1. Challenging TAG students in the Mixed-Ability Classroom
Jennifer Gonnuscio
December 2009

2. “Advanced students are often criticized because they won’t do their work. I have rarely met gifted kids who won’t do their work. What they usually resist doing is the teacher’s work. Gifted kids would actually be thrilled to be allowed to use school time to do their work, which is defined as learning something they don’t already know!”
~Susan Winebrenner

3. My Survey Results

4. What teachers wish they knew…
How to give decent instruction while they wait for other students to finish the day’s activities
Resources that could provide quick and easy challenges for TAG students. I feel a huge portion of my time is spent on lower level students.
How to support all types of students and still eat dinner at night.
How to keep them engaged in a multi-level classroom
More ideas to reach these students and keep them challenged
How to keep them motivated
More information about them than a name on a list
New Research

5. How do we give decent instruction when they outpace the assignments?
…group and differentiate

6. Like-Ability Grouping Mixed-Ability Groupingvs
Gifted students are there to learn, not to be exploited
Like ability groups produce higher academic effects
Smaller instruction groups produce higher academic effects than whole class direct instruction
Concerns of equity
Teacher shortage
Concerns of diversity
Requires differentiation

7. Grouping Purposes Research shows:
Students (high and low levels) benefit from working with other like ability learners.
Low level learners may also benefit from working with high level learners, but the reverse is not true.
The overriding key to any grouping is to focus on what is being taught.
Purposes of Grouping:
Ease delivery of differentiated curriculum
Facilitate differentiated instructional strategies
Meet affective needs
Allow learners of like abilities to learn from each other
Grouping is a vehicle educators use to allow gifted children to access learning at the level and complexity they need.
What these children do once they are grouped is more important than how they are grouped.

8. Before Differentiating…
1. Have a clear rationale for differentiation 2. Prepare students and parents for a differentiated classroom 3. Attend to issues of classroom structure and management as they move toward more student-centered learning 4. Move toward differentiation at a pace comfortable to both teacher and learners 5. Plan with team members interested in differentiation

9. Compacting Curriculum
You must Pre-Test, then teach
Offer the challenge of passing the Pre-Test to all students and reward their mastery with the opportunity to go on to extensions
The passing Pre-Test is worth 80%. Extension material is not heavily graded, but is the bonus points to provide an A.

10. When planning Pre-Assessment activities, also plan differentiated tasks. Daily class work is a menu of extension of extension activities. Students work on extensions when direct instruction of mastered material is being given. Create rules for behavior while working on extension materials.

11. Other methods of supporting fast-paced students
Self-paced curriculum
Check-points to let students show what they know and go on to something more useful
Multiple entry points after Pre-Assessment
Telescoping curriculum – eliminating repetition and moving quickly through material
Tiered curriculum - addressing a key concept with several pathways to arrive at an understanding based on their interests, readiness, or learning profiles using flexible, not static, groupings

12. Challenging content options, including:
Primary sources, interviews, projects, media presentations
Original research
Independent studies
Mentorships
Interest groups and clubs
Learning Contracts
It is the teacher’s challenge to identify the student’s needs, to develop and gain access to appropriate programs and curricula, and to monitor progress.
It is the student’s challenge to make use of resources and to be fully responsible for one’s own learning.

13. Credit for prior learning Student-Teacher negotiated projects
Enrichment Clusters
Students work with a facilitator over a few weeks to produce a product, performance, or service. Students and facilitator collaboratively creates the plans for exploring the topic as the cluster unfolds.
Internships
Credit for prior learning
Student-Teacher negotiated projects
Computer programs
Multiple texts and supplementary materials
Tasks and projects geared to multiple intelligences

14. What teachers are doing:
Keep instruction at a faster pace for them
Ask higher level thinking questions and assignments, opportunities for critical thinking skills
Differentiate the curriculum, compact out mastered material
Independent projects, mini-field trip opportunities through the school
Provide literature about classes available in the community
Open ended projects, higher order thinking, creative assignments.
Honors/Challenge options for assignments.
Projects that allow them to utilize their creativity (open ended)

15. Strategies targeting multiple intelligences, allowing them to show knowledge in a different way.
Choice reading
Individualized questioning/discussion at higher level; ability level grouping
Socratic Seminars
Tutoring other students
Group w/TAG students
Integrating curriculums ie. math and science
Addressing level through differentiation. pre-test, post-test, formative assessments

16. A few additional suggestions…
Resist policies of more work for early finishers
Assign more complex, deeper assignments or use compacting
Provide supplementary materials which extend
Interdisciplinary units and higher level thinking learning centers. Use activities that require analysis, synthesis, and critical thinking
Deemphasize grades
Encourage intellectual and academic risk taking
Develop all students’ social skills
Tolerate neither elitist attitudes nor anti-gifted discrimination
Listen to the divergent ideas and validate them

17. Resources worth noting:
Teaching for High Potential, an NAGC publication several back issues are available at Guidelines for Learning Contracts, Independent Study Agreements, & Evaluation of Alternative Work ERIC Digest E524 at Learner .org Content Connections at

18. References
Coleman, Mary Ruth (2003). Exploring Secondary Options: Four Variables for Success. Gifted Child Today, Vol 26 Issue 1. Retrieved 11 Nov 2009 from: Kennedy, Dorothy M. (1995). Plain Talk about Creating a Gifted-Friendly Classroom. Roeper Review, Vol 17 Issue 4. Retrieved 11 Nov 2009 from: NAGC (2009). National Association for Gifted Children Position Paper: Grouping, approved March Retrieved 11 Nov 2009 from: Parke, Beverly N. (1992). Challenging Gifted Students in the Regular Classroom. ERIC Digest #E513. Retrieved 11 Nov 2009: from: Rogers, Karen B. (2001). Grouping the Gifted: Myths and Realities. Reprinted in Expert Approaches to Support Gifted Learners (2008), Minneapolis, MN: Free Spirit Pub. Rogers, Karen B. (2007). Matching Needs of Gifted Learners to School Possiblities. Understanding Our Gifted, Winter 2007, p Received 12 Nov 2009 from Pacific University’s ILLiad. Reis, Sally M. (2007). No Child Left Bored. School Administrator, Vol 64 Issue 2 p22. Retrieved 11 Nov 2009 from: Tomlinson, Carol Ann (1995). Differentiating Instruction for Advanced Learners in the Mixed-Ability Middle School. ERIC Digests, ED Retrieved 11 Nov 2009 from: Winebrenner, Susan (2002). The Gifted in Mixed Ability Classrooms. Understanding our Gifted, Fall Received 12 Nov 2009 from: Pacific University’s ILLiad.