AEG Blog

Tamara Fisher, a gifted and talented specialist, describes her job in this way:

(I)t's my goal (among others) to help them understand, accept, and learn how to manage the advantages and disadvantages that can come with their high intelligence and high creativity. We have conversations about effective ways to respond to (or not respond to) teasing, we discuss friendship issues and strategies for finding and making quality (vs. quantity) friends, we talk about what giftedness is (a learning difference) and what it is not (specialness), we celebrate challenge and the hard work it takes to learn when challenged, and we foster an attitude that it's okay to be who you are... our world needs all sorts. Generally speaking, these conversations, over time, do help them to understand, accept, and manage the advantages and disadvantages that come with their giftedness.

Fisher recently shared her students' perspectives on the downsides of being gifted. She then later asked them what they appreciated about being gifted.  Here is a sampling of their responses as to the upside of being gifted:

"Having a great ability at something gives me the joy of immersing myself in working on that area." Michelle, 7th grade

"Being gifted is great when the school meets me where I'm at academically. I love being challenged in my advanced classes." Wendy, 7th grade

"I just learn differently, and I'm okay with that." Cural, 5th grade

"I think I have found a lot of less-known things interesting, causing me to have a very diverse set of life experiences. Because of that, I have a very different thought process than most people." Scribblenaut, 12th grade

"I sometimes enjoy feeling smarter than the others and I feel like all that I have worked for in the past has paid off. And I'm thankful that there is a class where I can (humbly) exercise my abilities and be surrounded by others who have the same talents, a class where I won't feel different from other kids." Olive, 9th grade

"I like that I can 'see through' the motives of the so-called cool crowd." Puff the Magic Dragon, 5th grade

Helping students who learn differently to embrace and even enjoy their differences is a large part of helping them become successful students and, eventually, successful adults.  Celebrating their strengths and individuality on a regular basis will contribute greatly to their own acceptance of their unique approach to life.

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With the return of school comes the return of homework.  Homework should be a valuable part of a student's overall education.  But for students who learn differently, homework can sometimes become a point of stress that can impact the entire family. 

LD Online offers a multitude of excellent tips for homework in Being an Efficient Homework Helper: Turning a Chore into a Challenge.  Regina G. Richards writes:

To begin, we must keep in mind the characteristics of our own children, because each child has his or her unique strengths, weaknesses, and needs.

When embarking on any project, there are first some questions we need to ask ourselves. These apply whether the project is a page of math facts or a full report.

* We need to make sure we understand the project: what are we trying to do?
* We need to assemble our tools: what materials will we need for this project?

Working successfully with our children on schoolwork requires respect, and respect begins with understanding.

Richards provides an extensive list of ideas and insights for making homework time productive and positive.  She offers detailed suggestions for the parent tool kit including setting up an effective work area, basic strategies, encouragement, motivation, and learning from mistakes. 

But the underlying theme in all of Richards' suggestions is the idea that it is important to study your child and know what makes homework time work well for him according to his own particular needs and expectations. By making some basic adjustments, it is possible to greatly improve homework time each day and make it the valuable academic tool it is meant to be.


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Students today utilize technology throughout their day without even giving it a second thought. It is such a part of their world that it is easy for the adults around them to assume that they are proficient and savvy with its use.  However, there is a significant difference between utilizing technology and the skillful manipulation of it and the information it provides.

In Information Literacy on Edutopia, Andrew Marcinek addresses the need to have students do more than simply search for information by typing some words into Google.  Students need to be taught how to effectively do research and make the most of the online tools. Marcinek describes his desire to teach his students how to make the most of the resources available:

I wanted my students to use Google, however, I wanted them to use it effectively and efficiently. I could have demonstrated another lesson in developing precise search criteria, however, I decided to delve deeper into the world of Google search options.

This idea came from one of my favorite librarians, Dr. Joyce Valenza. I cannot even utter the phrase "Information Literacy" without evoking her name and her expertise. She was presenting Google Search options at edcamp Philly this past May and suggested many different ways in which teachers and students could work together and make Google more effective for all involved. Her fundamental message was that students need to filter down beyond a typical Google search results and find quality information efficiently.

Marcinek explains how he introduced his students to Google Timeline during a lesson on the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.  Using Google Timeline, the students were able to interact with primary sources from that particular historical time period which created a higher level of engagement with the research project.  Marcinek knew he had been successful when he made the following observations:

After this lesson, I found my students using Google Timeline in other classes and they were able to hear questions outside of my class and apply a skill, a search tool to that question. This is learning. This is information literacy. It is our responsibility as educators to educate students not only on the content but how to filter the content and get to the heart of the question. When we teach students how to seek information correctly and efficiently, we create learning opportunities for life.

