I do not think my philosophy of giftedness has changed too much. I still agree with Renzulli to a great degree. I know how important it will be to keep students motivated. I know that my philosophy will change over time, it has to because I will change over time. This will be especially important when I actually start teaching and see what works and does not work in my own classroom. I would change my responses to the Assessment because I have learned so much during these past few weeks that I did not understand before about giftedness and gifted students. I feel better prepared to actually teach gifted students, or at least be able to identify them and provide an adequate education when in my classroom. I can do all this through the tools you have provided us: differentiation, compacting the curriculum, and actually trying to understand the diversity that exists within the gifted community.
Prior to this class, I did not think that gifted education was such a big sore spot. It is a stigma to be labeled gifted, but it should not be. Gifted education should be a priority, and we as a nation are falling behind on a global level. I read about this topic for my exploring gifted education assignment. I found the article very enlightening: we are not just falling behind, but declining! moving in the opposite direction of everyone else in the world. This actually gives me a bit of a panic attack. I am a future teacher, and I am a parent as well. How can the next generation compete with the rest of the world when we do not prepare them for it? we seem to be taking everything for granted, and not recognizing that the education of our gifted students should be an important part of our education system.
I thought the document on questions and thought starters is really helpful. While it can be used in any classroom, I know that it will be especially important in my science classroom. Science requires creative thinking and problem solving, so it will be an important skill for my students to develop. I also liekd the visualizations of the "spectrum". This was so helpful in my understaning of the different types of problem solvers. I plan to actually use one of those tests to determine what my students are like. This will help me in creating group assignments and placing students in group labs.
Saturday, July 21, 2012
Reflection 7: July 4, 2012
Wow! were those presentations amazing. I had a difficult time deciding which ones to actually choose for my discussion. After reading the topics for 2011's DI, I chose to look at many different age groups, including the really young ones. I liked learning about bugs and how these students really created a story for their presentation. So fun!
I ended up choosing a couple middle school groups for my discussion. I know that during class and in other peoples' disucssions, they mentioned that the high school and college level studetns were the ones that were easiest to understand. I think that maybe the recordings made it more difficult for some younger groups to be understood. I ended up finding the middle school students easy to understand and incredibly creative. This leads me to the topic of creativity. As we saw in the discussion and in class, there is no one definition for creativity. It can mean many things to different people, including myself. When descirbing how these groups were creative, I can only pick out specific points that I found creative. I thought that the use of the random props was very creative: one group used a mop as an oar and two other group members were stretched out on the stage wiggling their bodies to imitate a boat on the water. The most amazing part of all this is they only had 5 minutes to come up with these ideas. The students were moving in sync to imitate the movement of the boat and the water. This is not something they had advance knowledge of. The other thing i noticed is how enthusiastic all the students were while participating and acting. Improv is so difficult in my opinion, but they pulled everything off so easily and had so much fun in the process. This was evident in their smiles and laughter before and after the presentations.
I hope to be able to participate in something like this with my students, and maybe my children as well.
I ended up choosing a couple middle school groups for my discussion. I know that during class and in other peoples' disucssions, they mentioned that the high school and college level studetns were the ones that were easiest to understand. I think that maybe the recordings made it more difficult for some younger groups to be understood. I ended up finding the middle school students easy to understand and incredibly creative. This leads me to the topic of creativity. As we saw in the discussion and in class, there is no one definition for creativity. It can mean many things to different people, including myself. When descirbing how these groups were creative, I can only pick out specific points that I found creative. I thought that the use of the random props was very creative: one group used a mop as an oar and two other group members were stretched out on the stage wiggling their bodies to imitate a boat on the water. The most amazing part of all this is they only had 5 minutes to come up with these ideas. The students were moving in sync to imitate the movement of the boat and the water. This is not something they had advance knowledge of. The other thing i noticed is how enthusiastic all the students were while participating and acting. Improv is so difficult in my opinion, but they pulled everything off so easily and had so much fun in the process. This was evident in their smiles and laughter before and after the presentations.
I hope to be able to participate in something like this with my students, and maybe my children as well.
