Strategies for AP Teachers Teaching Gifted Students

Challenges that gifted students bring to the classroom and strategies to help meet those challenges.

Teaching gifted students is truly my passion and there is never a moment where students are not challenging each other, themselves, or me. Teaching gifted students does present some personal challenges when it comes to being the best teacher I can be. I researched an article that identified six common challenges that gifted students bring to the classroom from the perspectives of the teacher. Then, the article continues with seven different instructional strategies teachers have found successful in meeting these challenges with their gifted students. In this post, I will explain what the most common challenges are and then discuss the instructional strategies to meet these challenges from the article’s perspective as well as my own personal reflection.

6 Challenges that Gifted Students bring to the Advanced Placement Classroom

1) Asking Challenging Questions-Teachers have voiced that a major challenge with gifted students is quality and quantity of questioning. Gifted students tend to think outside of the box and therefore, their questions can sometimes be out of the box as well. A typical answer a teacher may give when we do not know the answer to a question would be “That’s a great question. I have never thought of it”. Teachers can also feel embarrassed when they appear to not know the answer to a question asked (Park & Oliver, 2009, p. 339). While I am an expert in my field, there are many times where I am caught off guard by a student’s question and respond in the same way as the teacher from the article. I too also feel embarrassed when I do not appear to know the answer to a question.

2) Being Impatient with Pace-Gifted students retain information and make connections more quickly and therefore, they are likely to understand concepts must faster than other children do. Students in AP classes are heterogeneously mixed because Advanced Placement classes are open enrollment, meaning not exclusively designed for only gifted students. Therefore, teachers have a challenge of moving fast enough for gifted students, but not so fast that the non-gifted students are left behind. Teachers of all gifted classes also say this is an issue. All students are different and even in an all gifted classroom the students learn at different paces. (Park & Oliver, 2009, p. 340).

3) Perfectionism- This is a common trait seen among gifted students. It also is accompanied by stress, anxiety, and/or self-criticism. In addition, “fear of failure was often expressed, particularly among gifted underachievers” (Park & Oliver, 2009, p. 340). I see this problem with many of my AP students in high school. Students are so stressed and concerned over their class rank, GPA, and grades that it ends up affecting their classwork and learning.

4) Bored with Routine and Busy Work- Teachers are found to constantly express the challenge of convincing gifted students to take notes and do drill based homework. Park and Oliver (2009) state, “students had a tendency to differentiate tasks into two sets. One set contained those educative tasks they considered to be acceptably challenge and was contrasted to the other that fell under the normally fatal label of busywork” (p. 340). I also find myself with this problem, for example, physics is application of equations to problems and students hate doing practice physics work problems on a worksheet. In my experience, they seem to feel like they “have it” and do not need the extra busy practice.

5) Critical of others- In the classroom, gifted students are often critical of themselves and their peers. However, many teachers of gifted students also explain that gifted students were very critical of them as well. For example, a teacher in the research article stated, “They absorb everything that I say, but also they have an opinion. They tell me if they think I am wrong. They don’t accept any mistakes sometimes” (Park & Oliver, 2009, p. 341). I find that my AP students love to correct my spelling (not my forte as a physics teacher) or simple math errors. I find there is pressure put on me to be fully prepared for class because if I am not and I make a mistake, my students will call me out on it. My AP students are also critical of their peers in class because they hold each other to higher expectations.

6) Awareness of Being Different- Gifted students are different from their non-gifted peers and gifted students sometimes become the center of jokes or bullying at school. This cause’s social and emotion stress for these students in addition to their academic stress. In order to avoid the added anxiety of being seen as different, some gifted students will shut down and not answer questions. (Park & Oliver, 2009, p. 341). I have noticed in my own AP classroom that students tend to have their group they stick with. Some students who may be seen as different tend to not be as outgoing in class as my other students, most likely out of fear for seeming different.

6 Instructional Strategies to Meet these Challenges

1) Instructional Differentiation:

The differentiation should be aimed towards quality of learning and not quantity of learning. Thematic units is a strategy many teachers use to allow students to work at their own pace. Also providing students with choice while differentiating will meet the needs of creative gifted students. In teaching AP Physics, I feel like I have to be in control and tell my students all the material they need to know for their AP exam. I feel that the pace dictates the class instead of what my students’ needs and interest are. Dixson (2006) mentions that AP could also be differentiated using Tiers, different levels of same activities. One tier would be for high ability, non-gifted students. This tier would include application and analysis processing skills. The other tier would be for gifted students where they will apply the skills of synthesis and evaluation (p. 53). While there is a lot of material to cover in AP classes, I feel that differentiation helps meet the challenge of boredom and busywork. Therefore, I think it is important that we as teachers try to meet the needs of all our students by having students’ interests should drive the differentiated instruction sometimes. (Even though it is hard for me to give up control sometimes!)