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Children with learning differences can fall into many broad categories.  One of those is gifted.  Adults often look at a gifted child and see the vast array of possibilities and abilities not available to other children. But the gifted children themselves often struggle with the consequences of being "different".

Tamara Fisher, a K-12 gifted education specialist, asked her students to respond to the topic "Sometimes I wish I wasn't so smart because..."  In I Don't Want To Be A Smarty Anymore at EdWeek, Fisher shares the anonymous responses of her students.  Here is just a sampling:

"I feel like I am different from other kids and sometimes I feel that they think I should be treated specially. Sometimes people point out my intelligence and make a big deal of it. I try to be humble about it because I don't like the idea of being different from others." Olive, 9th grade

"Ignorance is bliss. Being smart has allowed me the ability to watch the world. This isn't a horrible situation. My regret arises whenever I want to experience the world without watching, to have flares of emotion without questioning 'why' or 'how,' to experience life to the 'fullest' without asking why the rain makes people sad or happy." Zim, 12th grade

"Because I focus more on school than my social life, I am an outcast. I rarely go over to my 'friends'' houses, or go anywhere for that matter. Sometimes I have to ask myself if I really even have any friends. I never talk to any of these people except for the somewhat off-topic comments exchanged in class or a light conversation at lunch, and nearly all of that 'conversation' I am the listener not the talker. Sometimes I wish I wasn't so smart because I want to be included, accepted by a group of people who I can call friends not 'friends.'" Jane, 12th grade

"The teachers stop calling on me because they know that I know all the answers." Chang, 7th grade

"Sometimes it's hard to talk to people. My vocabulary is a bit bigger than others. I get the 'what?' look all the time. I also get teased and questioned and poked and picked by teachers and kids!" Lillian, 5th grade

"I get scared for the world. Being smart allows me to see the world and what trouble we're really in." Alexander, 8th grade

Fisher also writes about the many myths associated with gifted children.  In Dispelling Myths about Gifted Students and Gifted Education, Fisher lists several myths with links to research about each one.

Being a gifted child comes with its own unique rewards and struggles.  Listening to gifted children to hear how they are experiencing their giftedness is an important part of providing them with the personal and emotional support they need.

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Every college student understands the pressure associated with timed exams.  This is perhaps nowhere more apparent than in the high stakes situation of the ACT and SAT.  With so much riding on a few tests, students are under tremendous pressure to perform well and to do it as quickly as possible.  But an increasing number of people are asking if timing these exams is in the best interest of the students and if such rapid-paced test taking is truly an accurate reflection of a student's academic ability.

Valerie Strauss writes in Stop timing the ACT and SAT for The Washington Post that part of the challenge lies with the companies who administer the tests:

Why, exactly, are these tests timed the way they are? Why, for example, do students have exactly 60 minutes to take the ACT math section but 25 minutes to write an SAT essay?

It’s not because extensive research has shown that subjecting students to exactly this amount of time to complete these academic problems reveals something important about a teenager.

It’s because the entities behind the tests, ACT Inc., and the College Board, say so. The big thinking is that high school students need to be tested under pressure to see how they will fare in the pressure-filled environments in college. The other problems cited is the problem of securing and paying proctors and test sites for unspecified amounts of time.

Strauss is not the first person to suggest that timing should be eliminated.  In 2002, Howard Gardner, professor of cognitive psychology at Harvard Graduate School of Education, suggested that tightly timed, high-stakes testing proves very little in terms of future success in college and beyond.  Gardner wrote in The New York Times op-ed, Test for Aptitude, Nor for Speed:

Nothing of consequence would be lost by getting rid of timed tests by the College Board or, indeed, by universities in general. Few tasks in life -- and very few tasks in scholarship -- actually depend on being able to read passages or solve math problems rapidly. As a teacher, I want my students to read, write and think well; I don't care how much time they spend on their assignments. For those few jobs where speed is important, timed tests may be useful. But getting into college, or doing satisfactorily once there, is not in that category.

Indeed, by eliminating the timed component, the College Board would signal that background knowledge, seriousness of purpose and effort -- not speed and glibness -- are the essentials of good scholarship. What matters is not what you have at the starting point, but whether and how well you finish.

Strauss further explains that it is challenging for students who truly need more time to qualify for it.  There are numerous hoops to jump through, many of which involve expensive testing to prove a true need and cooperation with already overburdened high school guidance counselors. She suggests that many students who do need extra time in order to successfully take the tests never get it because they do not have access to the additional expensive advocacy they need.