Reflection 6: June 27, 2012
I read the PP for this class, and I liked the slide for "students actually retain". This slide was interesting because it is a reflection of how I personally learn. I learn best when see and hear something, then I tell others what i have learned or actually do something to show that i have learned. During my undergraduate years, i hated my lectures in which nothing happened by the professor was talking. The most difficult part was that the professor was only sometimes actually discussing the topics mentioned in our textbook, while spending most of his time tellign us about his research. while this was interesting, it was difficult to deal with because the tests in class were only based on the text. He assumed everyone understood everything, and if they did not, they had a TA to answer questions. Sometimes the TA did not speak english or, because they were not trained to be teachers, they had a difficult time teaching us. All of this should be a lesson for us as educators, if we do not learn this way, then how can we expect our students to learn by reading or listening to us all day.
This lecture was so incredibly helpful! differentiation is so important to me, and hope I will be able to achieve success with it when I start teaching. I loved the part about choosing a product. I feel that so much of how i think about this part of differentiation is dictated by how I was taught years ago. This is not applicable in today's classroom (and never should have been back then either). I also found Tomlinson's Planning model helpful.
This lecture was so incredibly helpful! differentiation is so important to me, and hope I will be able to achieve success with it when I start teaching. I loved the part about choosing a product. I feel that so much of how i think about this part of differentiation is dictated by how I was taught years ago. This is not applicable in today's classroom (and never should have been back then either). I also found Tomlinson's Planning model helpful.
Reflection 5: June 20, 2012
Today we discussed compacting the curriculum. I liked looking at the student behaviors indicating compacting is necessary. I feel as if I can just look at that list and check off in my head students i have observed during practicum and during substituting (I see these kids many times throughout the year). These students are in a class where some students require a longer length of time to complete what they complete in a fraction of the time. one thing that really struck me was that others seek this student for assistance. this is so incredibly true! the students know exactly who to go to for assistance because they know who understands it best (other than the instructor, or sometimes better than the instructor). The problem then becomes, is this student able to teach what he or she has learned, or are the other students just looking for the "right" answer. The latter was very evident when I would grade assignments during my practicum, the same students went to the same single individual for help in completing their assignment. They were just copying answers because when I would grade them, they all got the same ones wrong. While I do not advocate cheating in any form, this is a reflection on the assignment as well. The gifted individual may not care enough to actually complete his or her assignemnts because they have a deeper understanding beyond the scope of the assignment. This is reflected when other individuals do not bother to learn the material at all, and they are just filling in answers. The teacher should create assignments that actually measure the students' understanding instead of worksheets to keep them busy (and this was obviously not workign since they were copying answers in order to have more time to socialize).
out of the different strategies, I liked Most Difficult First. This allows the student to show what they have mastered without any of the busy work and repetition that other students may need.
out of the different strategies, I liked Most Difficult First. This allows the student to show what they have mastered without any of the busy work and repetition that other students may need.
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Reflection 4: June 13, 2012
Before class, i read through the file posted on canvas, the one Dr. Abeel asked us to print for class. Some of the applications and the words used were completely shocking. The fact that many of them asked for a description of appearance is actually not surprising. I think back to college applications and how some schools ask for pictures to be submitted with the applications, especially for graduate programs. people are always judged by appearance first. but this has no influence on the actual abilities of the person. during class, Dr. Abeel, you mentioned watching the talent television show and how a young man that appeared to be dark/gothic ended up being a very talented opera singer. this just goes to show how image can be decieving and how important it is to encourage giftedness no matter what the person looks like.
We discussed the issues with regard to standardized testing and the arbitrary scoring requirements. I knew the SOL was a poor example of a good measurement for testing standards. The scoring is especially shocking. I come from a science background, and I realize the need for good measurements and keeping the range of error as small as possible. For a test to have a +/- 25 point margin of error is crazy. how can a test with this much error truly measure a student's knowledge. that means that anyone with a score within this range belowe 400 points could actually have passed the test. With a score below 400, they did not pass, and could actualy be held back.
This also leads to the issue of one test determining the future of a student. How can one single test tell us as educators whether the student knows and understands the curriculum. Isn't the testing and work he or she did throughout the year a better instrument? A portfolio of work would be better, or even using this test as a small part of the procedure.
We discussed the issues with regard to standardized testing and the arbitrary scoring requirements. I knew the SOL was a poor example of a good measurement for testing standards. The scoring is especially shocking. I come from a science background, and I realize the need for good measurements and keeping the range of error as small as possible. For a test to have a +/- 25 point margin of error is crazy. how can a test with this much error truly measure a student's knowledge. that means that anyone with a score within this range belowe 400 points could actually have passed the test. With a score below 400, they did not pass, and could actualy be held back.
