Turning Responsive Instruction on Its Head: The Gifted/Advanced Learner Connection

Mary Cay RicciAuthor and Educator:Twitter: @MaryCayR

PAGE ConferenceApril 30, 2015 12:30-3:30

Outcomes

As a Result of Today’s Session, participants will have:• Examined how teacher and student mindset

influence instruction.• Examined Responsive Instruction as a vehicle for

equitable access.• Begun planning a responsive instructional

experience for high potential and advanced learners

Introductions

• Your name• Your role• Your School/District• Anything else you would like to

share.

Today’s Anchor ActivityIf at anytime during this afternoon’s

session you finish a task early or want an alternative task, the anchor activity

folder holds some additional articles or you may explore some of the student

books.

• Ask questions• Share ideas• Interact• Have a Growth Mindset

What is a Growth Mindset?

A Responsive Presentation

What do you already know about Growth/Fixed Mindsets?

Using your arm as a gauge, show me how much you know.

Fixed Mindset Growth Mindset

Intelligence is a fixed trait.

Intelligence is a malleable quality, a potential that can be developed.(neuroplasticity)

What do you already know about growth and fixed mindsets?

What are some ways that a teacher, school, and/or school system’s

mindset can impact differentiation/responsive instruction

in the classroom?

How does an educator’s growth mindset relate to instructional decisions?

How does a growth mindset school culture relate to equitable access to advanced learning opportunities?

Innate Ability or IQ25%

OtherFactors

75%

Psychosocial Skills are Critical:A child’s innate ability is only about 25% of

achievement.

From: Talent Development as an Emerging Framework for Gifted Ed: Paula Olszewski-Kubilius

A Sampling of Psychosocial Skills That Support Achievement

• Perseverance• Self-confidence• Grit• Emotional

regulation• Resiliency

• Comfort with intellectual tension

• Coping skills for failure, disappointment

• Ability to handle critique and feedback.

• Growth Mindset

Psychosocial skills (non-cognitive factors) that support high

achievement must be actively and deliberately cultivated.

Advanced and Gifted Learners….

Must be provided with opportunities to develop perseverance, grit and resiliency….

What might happen if they do not develop these psychosocial skills?

The 4 Most Important Components in a Growth Mindset Environment

• Deliberate cultivation of psychosocial skills (non-cognitive factors) such as perseverance, resiliency, and grit

• Equitable access to advanced learning opportunities• Growth Mindset feedback and praise• Student conceptual understanding of neural networks in

the brain(Ricci 2014)

Grit-Resiliency-Perseverance

As a table group-• Discuss these three words and

brainstorm what they mean. • What is the same about them?• What is different?• Using the sorting circles and sticky notes

compare them.

What are some things that your school or your district have done to develop

these psychosocial skills?

• Perseverance• Coping skills for failure,

disappointment• Grit and Resiliency

Equitable Access

• Do all of your students have equitable access to enriched and accelerated (advanced) instruction?

• Are students supported once they have that access?

How a Fixed Mindset Influences:

Traditionally Underserved Students• May believe that teachers don’t

expect much from them.• Believe that they “can’t”• Do not value the importance of

effort.

“But the data says he can’t…..”

Test scores, measures of achievement data suggests where a student is at that moment in time. They don’t tell us where a student could end up- what the possibilities are.

Over the last several years there has been a shift in the field of

“Gifted and Talented” Education.

Neuroscience has had a significant impact on the field.

Giftedness is a developmental process that is

domain-specific and malleable.

What are some ways to insure equitable access?

• Eliminate labels in the classroom• Eliminate “tracking” at an early age.• Consider the possibilities in all students• Adopt a Responsive Instruction model

What is Responsive Instruction?

• Responsive instruction is about responding to and respecting what students know when they walk in the door.

It is about FRONT-End Differentiation

I would argue that….It is not possible to plan and facilitate an equitable, engaging, differentiated, responsive classroom if an educator does not possess the belief that intelligence can develop.

In your district……• Do all students have equitable access to

enriched and accelerated instruction?

• Do they have to be labeled as “GT” to get these services?

**************************

A Responsive Model will allow us to address unmet needs.

Should ALL students have access to advanced, enriched and/or accelerated instruction?

What are the barriers?

What is Responsive Instruction?

• When does differentiation typically happen within the scope of instruction?

• Responsive instruction is about responding to and respecting what students know when they walk in the door.

It is about FRONT-End Differentiation

Why is a differentiated, responsive classroom important to a growth

mindset culture?

• The mindset of a teacher contributes greatly to how he/she responds to the needs of students.

• If an educator views a child through a deficit lens, then that child will not likely be given opportunities to grow.

Responsive InstructionMeet them where they are….

• Preview material before the preassessment (3-5 minutes).

• Administer preassessment.• Analyze preassessment to determine areas

already mastered, any gaps in learning and areas of need.

Always spend just a few minutes previewing the skill, concept, process that you will be assessing.

This helps prime the brain and will give you a more accurate picture of what each child needs.

