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Excursions and Discover Workshops 8:30 AM - 10:00 AM (W)
Institute Workshops 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM (TH)
Session 1 Intensives 10:15 AM - 11:45 AM (M, T & W)
1. Welcoming the Variables: Differentiation in the Math Classroom – Carmody
Walk into any math classroom and you will find variety. The range of personalities, gifts, talents, special needs, languages and cultural backgrounds can all become a welcome part of a differentiated class. Diversity adds depth and creativity to the learning process. This session will discuss the foundations of differentiation and specific applications in a math class. Examples from middle school mathematics will be shared, but other grade levels are welcome too. Participants will learn about ways to daily modify instruction to include a range of students. Variety in assessment will be another major theme. A significant portion of the sessions will be spent discussing and developing open-ended projects as an alternative form of assessment. Differentiation allows teachers to embrace and welcome the differences in students. It also gives the students to show us what they can really achieve when we provide the opportunities for excellence.
2. Unbelievable Algebra – McAnallen
Using chip trading activities, participants will explore number base theory and how the generalization of such gets us to the mysterious "x". Manipulatives will be used to understand the concepts of all exponential notation including negative exponents along with solving linear and quadratic equations. This workshop requires that the participants bring their sense of humor with them and to come prepared to play around with math.
3. Arts Integration: GarageBand Meets Language Arts – Lacina
Take students’ writing projects from "product" to "production" with GarageBand music software. This is a hands-on, brains-on means of engaging students with their own writing using music and technology to deepen a listener’s understanding of their piece. Broaden students’ communication skills by integrating the concepts and tools of real-world musicians and sound designers. This tool can also be extended to Podcasting and other class projects of any discipline, including Language Arts, World Languages, Social Studies, English Language Learners, Special Education students and more! Also a great intensive for those looking to increase their knowledge and use of technology.
4. Let’s Tell Stories! Sharing the Lives and Experiences of Gifted Individuals – Dixon
Telling your story is important both in life and in the classroom. Understanding the elements of telling a story as well as practicing telling them can be meaningful experiences for high ability students. In this working session, we will listen to good stories, develop techniques to tell a story, practice telling stories, and develop a lesson plan that encourages our students to tell a story relevant to them and important to their social/emotional development. Participants will role play characters, and will view clips of stories as they seek to encourage story-telling in the classroom.
5. Differentiating Characteristics and Associated Challenges: Implications for Teaching – Mendaglio
Characteristics of giftedness pose unique challenges for gifted students. These challenges are evident in virtually all domains of gifted students’ lives: emotional, social, family and academic. Effective teaching and parenting of gifted students rest on teachers’ and parents’ understanding of how certain characteristics function to create challenges that are unique to gifted students. My more than thirty years of counseling gifted individuals of all ages, have provided me with many opportunities to see short term and long term effects of giftedness. This three-session intensive will identify challenges associated with characteristics of gifted students and provide suggestions for teachers. Specifically, the first session deals with a conceptual framework of giftedness that is a combination of my own model (Mendaglio, 2007) and Dabrowski’s theory of positive disintegration (see Mendaglio, 2008). The second session focuses on specific challenges associated with characteristics; and, the third session discusses how teachers can infuse their knowledge of characteristics and challenges they pose into teaching practice.
6. Mentorships, Internships, Enrichment Programs: The Ins and Outs of Implementation – Palmer
This presentation features a mentorship and academic teams programming model developed at Stoughton High School in Stoughton, Wisconsin. Over the past decade, with strands in every imaginable subject area, this unique approach to curriculum design has become a popular method of instructing gifted and highly motivated students. Each mentorship is structured from goals to assessment, and requires a minimum of 87 applied student hours. The academic teams program started with one event, and has blossomed into a yearlong program with over 120 participating students.
7. The 4 C’s of Technology and Gifted Education: Creativity, Content, Critical Thinking, and Collaboration – B. Housand
We are living in a digital age providing gifted students with access to powerful tools that afford new opportunities for creative productivity. At home, many of our students are utilizing technologies in ways we can barely imagine, but often these tools are not being integrated into the school environment. This session focuses on the effective use of free Internet resources as tools to support gifted pedagogy.
8. Beyond Blooms: Teaching Higher Order Thinking Skills – Cash
Repetitive and rote learning experiences inadequately prepare our students for the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century. For students to be successful in today's world they must think fluidly and be able to develop innovative ideas. This session will demonstrate how artful teachers can facilitate learners’ construction of knowledge through elaborative questioning, novel experiences and authentic production. Several templates will be shared and practiced for advancing student thinking and meta-cognitive processing. Participants will also receive ready‑to‑use strategies and ideas to stimulate creativity, engage critical reasoning and invigorate solution finding.
