You know you don't want to miss this!
Friday, June 30, 2017
Wednesday, June 28, 2017
Monday, June 19, 2017
The Underachieving Gifted Child - Chapters 4 & 5
Chapter 4 - Dweck's Mindsets
As I read through Chapter 4, I highlighted quite a few things, but kept coming back to growth mindset and feedback. We've talked extensively about the importance of both of these over the past year.
It was especially interesting to read about the Mindset Theory. I really hadn't thought about how Growth Mindset applied to the gifted child and how they recognize their own effort and ability. I found this so valuable..."She noted that students who see their intelligence as something that can be developed, rather than simply a fixed trait, are more motivated to learn, persevere more in the face of obstacles, are more resilient after setbacks, and ultimately achieve more." When I read this, I thought about the many GT kids I've had in my own classroom who saw their intelligence as a "fixed trait". To be honest, these kids frustrated me because I knew what they were capable of. I wonder if I helped them develop their abilities to where they felt they could attempt something that challenged them.
Renzulli's belief that, "Giftedness is something students do, not something they are," stuck out to me. As the mama of one identified gifted child and two who are gifted, but not identified (because aren't ALL of our kids gifted?! ;-)) I think I like this belief. As parents, we've made sure that our gifted child doesn't find her identity in her giftedness. She has to put effort into her abilities to develop them, and I'm thankful that she has a growth mindset and WANTS to develop them.
Feedback is another area that I'm constantly trying to improve in. The way that feedback and self-efficacy intertwine is vital. What we say to our students can help them grow or hinder them. Helping them develop a belief that they CAN do something, even when it's challenging, is so important, especially to those underachieving students.
Chapter 5 - Addressing Issues of Perfectionism
This chapter hit home. The very first sentence made me giggle because it was like the author was talking directly to me and my daughter. Maybe I got a little teary. Maybe. ;-)
"People who have a compulsive need to be in control of themselves, others, and life's risks."
What??!! I am that person. My gifted daughter is that person. We are both self-oriented perfectionists. We put high demands on ourselves. For the most part, our perfectionism isn't unhealthy, but as I read through the common behaviors of perfectionists, I giggled again.
At some point in my life, I've experienced all of these behaviors. I've seen them in my daughter. I've seen them in a few of my students. It's what we do with these behaviors that makes our perfectionism healthy or unhealthy. When dealing with my or my daughter's perfectionism, some of the solutions suggested were familiar.
My daughter LOVES reading and writing. Her challenge, although she's always done just fine, has always been math. It bothers her immensely that it doesn't come as easy to her as language arts does. Her perfectionism makes this even more difficult. We've really had to work with her on the belief that she CAN do the challenging tasks set before her. The thing that has helped her most is her creative outlet. She loves acting and has grown in love with Theater. It's not something she has to win or lose at, she can just use her talents. Her confidence has grown this year in math. I give huge credit to her teacher who let her ask questions, encouraged her, had real conversations with her, and built her confidence. My perfectionist girl learned that it was OK that everything wasn't perfect for her in math this year, but that she was successful.
This chapter will be one I will revisit...for sure!
Sunday, June 11, 2017
Summer book study: The Underachieving Gifted Child Chapters 4 and 5
Chapter 4: Dweck's Mindsets-Recognizing Effort and Ability
"Everyone has the potential to become smarter than they are now."-Carol Dweck
This quote begins chapter 4. Thank goodness we do have the potential to become smarter than we are now. As an adult this is true with every new life experience. I dare say as a teenager when I was smarter than my parents, doesn't compare to the smarts I have now as a parent!!
This is also shown in the mainstream classroom. Too many times we just leave the "gifted" kids alone-they are already "smart" when in reality this is a disservice to them as learners as well. Throughout the chapter the idea of Carol Dweck's growth mindset is spoken of. In professional development this past year this has been a buzz word. While we all know that pushing kids and stretching their thinking is of utmost importance, the problem lies in how we do this. The idea of a growth mindset, challenges the notion that gifted kids are smart and you can't teach an old dog new tricks-the fixed mindset idea. Instead, using a growth mindset abilities are malleable and "practice makes perfect". Moving away from the fixed mindset thinking allows children, especially gifted students the chance to attempt challenging tasks and persevere through difficulties. This helps to improve upon existing and new skills for the child. Growth mindset is a scary idea even for adults because along the way you will have to encounter failure in order to reach your potential. Failure is a word that teachers don't readily use and encourage. This becomes more about the experience than the outcome!