2) Variety in Instructional Strategies:

It is important for gifted students to experience a variety of instructional strategies to alleviate boredom and provide a new routine. In teaching science, I feel that I am lucky in that I have many different ways to instruct my students. These include laboratory activities, demonstrations, simulations on the computers, and classroom debates and discussions. Besides science, teachers of all AP subjects can change up the way they have students hand in assignments, or change what they hand it. (Park & Oliver, 2009, p.344). Divide the classroom into groups and work with students up front who are struggling but have the students in the back work on problems themselves. Finding new ways of presenting students with new information is always challenging but I encourage teachers to utilize Pinterest, teachers’ pay teachers, Instagram, and blogs to find new ways of presenting students with information. I am not the most creative but I usually find things online and then modify it to make it work for my students and me. One final note, do not just print something offline and try it without studying it to make sure it will challenge the students and is not too easy. Be prepared because gifted students will call a teacher out on their unpreparedness (Vanderbrook, 2006, p. 141).

3) Grouping and Peer Tutoring:

Teachers have found that grouping students together with similar ability students “provided peer stimulation and emotional support” (Park & Oliver, 2009, p. 344). Teachers also said that they frequently used peer tutoring for gifted students to develop social skills and learn from others. One teacher explained that peer tutoring “helped her gifted students to be patient with individuals who did not learn in the same way or at the same pace they did” (Park & Oliver, 2009, p. 344-345). I agree with the statement in the article about peer stimulation and emotional support. I have begun to give partner quizzes in my AP class. Sometimes I choose their partner (based on ability) and sometimes they get to choose. Students always have the option of doing it alone if they wish, I offer them this option before we begin. I have each student do their own quiz but they can work with a partner and only talk with their partner. When they finish they staple their quizzes together and I only grade one, this is the grade for both students. Therefore, students are very careful to make sure both partners have the same answer. Being able to work together leads to great conversations, especially when there is disagreement. “Why did you choose this answer” or “explain to me why A is incorrect” are just some examples of students justifying their answer choices to each other, which for many AP classes is an important skill they need to have. This helps with their challenge of being critical of others, as well as changing up their routines.

4) Challenging Questions:

Turn them into a learning experience. In my science classroom, gifted students come up with many out of the box questions about space, or quantum theory. As teachers of gifted students, it is important to answer student questions, even if we do not know the answer. Gifted students will be less critical of a teacher that does research to answer a question. Teachers need to take the time to research the answer and get back to the student if they do not know the answer. Not only will they satisfy the students’ curiosity, but it also shows the students that you care about them and their thoughts (leading to a better classroom environment). Take the question and re-word it so that it becomes he idea or opener for tomorrow’s lesson in order to initiate other student’s thinking skills as well (Park & Oliver, 2009, p. 346).

5) Individualized Support & Goal Setting:

Gifted students struggle with anxiety and pressure that come with perfectionism and always wanting to know the right answer. “Teachers’ instructional assistance for individual students serves as a means to stimulate and satisfy gifted students intellectual curiosity and give attention and support whenever needed” (Park & Oliver, 2009, p. 345). It is important for teachers to be available for their students, before and after school to offer them tutoring or time to get support. Goal setting is also important with dealing with perfectionism. Having the students make realistic goals as part of a unit or lesson for themselves helps the students develop self-acceptance and recognize their limitations (Park & Oliver, 2009, p. 346).

6) Safe Classroom Environment:

Last, but certainly not least, is creating a safe classroom environment for students. The most personal concern of teachers are the emotions of their students and for teaching gifted children, they need a classroom where they feel safe and they belong. Creating a safe classroom environment helps address the challenge of gifted children’s self-awareness of being different (Park & Oliver, 2009, p. 347). Respecting all my students’ ideas, questions, and comments made in class allows students who would not normally talk unafraid to ask questions and participate in classroom discussion. Creating a sense of community where all students are accepted will allow the students to get the most out of their education in your classroom.

References

Dixon, F. (2006). Differentiating instruction in AP: An important question? Or, out of the question? Gifted Child Today, 29(2), 50-54.

Park, S. & Oliver, J. (2009). The translation of teachers' understanding of gifted students into instructional strategies for teaching science. Journal of Science Teacher Education, 20(4), 333-351.

Vanderbrook, C. M. (2006). Intellectually gifted females and their perspectives of lived experience in the AP and IB programs. The Journal of Secondary Gifted Education, 17(3), 133-148.