget 1: I think it’s important for us as teachers to recognize the deficiencies of a school system in which – as stated on page 61- “… the gifted child learns that success comes without much effort, setting him up for failure in later educational endeavors when effort is required to succeed”. I agree that teachers tend to focus on the kids that need to work to meet the expectations and tend to forget the gifted who meet those expectations without much effort, and need to be challenged. I agree with the authors that it is extremely important to identify the interests of the gifted child so you can (Page 74)“…raise expectations with challenging activities that are related to the child’s interest” ; This not only will teach the child that success does require effort but also will motivate the child in school. As discussed on page 66, knowing and redirecting a gifted child interest is also a powerful tool to transfer that motivation into areas that the gifted child is not interested into but are necessary for him/her to develop ” even if the special interest is outside of the school experience, there will be eventually some transfer”.

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  3. Golden Nugget 2: I find very helpful the suggestions that the authors give in helping gifted kids to establish realistic and appropriate short-term and long term goals (p. 75). I think it is particularly important to help gifted children to set goals and organize ideas. Through my experience with gifted people, I realize how much they struggle in keeping motivated when perfectionism, unattainable goals, and/or “Goal vaulting” are a constant. Gifted children are often overwhelmed by their own ideas -which are usually prolific, so they struggle narrowing down their projects because they want to explore everything and show everything they know; as they explore and discover, their horizon broadens, and “Goal vaulting” takes place. When gifted children don’t see immediate results for their efforts, they become easily frustrated and -sometimes, abandon their projects. As the authors comment (page 75) “…the intensity of gifted children leads them to set very expansive and even unrealistic goals…”; “… a gifted child, because of her impatience, may have difficulty learning to tolerate the frustration that results from not getting to the goal quickly.” I think is our role as parents and teachers to guide our gifted students through the process of setting long-term goals, and determining realistic steps or short-term goals to achieve them, focusing on enjoying the process and rewarding the progress more than on the ultimate goal itself. I absolutely agree with the authors when they say (page 75). …” The capacity to maintain the kind of effort that is needed to achieve long-term goals is something that is learned.” We must be role models as teachers and parents of this effort, and we must teach our gifted students that long-term goals not only require sustained effort, patience and determination but also bring the most rewards and are the most powerful intrinsic motivator.

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  4. First posting: I appreciate Table 6 on page 63: Frequent Reasons for Underachievement and Decreased Motivation. "The child is unable to think about or plan for future goals." This goes along with page 75, Planning the steps.

    I know I benefit from exposure to super organized people, who show me how to take progressive little steps toward my goals. I have a student currently in my room that needs this type of support, and she will shine.

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  5. Responding to AlvaradoO: Goal vaulting caught my eye as well. I have seen it often in the classroom, and sometimes I haven't dealt with it just right. I need to see it as an opportunity to develop the student's strength and commitment to achieve long term goals as well as short term goals.

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  6. Response to tiggeronmars: I wonder -as you do, why all educators are not willing to meet the needs of all children…including our gifted. I don't think is a matter of willingness. I think it is a matter of lack of knowledge or a matter of guilt. I still think that many educators are not fully aware of the nature and needs of the gifted and keep some misconceptions on what a gifted child looks like (as described on the introduction xvii). I also think that some teachers -just as some parents do, think "out of guilt" that struggling children need more help than the gifted ones, and they tend to focus on helping them without recognizing that gifted children might need as much help.

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  7. Response to Melanie: I also appreciate the table 6 on page 63. The reason for underachievement that caught my attention the most was: "There is too much emphasis put on extrinsic incentives for achievement rather than the intrinsic rewards of learning". I think this is a huge mistake that parents -and sometimes the school system itself, makes.

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  8. On page 72 it says to keep from destroying a motivational environment you need to avoid power struggles. Their suggestion to avoid power struggles is for the parent to withdraw. I've had power struggles in class with gifted kids who didn't want to do the work. I don't think the teacher can just give in to the kid in a classroom setting or it will destroy the learning environment for all of the other students as well.

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  9. @AlvaradoO: I like to think that we should focus more on the learning going on in school, and less on the grades. But, I find that students, and particularly the gifted students, are often driven only by grades. Without grades, I don't think there will be much motivation to go to school.

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  10. A strategy I will use in an educational setting is the "Challenge, but Provide Support" strategy. On page 74 it states "Part of being a parent or teacher involves nudging or even pushing a child to stretch or to try new experiences." The paragraph goes on to ask the question how far is too far? I remember asking myself this question when I had a group of GT students 2 years ago. I knew that they were capable of so much more than they were giving but when I challenged them, they seemed to crumble because it didn't come easy. We really had to develop a positive relationship like it stated on pg 73 and build on thier successes like it states on 77. I really liked the verb they used when they described how we need to "stretch" our students. I think it's very important to know where the balance is between stretching and breaking them.

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  11. For me, the golden nuggets found on chapter 4 were:
    Support Small Steps and Catch the child doing something right on pgs78, 79: Sometimes we assume GT students should know how to do things without much guidance, and then we get frustrated with them when they are not successful. I feel that by supporting small steps and giving positive reinforcement, I as a teacher have to be aware of the small steps that the activity or behavior requires and I am able to provide the support they need.

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  12. To JBrown: I completely agree with the challenge we face as teachers as to how much to push a child and help them to coupe with the frustration they feel when things don't come as easy as they usually do for them. I think the important thing is to provide support when we see the student having trouble.

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  13. Table 6: Frequent Reasons for Underachievement and Decreased Motivation pg. 63 has some very good points. pg. 60-61 School can NOT be the most common motivational problem for a GT student. Looking at what happens to kids at school is important towards keeping them headed in the right direction.

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  14. @Adriana N: I agree that as adults we do assume that GT students don't need as much guidance as others. I think we take advantage of their ability to be creative and independent which can lead to a very frustrated and confused gifted student.

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  15. @ AdrianaN Support small steps and positive reinforcement. Being aware of students needs and being supportive.

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  16. PV: I liked the sections on establishing goals (p. 75) through building success (p. 81). With the knowledge that gifted kids are quite intense which may cause feelings of frustration if they are unable to achieve the goals that they set for themselves, breaking down long-term goals into smaller chunks of short-term goals that lead up to the end goal is very useful and will help keep them focused. All throughout this process we have to provide support and encouragement. As stated on p. 78, "reinforcing effort can help develop better habits because gifted children often succeed when effort is exerted".

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  17. PV: I concur with the observations of tiggeronmars and Alvarado O regarding "why all educators are not willing to meet the needs of all children…including our gifted". Although there had been a growing understanding about giftedness, a large gap still exists within the ducational system as regards realizing and meeting the nature and needs of gifted kids. Gifted children have special needs and they are an underserved population.

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