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Articles from
October 2007
Using Fluency to Stimulate Creativity
There are a number of elements of creativity that teachers and parents can use to stimulate their students (and themselves). Fluency—the ability to come up with many ideas—is one of those elements. It is difficult to find innovative ideas if one can’t generate many from which to choose. You can have a lot of fun with these activities. The exercises fill odd moments (waiting in line, driving in the car) with stimulation and can also help generate ideas for projects.
Brainstorming techniques are used when working on fluency. When brainstorming,
- No criticism is allowed. Defer any judgment until a large number of alternatives have been produced. (If you judge too quickly, you risk shutting people down.)
- Freewheeling is desired. The wilder the ideas, the better. (From those crazy ideas might come some very sensible ones.)
- Quantity is desired. Include the small, obvious alternatives, as well as the wild, unusual, clever ones. (The more ideas one can generate, the greater the chances that one of those ideas will be a good one.)
- Combine alternatives and hitchhike upon alternatives to produce even more ideas. (Often young children will complain: “He stole my idea.” But, it’s a compliment to take someone else’s idea and change it slightly or expand upon it.)
For fun activities try some of the following:
- List all of the words you can think of that begin with a certain letter, certain two letters, certain three letters, etc.
- List all of the synonyms/antonyms you can thing of for a certain word.
- Name all the objects you can think of that are white and edible, or mean and yet soft.
- Name uses for a bale of hay or a needle or a broom.
- What are all of the uses (conventional or nonconventional) you can think of for a fork?
- Think of all of the possible presents you could give to a person if you had no money.
If you ask at your local bookstore, you will find books that list suggested topics for brainstorming.
Some ideas for using brainstorming for academic subjects include:
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How many aspects are similar/different between two books?
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How many ways did WWII affect the culture of the U.S.?
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List as many equations as you can where the answer is 6. (3 + 3, 2 x 3, 26 – 20, etc.)
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Name as many kinds of penguins as you can and their natural habitats.
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List all the possible settings for a scary story.
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How many different techniques can you think of to make a presentation to the class?
Social Studies for Gifted Students
Teaching advanced levels of social studies often is sorely neglected until more complex classes are offered in high school. However, teachers should be aware that there are excellent, research-based curricula available developed by the Center for Gifted Education at the College of William and Mary and made available by Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company. Every teacher I know who has used any of the units has raved about them. They are not only written at a much higher level than regular curriculum, but they really get kids excited about learning.
The units:
- are interdisciplinary;
- use abstract concepts such as systems, cause and effect, and how things change over time;
- place heavy emphasis on higher order reasoning;
- provide historical analysis using primary sources;
- include in-depth study of content; and
- employ the skills of discussion, writing, and research.
There are a couple of cautions. When a grade level is given for a unit, teachers need to understand that it is truly for gifted students at that level. Don’t be fooled into thinking you should get a unit that is at a higher grade level. Also, the units typically provide a list of resources that you will need to purchase elsewhere, so don’t assume that the expense of the curriculum is the entire cost of teaching the unit.
It would be well worth your time to visit the Kendall/Hunt Web site and investigate the units that would be appropriate for your grade level.
Units include
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Grades 2-3:
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Ancient China: The Middle Kingdom
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Grades 4-5:
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Building a New System: Colonial America 1607-1763
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The World Turned Upside Down: The American Revolution
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Grades 5-6:
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A House Divided? The Civil War: Its Causes and Effects
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Grades 6-7:
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The 1920s in America: A Decade of Tensions
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The 1930s in America: Facing Depression
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Grades 6-8:
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The Road to the White House: Electing the American President
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Grades 10-12:
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Defining Nations: Cultural Identity and Political Tensions
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Post-Colonialism in the 20th Century
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Primary Sources and Historical Analysis
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The Renaissance and Reformation in Europe
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Mentors for Gifted Science Students
Amber Hess is a passionate science student who has won awards at many prestigious science competitions. She was an Intel Science Talent Search Finalist, a semifinalist for the Siemens Westinghouse competition, and she won a First Place Grand Award in Chemistry at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF). She qualified to compete at the California State Science Fair five times, winning 4th, 3rd, and two 1st place awards. Hess is now attending MIT where she is majoring in chemical engineering. In her article How to Find a Mentor, she stresses the importance of a mentor/advisor, stating that the vast majority of winners of top fairs have mentors and the vast majority of students have to find their own mentors.
Hess gives specific steps for finding a mentor and stresses the importance of students finding their own mentors. It is, she states, the only way they’ll appreciate the advisor. She also feels strongly that mentors respond when contacted by motivated students, not motivated teachers.
Many other valuable tips for participating in science competions can be found at the Science Buddies Web site where this article is posted.
If you are a serious science student or a potential mentor of one, you will want to read these articles.
Ning Technology for Gifted Education
Ning is a relatively new technology available for discussion groups, and Gifted Education 2.0 has been formed for gifted education. When I first viewed the site, I was skeptical because one needs to join before discussion threads can be accessed. I didn’t want to give out any information that might cause me to increase the spam on my email or cause me to be associated with something I would later regret. After viewing the other members’ profiles, I gained some confidence by seeing some highly recognizable names in the field of gifted education. It’s been about three weeks since I joined, and I haven’t felt any negative repercussions.
It’s free to join Gifted Education 2.0. Ning makes its money from ads by Google that you see along the righthand side of the page.
There are some very interesting discussions going on at this site, but it takes a bit of investigating and playing around to understand how it all works. Having some skills in technology also is helpful.
Start out by clicking on either “Forums” or “Groups” at the top of the page. Remember that almost everything you see is layered. In other words, if you click on “Forums,” then “Book Discussions,” you are only seeing the opening page of that discussion. Click on “Novels for Book Discussions” and scroll down the page. You will see extensive postings on this topic with teacher suggestions.
Some of the additional categories of discussions at the site are:
- topics where advice or feedback are requested;
- tech tools;
- science, technology, engineering, and mathematics;
- conferences and workshops;
- news items;
- creativity;
- preschoolers;
- parenting;
- elementary education;
- middle school education; and
- high school education.
Remember. This technology is in its infancy. Add your own discussion groups or reply to existing postings and watch it grow.
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