After watching this video, comment on which of the Top 10 things presented you think a classroom teacher most often overlooks or misunderstands when working with gifted students.

There are many "other" traits of the gifted student that many educators do not understand, and thus may impact their success in their classroom. Many have the misconception that our gifted learners have all the tools they need to be successful, but in fact, they do need additional support. Some students will struggle once they hit high school or even college because they have never had to learn study skills or time management skills. For some of these students this can cause them to underachieve once they are challenged because they do not have the tools to meet the challenge. This was something that we would often see with our students who came into our self-contained gifted program in 3rd grade. Parents would often question whether the student should be in the program because they were seeing their student "struggling" a little bit with the higher-level and more abstract assignments and tasks expected of them. This was something new for them as they had been accustomed to 3 or 4 years of no homework or more knowledge or comprehension level tasks. We assured them that yes, indeed, they were in the right place. I would often have students return to see me saying that the years in our program really prepared them for their higher level courses in high school. The asynchronous development is also an interesting trait of our students. In the years I taught in our self-contained program, there were definitely those students who were so bright, that even in a classroom with other gifted 5th graders, they often would prefer the conversation and interaction of the teachers throughout the day. Many times you would forget that you were only talking to a 10 or 11 year old child, but then would be reminded once you saw them interacting with their peers at recess time.

You are exactly right! I can't help but think about the lengthy lesson plans that we had to write (and dreaded) in our undergrad teaching methods courses. Most educators do not provide this much detail in their daily plans, but that process and all of those components are instilled in us and we have the "tools" to explain rationale for the lessons we implement in the classroom. We had the foundation laid for us.

After reviewing the Identification brochure (accessible on the right-hand side of this site) and ODE's "Who is Gifted in Ohio by Law and Rule?", what questions do you have about the gifted identification process in Ohio or Westerville? What do you see as the biggest challenge in the gifted identification process in Westerville?

Thanks for sharing the interesting tidbit of information about posting. Sorry for the frustration. I guess I should address your final comment as this seems like the appropriate place to comment. It is my understanding that the Wiki is not suited to the discussion but the Diigo is. Eric, can you comment as well on this?

Laura, You raise some valid questions in the time between whole group testing. We started testing in 2nd grade because years ago our gifted programming did begin in 3rd grade so 2nd grade testing information was used for that purpose. About 6 years ago when we went through all of the cuts, we lost our 3rd grade programming but by that time we were a BFK district and needed that 2nd grade data point so whole group testing has remained there. Also, up until a few years ago, the next whole group testing opportunity did take place at 5th grade. When 5th grade began testing 4 areas for the OAT, it was my understanding that the decision was made to move it to 6th grade because of the overwhelming amount of testing at that grade level. 6th grade only had the reading amd math OATs. You raise the same question that many people ask. Another important factor to consider is that testing is expensive.I don't know if we will be able to get that changed or not. We are in compliance with the state and our identification. And you are correct that we do offer individual testing based on referrals but this is a small majority of our students who are identified in this way.