On January 22, 2006, the New York Times ran an article titled "It Pays to Have a Smart Child, but It Can Cost, Too".

One important point the article makes is that families of gifted children are increasingly being forced to spend thousands of dollars to supplement the education of their children. These families are supporting their gifted children's education with special learning opportunities outside of the traditional school setting. Recently, Prufrock Press released a book for parents and teachers on this topic by Julia Roberts, Ph.D., titled Enrichment Opportunities for Gifted Learners.

In the Times article, Charles Beckman, director of communications for the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth, described the need that many parents of gifted children feel. "The No Child Left Behind Act has forced many states to redirect money from gifted education to bringing other kids up to a minimally acceptable skill level," he said. "Cutting the education dollars of tomorrow's leaders, thinkers and doers means more families are looking for ways to have their kids' intellectual needs met outside of school."

The article is a good look at the ends to which families of gifted children have to go to find appropriate, challenging learning experiences for their kids.

One irritating part of the article is a quote by a retired professor of industrial psychology, Perry Prestholdt. "It's important to give kids normal experiences that are typical for children of that age ... Unique and expensive opportunities can imbue these kids with a false sense of privilege."

Why in the world did the New York Times print this knee-jerk response from someone with no experience with gifted children or gifted education? Why does this retired professor of industrial psychology feel that gifted children should be restricted to "typical" learning experiences?

I think we've still got a long way to go before we convince the Perry Prestholdts of the world that gifted children deserve appropriate, challenging learning experiences -- be they "typical" or not.

Guest Post by: Stephen Young, Ed.D.

There is an old educational adage that you can’t teach something to someone who doesn’t want to learn it. This old maxim is one reason why professional educators spend so much time on the challenge of motivation. Teachers of gifted and talented students are no less likely to face this challenge than other teachers.

There are essentially only two ways to motivate a student to learn. The first is to offer students content and skills that they see as relevant, meaningful, and important. Students will try to learn what they value as important.

When faced with teaching content and skills that do not meet this first approach, we often look for fun and exiting ways to “hook” students into our lessons. That which students find fun and interesting will also get their attention and, despite themselves, they will dive in head first simply because it’s fun. Let's face it, while we often teach content and skills that seem wonderfully relevant and important to students—sometimes the content we teach needs a little boost.

Every teacher wants each class to get off to a good start. Hook student’s attention at the beginning of a class or school day, and your chances of a successful lesson improve dramatically. One way to do this is to use something I call “hooks and grabbers.” These are short attention getting activities: games, puzzles, artifacts, quotes, mysteries, riddles, words, observations, magic tricks, and a host of other means of grabbing their attention at the starting gate and getting them involved in mind stretching activities. “Hooks and grabbers” create a frame of mind—an atmosphere of fun, curiosity, or discovery—which can successfully lead into the main content of the lesson.

During my 35 years as a public school teacher and college professor, I have accumulated a number of such activities. I've collected them in my new book, Super Smart: 180 Challenging Thinking Activities, Words, and Ideas for Advanced Students.

With this blog, I've included a few samples of actual activities included in my book. Just click on any of the images below to view these fun classroom “hooks and grabbers.” Feel free to print any of the samples below and try them out in your classroom.

Free Samples of Motivational Activities for Gifted Children

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Using appropriate hooks and grabbers can give you a leg up in creating a classroom atmosphere of discovery students will look forward to each day.

About This Blog Entry's Guest Author
Stephen Young, Ed.D, recently retired from a 35-year career as public school teacher and professor of education at Morehead State University. He holds B.A. and M.A. degrees from MSU and Ed.S and Ed.D. degrees from Indiana University in Instructional Systems Technology. In addition to two novels in print, he is also the author of a manual for decision making via critical thinking. His newest book, Super Smart: 180 Challenging Thinking Activities, Words, and Ideas for Advanced Students, is is available from Prufrock Press.