Transcript File - Michelle Scott

STEM Academy
BECKY GALLAGHER
RICKS CENTER FOR GIFTED CHILDREN
INSTITUTE FOR THE DEVELOPMENT
OF GIFTED EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF DENVER
Agenda
REFLECTION
CURRICULUM PLANNING
QUESTIONING STRATEGIES
GROUPING STRATEGIES
SOCIAL/EMOTIONAL ASPECTS OF GT
Reflection
 What did you try?
 What was successful?
 What was unsuccessful?
 What Differentiation did you try?
 Content Differentiation
 Process Differentiation
 Product Differentiation
Curriculum Planning
Curriculum Planning Organizational Elements
 Selecting a Concept
 Identifying Goals that Reflect the Concept
 Selecting Units
 Researching Topic
 Developing the Focus Questions
 Webbing the Content
 Planning
Curriculum Design
 Use both discipline-field based and interdisciplinary
experiences.

Discipline-field: A specific body of teachable
knowledge with its own background of education,
training, procedures, methods, and content

Interdisciplinary: A knowledge view and curriculum
approach that consciously applies methodology and
language from more than one discipline to examine a
central theme, issue, problem, topic or experience.
Select a Concept
* Big Idea
* Overarching Theme
Goals That Reflect
Concept
Units
* Choose 3-4 individual
units that match your
concept
* Essential Questions
Focus Questions
* Write focus questions for the
unit from your goal. These
guide your investigation.
Web: Brainstorm Activities,
Lessons, Experiences
*
*
*
*
Real Connections not forced
Meaningful learning experiences
Open-ended, flexible activities
Divergent, rather than convergent
Research
* Gather teacher and student
resources.
* Read all you can about the unit
Plan
* Divide unit into main
concepts. Map concepts into
weeks on a calendar.
Sample Questions: for “Evidence”
What is evidence?
 What does evidence tell us? Why is this important?
 How is evidence sorted, organized and examined?
 Whose job is it to investigate evidence? What does that
career involve?
 What skills are needed to analyze and evaluate evidence?
 How is evidence reconstructed to “tell a story?”
 How is inference distinguished from evidence?
 How much can evidence tell us?

Choose a Unit
 Pick unit topics that students are interested in
 Make sure unit topics relate to the overarching
theme
 The topic should reinforce the concept
 Combine standards
Shaping the Unit
 Ask:
 How can I create a “need to know?”
 How can I mentally and physically engage students in this
unit?
 How can I assess prior knowledge?
 How can I get students to ask their own questions and create
their own problems?
 What experiences can I organize that will enable students to
build their understandings of the “big idea” and develop
concepts, skills and attitudes?
 How can I help to focus their investigations?
 How can I encourage students to make their own connections
among their learning experiences?
 How can I encourage students to express their understandings
of the “big idea?”
Sample Goals



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To understand how physical processes shape Earth’s surface
patterns and systems
To begin to see the chronological organizations of history and
how to group people and events into major eras to identify and
explain historical relationships
To know how to use maps and globes to locate and derive
information about people, places and environments
To measure and collect data, to compile and display results
using a variety of tools, techniques and representations
Sample Questions
 Natural Disaster Unit
How do time, location, and human behavior influence the
development of a disaster and its degree of devastation?
 How have people responded to disasters in their
communities?
 How has science and technology increased our
understanding of natural disasters?
 What forces create natural disasters, and how do they
work?

Key Points for Brainstorming
 For each unit, examine
the topic from many
discipline perspectives
 Use graphic organizers
(wheels, webs, etc.) to
cover discipline fields and
processes
 Associations may include
questions, topics, people,
ideas, resources,
materials, field trips,
organizations, etc.
 Exploration of the topic
should include student
and staff input
 Begin to notice how the
ideas can be grouped and
how they are connected
 Meaningful learning
experiences
 Open-ended, flexible
activities
Curricular Web
Planning
 Divide the unit into the main concepts
 Figure out the best starting point and use a calendar
to map the concepts
 Divide the specific activities by concepts and match
them to weeks
 Consider and develop appropriate assessments
Assessments
 Align activity objectives to performance outcomes
 Develop behavioral indicators of attitudinal change
 Align assessment to curricular goals/objectives,
standards and instructional strategies
Questioning Strategies
Why questions?
 Examine logic and reasoning
 Stimulates creative development
 Successful strategy to encourage purposeful learning
 Draw inferences
 Essential to the growth of higher level thinking skills,
critical and creative thinking
 Divergent thinking
Types of Questions
 Purpose
 Relevance
 Information
 Accuracy
 Interpretation
 Precision
 Assumption
 Consistency
 Implication
 Logic
 Point of View
Kinds of Questions
 Questions of Fact
 Questions of Preference
 Questions of Judgment
Bloom’s Taxonomy
Original (1956)
Revised (2001)
 Knowledge
 Remember
 Comprehension
 Understand
 Application
 Apply
 Analysis
 Analyze
 Synthesis
 Evaluate
 Evaluation
 Create
Taba’s Questioning Strategies
 Developing Concepts
 Attaining Concepts
 Interpreting, Inferring and Generalizing
 Repeating Students Responses
 Rephrasing responses
 Asking for explanations of predictions
 Asking for explanations of high level responses
Grouping Strategies
Grouping Factors
 Administrator Factors
 Teacher Factors
 Curricula Factors
Groups Require
 Ample space to work
 Clear directions and procedures
 Rules and guidelines established
 Individual roles assigned for group responsibilities
 Time frame assigned
 Tap into all members’ strengths
(Gregory & Chapman, 2002, p. 70)
Ability Grouping
 Full time
 Fixed
 Flexible
Cluster Grouping
 Students of same ability placed in same classroom
 Pacing tends to be high
 Non-gifted students benefit as well
 Academic gains
 Positive attitudes toward learning
Cooperative Grouping
 Positive interdependence
 Individual accountability
 Promotes interaction
 Group processing
 Development of small group interpersonal skills
Sharing Groups
 Partners
 Brainstorming groups
 Community Clusters
 Content talk
Cross-Graded/ Multiage Groupings
 Students work together in areas of strength and
interest
 Enhances project work
 Acquisition of language
 Sharing of creative ideas
Social-Emotional Aspects of
Gifted Children
Wonders and Challenges
 Intensity
 Sensitivity
 Feelings of Being Different
 High Expectations of Self and Others
 Idealism/Sense of Justice
 Inner Locus of Control and Satisfaction
 Perfectionism
Peer Relationships
 Nobody interested in the same thing
 Think differently than other peers
 Sense of justice/fairness
 Still a child/adolescent
Asynchronous Development
 One subject/content over another
 Physical vs. intellectual
 Emotional vs. mental
Overexcitabilities
 Dabrowski’s theory of
 Psychomotor
 Sensual
 Intellectual
 Imaginational
 Emotional
 No such thing as “too”- it is who you are
Parental Involvement
 Absent or … not absent enough
 Whose passion/desire/interest?
 Advocacy – encourage and temper
Strategies
 Appropriate challenge and placement – comp-peers,
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mentors, etc.
Help students understand own development
differences
Help set realistic personal goals
Acknowledge emotions, help communicate; help
clarify
Boundaries, choices, keep age in mind
Advisory/small groups – bibliotherapy, readings, etc.