Coaching to Support Gifted and Talented Efforts

Prior to serving in the role as a building literacy coach, I taught for seven years as a special education teacher of students with learning disabilities at the middle school level. During these years, I worked with seventh and eighth grade students with learning disabilities, as well as with students who were deemed at-risk and demonstrated difficulty with reading. I became pretty comfortable with supporting this population of students and working to differentiate instruction to meet the needs of struggling learners. After I transitioned into my new role as literacy coach, it was apparent to me that I was best able to support teachers in their instruction with strategies to support struggling learners in their classrooms. Due to my desire to support all student learning in the building, as well to become a stronger and knowledgeable resource for the teachers in the middle school, I decided to pursue my gifted and talented add-on licensure certification. I’ve now completed the first three required courses for this certification and have only my practicum remaining which will be completed this coming fall.

The courses for this certification included learning the background and foundations of gifted and talented education, the psychological issues and needs typically associated with gifted and talented students, and methods and curriculum to support gifted and talented learners in education. I found it helpful to study the psychological issues of gifted/talented students; this helped me to better understand what teachers may encounter when teaching this population of students, and provided ways to support the students, teachers, and parents. My favorite of the three classes, however, was the curriculum and methods course. I found this class to be the most useful in my role as a literacy coach, as we read about strategies and created lessons that were differentiated to meet the needs of advanced learners.

It is essential that all students receive instruction that meets their needs each and every school day. This task can seem overwhelming when you consider the diverse needs our students have. For each learner, it is important that instruction be individualized. Ultimately, the end goal for all students should be the same, but the pace and the level of repetition can be adjusted for students depending on their need. Just as we should not ask struggling learners to move onto new topics until they are ready, we should not ask gifted learners to sit through the same lesson multiple times if they are able to master it the first time through. This is where the power of pre-assessment becomes essential. If we as literacy coaches can help assist teachers to create and administer appropriate pre-assessments, we can help them determine what their students need and how to plan and scaffold instruction.

Maggie Schumacher contributed this post. Click here to read more of Maggie's thinking.

Another way coaches can support teachers is to support efforts involving differentiation.

This is a hot topic that all teachers know about, but it involves a lot of work and experience to do well. Differentiation is not something that we should be asking of brand new teachers until classroom management is in place. Students are coming into each classroom with a wide range of ability levels and learning styles. Ultimately, teachers need to ask students to meet the same standards, but the content, process, and product of how this is met can be adjusted to meet the individual student needs. While we may ask some students to read and analyze the theme of a novel, we could offer a simpler text to a struggling reader and a challenge text to an advanced reader. These students are completing the same task, but at a level that is appropriate for them. In addition, differentiated assignments such as a R.A.F.T. (Role, Audience, Format, Topic) or BINGO, or units using a Parallel Curriculum format could be offered to students. If planned strategically, each of these options allows for student choice and interests to be met within a way that allows for challenge and still meets the standards being addressed.

When it becomes obvious that a gifted student is ready for much more challenge than the regular content allows, enrichment and acceleration options should be considered. Enrichment opportunities remove students from the basic assignment and allow students to complete a task that is related but much more complex. If a student has proven on a pre-assessment that they already have mastered the content being explored, they should not be asked to complete the basic assignment and then a more complex assignment. When this happens in a classroom, students may begin to mask their abilities or talents to avoid the punishment of extra work. Acceleration is an option that should be considered for truly gifted students. This is considered to be the most effective curriculum intervention for gifted students. Gifted students may be accelerated for a single subject or for an entire grade. These decisions involve support by multiple data points and should include a team of voices, including the literacy coach, to determine the course of action to best meet the needs of the student.

Ultimately, as literacy coaches, we must provide feedback and guidance to support literacy instruction for all. If we want to help all students to be successful, we need to support teachers to provide these best practices for students each and every day. The more we can develop our own knowledge of how to support all learners, the more we will have to share with others.