It is a widely acknowledged fact that many students need individualized instruction or accommodations in order to be successful in school.  Their struggles are not due to a lack of intelligence or desire.  Some students simply learn differently and can be very successful when given the opportunity to approach school in a different way. Eliminating the timed aspect of the ACT and SAT would give all students the opportunity to perform to the best of their ability and demonstrate their true knowledge and aptitude.

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Children who are both gifted and learning disabled (known as 2e or twice exceptional) face unique challenges as do their parents and teachers.  Correctly identifying 2e students is the first step in meeting their specific academic, personal and social needs.  The 2e Newsletter offers a helpful overview in Twice-exceptional Students: Who Are They and What Do They Need? by Micaela Bracamonte.

Specifically identifying students has become somewhat easier as researchers have uncovered some distinct tendencies among 2e children.  Bracamonte writes:

By analyzing the records of students currently in 2e programs, researchers have developed a profile of twice exceptionality. 2e students typically perform at very high levels on some, but not all, of the gifted screening tests used by public schools. On the other hand, they tend to simultaneously perform very poorly on one or more of the local, state, or national standardized assessments used to measure individual student progress. One of the hallmarks of twice- exceptionality, then, is inconsistency in performance and, in particular, in test results.

Bracomonte provides four profiles of "typical" 2e students. These short overviews give a glimpse of the complexity of identifying 2e students in the school setting. She then offers five strategies for working with twice exceptional students:

• Play to their strengths
• Address social and emotional needs
• Incorporate counseling support
• Provide organizational guidance and one-on-one tutoring opportunities
• Integrate technology

Bracomonte clearly recognizes the need to provide these twice exceptional students with an appropriate education.  She writes in closing:

The ideal classroom environment for the twice-exceptional student is very far from what exists... With a handful of exceptions, highly promising, creative students with learning differences continue to be systematically denied what they need in school – a flexible combination of acceleration, remediation, and social/emotional supports – whether the context is general, gifted or special education.

To meet the needs of these children, there must be a paradigm shift from a remediation or deficit model to a strength-based model of education. This is particularly true as a growing body of research demonstrates that learning disabilities also appear to afford and coexist with unique learning strengths. These children need programs and schools that transform the research on twice exceptionality into a daily commitment to combine academic rigor with individualized accommodations and adaptations.

One million of our nation’s most promising, most innovative thinkers – bright children who learn differently, not “deficiently” – constitute a neglected national resource. Twice-exceptional children need an education that fits, and it’s in all of our interests to give it to them.

Groups based on ability have been a fixture of  American schools for decades.  Whether it is reading groups or another area of education, schools frequently divide children into groups for both the ease of the teacher and the perceived betterment of the students.  One teacher discovered that grouping by ability has unexpected consequences.  Put in her own lower level group, the teacher realized the implications of these choices.

Cris Tovani wrote in I Got Grouped for Educational Leadership that her own experience with ability grouping for technology training made her realize some of the challenges faced by her struggling readers.  She writes of the four insights she had as a result of this troubling experience:

• Beliefs affect effort -- and effort affects success.
• Learners need both time and experts to improve.
• Past performance is just that... past performance.
• Because reading levels change, we should change how we group.

When reflecting upon the first insight, Tovani wrote:

I started to wonder whether our beliefs about struggling readers had inadvertently given students permission to give up. I know from experience that when people believe in my abilities, I work harder to prove them right. When colleagues ask me for help with reading instruction, I know they trust me to know what I'm doing. This belief encourages me to produce and perform.

Expressing belief in someone's ability is powerful—especially if the person dishing out the belief is in a position of authority. As a result of being grouped, I realized that people I respected didn't have a lot of confidence in my computer abilities. This public declaration almost forced me to give up my goal of becoming proficient with technology. My initial reaction was, why try? Because no one believed in my abilities, there was no pressure to perform. I was off the hook.

We have inadvertently given many struggling readers the message that no one believes they can or will read in school. Our low expectations give students an excuse to opt out of improving. Struggling readers, like all struggling learners, need confidence, or they won't take risks. And if they don't take risks, they won't improve. Of course, just saying to struggling readers, "I think you're the best reader in the world!" isn't going to magically make them so. But there is a valuable middle ground. Having reasonable expectations and providing scaffolding with strategy instruction may not be flashy, but it's effective.

Success begets success and students who are struggling are in even greater need of experiencing success.  Quite often the first step toward success is to simply have someone cheering them on, encouraging them that they can do it and believing they have the ability to grow and learn. Tovani explains in the rest of the article how she has refocused her own teaching as a result of the experience.

