THAT explains a lot.

"S/he couldn't be gifted; her/his grades are terrible."
"S/he couldn't be gifted; s/he distracts others and is a negative influence."
"S/he couldn't be gifted; s/he never does homework or anything beyond the minimum."

Nope.

I've spoken with teachers who say all of these things to me (and more), and I've spoken with parents of gifted kids who find themselves completely at a loss to understand their children's behavior.  Even though the list below doesn't provide specific strategies to help with some of these negative behaviors and attitudes, hopefully it will help teachers and parents (and students, themselves!) understand why they do what they do.  I'll come back to strategies in a later post.

**IMPORTANT**
No gifted child displays ALL of these characteristics, behaviors, and attitudes ALL the time, but most gifted children display SOME of them SOME or MOST of the time.

Characteristics of the Potentially Gifted Student

(without a documented disability)

Characteristic: learns rapidly
Possible Positive Behaviors/Attitudes: memorizes and masters basic facts quickly; needs 1 to 3 repetitions to master
Possible Negative Behaviors/Attitudes: gets bored easily; resists drill; disturbs others; refuses to complete work on concepts already mastered; resents helping peers

C: advanced vocabulary
PPB/A: communicates ideas well; expresses self in a more mature manner than peers
PNB/A: shows off; invokes peer resentment; purposefully “dumbs down” speech with peers

C: retains a large quantity of information
PPB/A: ready recall and responses; is an "expert" in some topic(s)
PNB/A: monopolizes discussions; resists projects out of academic comfort zone

C: long attention span
PPB/A: sticks with a task or project
PNB/A: disrupts routine tasks; dislikes interruptions

C: curious, has a variety of interests
PPB/A: asks deep and probing questions; gets excited about ideas; conducts individual research independent of assignments
PNB/A: goes on tangents; no follow-through; has difficulty making academic and social decisions

C: works independently
PPB/A: creates and invents beyond assigned tasks; develops products which are very different from those of other students
PNB/A: refuses to work with others; products are extremely eccentric, sometimes to the point of being indecipherable; dominates group projects

C: alert and observant
PPB/A: recognizes problems; is aware of things unnoticed by other students
PNB/A: impolitely corrects adults; ridicules peers for observation failures

C: has a good sense of humor
PPB/A: able to laugh at self
PNB/A: plays cruel jokes or tricks on others

C: comprehends, recognizes relationships
PPB/A: able to solve social problems alone; ponders with depth and multiple perspectives; infers and connects concepts; demonstrates keen sense of fairness
PNB/A: interferes in the affairs of others; is sarcastic or impatient with peers; manipulates information; struggles to move past issues of fairness

C: high academic ability
PPB/A: does school work well; works above peers by 2 grade levels or more
PNB/A: brags; egotistical; impatient with others; deliberately works below ability

C: fluent, verbal facility
PPB/A: forceful with words, numbers; leads peers in positive ways
PNB/A: leads others into negative behavior

C: individualistic
PPB/A: asserts self and ideas; has a sense of own uniqueness; displays spontaneous intellectual outcomes and conclusions
PNB/A: has few friends; irrationally stubborn in beliefs

C: self-motivated, self-sufficient
PPB/A: requires minimum teacher direction or help; is self-critical; is unmotivated by grades
PNB/A: is overly aggressive in challenging authority; is excessively perfectionistic; does not follow through on assignments; does not demonstrate neatness or order in work

Characteristics of the Twice-Exceptional Student

(gifted with a learning or other disability)

Exhibits extensive and high-level spoken vocabulary, but much simpler written vocabulary

Excels in reading comprehension but struggles with or refuses written work (or vice versa)
Has extremely creative ideas, but written expression is very poor (bad spelling, illegible handwriting, etc.)
Obvious brightness is not matched by work produced
Appears unmotivated or unwilling to work when a direct conversation indicates high interest in the topic
Mismatch between parental reports of interests/activities and effort/products in school
Exhibits severe discrepancies between potential and performance

Characteristics of the High Achiever

(teacher-pleaser)

Completes all the work

Not a risk-taker
Very knowledgeable
Very good at lower levels of thinking
Weak at higher levels of thinking
Usually punctual with assignments
Asks primarily “safe” questions
Usually an A student
Scores close to/in the 90th percentile on standardized tests
Needs 6 to 8 repetitions to master
Memorizes well
Works up to 1 grade level above peers
Helpful, likeable, and well-mannered

Volunteers quickly
Follows the rules carefully

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Adapted from:


Goldstein, L.F. (2001). Diamond in the rough. Education Week.

Kingore, B. (2004). Differentiation: simplified, realistic, and effective. Austin, TX: Professional Associates.

Mittan, K. (2006). Teacher pleaser or potentially gifted?: a guide for teachers. Hawthorne, NJ: Educational Impressions, Inc.