9. Tiered Lessons: What They are and How to Write Them – Fogarty
Meeting the needs of the range of learners in your classroom can be accomplished through curricular modification in a process known as “tiering.” Tiering allows teachers to adjust their lessons to increase or decrease any of the following: level of abstraction, support, complexity, etc. Participants in this session will have the chance to work with the instructor and others in the session to design a tiered lesson of their own.
10. Identification and Programming for Gifted, Elementary Students – Vaughn
This strand will focus on the types of programming options available for gifted/high ability elementary students. Pros and cons of each programming type will be discussed as well as how different types of programs can be combined to ensure that different needs of high ability students can be met. Identifying students for each type of program will be discussed as well as different ability and achievement instruments. This strand will include much interaction and discussion among participants.
Session 2 Intensives 1:30 PM - 3:00 PM (M, T & W)
11. Total School Cluster Grouping – Gentry
Total School Cluster Grouping offers educators a research-based model for the delivery of differentiated curriculum and instruction to all students resulting in improved student achievement, enhanced teacher practices, more students identified as high-achieving, and fewer students identified as low-achieving. In this intensive, participants will be provided with step-by-step procedures for implementing TSCG in their elementary school as well as with effective student-focused differentiation strategies to use in the cluster-grouped classroom.
12. Creativity in Mathematics – E. Mann
Testing, grades, and pacing overshadows creativity's role in mathematics. Students develop adequate computational skills but lack the ability to use these skills in meaningful ways. Creative applications of mathematics in solving open-ended problems are essential for talent development. Teaching mathematics without providing for and encouraging creativity denies all students the opportunity to appreciate the beauty of mathematics and fails to provide the gifted student an opportunity to fully develop his/her talents. Join us as we explore six attributes of a creative mathematician that you can help develop in your students.
13. Engineering in the Elementary Classroom – Duncan
This fun, interactive session will give teachers an introductory look at what engineering is and some of the exciting things that engineers do. From mathematical modeling activities to hands-on design, we will explore the world of engineering and discuss ways to integrate engineering activities into an elementary curriculum. We’ll look at teacher resources, and have time for teacher input and questions.
14. Graphing Calculators in the Classroom – Simms
Participants will explore Graphing calculator activities for Middle School Algebra topics that help students become familiar with the power of the calculator. Participants will have a chance to familiarize themselves with features they may not have used before in their classrooms. Several Apps on the calculator will be explored that can be used to enhance the Algebra curriculum.
15. Meeting the Needs of Culturally Diverse Gifted Students – Castellano
As our collective knowledge increases about giftedness among culturally and linguistically diverse gifted students, so must our knowledge about how their unique characteristics and cultural backgrounds can be infused in the classroom. Genuine access to an enriched and diverse curriculum can provide equal educational opportunities to actualize their giftedness into advanced skills, abilities, and knowledge levels. This intentional focus emphasizes access, equity, and rigor for all students while creating a student-responsive environment. This series of concurrent sessions will highlight curricular and instructional strategies and methodologies; practices to ensure their recruitment and retention into gifted programs; and the important connection between culturally competent teachers and culturally diverse gifted students.
16. Science Integration in the Classroom: It Can Be Done! – Palmer
This session will study unique approaches to teaching and learning science in the 6th-12th grade classroom. We will focus on methods of integrating science instruction so that the needs of all learners (including our dear gifted children) can be met. Supplementary materials and handouts will be provided and included in the discussion. We will also consider science instruction options regarding acceleration, compacting and “beyond the traditional classroom” offerings.
17. PLATE: Powerful Learning and Teaching Environments – A. Housand
How can we, as educators, help students take personal initiative in the process of learning? How do we shift the responsibility of learning to students? How can we help students achieve their potential? Student self-regulated learning is a means by which students become metacognitively, motivationally, and behaviorally engaged in the learning process; engagement that leads to academic achievement. This strand gives teachers, coordinators, and administrators the power to recognize, engender, and create learning environments that support autonomy, increase focus, and encourage student-initiated success.
18. Schoolwide Enrichment Model – Reading – Fogarty
Originally designed for use with talented readers, the Schoolwide Enrichment Model Reading has been found to increase the achievement, fluency, and enjoyment of readers of all achievement levels. Using a workshop model, teachers encourage and support readers through conferences and offer content through brief mini-lessons. This session will be appropriate for teachers in grades 3 through 8, or coordinators and administrators interested in learning more about using the SEM-R in their schools.
