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More Online Learning for Gifted Students
Friday, April 02, 2010 - by CFertig - Category: Foreign Language, Parents and Educators, Reading-Writing-L.A., Rural Education, Science, Social Studies, Technology, Advanced Placement, Gifted and Talented Children, Gifted Education, Parenting Gifted Children, Teaching Gifted Children, Homeschooling, History Education, Language Arts
Teachers and parents alike often turn to online learning options in order to supplement and/or accelerate gifted students' learning. Does your young person have a strong interest and ability in mathematics, physics, computer programming, literature, writing, history, or foreign language? Does she want to take Advanced Placement (AP) classes that are not offered at her local high school? Or, does your student need a flexible schedule because of family circumstances, work responsibilities, or health issues?
Are you in a school district where your young person’s needs and abilities surpass the available curriculum? Do you homeschool your child, either full-time or part-time, and, as a result, need solid educational resources? Or, do you have a student who doesn't necessarily want to earn credit for extracurricular classes, but instead just wants to expose himself to different topics in order to see if any really interest him? If so, then you may want to introduce your student to the wide range of opportunities available through online learning.
For years, I have been writing about the virtues of distance learning for gifted kids. Over the past few years, the distance learning field has continued to expand. As the technology becomes more sophisticated, many distance learning programs are beginning to use not only computers for their programs, but also everyday technologies, such as cell phones.
Kids are often more comfortable with these technologies than adults. This may be one reason why traditional schools are often unable to adjust to and incorporate these new technologies into the traditional classroom. Adults (both parents and teachers) sometimes lack the expertise that young people have already learned at an early age and use every day. Perhaps it is time for adults to stop fighting these new developments and, instead, embrace them and incorporate them into student learning. Online learning is one good way to start.
If you are interested in learning more about the opportunities available to gifted kids, there is a great deal of information available at the Davidson Institute for Talent Development website and at the Distance Learning Programs page of Hoagies’ Gifted Education website.
Maritime History for Gifted Kids
Friday, March 05, 2010 - by CFertig - Category: Math, Parents and Educators, Science, Social Studies, Gifted Education, Parenting Gifted Children, Teaching Gifted Children, Homeschooling, History Education
The study of maritime history is a great vehicle for weaving together an understanding of the history of ships, as well as an understanding of how inventions and discoveries enabled explorers to travel farther and farther from home. It also helps students understand the motivations for explorers to travel to different parts of the world, whether it was for political, economic, or personal reasons. There is excellent information on the Internet that will enable students and teachers to study this subject. Below is just a sampling:
The Mariners’ Museum in Newport News, Virginia has created an Age of Exploration On-Line Curriculum Guide. The curriculum guide, which is designed for grades 3-12, addresses maritime discovery from ancient times to Captain Cook's 1768 voyage to the South Pacific. The website includes visual images, text, and materials that can be downloaded or printed for transparencies, presentations, or reports. It also includes lesson plans, vocabulary, links to related websites, and guides to other reference materials.
The National Maritime Historical Society has created a site titled Sea History for Kids. At this site, you will find a variety of informational pages and activities, including vessel types, the commerce of historical shipping, famous mariners, underwater archaeology, professions and occupations of the sea, the historical stories of kids who went to sea, games, and puzzles.
The BBC presents A History of Navigation, charting the course of maritime navigation "from the days of rough reckoning to the ground-breaking technological advances of the late 1700s." An animated slide show is used to present the information.
Immediate Action Needed to Save Federal Gifted Education Funding
The National Association for Gifted Children has called for "emergency" action to save federal funding for gifted education. However, if you wish to help, you must act before the end of business today.
Federal funding for gifted education is on the chopping block, and your action is needed. The only federal funding for gifted child education is known as the Jacob K. Javits Gifted and Talented Students Education Act. While small in comparison to other education programs, this funding supports important programs and research focused on identifying and serving disadvantaged gifted students. These limited funds were cut out of the proposed 2010 federal budget.
Please consider e-mailing or calling your congressperson and asking that at least $7.5 million be reinstated in fiscal year 2010 for the Jacob K. Javits Gifted and Talented Students Education Act.
