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On this page, I have curated a collection of past work samples from the Gifted and Talented Education courses I took at East Carolina University with Dr. Angela Novak. These work samples are ones that I am very proud of, and they show my knowledge of gifted and talented students, identification and serving of these students, instructional strategies for these students, and creativity, critical thinking, and problem solving in gifted education.
The Diverse Gifted Learner
The products created in this course covered the overarching topic of gifted students and their characteristics through the lenses of place, exceptionality, economics, culture/race, and identity/affect. The two products featured here are viewed through the lenses of economics and place. These products helped me grow as an educator because before this course, I thought I knew a lot about gifted students. Turns out, I only knew a tiny bit of information. For example, tying together both these products' lenses, "the country's poorest counties overwhelmingly tend to be rural areas" (Plucker and Puryear, 2018, p. 418). Learning about gifted students through these lenses and designing these tasks grew me as an educator, as I now am able to view gifted students and their characteristics through many different lenses. These products would be great to use in the future as educational tools and resources to educate others, but also to advocate for gifted students. These resources educate others, which prepares them when it is time to advocate for gifted students in poverty, gifted students in rural counties, etc.
This product is a website designed to educate viewers on poverty and gifted education. It includes information about the relationship between poverty and giftedness, the negative impacts of poverty, ways to improve this issue, how to combat this issue, and more. This is an excellent resource and a very strong one at that because it can be accessed by anyone! It is beneficial for other educators, parents, administrators, and more.
This product is a slideshow presentation on Meeting the Needs of North Carolina's Rural Gifted. It was recorded as a presentation. It contains information on the definition of rural, statistics of NC schools, strengths of rural schools, and intersectionality. This is a powerful product as it can be presented to educators and administrators for professional learning, as it was designed to be a presentation for others. A growth opportunity for this product is to have fewer words on the slides and only include the most vital information.
This product is a paper I wrote that discusses my own developed personal definition of giftedness based on my personal perceptions, research, and readings. This paper was written in a research style for a professor, but it is also appropriate for other educators and even administrators. I believe I could have created this in a more creative style to appeal to other audiences, such as parents.
This product was created as a result of an interview I conducted with a 2e learner who is my childhood best friend. This presentation was designed to educate the viewers on the real-life of a 2e learner who was accelerated. The 2e learner answered questions I developed that encompassed her experience with gifted programming, her experience with acceleration, advantages and disadvantages of acceleration, personal experiences of acceleration, and how it affected her as a child and long-term. This was one of my strongest products, created and was authentic and unique. It allowed me to grow as a future educator greatly, and it showed me real-life ways that program models can be implemented and the effects it has on gifted learners.
Foundations of Gifted and Talented Education
This course and the products created during this course reflect my overall knowledge of the identification of gifted students, evaluation of gifted students, and program models and practices used in gifted education. This course allowed me to grow exponentially as a pre-service educator, as it taught me proper identification and evaluation as well as program models for gifted education. Acceleration was a topic I dove deep into which made me realize I was accelerated as a child because "any strategy that results in advanced placement or potential credit will be titled acceleration" (Rimm et. al, 2018, pg. 96). It is crucial as a classroom teacher that I know the proper identification, evaluation, and programmatic models for gifted students to ensure my gifted students recieve proper services that fit their needs and allow them to reach their fullest potential. Understanding program models is especially crucial in helping gifted students develop skills, including critical thinking, problem solving, and creativity.
Instructional Strategies in Gifted Education
These products and this course encompass instructional teaching strategies for gifted and talented students. Differentiation was a huge highlight in this course. I knew about differentiation before this course, but I also learned so much about differentiating as an instructional strategy for gifted students. This course helped me realize that differentiating is not more work for the student or a different assignment, but work that matches their readiness. According to Inman and Roberts (2022), "a differentiated assignment is not just different; rather, it matches the students' level of readiness to engage in learning on a particular topic or concept" (p. 246). These products helped me practice differentiating in a manner that I can also do in my classroom. Additionally, I will utilize these products in my classroom with my students! These are excellent instructional strategy-filled lessons that engage students' creative minds, get them to problem solve, and think critically. Additionally, collaboration between teachers can occur through co-teaching, using tiered assignments.