In the section about increasing self efficacy and promoting effort, it addresses the idea of feedback. We have had many training's on providing feedback and the amount of feedback that should be given and where it should be, but a factor I feel is missing in giving feedback is how it should be given. We are people pleasers by nature as educators and we want all children to succeed. In society we believe that any effort at all deserves praise (feedback), hence the "everyone gets a trophy" mentality. In the piece of the chapter I love how it structures feedback as 1)recognition of the skill and 2)attribution of its development to the student. For instance instead of saying "Good Work" (guilty ALL the time) you should re frame with something like "You did very well on your math addition fluency! You've showed growth in knowing your addition facts quickly."
I need to as an educator remind myself that giftedness isn't just something that happens; it requires students have something to do with developing their giftedness.
Chapter 5: Addressing Issues of Perfectionism
Ouch this chapter!!!! I must admit that I am a perfectionist in the classroom. I don't feel like I can start a new day unless everything is perfect. Time and time again I am reminded that this doesn't work with 6 and 7 year olds. As the book states, perfectionism provides the gifted child (or teacher) with an excuse for not performing.
In class this comes into play many times with my gifted students during group or partner activities. If the activity cannot be put together to their standards they would just assume quit than to work it out and complete the assignment. I think this type of perfectionism is most prevalent in my first grade classroom-the my way or no way thinking. I also see attributes of perfectionism when focusing on mistakes-work will be turned in with holes from erasers or hidden inside their desk for fear of it not being good enough work.
Even at age 6, perfectionism in some students is already a concern and has to be addressed. In the chapter Greenspon proposes a four step process for creating an environment of acceptance for students in hopes to address perfectionism.
The first step involves empathy. The counselor and student work to understand the motivational forces behind the perfectionism. The second phase is encouragement and giving compliments that are meaningful and authentic and involve personal instead of performance qualities. The third step is self reflection and helping students develop and deeper understanding of what mistakes mean to them and how they perceive that others view them. The final step involves dialogue and talking together about what mistakes mean, what people's expectations are, and why being less than perfect can be frightening.
Cool ideas: 1. teachers modeling and debugging mistakes-going back to the growth mindset thinking-that we learn more from our mistakes than our successes. 2. Swiss cheese-starting small and having small successes-not basing everything on a giant project. 3. Creative visualizing-making a picture of it before it happens-talking through what might and might not happen to prepare more for bigger events and changes that are out of the ordinary. 4. Finding a non competitive, creative outlet to enjoy and relax, free of worry or stress.
"Everyone has the potential to become smarter than they are now."-Carol Dweck
This quote begins chapter 4. Thank goodness we do have the potential to become smarter than we are now. As an adult this is true with every new life experience. I dare say as a teenager when I was smarter than my parents, doesn't compare to the smarts I have now as a parent!!
This is also shown in the mainstream classroom. Too many times we just leave the "gifted" kids alone-they are already "smart" when in reality this is a disservice to them as learners as well. Throughout the chapter the idea of Carol Dweck's growth mindset is spoken of. In professional development this past year this has been a buzz word. While we all know that pushing kids and stretching their thinking is of utmost importance, the problem lies in how we do this. The idea of a growth mindset, challenges the notion that gifted kids are smart and you can't teach an old dog new tricks-the fixed mindset idea. Instead, using a growth mindset abilities are malleable and "practice makes perfect". Moving away from the fixed mindset thinking allows children, especially gifted students the chance to attempt challenging tasks and persevere through difficulties. This helps to improve upon existing and new skills for the child. Growth mindset is a scary idea even for adults because along the way you will have to encounter failure in order to reach your potential. Failure is a word that teachers don't readily use and encourage. This becomes more about the experience than the outcome!
