Supporting Gifted and Talented Students - Case Study Example

Running Head: Gifted and Talented students Gifted and Talented students Customer’s name: Institution: Customer’s Course Tutor’s Name 4th June, 2014 Overview of case study Cassie’s is very curious and also highly motivated when it comes to learning. She also shows a lot of interest in animals as well as in the environments that they live in. Another strength that she depicts is related to language development and over time she is slowly beginning to write and read independently. Though Cassie wants to spend her time in schools doing these things her educator does not support her as compared to her parents. She constantly urges her to engage in activities that require basic use of hands since they are age appropriate. She seems bored and frustrated in school and she is contemplating of not going to school. How will you assess the student to identify her/his strengths, interests, learning needs? The Early childhood period is usually essential when it comes to the establishment of strong foundations in the learning process of young children. It is also essential for professional to identify areas that the young children are showing advanced potential. Support from the educated family members and also from other professional seems to be essential when it comes to enabling young children who are gifted and based on the support they will be able to develop their potential strengths and abilities (Anderson, 2007). The identification and recognition of strengths and abilities of young children is the first essential step when it comes to offering support that will ultimately enable these children to achieve their full potential. When these interests, strengths and learning needs are not recognized these young children will not reach their potential and their experience during their early childhood education may not be optimal. They are therefore likely to experience frustration, boredom, lack of confidence, underachievement and alienation at that early age. There exist a number of formal and informal approaches when it comes to the identification of strengths, interests and learning needs of children and they include achievement tests, IQ and observation. It is superlative that educators and families work together with other professionals and share all information and data related to a child's strengths, interest and learning needs (Murdoch & Wilson, 2006). IQ is usually used so as to measure the thinking process such as language expression and comprehension, levels of general knowledge and understanding of various concepts. The IQ tests will be used in assessing Cassie’s performance based on the fact that these measures can easily be assessed against the expected level of performance for the children who are of the same age. An IQ test is one of the major ways that can be adopted to assess the children learning as well as development. On the other hand achievements tests will also be used in assessing the strengths, interests and learning needs in Cassie. It will be done alongside with IQ tests, though they are aimed at serving a totally different purpose (Tieso, 2005). Based on the fact that the achievement tests are standardized it will compare Cassie’s performance on the test against the typical or most logical results. A major reason behind choosing this method of assessment is based on the fact that they seem to be closer to the school or academic learning than the IQ tests are and thus by using them there will be a better understanding of the strengths, interest and learning needs of the children and thus assist in the planning of their learning. An informal form of assessment that will be used is observation and documentation. These will include learning stories, anecdotes, portfolios as well as information from the children, their families as well as from other professionals. Based on these type of assessment profile will be built for Cassie so as to offer support to the identification of strengths, abilities and learning needs through documentation and recording of her development as well as learning over time. What enrichment or acceleration techniques would you use in your method area to support this student’s individual needs and justify your choices? Acceleration is commonly termed as the aspect of offering students with assignments and materials that have been reserved for the older ones who are supposed to be in higher grades. Acceleration serves its purpose in schools where there exists a well established curriculum. An acceleration technique that can be adopted in Cassie’s case is grade acceleration. A lot of evidence exists to support the notion that grade retention can be damaging to the emotional and social welfare of gifted students such as Cassie (Tieso, 2005). For instance, a study which was conducted on forty extremely gifted students by Miraca Gross confirmed that when the majority of these children were retained in their normal classes they experienced extreme difficulties when it came to the establishment of social relations with their classmates. These strong perceptions that are developed by these students tend to develop on their social skills and thus they tend to have lower self esteem (Reis et al., 2008). Based on these grade retention ought to be considered as harmful to the children. Based on these techniques of acceleration Cassie will be able to escape from boredom, lack of challenge which seems to be damaging. Thus Cassie needs to be offered an appropriate acceleration program so as to evade from serious risks of dropping out of school, engaging in both socially undesirable and dangerous activities. What grouping or scaffolding techniques could support these students are learning and explain why? How could this be implemented in your classroom or school context? Gifted students such as Cassie are usually frustrated in the traditional learning environments. Scaffolding can offer both access as well as challenge in their learning and thus there will be active engagement. For example for students who have the ability to process information at a faster rate and for those who process it at a lower rate they need to be differentiated in terms of content instruction so as to increase the learning capacity of all the students. There exist a number of techniques that relates to scaffolding that teachers can apply so as to assist the gifted students in accessing their academic content and ultimately they will be able to maximize their assessment outcome (Anderson, 2007). In regard to the techniques of scaffolding, lecturing stills tops the list when it comes to the most used modes of instruction. Based on these modern day teachers needs to diversify their instruction and start using various methods to deliver their content and this can be done by the breaking down of the complex material into small and simple learning blocks. This can be implemented in the modern day schools and classrooms in that teacher can be expected to divide their lessons in a manner that enables lecturing, group work and also leave time for assessment of the activities that