1. Challenge Your Gifted Middle School Students
Karen L. Parker, Ed.D Liberty University

2. Gifted-Talented Challenges
- Gifted-talented students
- Gifted-talented teachers
For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more. Luke 12:48

4. Smart or Gifted ? Know the answers Are interested Pay attention
Work hard
Answer questions
Enjoy same-age peers
Good at memorizing
Learn easily
Listen well
Are self-satisfied
Ask the questions
Are very curious
Involved
Play/still good grades
Question answers
Prefer adults/older
Good at guessing
Bored/know answers
Strong feelings/opinions
Perfectionists

5. Don’t overlook: Females [middle/secondary] Energetic males
Students with disabilities
Students with behavior problems
Minority cultures
Lower SES
Poor test-takers

7. Inquiry-based Instruction
Students actively pursue answers to curiosity-based questions
Explicit teaching
Student-identified problems
Honest evaluation and praise
Biographies of creative people
Multiple ways to excel
Reward inquiry and reflection vs. memorization and drill
Respond reflectively and less judgmentally

8. Compacting the Curriculum
Eliminate 50% of general curriculum for high-ability students with no difference in achievement test scores
Pre-testing
Accelerated rate
Replacement activities - free reading, alternative reading - projects, puzzles
Teacher support

9. Flexible Grouping Grouping for different purposes
Ability grouping to enhance achievement
Advanced opportunities – more participate
Within-class grouping
Cross-graded grouping
Pull-out programs for GT
Cooperative learning –caution: - student perceptions of unfairness - free-rider effects - individual response differences

10. Instructional Technology
Benefits limited unless meaningfully related to the curriculum
Adjust goals for success and keep raising Gifted students are drawn to technology
Use technology - communication - inquiry

11. Webquests
WebQuests are a wonderful means of differentiating instruction based on interest.
A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented activity in which some or all of the information that learners interact with comes from resources on the Internet.

12. Sample Webquests The Webquest Portal http://webquest.org/
Top Webquests for Middle Years
Tailing the Samurai’s Tale (Japan - Humanities)
Bones and the Badge (Science 6 )
Too Hot Too Handle (Science & Health)
Units of Measure (Math)

13. Subject Applications
History exploring primary sources - Provide complex, open-ended problems - Teach how to detect bias and how to integrate conflicting opinions
Science in the classroom - Emphasize experiential, hands-on, problem-solving aspects of science - Prepare teachers with strong content and skills for exploratory curriculum - Assess through observation, problem-solving techniques, and product assessments

14. Respiratory System
Students given 5 key questions (objectives to be met by end of section)
Students choose question they would most like to answer
Group students accordingly
Students prepare lesson(s) for and evaluation of peers according to their own interests and abilities
Subject is taught through various strategies using a variety of evaluation tools

15. Subject Applications
Reading/Language Arts instruction - Integrate language arts - Complex topics - Abundant time and incentive - Literary groups - Process-based, real context - Writing variety, journals - Debate, acting

16. Characterization Simple
Write a full description of a character and draw a portrait to accompany your description
Write a complaint letter to the main character of the book about one specific action in the story you did not agree with
More complex
Create life-sized model of two characters; prepare a dialogue and act it out
Read the classifieds and find something the main character would like; write a paragraph explaining why he/she needs the item

17. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more. Luke 12:48