Behavior or Boredom?

Behavior or Boredom?

by

Jessica Arnold

We often hear about the reciprocal relationship between behavior and grades; we associate poor academic achievement with carelessness and poor behaved students are the ones teachers never want in their class. But…what if there was a reason for these undesired behaviors and lack of achievement? This blog focuses on gifted students who are bored in the classroom and result to acting out and avoiding all work for several reasons.

Not only are several students at risk in the schooling system, when a student is labeled as gifted they are automatically expected to reach high levels of learning, have no behavioral issues and be the perfect student; but what parents and educators may fail to realize is that setting such high expectations for school aged children could potentially be just as dangerous.

It is important to provide counseling to students who show the need for it; a few examples of this are misconduct, inconsistent work completion and lack of motivation. Individual counseling allows students to share feelings about their home lives, schooling experiences and give reason as to why they are not motivated to do well in school. Through counseling, solutions can be created to avoid the misconduct and boredom in class.

What To Do When Outbursts Occur:

1. Start early by helping the child talk about his or her emotions.
2. Held the child to discover their escalation style. Helping them to determine this pattern can give them a chance to redirect their feelings and manage them.
3. Create a plan for waht to do when s/he is overwhelmed.
4. If the the escalation and explosion happen anyway, remain calm and stay emotionally natural.
5. Breathe. You and the student.
6. Focus on the good behavior you want to see instead of focusing on the negative.
7. Use the events (good or baad) as a teachable moment.

For additional ways to reduce behavior problems check out this article from ByrdSeed.

Being Proactive:

Ultimately, we’d like to see this never happen. One way to be proactive to avoid those behaviors and escalated situations, is to simply place a student in the courses that appropriately challenge them. It is important that gifted students are put into classes with other gifted students. When gifted students spend time with others who share their abilities, they are happier and enjoy academic and social adjustment. Gifted students cognitively function at a different level than peers, and when surrounded by students who act similarly to them, it is a much safer and comfortable environment for them. Click here to read more about four teachers who adjusted their teaching styles and relationship building to accommodate those learners. According to Tanner, Stoll and Anway in School Psychology Quarterly, “research suggests that twice-exceptional students, or those who are highly gifted yet demonstrate a learning or behavioral disability, often underachieve in school.” It’s imperative to stop this cycle and educate students in the environment that best suits them.

Meeting the Unique Needs of Gifted Students:

Just as educators and parents ensure that struggling students have an individualized education, gifted students deserve the same. Not only does this eliminate boredom turning into behavior issues, it pushes students to their full potential which is a major goal of educators.

The educators in the classroom can mainly focus on pushing high levels of rigor as opposed to differentiating several levels of instruction, where some could be extremely low. The National Association for Gifted Children gives a great article as to the true importance of individualizing gifted students education here.

Resources for Teachers:

• 15 Ways to Help Gifted Students Thrive in School
• Gifted Kids at Risk
• Ways to Challenge Gifted Learners
• 50 Tips Tricks and Ideas for Teaching Gifted Students
• Strategies of Teaching Gifted Students
• Social and Emotional Issues in Gifted Children

Resources for Parents:

• Overall Information About Being Gifted
• This article is a platform for many other educational websites and articles to educate you! 

Fall Camp Innovation Pathways to College Program at NKU

Join us this fall at NKU's Camp Innovation Pathways to College Program for students in grades K-8

Camp Innovation Pathways to College will be Saturdays, October 21-November 4, 9:00-11:30 am.  Students are able to select from over 22 transdisciplinary courses infusing entrepreneurship, science, technology, mathematics, social studies, visual and performing arts and original interdisciplinary studies.  All classes provide the opportunity for students to share interests with other children while experiencing unique, hands-on learning.

This session includes classes such as: Animal Art, Debate Club, Video Game Developers, Walking with Shakespeare, Express Yourself, Chocolate Economics, International Art, Stories Alive, Champion Chess Masters, Grossologists, STEM Explorers and many more!

For full class descriptions and registration, visit our website http://gifted.nku.edu.

Gifted? Now What?

Gifted? Now What?

Ashley Chambless

It’s a week before the new school year starts. You are excited as you look over your class list for the year. You notice that two of your students are identified as gifted. You think to yourself, Gifted? I bet they will do great this year, but am I the right teacher for them? I work hard to meet the needs of my students, but how do I meet the needs of students who are well above where they need to be?”

This can be a very scary thing for a teacher to go through. Having a class composed of 25 different children, who all have different learning styles and abilities can be challenging. Due to this challenge, it can be easy to put more of your focus on students who are at or below grade level and think that the gifted students will be “fine.” This is doing a disservice to those children and their abilities.

As an educator, I have gone through this battle. I was giving good, quality instruction, yet my gifted students were just along for the ride. They were bored! I needed to find a way to reach all of my students and I needed to find it fast.

Of course, as a teacher I knew what differentiation was, but I didn’t fully understand how to implement it effectively. My first step was to make sure that I could define the process of differentiation and how it would help my gifted students.

“Differentiation is a way of teaching; it’s not a program or package of worksheets. It asks teachers to know their students well so they can provide each one with experiences and tasks that will improve learning.” (Scholastic) This definition alone shows that differentiation is going to allow teachers to meet the needs of all students by knowing who they are and what they need. There are three main aspects to focus on when differentiating: Process, Content, and Product.

Process- this is the part in which teachers are giving tiered activities for student learning. The process is being taught through a variety of things such as media, PowerPoint, song/video, verbal, movement etc. Students are provided student choice through manipulatives and activities and this will allow you to meet the needs of all learning styles in your classroom. Here is just one example of a learning style inventory quiz you can give to your students:

https://www.puc.edu/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/13395/Learning-Styles-Inventory.pdf

Content- this is the part in which teachers are provided a variety of levels and support for what the students need. All students are working toward the same goal, but the level and support varies based on the needs of students. This is the time a teacher can have multiple students working on the same standard, but when deconstructing that standard, students will be working on a variety of material based on their understanding. Here in a link to a wonderful source that explains how to “unwrap” a standard in order to see what parts students need to accomplish:

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/finding_common_ground/2015/03/unwrapping_the_standards_a_simple_way_to_deconstruct_learning_outcomes.html

Product- this is the part in which teachers give students options on how to show what they have learned and providing rubrics matched to their choice and level. This is a great time to provide students opportunities to work independently and at their own pace, or even in a group environment. Here is a link to a wonderful site that give multiple options on how to give student choice through learning: https://daretodifferentiate.wikispaces.com/Choice+Boards

All of these things will help your classroom ensure that it is meeting everyone’s needs and giving opportunities for students to show their talents. This process gives time for gifted students to really shine and ensures that they are working with material that will challenge them. While this is not the only way to ensure you are meeting the needs of gifted students, it is a great place to start! From here, the options are endless and more support can be added for those students!

As an educator, we need to do what is best for all of our students. Differentiation does take time, but it is a great place to start in learning about your students and challenging them through a variety of materials. Now when you see a child labeled as gifted on your roster, do not think they will just be “fine.” Challenge yourself and start making your lesson fit their needs through differentiation!

References: What Is Differentiated Instruction? (n.d.). Retrieved March 23, 2017, from https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/what-differentiated-instruction/

What Is Differentiated Instruction? (2017, March 16). Retrieved March 23, 2017, from http://www.readingrockets.org/article/what-differentiated-instruction

Camp Innovation Summer 2017