Talents – examples Think privately of: 2 things that you can do that animals cannot 2 other things that you can do better than most people of your age B. Continue thinking about: Whether the first 2 things are ‘skills’ Whether you got better at the second 2 things by long, hard practice, or whether they came ‘naturally’ to you Then, share your thoughts about 1 and 2 with a talking partner, and discuss whether you have lots of skills, or rather few.
Talents - skills As a whole group, discuss: How many of the examples you discussed as pairs were skills? (Make a list on the board of all such examples.) 2. What made them count as skills? How many of the examples listed on the board might also be said to be ‘talents’? (You may need to become clearer, first, what counts as a talent.)
Talents = skills? A. As a whole group, discuss: 1. Whether you can be born with a skill at something 2. Whether you can be born with a talent for something Next, consider the following two sentences, and then discuss whether talents and skills are the same thing, or different. (If different, try to agree what the difference is.) 1. “He could be an excellent dancer, but he’s just wasting his talent.” 2. “You won’t fulfil your talent unless you develop your memory skills.”
Talents – finding In pairs, discuss how much of a talent each of you has for: 1. noticing changes 2. chatting 3. cheering people up 4. running 5. remembering numbers 6. relaxing Identify at least 2 other talents that your partner has. As a whole group, discuss: 1. How can pupils get to know what special talents they have? 2. How can schools help pupils to fulfil their talents?
Talents - tasks In small groups (4 or 5) make a list of 10 people, each of whom is famous for a different talent. Make clear on the list what their talent is. B. As a whole group, discuss: Whether any of these people is likely to have become famous without ‘working’ at their talent 2. Does ‘working at their talent’ mean they had to practise? And does ‘practising’ always involve doing tasks? 3. Whether any talent can really be fulfilled without doing some long, hard work/tasks
Talents – personal task Privately, write down some of your own thoughts about what talents you want particularly to develop, either at school or at home, or both. The following might help you to shape your dreams and plans: What am I already quite good at? What would I like to be good at? How much can I learn from other people to help me improve? How much effort am I prepared to put into getting better? OR B. Write a story about a person who fulfilled their talent. (It could be you!