Facilitating “aha” Moments for TAG Students

“Mr. Brillhart, Mr. Brillhart, I think ‘the walker’ stands for the idea of redemption! It’s about redemption and even if you make some bad decisions in your life you can always redeem them; you can always come back further.”

Daniel Brillhart describes how his jaw hit the floor when a 6th grade student made that observation after reading “The Dark Is Rising”, by Susan Cooper. As teachers, those are the moments we live for, the moments that keep us going on the hard days.

Moments like that are why we do what we do!

Unfortunately, these “ah-ha” moments can be difficult to facilitate for gifted students in a regular classroom. In their course, Serving TAG (Talented and Gifted) Students in the Regular Classroom”, educators Nicole Shannon and Brillhart open up their toolboxes and present concrete strategies you can use to challenge TAG students in any classroom. Ms. Shannon has over 18 years of experience in gifted education. She serves as the Coordinator of Gifted and Advanced Academic Services for Round Rock ISD. Brillhart is a Talented and Gifted teacher at Gattis Elementary School in Round Rock, TX, with over 26 years of teaching experience.

“I’m going to try that!”

This course isn’t about theory, it’s about practical application steps that can be used with any TAG student. Ms. Shannon and Mr. Brillhart focus on three main ideas:

  • Gifted Students literature circleLiterature Circles for Gifted Students – going beyond just reading a book and writing a journal
  • Depth and Complexity – Taking books you’re already reading and going further
  • Non-Standard Problem Solving – posing number and word problems to encourage critical thinking skills

“How do I take their literature circle experience and make it meaningful?”

The answer is Bloom’s Taxonomy, inverted. Mr. Brillhart says his colleagues questioned him when he began using Bloom’s to teach literature to his 4th through 6th TAG students. His response?

If you give them that opportunity, TAG students will to rise to that occasion!

This course also offers several tips for facilitating a more meaningful literature circle experience, including:

  • Challenge students to come up with the thought provoking questions
  • Ban prediction and “what if” questions
  • Move student away from retelling a story and into summarizing a story with the 55-Words activity
  • Focus on creating and synthesizing not just knowing and memorizing

Going deeper & thinking harder through projects

Adding depth and complexity to language arts assignments can also be a great way to challenge TAG students in a regular classroom. Creating in-depth projects is one way to do that. Projects teach students how to:

  • Read and work with a rubric
  • Go deeper into their literature
  • Apply their learning in other spheres of life
  • Find ties that connect literature to everyday life
  • Build organizational skills
  • Present in front of the class

You’ll also get project ideas to go with a list of highly recommended books, including:

  • “Leon and the Spitting Image” by Alan Kurzwiel
  • The Regarding Series by Kate and Sarah Klise
  • “Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs” by Betty G. Birney
  • “Chasing Vermeer” by Blue Balliatt

If you want students to think outside of the box,
You need to pose outside-the-box problems

Gifted Students doing Non-Standard problem solving

Photo courtesy of flickr via woodleywonderworks

Non-standard problem solving is the final area that Ms. Shannon and Mr. Brillhart explore.

So, how do we enhance the problem solving abilities of our TAG students? How do we push them a little extra step to become true problem solvers? Mr. Brillhart suggests it is by giving them some really evil problems to solve.

Can you solve for A and B?
(hint… the answer is at the end of this post)

AB x BA = 3154

Most students will start solving this problem by inserting random digits until they get the correct answer. They aren’t actually thinking critically, instead, they are doing the shotgun approach where they just try until it works.

TAG students must be challenged to know why an answer is right, not just get the right answer. Don’t let them solve the problem, make them see the pattern.

The right answer is not the goal – You want to see how students are thinking.

In this course you’ll get first-hand strategies from two outstanding teacher who have been practicing the discipline of teaching gifted students in the classroom.

Just click here to order, or call 915.532.9965 if you prefer to speak to someone.

Delivering Quality Training Wherever You Are

Did you know that this course is mobile ready? That means you can complete this course on your smartphone, tablet, laptop, desktop computer, or any other mobile device!

Answer:

ABxBA=3154
A is 3 and B is 8