What are some Previewing methods?

• An example or two of what you are pre-assessing

• View a picture or photo about the content being assessed

• Questioning• Short video clips

At your table or with a partner…

• Think of a preview activity for the following preassessments:– Fractions– D-Day– Setting– Civil Rights– A standard/skill/concept that you teach.

What method should be used to preassess your knowledge of this subject?

Who is my audience?

How can they show me what they know?

How will I evaluate the information and plan for instruction?

The First Step to Responsive Instruction is Preassessment

• It is a tool that helps determine what students know about a topic, skill, concept, or process before it is taught.

• Pre-assessment helps us respond to a student’s needs immediately. (instead of waiting until the middle or end of a learning sequence)

It should be used routinely across content areas.

Preassessment is not a test.

In can be…• Observation with anecdotal records• A small group discussion• Reading and reacting to text• Sample math computation problems

coupled with application of the skill or concept.

Sample PreassessmentCommon Core State Standard RL 4.3-Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g. a character’s thoughts, words, or actions).• Chose a short text that has details about a character, setting and

event. Ask students to read it independently.• Ask students to write a summary of the text.• Students will then hear the story being read out loud by the teacher

and follow along.• Students will then participate in a Shared Inquiry discussion using the

text as a resource. • After the discussion, they may revise their original summary response.• Teacher will determine student understanding of CCSS RL 4.3 through

both their written response and their responses to the questions during the Shared Inquiry discussion. This provides two different opportunities for the student to demonstrate understanding- written and oral.

Once you have previewed and given your pre-assessment, how should the results be analyzed?• “Cut off” scores should not be

utilized• Identify areas of mastery, areas

with gaps and areas of no understanding.

Where is your school or district with:• Administering preassessments: Who

develops them?

• Analyzing the results ?

• Responding to student need as a result of preassessments coupled with anecdotal observations ?

Preassessment(Performance-based

assessment focused on the targeted CCSS in the unit.

used to assist in grouping.)

Formative Assessment

Daily

Summative(Performance-based

assessment focused on the targeted CCSS in the

unit.

Instruction Instruction

Instructional Unit

Shared Learning Experience(optional)

Small GroupScaffolding

Small GroupCompacting

Small GroupAccelerationEnrichment

Meaningful Independent Work and/or Anchor Activities GT

Curriculum

What we found…

• Students who did not previously have access to challenging learning experiences …..did access the acceleration group AND were successful.

• Students moved groups depending on the upcoming standards being taught.

Curriculum Compacting

• Identify students who would benefit from curriculum compacting.

• Eliminate the repetition of work that has already been mastered and streamline instruction that can be mastered at a pace that matches the student's motivation and/or ability.

Enrichment and Acceleration• Plan for enrichment and/or acceleration that is:

– Teacher facilitated– Engaging– Infused with opportunities to think critically– Allows for students to go deep and wide– Allows for students to engage in above grade

level standards

• Identify students who have complete understanding and are ready for another learning outcome. Plan for enrichment and topic/content acceleration for these students.

• Form flexible instructional, teacher facilitated small groups. Use formative assessments to move students.

What does “acceleration” mean?ELA Grade 5 Standards:• Compare and contrast the overall structure of events, ideas, concepts, or

information in two or more texts.

• Analyze multiple accounts of the same event or topic, noting important similarities and differences in the point of view they represent.

ELA Grade 6 Standards:• Describe how a particular story’s or drama’s plot unfolds in a series of episodes as

well as how the characters respond or change as the plot moves toward resolution.

• Explain how an author develops the point of view of the narrator or speaker in a text.

  

 

 

“ Data on the positive benefits of acceleration are so compelling, and yet acceleration is so rare. We hope that all advocates for children can agree that acceleration should be far more common (then enrichment) in schools.”

Beyond Gifted Education By Peters, Matthews, McBee and McCoach

Take a look at the planning template..

Why are students prematurely removed from “higher level” groups?

• STRUGGLE and STRETCH are good things for students

• What happens if kids do not have success or fail?

An Important Question:

What often happens when students face challenge?

What do you do when you face challenge?

Let’s see………

With a partner you will work together to solve the puzzles in your game bag.

The object is to take the blue and orange game pieces to create two identical shapes.

1. Work together on the first few challenges.

2. After success with a few at each level, go the next level until you are faced with challenge.

• Did anyone feel like giving up? Why?

• What made you want to go on?• How is this like or different

from what students go through when they are faced with challenge.

• Should I take the game away from you if I don’t think you are catching on quickly or are not successful?

What are the “Look Fors” in a responsive, growth mindset classroom?

• Ongoing Assessment• Flexible/Fluid Grouping Practices• Curriculum Compacting• High Expectations• Higher Level Thinking• Acceleration and Enrichment• Classroom Environment

Plan for a Responsive Lesson..

Using the template or your own format.

Thank you..I appreciate the effort that you put into

today’s session!

Mary Cay Ricci

Twitter@MaryCayR

marycayricci@gmail.com