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Raising a child with ADHD can be a journey filled with exhilarating highs and heart-wrenching lows.  One New Jersey couple found themselves raising two sons with ADHD and experienced many emotions and challenges along the way. 

Although their sons are successful adults now, there were many hard moments.  The experience was difficult on the McGavern's marriage at times.  There were extra expenses related to their sons' needs.  Finding the best way to work with each boy as an individual took a great deal of effort.

Now able to see the fruit of their hard work, the McGaverns can appreciate how far their sons have come.

Thanks to the support and dedication of a team of players — including Katherine, her husband, Alan, and their middle son, Tim, who doesn’t have ADD, as well as a number of therapists and tutors — and a lot of hard work on the boys’ part, Ted and James have flourished. Ted graduated from Dartmouth College and now works in financial services in London. James attends Pratt Institute in New York City, where he is a freshman with a merit scholarship.

Read their story: How One Family Successfully Raised Their ADHD Sons.

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Technology impacts the way education is delivered at virtually every grade level.  But finding ways to make it truly effective in each individual student's learning process is much more challenging than simply wiring a school and setting up a computer lab. 

With the increase of digital tools available, educators are seeking new and creative ways to utilize them and, at the same time, maximize the personal approach to each student's education.

In Digital Tools Expand Options for Personalized Learning from The Christian Science Monitor, some of these very tools are explored and explained.

Vander Ark says that supplemental-service providers, like private tutoring companies or after-school programs, have taken the lead in offering tailored instruction. The ways those providers use assessment tools to gather and process data and then suggest a roster of activities for each student could pave the way for similar approaches within the school day, he says.

He points to one widely publicized model: New York City's School of One.

The pilot program at Dr. Sun Yat Sen Middle School in Chinatown provided math lessons that were customized every day to meet the individual needs, and progress, of the 80 incoming 7th graders who volunteered to attend the five-week session this past summer. The School of One combined face-to-face instruction, software-based activities, and online lessons designed to move each new 7th grader through a defined set of math benchmarks at his or her own pace.

As students entered school each morning, they could view their schedules for the day on a computer monitor—similar to the arrival-and-departure monitors at airports—and proceed to the assigned locations. A student’s schedule could include traditional lessons from a certified teacher, small-group work, virtual learning, or specific computer-based activities, most of them offered in converted space in the school library.

After each half-day of instruction, teachers entered data on students’ progress and instructional needs into a computer program that recommended the next day’s tasks.

(snip)

“When we ask ourselves how much instruction during the course of a typical school day does each student get exactly on the skill they’re working on, and in the amount that is right for them, the answer is very little,” says Joel Rose, a former teacher who has been instrumental in the development and expansion of the School of One.

“By leveraging technology to play a role in the delivery of instruction,” he says, “we can help to complement what live teachers do.”

As digital tools become increasingly more accessible, teachers have many options as they plan lessons for their students.  The most effective schools and teachers will utilize technology to create individual, personalized learning opportunities for each student based on his or her specific academic needs.

It is no secret that children learn differently.  Finding a way to customize and individualize education is one of the core values of American Education Group.

Class Struggle by Jay Matthews in The Washington Post featured a letter from educator Susan Ohanian entitled Elementary gifted ed made easy.  Ohanian recounts how she changed things up for students and made Resource a place of learning and exploration through open-ended "messing around".

Eons ago, I persuaded my principal, who was starting a new school that had a state mandate and funds to be innovative, to do away with remedial reading (I was the remedial reading teacher). We called my room Resource and I announced I was an adjunct of the media center.

(snip)

Mind you, I was still the remedial reading teacher--but we kept this secret from the kids. Teachers had a list of students who had to come to the room x times a week to fulfill our obligation to the state. For everyone else (K-6), it was student initiated: A child came when he could persuade his teacher to let him. There was no schedule and there were no bells.

(snip)

In the spring, state Education Department officials came to see why the reading scores for the identified remedial readers soared. As expected, they were mystified. Building bridges, making musical instruments, discovering the law of gravity in Remedial Reading? (One day my principal came into the room sputtering, "You mean to tell me that this heavy box and this ball fall at the same rate?" A student team dropping objects in the stairwell had been explaining their experiment to him.)

(snip)

I'm not trying to say what a good teacher am I. I'm just trying to say "yes" to your point about flexibility being the key. Different kids have different needs, and providing choices allows all children to soar at different things.

Understanding the learning style of each child is of paramount importance.  Accepting  learning differences and personalizing learning opportunities based on those realities means greater opportunities for all students.