In the section about increasing self efficacy and promoting effort, it addresses the idea of feedback. We have had many training's on providing feedback and the amount of feedback that should be given and where it should be, but a factor I feel is missing in giving feedback is how it should be given. We are people pleasers by nature as educators and we want all children to succeed. In society we believe that any effort at all deserves praise (feedback), hence the "everyone gets a trophy" mentality. In the piece of the chapter I love how it structures feedback as 1)recognition of the skill and 2)attribution of its development to the student. For instance instead of saying "Good Work" (guilty ALL the time) you should re frame with something like "You did very well on your math addition fluency! You've showed growth in knowing your addition facts quickly."
I need to as an educator remind myself that giftedness isn't just something that happens; it requires students have something to do with developing their giftedness.
Chapter 5: Addressing Issues of Perfectionism
Ouch this chapter!!!! I must admit that I am a perfectionist in the classroom. I don't feel like I can start a new day unless everything is perfect. Time and time again I am reminded that this doesn't work with 6 and 7 year olds. As the book states, perfectionism provides the gifted child (or teacher) with an excuse for not performing.
In class this comes into play many times with my gifted students during group or partner activities. If the activity cannot be put together to their standards they would just assume quit than to work it out and complete the assignment. I think this type of perfectionism is most prevalent in my first grade classroom-the my way or no way thinking. I also see attributes of perfectionism when focusing on mistakes-work will be turned in with holes from erasers or hidden inside their desk for fear of it not being good enough work.
Even at age 6, perfectionism in some students is already a concern and has to be addressed. In the chapter Greenspon proposes a four step process for creating an environment of acceptance for students in hopes to address perfectionism.
The first step involves empathy. The counselor and student work to understand the motivational forces behind the perfectionism. The second phase is encouragement and giving compliments that are meaningful and authentic and involve personal instead of performance qualities. The third step is self reflection and helping students develop and deeper understanding of what mistakes mean to them and how they perceive that others view them. The final step involves dialogue and talking together about what mistakes mean, what people's expectations are, and why being less than perfect can be frightening.
Cool ideas: 1. teachers modeling and debugging mistakes-going back to the growth mindset thinking-that we learn more from our mistakes than our successes. 2. Swiss cheese-starting small and having small successes-not basing everything on a giant project. 3. Creative visualizing-making a picture of it before it happens-talking through what might and might not happen to prepare more for bigger events and changes that are out of the ordinary. 4. Finding a non competitive, creative outlet to enjoy and relax, free of worry or stress.
Friday, June 2, 2017
Summer book study: The Underachieving Gifted Child
Chapter 1: Introduction
First off, I was excited to start this book study, not only as a teacher but as a parent of a gifted child as well. Underachieving can and is one of the most frustrating traits in and out of the classroom. Even in a 1st grade classroom there is evidence of underachievement. I was drawn to the sentence speaking of flow and how parents and teachers can help young people become more engaged to help with flow experiences. YES, YES, and YES! This is a constant struggle to find ways to engage and help little learners flow in their learning experiences. I am hoping through this study to find ways to achieve this flow to use with all children in my classroom and the one living in my home!!
Chapter 2: What is Underachievement?
When we were first asked this question to start off this online dialogue-I will be honest..I googled the word underachievement. My own gut definition was to just say lazy! Obviously there is so much more than that to the word! The quote to start the chapter struck me, "We learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the answer itself." -Lloyd Alexander
I just love this-its the deeper meaning, the quest and not the result, maybe even the failure along the way. This also is why maybe many students are underachievers. It's the hard part-the uncomfortable part, the part not known that makes you stretch beyond what you already know. This chapter was hard for me to wrap my brain around with lots of statistics so this quote was the one thing that really struck me and helps me understand more what underachievement is and can be.
Chapter 3: Characteristics of Underachievers
This is the chapter that as I read I thought of my own child. I could find him multiple times within the Table 1 chart of underachieving character traits. I could also add student names as well. Then as I kept reading I had to step back and realize that one characteristic my child or students possess doesn't necessarily mean they are underachievers. This chapter was a realistic breakdown of factors that may contribute to underachievement. **On a side note, when my husband walked past this book lying on the kitchen table, he asked if I was reading to understand our child more!! He may also need to join the book study!!**
First off, I was excited to start this book study, not only as a teacher but as a parent of a gifted child as well. Underachieving can and is one of the most frustrating traits in and out of the classroom. Even in a 1st grade classroom there is evidence of underachievement. I was drawn to the sentence speaking of flow and how parents and teachers can help young people become more engaged to help with flow experiences. YES, YES, and YES! This is a constant struggle to find ways to engage and help little learners flow in their learning experiences. I am hoping through this study to find ways to achieve this flow to use with all children in my classroom and the one living in my home!!
