This was a very interesting topic for me to read and learn more about this week. Often we get so wrapped up in helping students who are falling behind that we often forget to challenge the students that are gifted. I am lucky that they school I work at is still able to have an enrichment program for gifted children. However, the programs that are offered at my school only pull students once a week. Also, these programs are usually for 6 weeks and then a new program starts. This makes it very difficult for me to find ways to provide a challenge for my talented and gifted students.
Often when looking at UDL i can forget to look at how within my lessons I can adapt for my gifted students. Also, using the modules, I caught up in just following the script which isn't always what is best for my students. Most commonly, I have my gifted students help me work with other learners who may be struggling. I have noticed that quite often they are able to explain the process of something better than I can. I have been trying extremely hard in my lessons to incorporate some type of technology program to create a virtual learning environment. I am able to search and find online programs that fit into my units. For example, as we are beginning test prep reading comprehension is something my students are working on. I have found a website where they read an article and then answer the questions online. Some of my talented students are able to work on this program during guided reading and they love it. It gives them an opportunity to use the computer and do something fun. Also, the site that I have found has a wide selection of articles for them to choose from. Lastly, this website can help my struggling readers as well. With many different articles, I can tell my struggling readers they need to choose 3+ because those are readings at their level,
I have never worked with a student that has a disability, but is also a gifted student seeing as it is something that is very rare. However after reading I would be very interested to work with such a student. When looking at this information from UDL it is important to be able to help your gifted student overcome any barriers they may be preventing them from showing their gifts. For example, having the tools to allow someone who may have a difficult time writing. Being able to provide students with voice recognition software could help them tremendously.
Overall, I am extremely happy that I am able to learn more about how to help gifted and talented students and continue to hope for an opportunity to work with such students. In the mean time I will continue to use the information I read this week to help my current students when looking at UDL.
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ReplyDeleteI'm glad picking UDL has you thinking more about your current practices. It is good that you have incorporated your gifted students in helping your other students. The peer teaching does demonstrate that they truly understand the concept. I'd love to hear more how you are using UDL in your current classroom.
ReplyDeleteIn my classroom, I don't have any students that would be considered gifted and talented but I have some students that are significantly more advanced then many of my students. Like you said sometimes we focus so much on helping the students that are really struggling that we are not paying attention to those that need to be challenged. At the beginning of the year I had a hard time balancing challenging those students and just giving them extra work. Then I had a hard time managing my class when I would let the students that finished early go onto our chromebooks when they finished their work because the other kids were upset they couldn't go on. Virtual Learning Environments seem like they would help solve that issue but they also seem very time consuming. But it could be something that a grade level team works on together so that all gifted and talented students, or just students that are on or above grade level, could use.
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