by Stephen Hammel

Created on: June 27, 2009

Gifted students are an interesting group. They are often not the most popular kids in the class, usually not the most outgoing, and are often self-conscious of their abilities. Due to honors-level classes and gifted programs, there's a good chance the student is gifted in a content area outside the content area you teach. Nonetheless, the students who wear the title of "gifted" are capable of thinking in ways the average students are not. It's not necessary to fully understand the quirks of the gifted mind, but it is necessary to realize these students get bored very quickly with the "one-size-fits-all" nature of the everyday coursework. Teaching gifted children is a challenge on its own, but teaching those students in a classroom of non-gifted children is going to take some extra time. There's no way around it.

For the sake of argument, we'll assume that you know who the gifted students in the class are, and what area of giftedness they possess. One of the first things you'll need to do is have a one-on-one conversation with each of them. This isn't counseling. It's a conversation. Strangely enough, gifted kids often come into the classroom before other students do, and don't usually mind staying a minute or two after others leave. Simply engage the student in a short conversation about their strengths and weaknesses. Just having a conversation, with a little nudge in one direction or another, will uncover the student's area of gifted ability. Let them know that you will do your best to keep the course interesting and challenging, but without giving additional homework or making them do anything the other kids don't have to do. Kids in this category are typically very sensitive to these things, and will sometimes suppress their abilities to fit in, or to avoid working harder than their peers. Having this conversation, though, sets the stage for regular conversations with the student. This is a major key to extending assignments to meet the abilities of the student.

Fostering advanced thought requires forming questions that reach the higher levels of thought. Most instruction in the average classroom focuses on the lower levels of Bloom's Taxonomy. Knowledge, Understanding, and Application are commonplace, and the gifted student generally has the ability to know, understand, and apply what is taught. When offering assignments to a class, specifically including lessons that reach for analysis, synthesis, and evaluation as options will

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