19. Practical Methods for Meeting the Social/Emotional Needs of Gifted Students in the Classroom – Miller
Does it ever seem like your gifted students feel burdened with their talents or abilities? Do they face various challenges such as perfectionism, depression, or possibility underachievement? This session will focus on the unique social and emotional development of gifted and talented students. Gain practical strategies that you will be able to use in your classroom in order to help your students overcome the social and emotional challenges that can occur with being gifted and talented.
20. Solution-Focused Counseling for Gifted Students – Friedman-Nimz
Gifted/high potential youngsters come to our attention BECAUSE they have cognitive and affective strengths. Yet, counseling models rarely capitalize on these qualities. In addition, counseling approaches focus on problems, not solutions! Learn about solution-focused, strength-based principles and how to use proven practices, applicable to a variety of issues that affect bright students at home and at school.
Session 3 Intensives 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM (M, T, & W)
21. Differentiation Strategies that Work for Meeting the Needs of Gifted Students – R. Mann
The “how-to” focus of this session allows participants the opportunity to develop skills for differentiating instruction in inclusive and self-contained classrooms. Differentiation is critical to meeting the needs of all children and by responding to readiness levels, interests, and learning preferences teachers can involve students in relevant, challenging, and engaging tasks. Strategies covered include, but are not limited to, curriculum compacting, tiered activities, questioning techniques, independent study, anchoring activities, RAFT assignments, jigsaw, and Tic Tac Toe options. Classroom management and behavioral expectations in the differentiated classroom will also be explored. Participants will leave with a wide variety of strategies and activities that can be used immediately.
22. Geography in a Digital Age: It is not Just for Social Studies any more! – B. Housand
Thanks to advances in technology and Internet resources, the world is now at our fingertips. The Internet is full of geography resources, but how many of us are fully utilizing these powerful tools in our instruction? With tools like Google Earth, Street View, online maps, and GPS devices, teachers and students can create interactive geographical stories, track history, or create geo-biographies. Come and learn how to bring the world into your classroom and develop interactive projects that will ignite the imagination and creativity of you and your students.
23. Advanced Differentiation Strategies – Cash
Differentiation for gifted and high ability learners requires teachers to use more advanced levels of complexity and difficulty along with the infusion of problem finding, concept development and creative and critical thinking. As teachers deepen components of differentiation, their role changes from director to facilitator to coach. This session demonstrates balanced strategies that move learners toward complex and advanced curricula and addresses the varying roles of teachers and students in the learning process. Participants will be offered an easy-to-apply menu of teacher actions and student learning tasks that ensure high proficiency and growth for gifted and high ability learners.
Concepts to be covered in this session are:
• Levels of advanced complexity—all learners must be guided to higher levels of complex thinking. Gifted learners must spend more of their instructional time in the higher levels of analysis, justification and synthesis. This session will explain how to develop advanced complex thinking activities.
• Varying degrees of difficulty—to adjust levels of difficulty teachers would modify the number of steps needed or regulate the amount of information students need to complete task. Many activities and assignments within the regular classroom have low levels of difficulty—this session will offer strategies on how to adjust the degrees of difficulty to appropriately meet the needs of gifted learners.
• Quality of rigor—gifted learners must be offered a curriculum that is endowed with complex concept development, stimulates emotionally engagement with the topic, raises provocative issues, infuses critical and creative thinking, and requires learners to deal with ambiguity. The presenters will share means to embed rigor into the regular curriculum and to deepen the levels of learning for gifted students.
24. Reading and Writing with Gifted Students – Kolloff
Teachers often face challenges in heterogeneous classrooms where students present diverse learning needs. Shouldn’t I focus my efforts on the struggling children so that they will meet the standards? Won’t the high ability kids be fine - after all, they already read and write better than my other students? This session is based on the belief that all children deserve to learn something new every day. The presenter will identify materials and approaches that teachers may use to modify the curriculum for gifted and talented learners. Suggested modifications will be applicable to a wide range of grade levels.
25. Digital Technology in the Classroom – Simms
Participants will have hands-on experience with several types of digital camera and computer software that will enable them to develop activities and presentations they can incorporate into their curriculum. If you have just bought or received a digital camera and want to learn what you can do with it, this is the perfect 3 day intensive for you to attend.
26. Inquiry That Enables Critical Thinking – Dixon
Knowing how to ask the right question to the appropriate audience is a very important skill for teachers in the classroom that focuses on critical thinking through challenging content. Whether differentiating instruction through the tiered lesson or other strategies, or conducting whole group discussions, teachers must determine questions that encourage meaningful dialogue and that challenge students to think deeply. High ability students deserve rigor in the classroom both in written work and in discussion. Questioning techniques can unlock many possibilities toward this end. This interactive session begins with practice writing a variety of levels of questions; then participants will examine curriculum based on trade books for grades 3-6 that focus on critical thinking activities.
