Six ways to meet gifted and bright kids needs in a regular class without giving yourself much extra work. [Music] You have a wide range of students in your class. It's hard to meet all their needs. And you may feel you need to focus on low achieving kids. Maybe because your heart especially feels for them and or because you're feeling external pressure such as No Child Left Behind and now Common Core. You have one or more bright kids in your class, but you feel like if somebody's got to be shortchanged, maybe it's them. After all, consciously or unconsciously, maybe you think they'll do fine anyway. I can understand. But just maybe, your bright and gifted kids are worth a second look. In fact, many such kids turn out to be brilliant failures. Maybe you know one. And after all, all children are entitled to an appropriate level education, to not be bored too much of the time. And those kids are the most likely to grow up to cure our diseases. Be our corporate, nonprofit, and government leaders. Be our teachers and administrators. And it is possible for you to better meet their needs without giving yourself too much work. Consider trying one or more of these tips. Tip one, cluster group. When bright kids are listening to a lesson or in a group activity where they are classmates aren't as bright, they're often bored and deprived of their right to grow. Less bright kids may feel that no matter how hard they try, they'll never do as well, and so may just give up and let the bright kids carry the load. So, as you deem appropriate, for parts of the day, divide the class into groups by ability, how quickly they learn, they reason, and how sophisticatedly they communicate. Sure, it can help kids if you took the time to create separate lessons and activities for each group, but that's timeconuming. The good news is that even if it's the same lesson or activity, it's exciting to watch bright kids build off each other rather than be bored. And remember, the technology increasingly can provide individualized lessons for all kids, whether you've got a desktop or an iPad. And any kind of individualization or cluster grouping is not only good for those bright kids, but ultimately for society. So tip one, for parts of the school day, consider dividing the class by ability. Tip two, allow bright and gifted students to propose doing a more challenging assignment or activity of their own choosing rather than the regular assignment or you propose one. For example, let's say you're about to teach a spelling lesson, you might invite bright kids to write a story using the spelling words. If the class is about to work on a worksheet that the child feels is too easy, he or she can propose that the child be allowed to use some educational software on her iPad or Chromebook, whatever. If you've assigned, for example, making a diarama on the Civil War for homework, a student who wished to could opt to write a scene and perhaps act it out for the class on the dilemma that President Lincoln faced in deciding how to respond to succession. And again, technology can enable you to find assignments that meet individual kids needs, whether bright or slow. So, tip number two, allow or give bright and gifted kids an alternate assignment. Tip three, for content that some students in your class know but could use solidifying, occasionally make them your roving assistant teacher, helping other students with their seat work on that content. For example, if you've just taught a lesson on subtraction with regrouping, ask for volunteers to take a one question quiz that demonstrates they know it or maybe they already, you know, they know it without having to quiz them. Anyone you deem to sufficiently know the content or concept can volunteer to be your roving assistant teacher for the seat work on that topic. When other students raise their hand asking for help, one of your assistant teachers can go over to the student and try to help. Of course, that must only be done occasionally. Bright and gifted kids deserve to be learning material that's challenging for them, not just helping slower students. So tip three, when kids know a concept before you teach it, occasionally make them your roving teaching assistant. Tip four, have students actually teach a lesson to a group of classmates, even the entire class. If you like that idea, you might when the rest of the class is doing independent work, teach your wouldbe teachers a lesson on how to teach a lesson. For example, you might teach them a model such as one, tell the class why the lesson is important. Two, model what you want them to learn. For example, the scientific method. Three, walk them through an example, such as designing an experiment to test whether Coca-Cola really does eat through car paint. Four, have them do an example independently. Five, ask for questions. And six, summarize. So, tip number four, have kids teach lessons to part or even the entire class. Tip five, as appropriate, allow students to join a higher grades class for a given subject or three. Tip number six, consider having a child skip one or more grades. Research clearly indicates that can be wise as long as the student is capable and motivated, the receiving teacher enthusiastic, and the child paired with a popular child in the new class to teach the new child the ropes and help the child make friends. So, tip number six, consider talking with your principal about having a gifted child skip one or more grades. So to summarize the six tips for how to meet bright and gifted kids needs in a regular class are one for parts of the day consider dividing your class into groups by ability. Two allow children to propose an alternative assignment or you offer an alternative. Three for content they know but could use solidifying occasionally make them your roving assistant helping students with seatwork on that topic. Four, have students teach lessons to part of the class or even the whole class. Five, allow students to join a higher grade class for one or more subjects. And six, consider having a gifted child skip one or more grades. Now, you may want to try none, one, or even all these six ideas, but we often promise ourselves to do something, but we forget. So, do you want to write down the idea or ideas you want to try? And whatever you try, treat it as experimental. If it doesn't work, scrap it or maybe tweak it. In closing, I'd like to ask you a favor. It would be a real service to your fellow teachers if below in the comments area you write how well these ideas or their derivatives are working for you. Or feel free to suggest some other idea for how to better meet bright and gifted kids needs without giving yourself undo extra work. In any event, thank you for all you do. A great teacher can make all the difference. I'm Marty Nemco. If you have a question or comment you'd prefer to email me rather than post a comment here, I'm at martyynco.com or mmcocast.net.