Please suggest to your congressperson that funds currently earmarked for local special projects be directed to fund the Javits Act. These special projects funds have already been budgeted, so ask that some of these dollars be allocated toward gifted education. By simply shifting these funds, federal spending would not be increased.
The National Association for Gifted Children has posted detailed instructions related to contacting your representative in Congress.
Keep in mind that you must act today.
Simulation Curricula for Gifted Kids
Saturday, June 28, 2008 - by CFertig - Category: Math, Parents and Educators, Reading-Writing-L.A., Science, Social Studies, Gifted and Talented Children, Gifted Education, Teaching Gifted Children, History Education
Interact is a publisher that offers curricula that is unique and creative. The units often are used as supplements in the regular classroom but can be used in a separate enrichment class. Many of the units involve interaction between students through simulations. I have seen Interact curricula used successfully in classrooms that consist of many different abilities. I knew one teacher who always had an Interact simulation going in his classroom. His students (including the gifted students) were so excited to go to school each day to work on the activities.
Each Interact unit includes a teacher's guide, purpose and overview, daily lesson plans, student materials, time management guidelines, and support materials.
If you do a search on “gifted” at the Interact Web site, results will show curricula particularly suited to high-ability students; however, many of the regular units also work well for students who are academically strong.
Unit subjects include language arts, social studies, math, science, and character building.
A few examples are
Character Matters
Grades 1–4
Up to 20 hours for preparation, planning, and performance
Description: Welcome to a monthly meeting of the Fairy Tale Advice Council. Led by Rapunzel, a handsome prince, and a recovering wicked witch, the council offers help in character building to folk and fairy tale creatures. In this fun and humorous musical, the Big Bad Wolf learns the Golden Rule, Cinderella gets help in managing her anger at her bullying stepsisters, and Jack and the Giant discover that their differences are cool. Will Humpty Dumpty take responsibility for his fall? Can Baby Bear forgive Goldilocks? And will the magic mirrors tell the evil queen the truth about who is "the fairest of them all?"
Game Factory
Grades 3–7
A flexible structure allows for lengthening or shortening the time required
Description: Cheatum Swindle is running the Goodwin's game factory into the ground by producing unfair games, and it's up to your students to use their arithmetic skills to save the company! Students work in pairs performing hands-on experiments with spinners, dice, coins, and cards to test the probabilities of Cheatum's games. The flip of a coin or the roll of the die determines the moves they make as they advance through the factory, examining games for fairness. As they find problems, they make modifications and record reasons for their decisions. In the final push to save the company's reputation, student pairs design their own games and present them with an explanation of their fairness.
Advanced Placement Short Story: Challenging Approaches for Honors, Gifted, and AP English Classes
Description: A sophisticated collection of 36 teacher plans and student handouts based on seven short stories (included) by well-known writers. The activities may be used in many ways. They may heighten awareness of how plot, theme, character, setting, point of view, and style interconnect; they may give students practice in answering the sort of multiple-choice and essay questions they will meet on the AP exams; or they may simply illuminate the art of the short story as practiced by some of its masters: E.B. White, Katherine Mansfield, Langston Hughes, Tillie Olsen, Raymond Carver, Sean O'Faolain, and Bernard Malamud. Index. Supplemental reading list.
Black Gold
Grades 5–8
Up to 15 hours of instruction
Description: Black Gold is a challenging, multi-disciplinary study of petroleum and our reliance upon this vanishing fossil fuel. The science, geography, research, mathematics, and language arts activities center around the global dynamics of petroleum production and consumption. Your students will
- create a map of the world showing the magnitude of petroleum reserves and consumption, and trace major transportation routes and techniques;
- use a variety of research tools, analyze information, and present and defend their conclusion;
- buy and sell crude oil at a commodity market (at their desks or via e-mail); and
- devise techniques to clean up a disastrous oil spill.
African American National Biography: An Incredible Resource for the Gifted
The most extensive compilation of African American biographies ever written has recently become available and promises to be an excellent resource for gifted students who want to learn about the heritage and contributions of this group. This resource is sure to be a treasure trove for independent study, classroom projects, or just plain interesting reading. Watch the ten-minute PBS interview in which editors Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham (both from Harvard) talk about their work on The African American National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2008). The interview is excellent and will give you a real feel for the project.