27. Paper Folding and Mathematically Talented Students – McAnallen
Paper folding benefits spatially mathematically talented students by exposing them to transformational geometry. It begins with using hands and motion to understand something intellectually as well as tactilely. Inherent in all square or circular paper folding is the wonderful world of geometry including correct geometric vocabulary. In this workshop, participants will leave with several models in hand to enrich and challenge the mathematically talented student. Come prepared to be challenged be sure to bring your sense of humor.
28. Science on Six Legs – Turpin
Join the old Bug Guy to learn how to use insects to increase your students' interest in subject matter across the curriculum. This hands-on workshop will provide insight and methods for using insects to teach everything from life science, to literature, to mathematics, to critical thinking. Not only will material from this workshop be useful to motivate your students, but also you will be a more interesting person at parties!
29. Bulletproofing Gifted Kids: Seven Strategems Every Teacher, Counselor, and Parent Needs to Know –Jackson
We know that there is an essential connection between cognitive and affective functioning. This relationship has the potential to significantly impact school performance and overall development. This is especially true of the gifted child. The theoretical frameworks of Dabrowski's Theory of Positive Disintegration, Positive Psychology, Mihaly Csiksentmihalyi, the Integral Practice for the Gifted model as well as two decades counseling and guiding gifted children, adolescents and adults underpin this seven stratagem model. Taking a proactive and preventative approach to overall, holistic development this session gets to the heart of the challenges that face gifted children and their caregivers. For a gifted child to optimize talent, thrive academically and realize his/her unique potential there MUST be opportunities to grow and develop all aspects of self - intellectual, physical, emotional, social, moral and spiritual. This model embraces challenges essential to growth and development and provides the means and insight to build resilience, courage and wisdom to assist gifted children in navigating their rich, dynamic developmental pathways. Issues such as anxiety, depression, perfectionism, isolation and underachievement are reframed here. The resources of creativity, self-awareness, particular habits of mind and physical practices are utilized. Individual personality profiles and motivational patterns, research and best practice on food sensitivities and allergies, mind-body interaction, the essential role of communion and the transformative power of deeply engaged talent are considered. Hands-on and practical, participants – parents, teachers and counselors – come away with penetrating insights that can immediately be applied in the classroom, clinic and home.
30. Improv. And Other Games – Lacina
Improvisation and spontaneity are incredible tools in any age classroom. Improvisation builds confidence when taking risks, develops creative personal expression, sense of humor, sense of individuality. This intensive will include improvisational warm-ups, classroom games, literacy- and comprehension-building strategies, as well as kinesthetic learning activities. Come to develop your own creative brain, or come to challenge your own inhibitions. This intensive also will address creating a safe creative climate in the classroom for taking risks and allowing personal expression to bloom. Add to your own bag of tricks, or come simply to have fun!
31. Creative Thinking: Developing Minds Through Thought-Provoking Teaching Strategies – Friedman-Nimz
Build your students’ mental muscles and enhance their (and your!) out of the box thinking potential through embedding creative thinking IN content. You’ll learn how to use techniques such as synectics, lateral thinking, problem finding, and a variety of alternatives for encouraging ideational fluency. We’ll examine methods for evaluating creative thinking processes as well as learning products.
Excursions 8:00 AM - 9:45 AM
1. Bug Barn
2. Envision Center
3. Neil Armstrong Hall of Engineering
Discover Workshops
W-1. A Systematic Approach to Selecting Literature for Verbally Talented Learners– Kolloff
W-2. Integrating Science and Engineering – E. Mann
W-3. Gifted English Language Learners: Practical Strategies from the ELL Field – Pereira
W-4. What Every Educator Should Know about Test Selection and Interpretation – Peters
W-5. Bugging Your Students With Books – Shepson
W-6. Geocaching – Simms
W-7. Strategies for Teaching Gifted Students in the Regular Classroom – Vaughn
W-8. Integrating Veterinary Medicine Into the Science Curriculum – Weisman
W-9. Identification of Young, Gifted Students – Yang
Thursday Institute Workshops 10:00AM - 12:00 PM
Institute workshops are designed around relevant, extended time with “experts” and interested colleagues centered on specific topics of mutual interest. Select your topic, come, participate, and enjoy!
A. Mathematics
B. Language Arts
C. Administration
D. Arts & Technology
E. Science
F. Social-Emotional
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