Many make the mistaken assumption that gifted students are automatically good at all subjects, all the time. But some don’t necessarily perform well in traditional classroom environments because they are divergent thinkers, which often cannot be measured standardized testing. Other exceptional students, despite their intellect, indicate maturity at different rates from their peers due to asynchronous development. Some are doubly exceptional and are simultaneously gifted and disabled in some way; the disability may hide or hinder the gift. Still other gifted students lack home support, are misdiagnosed with ADD or Asperger’s, or are bored and frustrated in a general student population. All these can prevent gifted students from discovering and developing their unique strengths.
Here are some suggestions for assisted gifted students in uncovering what they’re capable of— emotionally, intellectually, physically, and scholastically.
New Tasks
Constantly presenting gifted children with new ways to test their abilities allows them to both discover and develop their strengths. If an exceptional child has mastered a task quickly, even in enriched education, he or she may become bored. This tendency is usually what launches them out of general classroom environment in the first place. Offering a variety of tasks, even though the learning goal is the same, will engage the student in different brain activity. Not only is this healthy for development, it will provide the exceptional child with new ways to test their abilities.
If students are in an enriched class for mathematics, they can try story problems one day and apply times table work the next. Students who are divergent thinkers will enjoy tasks which ask for different ways to arrive at the same answer. Those who are structured thinkers will be challenged to apply the same principle to a new kind of problem. Students talented in performing might try monologues one day, word and vocabulary work another, and a some group storytelling the next.
Trying new tasks does not necessarily mean moving quickly; many gifted students like to take time to think deeply, try a variety of angles while attacking a task, or are anxious to carry out projects to completion. However, effective gifted education will invite students to stretch their gifts, not merely indulge them.
Vary Learning Strategies
All students, even those in the general population, learn differently. Some respond well to material which is taught via reading or listening, while others are more suited to learning by example or incorporating physical elements. Gifted students, when invited to try a variety of learning strategies or formats, will benefit from the opportunity to not only test their abilities, to but also shore up ways of thinking in areas in which they are not gifted.
This also allows larger enriched groups to try collaborative learning. Some gifted students perform well here; others don’t. But with some students expressing their giftedness through leadership and others by showing strong emotional intelligence, using assorted forms of team tasks help to present new challenges by also reaching out to children who show giftedness in more tangible ways. For example, asking students who have the letter “S” in their names to work with students who have a “Y” in their names to undertake an engineering task or write a group story not only gives the students with one form of giftedness to work with people in new teams, it also challenges those who are good with structure and math. Best of all, each student is able to work on social and team-working skills.
Independent Learning
Many gifted students are identified as such because they have taken off on their own to learn more about their areas of giftedness, or to try expressing themselves through their gift. Artistically talented students often show talent early and may spend unprompted hours with a sketchpad or an easel; students who excel in STEM will skip the children’s storybook section of the library and eagerly head for the physics books.
For students who have already identified at least one area of giftedness, they will likely benefit from guided mentoring and task completion. A student who is exceptionally talented with writing can work with a teacher on completing a chapbook of poetry, while one who shows great skill in science can collaborate with a lab instructor to design and carry out an experiment. These independent experiences are often what exceptional children crave most—the opportunity to do what they love most, to try and fail, to develop their skills surrounding their gifts, and find out how the project that exists in their minds comes to life in reality.
Students who show gifted tendencies in several areas but have not yet shown a predilection for a specific subject can greatly benefit from independent study as well. It gives them an opportunity to see how they might apply their gifts in a variety of ways. They are able to develop their general giftedness while also learning about themselves and what they enjoy the most.
Work on Specifics
The definition of exceptional children includes their ability to work far beyond their years and peers. When a five-year-old can balance quadratic equations, he or she is going to grow quickly impatient with basic arithmetic.
Immersing gifted students in specific skill development, then, is the other side of giving them a constant variety of tasks and learning strategies. When gifted students are challenged in healthy ways, they not only meet the goals of enriched education, they find ways to develop skills which will serve them in their future careers.
Instead of general “writing classes,” then, dive deeply with verbally gifted students into how to produce compelling dialogue. Assisting science-minded students with lab equipment and working with them on experience so they are proficient with it not only fleshes out their general education, it boosts their confidence and helps them feel as if they are actually working as real scientists, not playing at it. Being treated seriously and presented with maturity-appropriate tasks in conjunction with their gifts are a good way for gifted students to engage with their potential.