This product was based on an original lesson plan I created in another course at ECU. This task required me to create a GRASPS and DAP for the lesson. Then, I reflected on my work. This can absolutely be implemented in a classroom setting, and I believe that GRASPS specifically should be implemented into classes often, as they require students to create authentic products that showcase their knowledge. This is a powerful product as it can be directly implemented into a classroom setting and is very beneficial for students.
This product was the creation of a tiered activity. Tiered activities are beneficial for students as they are differentiated to fit different students' needs. This task required me to take an activity and develop 3 tiered activities for the lesson. I also designed a choice activity for a different lesson, which was a Think-Tac-Toe, where students get to select their activities as long as they complete a tic-tac-toe on the board. These products were very strong as they helped me develop my differentiation skills, and they both can be implemented in a classroom setting where students benefit from them.
This product showcases the SCAMPER activity, which engages students in creative thinking, problem solving, and critical thinking. This is an excellent activity to do with students to get their creative minds flowing, and reflecting with upper elementary students can be beneficial for them as well. SCAMPERing shows students that "every human has the capacity to be creative" (Lamb & Dekelaita-Mullet, 2018, p. 289). This is a very strong product and also taught me a lot as a preservice teacher. It is absolutely a product I will implement in my own classroom one day.
Creativity, Critical Thinking, and Problem Solving
This product (and this portfolio) showcase creativity, critical thinking, and problem solving in gifted education. Before this course, I did not realize how important these skills are to gifted students. After taking this course, I have grown to realize how vital these skills are to gifted learners. I also grew as I learned how I, as the teacher, can develop these skills within my students. I can utilize this product and others I created during this course in my classroom to engage my students in developing these vital skills. These products can also be used as resources for professional learning to educate other educators on ways to develop these skills within their students. Some crucial highlights within these products and this course include collaboration, advocacy, and professional development; all of these are crucial in the world of gifted education. I learned that professional learning is not the same as professional development, as professional learning is "learning how to better serve students," and “engages teachers in authentic, valuable learning experiences” (Novak and Weber, 2022, p. 442). These products were beneficial for me as I gained knowledge that will aid in my career as an educator in terms of serving the needs of developing these skills in my students.
In summary, these products helped me meet the course objectives, which include:
Objective 2- Use creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills to find solutions for and/or with diverse gifted learners.
Objective 4- Demonstrate communication and collaboration strategies that are effective with students, schools, teachers, families, and community stakeholders to intercede and/or advocate for diverse gifted learners.
Objective 5- Plan for effective professional learning as a reflective practitioner, lifelong learner, and content area expert to advocate for diverse gifted learners as a teacher leader.
All of these products, despite being from several courses, meet these objectives of the course. These products encompass the skills of creativity, critical thinking, and problem solving, as multiple products describe lessons, activities, assignments, and more that require students to utilize and therefore develop these necessary skills. The Instructional Strategies products are 2 excellent products that include ways to get students' creative minds flowing, get them to problem solve, and think critically. All of these products also meet objective 4 because these products showcase opportunities to communicate with students, educators, administrators, families, the community, and more. The products from The Diverse Gifted Child are examples of resources that can be presented to pretty much anyone as a way to communicate and collaborate with them. This communication using these resources enables individuals with this newly learned knowledge to advocate for their child, their school, their district, etc. Finally, these products meet objective 5 because these resources can be presented and utilized for professional learning. In addition, with the continued implementation of these products and appropriate revisions, it enables me as an educator and others who do the same to be lifelong learners working to be the best we can be for our students. These resources can be used not only to help advocate for gifted students but also to inform others within the field. These products and their information can be used in professional learning to help teachers grow and, therefore, better serve their gifted students.
References:
Rimm, S. B., Siegle, D., & Davis, G. A. (2018a). Education of the gifted and talented. Pearson.
Roberts, J. L., Inman, T. F., & Robins, J. H. (2022). Introduction to gifted education. Routledge.
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