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One of the benefits of teaching gifted children in a full-inclusion classroom is the ability to focus on their specific areas of giftedness

Unfortunately, when students are identified as gifted, they are often treated as if they are gifted in every area and therefore receive high-level instruction in every area, even if they are not ready for it.

Gifted children often lead double lives. Intellectually, they may seem like small, eccentric adults, and they may prefer the company of adults, but in many ways they are still children. For this reason, many gifted education experts have doubts about letting gifted students start college several years early. In this talk, you will hear about my experience entering a college environment at age 13. You’ll hear about my successes and failures, the way I interact with the professional and academic world, and what I am learning now as an ex-gifted adult. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at

The term “twice-exceptional,” also referred to as “2e,” is used to describe gifted children who, have the characteristics of gifted students with the potential for high achievement and give evidence of one or more disabilities as defined by federal or state eligibility criteria.

Twice-exceptional children often find difficulty in the school environment, where organization, participation, and long-term planning play a role

When a child has been identified as gifted and talented, this means that they have a greater potential for learning in at least one subject. GT kids can be exceedingly creative or intensely analytical. They can be socially mature or delayed, they can be introverts or extroverts, goofballs or unusually serious. In other words, you can’t stuff them into a single easy to categorize box.

Gifted and Talented vs Advanced Placement

They need more time to think and explore, not more time doing homework and yet some schools work on the false impression that GT simply means ‘academic superstar’ and pile on the AP classes and maintaining this schedule is expected in order to keep your ‘gifted’ qualification.

Gifted and talented children and youth are those students with outstanding abilities, identified at preschool, elementary, and secondary levels. The potential of gifted students requires differentiated and challenging educational programs or services beyond those provided in the general school program. Students capable of high performance include those with demonstrated achievement or potential ability in one or more of these areas: general intellectual, specific academic subjects, creativity, leadership, and visual/performing arts.

Resources for Educators, Schools and FamiliesAcceleration is an option for students who are academically advanced compared to peers in their age group. The Acceleration Institute website informs parents, educators, researchers and policymakers of the research and practices concerning academic acceleration. Visit the Acceleration Institute website. Developing Academic Acceleration Policies: Whole Grade, Early Entrance & Single Subject is a resource available to guide policymakers, school administrators, and educators to create or modify acceleration policies at the local level. View Developing Academic Policies: Whole Grade, Early Entrance & Single Subject. Sample whole grade acceleration procedure

Increasing Depth, Complexity, and RigorAnother way to develop curriculum for gifted learners is to incorporate greater depth, complexity, and rigor. You can achieve this through a variety of strategies. One simple method is to provide students with questions requiring a higher level of critical thinking. Discussion groups, such as Socratic seminars and fishbowl discussions, in which students explore such questions are particularly effective--you can ask your students to paraphrase their peers' responses and then add on or pose other questions.

excellent resource in helping teachers develop challenging curriculum for gifted and talented students in their classroom. The book is unique in that it focuses exclusively on curriculum development and is geared toward all grade levels. Three curriculum models are emphasized throughout the book and each is explained in detail in the first chapter.

“ If you’re a teacher, consider incorporating TEDTalks into your courses. Distributed under a Creative Commons license, TEDTalks are freely available for use in the classroom — just credit the source and don’t distort the speakers’ intended meaning.”

Gifted Resources: Curriculum

High intelligence, whether expressed in cognitive abilities such as the capacity to generalize, conceptualize, or reason abstractly, or in specific abilities such as creative behavior, results from the interaction between inherited and acquired characteristics. This interaction encompasses all of the physical, mental, and emotional characteristics of the person and all of the people, events, and objects entering the person’s awareness. Our reality is unique to each of us.

No matter where they obtain their education, they need an appropriately differentiated curriculum designed to address their individual characteristics, needs, abilities, and interests.

Content consists of ideas, concepts, descriptive information, and facts. Content, as well as learning experiences, can be modified through acceleration, compacting, variety, reorganization, flexible pacing, and the use of more advanced or complex concepts, abstractions, and materials.

To modify process, activities must be restructured to be more intellectually demanding.

Promote critical thinking and reasoning abilities. Develop and expand thinking skills. Utilize differentiated strategies for learning. Build or extend cognitive language skills. Facilitate opportunities for learning.