Ohio Association for Gifted Children (n.d.). Characteristics of gifted children - positive and negative behaviors which may be exhibited. Retrieved from http://gt.eatonsd.schoolfusion.us/modules/locker/files/get_group_file.phtml?fid=2682406&gid=344078&sessionidec194b0f4c8b8d7d98b6f80e7871a6f8





Myths About Gifted Education – Part 1

**This will be a two-part post because I'm in the process of moving and changing our internet setup, so it will take awhile to get the whole thing finished.


The National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) condensed this list from a series of pieces, beginning with a 1982 issue of Gifted Child Quarterly, and I have reposted it word-for-word here. I see and hear so many of these myths tossed around by students, parents, and fellow educators, and I often think they are simply rationalizations we use to avoid giving our best to these children and/or expecting them to give their best in our classrooms. We spend a lot of time teaching kids up from the bottom, and not very much time teaching kids up from the top, though every child should have the opportunity to reach his or her highest possible level of academic growth in our public schools, regardless of the starting point.

Italics represent my emphasis, and * represents my additions.

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MYTH
Gifted students don’t need help; they’ll do fine on their own.

TRUTH
Would you send a star athlete to train for the Olympics without a coach? Gifted students need guidance from well-trained teachers who challenge and support them in order to fully develop their abilities. Many gifted students may be so far ahead of their same-age peers that they know more than half of the grade-level curriculum before the school year begins. Their resulting boredom and frustration can lead to low achievement, despondency, or unhealthy work habits. The role of the teacher is crucial for spotting and nurturing talents in school.

*This is such a common attitude! While many students may, indeed, turn out “fine”, they need help cultivating their talents just like everyone else. We’re going for “excellent”, not “fine”.

MYTH
Teachers challenge all the students, so gifted kids will be fine in the regular classroom.

TRUTH
Although teachers try to challenge all students they are frequently unfamiliar with the needs of gifted children and do not know how to best serve them in the classroom. The National Research Center on Gifted and Talented (NRC/GT) found that 61% of classroom teachers had no training in teaching highly able students, limiting the challenging educational opportunities offered to advanced learners.[1] A more recent national study conducted by the Fordham Institute found that 58% of teachers have received no professional development focused on teaching academically advanced students in the past few years. Taken together, these reports confirm what many families have known: not all teachers are able to recognize and support gifted learners.

*A current education buzzword is “differentiation”: in other words, adjusting content, process, and environment to give students the correct amount and level of work for their intellectual abilities and potential. While most teachers attempt to do this, and some do it quite well, it is often not feasible for students to truly learn at their own paces when those paces are highly accelerated. Unfortunately, many gifted students end up without relevant lesson extensions and, instead, read books for large portions of their classes. Let me emphasize that there is nothing wrong with reading, either at school or at home. However, since high-ability students generally have the capacity to make great academic achievements, we as teachers should be giving them the opportunity to do this during class.

MYTH
Gifted students make everyone else in the class smarter by providing a role model or a challenge.

TRUTH
In reality, average or below-average students do not look to the gifted students in the class as role models. They are more likely to model their behavior on those who have similar capabilities and are coping well in school. Seeing a student at a similar performance level succeed motivates students because it adds to their own sense of ability. Watching or relying on someone who is expected to succeed does little to increase a struggling student’s sense of self-confidence. [2] Similarly, gifted students benefit from classroom interactions with peers at similar performance levels.

MYTH
All children are gifted.

TRUTH
While all children are special and deserving, not all children have exceptional academic gifts that require additional or different support in school. Interestingly, most people readily accept that there are gifted children in performing arts or athletics whose talents are so far above those of others their age that they require additional or different training or coaching. It is important to understand that these same characteristics and differences apply to academically gifted students who need support and guidance to reach their full potential.

MYTH
Acceleration placement options are socially harmful for gifted students.

TRUTH
Academically gifted students often feel bored or out of place with their age peers and naturally gravitate towards older students who are more similar as “intellectual peers.” Studies have shown that many students are happier with older students who share their interest than they are with children the same age.[3] Therefore, acceleration placement options such as early entrance to Kindergarten, grade skipping, or early exit should be considered for these students.

[1] Archambault, F. S., Westberg, K. L., Brown, S. W., Hallmark, B. W., Emmons, C. L., & Zhang, W. (1993). Regular classroom practices with gifted students: Results of a national survey of classroom teachers (#93102). Storrs, CT: the National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented.
[2] Fiedler, E.D., Lange, R. E., Winebrenner, S. (1993). In search of reality: Unraveling the myths about tracking, ability grouping, and the gifted. Roper Review, (16), 4-7.
[3] Colangelo, N., Assouline, S. G., & Gross, M.U.M. (2004). A nation deceived: How schools hold back America's brightest students. Iowa City: University of Iowa.

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Stay tuned for the rest of the list; there are still six myths to go!