Chapter 2: What is Underachievement?
When we were first asked this question to start off this online dialogue-I will be honest..I googled the word underachievement. My own gut definition was to just say lazy! Obviously there is so much more than that to the word! The quote to start the chapter struck me, "We learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the answer itself." -Lloyd Alexander
I just love this-its the deeper meaning, the quest and not the result, maybe even the failure along the way. This also is why maybe many students are underachievers. It's the hard part-the uncomfortable part, the part not known that makes you stretch beyond what you already know. This chapter was hard for me to wrap my brain around with lots of statistics so this quote was the one thing that really struck me and helps me understand more what underachievement is and can be.
Chapter 3: Characteristics of Underachievers
This is the chapter that as I read I thought of my own child. I could find him multiple times within the Table 1 chart of underachieving character traits. I could also add student names as well. Then as I kept reading I had to step back and realize that one characteristic my child or students possess doesn't necessarily mean they are underachievers. This chapter was a realistic breakdown of factors that may contribute to underachievement. **On a side note, when my husband walked past this book lying on the kitchen table, he asked if I was reading to understand our child more!! He may also need to join the book study!!**
The Underachieving Gifted Child - Chapters 1-3
Chapter 1 - Introduction
How do I define giftedness? I think this is an important question to ask myself as I continue this book study. The GT kids I have worked with in my classroom are all different. This isn't a surprise to anyone since ALL kids are different, but I think it's an important thing to remember as we figure out how to reverse underachievement. It won't look the same for every kid.
As teachers, we know the students who are identified as gifted, but I believe there are those kiddos, who we need to keep in mind, who have not been identified. Using the five interrelated concepts of challenge, choice, interest, enjoyment, and personal meaning shouldn't be for the GT specialists' classroom only. It's important to make sure challenge, choice, interest, enjoyment, and personal meaning are intertwined into everything we do in the general education classroom for ALL learners.
Chapter 2 - What is Underachievement?
When I think about the underachievers I've worked with over the years, there is one specific student that comes to mind. He is brilliant and gifted in so many areas. He was and is hard to work with sometimes. He would argue about why he didn't need to do an assignment because he was beyond that specific concept. He would put other students down because he believed he was smarter than the rest. He was a difficult student to handle. He was the "defiant underachiever". (I'm jumping ahead to chapter 3...oops!) School was often pointless to him. He didn't work to his full potential...but, I wonder what I could've done differently to reach him. Ugh. It's difficult admitting that. Had I given him more of a challenge, more choices, something he was interested in, enjoyed, or had personal meaning to him, would I have helped reverse that?
Chapter 3 - Characteristics of Underachievers
This chapter was fascinating to me. I was surprised by how many different types of underachievers were listed. Especially after giving my simple definition on the Flipgrid of what I felt underachievement meant. As I read through the different types and their descriptions, I thought about the students that I've worked with that fit into each category. It's interesting that most of those kids fit into more than one of those descriptions. I feel that Passive Paul, Perfectionist Pearl, Rebellious Rebecca, Social Sally, and Academic Alice are all types I have worked with more than once. I'm hoping that we'll be able to dig deeper into the different types of underachievers and what we can do differently for each of them.
It was interesting to read about the four key influences of the underachiever. Gender, peers, family dynamics, poverty and the underserved populations are influences that we have to think about for every student, but to apply it to the gifted underachiever is important as we try to figure out how to best help these students.
It was mentioned more than once that 7th grade is critical for boys while 8th-9th grade is critical for girls. As most of us in this group are elementary teachers, it's vital for us to identify our underachievers and do everything we can to make sure our kids go on to middle school working to their full potential.
One of the most important things said in this chapter was, "Students' attitudes toward school and the relationship they see between school and their future success and prosperity influence their academic achievement." We spend more time with our students than their parents do. I believe it's my responsibility to make sure my students believe that the hard work they do now will influence their future for the better.
