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"An intellectual is someone
whose mind watches itself."
-Albert Camus
This exploration of Academic and Intellectual Giftedness is designed for educators and parents.
Each topic provides a broad overview, and is supplemented by subtopics, often with rich video content, designed to enhance understanding and present multiple viewpoints.
Students with academic and intellectual gifts are exceptional students.
However, since such learners are not classified as having a disability, they are not detailed in IDEA.
There is federal legislation that serves to classify gifted students and provide for educational services, but local and state policy still largely determines what services gifted learners receive.
State Definition of AIG Students
ARTICLE 9B (N.C.G.S. § 115C-150.5)
Academically or intellectually gifted (AIG) students perform or show the potential to perform at substantially high levels of accomplishment when compared with others of their age, experiences or environment.
Academically or intellectually gifted students exhibit high performance capability in intellectual areas, specific academic fields, or in both the intellectual areas and specific academic fields.
Academically or intellectually gifted students require differentiated educational services beyond those ordinarily provided by the regular educational program. Outstanding abilities are present in students from all cultural groups, across all economic strata, and in all areas of human endeavor.
Three Components of the Javits Program
(1) the National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented
(2) grants to institutions of higher education and state and LEAs to expand services to underrepresented students in gifted and talented programs; and
(3) grants to agencies and school districts to enhance gifted education offerings (starting in 2001, as part of No Child Left Behind
Javits uses the ESEA definition of gifted students: students, children, or youth who give evidence of high achievement capability in areas such as intellectual, creative, artistic, or leadership capacity, or in specific academic fields, and who need services and activities not ordinarily provided by the school in order to fully develop those capabilities.
The U.S. Department of Education published this report in order to broaden the scope of what was classified as academic and intellectual giftedness. This is formal recognition that IQ is certainly not the only possible indicator of potential abilities.
THE MARLAND DEFINITION
Children capable of high performance include those with demonstrated achievement and/or potential ability in any of the following areas:
1. General intellectual ability
2. Specific academic ability
3. Creative or productive thinking
4. Leadership ability
5. Visual and performing arts
6. Psychomotor ability"
Unusual alertness, even in infancy
Rapid learner with excellent memory
Unusually large vocabulary
Comprehension of abstract ideas
Enjoys solving problems
intense feelings and reactions - highly sensitive
Idealism and sense of justice
Concern with social and political issues
Longer attention span
Preoccupied with thoughts - a daydreamer
Learn basic skills quickly
Asks probing questions
Wide range of interests or intense focus
Highly developed curiosity
Interest in experimenting
Puts ideatogether atypically
Keenor unusual sense of humor
Vivid imagination
*Of course not all gifted learners have all of these,
nor are these the only possible traits...
Joseph Renzuli, University of Connecticut
Gifted behavior is made of three componenets:
above-average ability + task commitment + creativity
John Munro of The University of Melbourne details just how different brain activity looks in students with intellectual gifts.
The U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights estimates that six (6) percent of public school students are enrolled in gifted and talented programs
A study by Vanderbilt University published in 2016 revealed that, after surveying 100,000 American elementary school students, high-scoring white students are still twice as likely as high-scoring black students to get assigned to a gifted and talented program.
Educator Amanda Champany challenges us to broaden our definitions of intelligence in this TEDx talk.
One school district in Florida makes sure that minority, low-income, and culturally-diverse students aren't left out.
Large numbers of gifted students experience significant challenges, including:
Underachievement
Perfectionism
Depression & anxiety
Negative self-talk
Impatience
Inability or reluctance to follow rules
Low threshold for frustration
A sense of alienation
Social difficulties
Underachievement
Sensitivity to sensory & emotional stimuli
Allison Kinzer is a student with academic and intellectual gifts. In this TEDx Youth presentation, she examines some difficulties and possible solutions.
Jerald Grobman, M.D., specializes in assessment and therapy for adolescents and adults who are identified as gifted.
Is this underachievment part of normal development in academically and intellectually gifted individuals, or related to something more serious?
Carol Ann Tomlinson, Ed.D, The University of Virginia, offers these suggestions.
Good curriculum and instruction for gifted learners begins with good curriculum and instruction.
Good teaching for gifted learners is paced in response to the student's individual needs.
Good teaching for gifted learners happens at a higher "degree of difficulty" than for many students their age.
Good teaching for gifted learners requires an understanding of "supported risk."
How can teachers simply and effectively differentiate instruction for students who are academic and intellictually gifted?
Classroom strategies that are low-cost and easy to implement? Count me in!
Cosmos, C. (2016, September 1). Minority Students Underrepresented in Gifted Programs. The Washington Diplomat. Retrieved February 20, 2018, from http://www.washdiplomat.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14060:minority-students-underrepresented-in-gifted-programs-&catid=1548&Itemid=428
Tomlinson, C. A. (n.d.). What it Means to Teach Gifted Learners Well. Retrieved February 20, 2018, from https://www.nagc.org/resources-publications/gifted-education-practices/what-it-means-teach-gifted-learners-well
Webb, James T. A Parent's Guide to Gifted Children. Great Potential Press.
National Association for Gifted Children
https://www.nagc.org
Great Potential Press
specialty publisher for gifted learners and parents
http://www.greatpotentialpress.com/
Davidson Institute
http://www.davidsongifted.org/
Scholastic
http://www.scholastic.com/parents/
A mother shares her experiences raising a profoundly gifted son.
How can parents best help gifted students in transition?
This definition is located in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act:
"Students, children, or youth who give evidence of high achievement capability in areas such as intellectual, creative, artistic, or leadership capacity, or in specific academic fields, and who need services and activities not ordinarily provided by the school in order to fully develop those capabilities."
As we examine what it means to be academically and intellectually gifted, that is the definition with which we will start. Whether it is sufficient, or adequate, is a question for the individual who parents, educates, and plans for these exceptional students.