have been learned during that lesson. Another technique is the use of discussion (Gross, 2003). Discussion ought to be encouraged in schools since it encourages the student encounters when it comes to the processing and reflecting on questions for clarity. This can be applied in a school setting in that teachers ought to encourage the students in their classroom to engage and participate in collaborative discussions. Also the teachers need to provide ample time to the groups with their present application as well as analysis of the academic knowledge that they have achieved. This form of discussion will ultimately create another better avenue for learning for the students who are gifted (Echevarria, Vogt & Short, 2004). Another technique is the use of visual scaffolding. Note making as well as visual cues seem to be effective in instances when teachers offer handout to the students and the handout are aligned to the lectures and students can be able to complete the incomplete sentences, fill in the blanks or they can also be expected to come up with visual cues related to the learning objective (Murdoch & Wilson, 2006). This can also be applied in Cassie’s case in that she may be expected to fill in the blanks and make visual cues related to the topic under discussion. Exceptional and gifted students can be challenged on any grades when the right and appropriate learning trolls are used. Scaffolding instruction seems to be a common tool that is can be incorporates to the learning of students and it can be related to both the academic outcome as well as to the achievement of success. How would you teach this student to be an autonomous learner and what learning activities would you use to support autonomous learning for this student? A lot of interest has been developing for a period of time now in relation to the learner autonomy and a lot of literature has been written with the aim of achieving a better understanding of the theory as well as practice behind it. A more general definition of learner autonomy is the learners who understand the core purpose and aims of their learning programs, and they accept the responsibility, share when it comes to their core learning objectives, plan in advance their practice an opportunity, put in practice the learning strategies and review and evaluates their progress regularly (Gross, 2003). Teaching learner autonomy seems to be a gradual process and both learners and the teachers are involved and the teachers need to be done in a way that they can manage both. There seems to be no precise approach in regard to learner autonomy since learners differs when it comes to their beliefs and opinions about the learning process. They also tend to differ when it comes to readiness for as well as interpretation of learner autonomy (Echevarria, Vogt & Short, 2004).The teaching of learner autonomy can be done by the following on the steps below. There is no need to for the steps to be followed step by step and instead they ought to be viewed as a cyclical process that needs to the supported and guided by the teacher. Teachers need to interact with the framework and come to the conclusion of how it can be used in the classroom. The first step involves the identification of needs. The teachers out to carry out a need analysis’s and based on the results a link needs to be established with the various classroom activities. The second step entails the setting of goals. A teacher ought to guide a learner in the identification and setting of realistic learning goals. The third step is planning the learning and teachers ought to include the learners related to what they need to learn. The fourth step relates to selection of resources based on these teachers need to offer Cassie the opportunity to bring authentic resources so as to learn and share with the others in the classroom. The fifth step entails the selection of learning strategies in relation to this step strategy instruction need to be incorporated in the various classroom activities (Dam, 2000). The sixth step relates more to practice the teacher ought to offer Cassie with the choice of homework that she can complete. The other step involves the monitoring of progress. Based on these step Cassie can be able to record and reflect on her learning experiences. The last step involves assessment and revision. Based on these the teacher needs to offer alternative ways of assessment activities and reflection activities. A number of learning strategies can be used in this case so as to support Cassie’s autonomy in class. A major activity is journal writing. For these to be made more relevant Cassie need to be encouraged on writing about new concocts that she has gained on a daily basis. Based on these a teacher will be able to focus more on the areas that Cassie seems to be experiencing some difficulties. Another common activity to support Cassie’s autonomous learning is through the use of the internet and technology. The use of computer and the internet have been increasing over time and it is obvious that electronic means of learning will offer the learning environments for the future (Colangelo, Assouline & Gross, 2004). Based on the case study Cassie seems to spend little time on the internet she can in turn be encouraged to spend additional time, so as to find new concepts related to animals and their environment. Lastly, another learning activity that can be used is the provision of books that have sufficient content in Cassie’s knowledge area. The books that she is able to access can only offer little or insufficient information and mostly the on the concepts that she is already aware of. Through the provision of these books Cassie’s will be able to learn and discover new concepts on her own and thus autonomous learning will be achieved (Dam, 2000). References Anderson, K. M. (2007). Differentiating instruction to include all students. Preventing School Failure, 51(3), 49–54. Colangelo, N., Assouline, S. G., & Gross, M. U. M. (2004). A nation deceived: How schools hold back America’s brightest students (Volumes I and II). Iowa City, IA: The Connie Belin & Jacqueline N. Blank International Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development. Dam, L. (2000) Evaluating autonomous learning. In Sinclair, B., McGrath, I., & Lamb, T. Learner Autonomy, Teacher Autonomy. Future directions. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited. Echevarria, J., Vogt, M & Short, D. (2004). Making content comprehensible for English learners: the SIOPMode. Boston, MA: Pearson Education. Gross, M. (2003). Exceptionally gifted children. London: Routledge Falmer. Murdoch, K. & Wilson, J. (2006). Learning Links: strategic teaching for the learner-centered classroom curriculum press. Reis, S. M., Eckert, R. D., McCoach, D. B., Jacobs, J. K., & Coyne, M. (2008). Using enrichment reading practices to increase reading fluency, comprehension, and attitudes. Journal of Educational Research, 101(5), 299–314 Tieso, C. (2005). The effects of grouping practices and curricular adjustments on achievement. Journal for the Education of the Gifted, 29(1), 60–89. Read More