African American National Biography includes biographies of more than 4,000 African Americans throughout 500 years, dating back to the arrival of Esteban, the first recorded African explorer to set foot in North America. Entries range from Aaron, a former slave without a last name, through Paul Burgess Zuber, a 20th century lawyer and professor. The series includes national heroes and historical figures such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Frederick Douglass. But the biographies also include Sissieretta Joyner Jones, a 19th century opera singer; Richard Potter, a magician, sword swallower, and ventriloquist who owned 175 acres in New Hampshire and died in 1835; and the pistol-packing, fist-fighting Mary Fields, also known as Stagecoach Mary, of the late 19th century.
The entries were written by more than 1,700 contributors in response to a call that was put forth in 2001. In addition to those names published in the printed series, an additional 2,000 names will be included in a forthcoming online database, as part of the African American Studies Center digital archive, available through the Oxford University Press Web site. Gates and Higginbotham have compiled a massive database that includes 12,500 names.
The 8-volume set of African American National Biography is expensive—just under $1,000, so encourage your schools and libraries to make the purchase.
Black History Month Resources for Gifted Kids
Wednesday, February 06, 2008 - by CFertig - Category: Parents and Educators, Reading-Writing-L.A., Social Studies, Free Activities and Lessons, Fun and Interesting Stuff, General Education, Gifted and Talented Children, Gifted Education, Parenting Gifted Children, Teaching Gifted Children, Homeschooling, History Education
February is Black History Month and there are rich resources available to learn about important African Americans and their contributions to history. With a click of the computer mouse, teachers and students can access audio interviews, music, video, photographs, text, and Internet links from reputable sources. You can read biographies, listen to live performances of spirituals, hear great speeches and discussions about cultural influences, learn about important movements, and view study guides.
Here are just a few of the resources available.
If you are an iTunes user, go to iTunes U and see the free downloads on Black History Month that are available for your computer or MP3 player.
History Enrichment Opportunies and Summer Programs
This week, one of my readers wrote to me with the following question:
My son is 10 and loves history, but no kids his age share that interest. I think he would enjoy meeting people his age who also like history! Are there any history camps out there? Or any “young historian clubs” or anything? I have no idea where to go to look for something like this. Do you know of anything, or could you point me in the direction of someone who might?
In writing this blog, I quite often find that I get a question for which I am not the best person to compose an answer. This was the case here, so I turned to Sandra L. Berger, the author of our recently published, The Ultimate Guide to Summer Opportunities for Teens.
I'll post Sandra's Response below. Because the parent posing the question was from Michigan, that state is slightly more represented in the response.
The following programs will have information and/or sponsor courses that may interest your son. This is not a complete list, but it should give you a good start. Please do not be put off by the word “gifted” in the program titles. The term describes a program, not a child. These programs often include a diversity of children who are interested in advanced topics.
- It's likely that the Center for Talent Development (CTD) will have something for your son. At the very least, he will find peers who share his interests—many math kids are equally interested in history. To enroll in CTD, your son will need to take an above-grade level test—Midwest Academic Talent Search (MATS). The deadline is February 4.
- The Center for Talented Youth, another talent search program, at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore offers summer enrichment classes throughout the U.S. The Duke Talent Identification Program (TIP), a third talent search program, is located at Duke University.
- Check with local universities. Many universities offer special summer enrichment programs for talented young people. For example, Michigan State University Youth Programs offers a variety of summer programs for students your son's age.
- The Summer Institute for the Gifted has numerous courses on history and philosophy. They tend to be on the expensive side so be sure to apply early if you want to inquire about financial assistance.
- Check with your state’s gifted education association. They may be able to point you in the right direction. Visit the National Association for Gifted Children's Web site for a list of state affiliates of NAGC.
- Visit the web site of your state's department of education. For example, the MI Department of Education sponsors summer opportunities for children who live in your state.
- Your state’s government or historical society may sponsor some event. For example, the Michigan state government Web site lists several resources and programs for kids..
- Jr. Discovery offers summer enrichment programs for students completing grades 6–8. The four-week program features the "Skills for the Mind & Body" curriculum where students can choose from over 30 interactive workshops.
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