This also leads to the issue of one test determining the future of a student. How can one single test tell us as educators whether the student knows and understands the curriculum. Isn't the testing and work he or she did throughout the year a better instrument? A portfolio of work would be better, or even using this test as a small part of the procedure.
Reflection 3: June 6, 2012
This class was so interesting. I loved going through the different myths and truths about gifted individuals, and i learned a lot from it.
the ones that stood out to me the most are:
I particularly enjoyed the video of the sand artist. I liked it so much I showed it to my mother. She enjoyed it, as well, and then began to watch interviews to learn more about the artist.
for my philosphy of giftedness, I believe Renzulli encapsulates my beliefs. I agree with his three ring model in that gifted people should possess these three qualities: above average ability, task commitment, and creativity. I also believe to a certain degree that there are different areas of giftedness and different areas of giftedness as Gardner describes. I do not think that they are so specifically defined into 7 intelligences, but those are a rough guide for what may be true. Gifted individuals are not necessarily gifted in all areas. Students should be placed based on interviews and work samples (and also a small fraction of testing). The education plan should be individualized to fit the needs of each students, similar to the requirements of IDEA.
the ones that stood out to me the most are:
- gifted children are easy to raise and a welcome addition to any classroom
- gifted studetns are a homogeneous group, all high achievers
- gifted students often think abstractly and with such complexity that they may need help with concrete study- and test-taking skills.
I particularly enjoyed the video of the sand artist. I liked it so much I showed it to my mother. She enjoyed it, as well, and then began to watch interviews to learn more about the artist.
for my philosphy of giftedness, I believe Renzulli encapsulates my beliefs. I agree with his three ring model in that gifted people should possess these three qualities: above average ability, task commitment, and creativity. I also believe to a certain degree that there are different areas of giftedness and different areas of giftedness as Gardner describes. I do not think that they are so specifically defined into 7 intelligences, but those are a rough guide for what may be true. Gifted individuals are not necessarily gifted in all areas. Students should be placed based on interviews and work samples (and also a small fraction of testing). The education plan should be individualized to fit the needs of each students, similar to the requirements of IDEA.
Reflection 2: May 30, 2012
This lesson taught me a lot about the different theorists. after discussing the different theorists within our groups, i have a greater appreciation for Renzulli and his thoughts on giftedness. his concept of task committment is very important. I believe that many gifted people display this type of behavior, and that this is an important thing to look for when identifying students. While i was in elementary school, I remember one of my classmates was obsessively drawing in the classroom. She would draw and doodle no matter what the teacher was talking about or teaching at the moment. This was obviously a very special hobby for her. during this time, the art teacher was choosing students to be identified for the gifted art program. Thinking back, i am not sure what criteria she used for her picks, because she chose another girl over this obsessive art lover. I am not saying that simply drawing all the time makes a person a gifted art student, but rather that she was really good at what she loved to do, and she was not recognized for it. She was driven and gifted, but the teacher failed to realize this and the girl hid her frustration.
I believe that this girl was a true example of what Renzulli believes gifted people possess. This task committment is a recognizable feature and should be developed further.
For this week we were asked to examine the school system websites to compare the gifted site with the special ed. sites. This was a very interesting project, and I learned a lot about Stafford County's schools. Neither site actually offered very much information with regard to what actually happens during the process of testing and then potential placement. Also, I did not realize how the gifted program in high schools are so lacking. The students are offered upper level courses, but not in every subject, and not necessarily the subjects that the students may want to study. They are also offered a mentor: a teacher that is tasked with answering any questions/concerns these students may have. We discussed the issue of guidance and how these students need support in order to succeed in the school system, but how does this situation help? This issue is compounded by the lack of funding for any such program.
I believe that this girl was a true example of what Renzulli believes gifted people possess. This task committment is a recognizable feature and should be developed further.
For this week we were asked to examine the school system websites to compare the gifted site with the special ed. sites. This was a very interesting project, and I learned a lot about Stafford County's schools. Neither site actually offered very much information with regard to what actually happens during the process of testing and then potential placement. Also, I did not realize how the gifted program in high schools are so lacking. The students are offered upper level courses, but not in every subject, and not necessarily the subjects that the students may want to study. They are also offered a mentor: a teacher that is tasked with answering any questions/concerns these students may have. We discussed the issue of guidance and how these students need support in order to succeed in the school system, but how does this situation help? This issue is compounded by the lack of funding for any such program.
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