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GIFTED STUDENTS AND THE COMMON CORE: IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE

Tamra Stambaugh, Ph.D. Assistant Research Professor of Special Education Executive Director, Programs for Talented Youth Vanderbilt University

Goals for This Session

• Gain A Better Understanding Of The Common Core Standards as they Impact Gifted Learners

• Learn Strategies for Differentiating Task Demands and Activities for the Gifted

• Learn Practical Applications for Applying the Common Core Standards to Student Assessment

This is NOT: Training on PARCC or Smarter-Balanced

Common Core: Shifts from Previous Standards • Integrating multiple standards into more complex tasks

• Ensuring conceptual understanding • Mastery of content • Use of content-discipline terminology • Explanation of ideas and tasks • Real-world problems

•  From - Advances in the PARCC Assessment

What do we know about gifted learners that matches the Common Core Shifts?

•  Integrating multiple standards into more complex tasks

• Ensuring conceptual understanding

• Mastery of content • Use of content-discipline terminology

• Explanation of ideas and tasks

• Real-world problems

• Complexity of thought and ideas

• Decontextualists – Whole to part thinking

• Fewer reviews to master content

•  Intensity and Sensitivity of Issues

Why should gifted education care about the Common Core? •  TIMSS, PISA, and other international comparisons

demonstrate that high end learners in the US are less competitive than their international peers

•  The majority of gifted students are “served” in general education classrooms and are required to take state assessments

• Not all gifted students score proficient on state assessments

•  In the current economic climate, gifted programs must integrate, collaborate and be held accountable for student growth in order to demonstrate viability

Why should gifted education care about the Common Core? • An opportunity for growth and collaboration with regular

education and within the field of gifted. • Students may access more rigorous standards throughout

the day, which would impact direct gifted education services and ensure access to advanced education.

• CC standards align with and validate gifted education best practices, such as concept-based learning, integration of disciplines, and inquiry-based options.

• Some gifted education classrooms focus on less robust content than in the general education classroom.

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Gifted Achievement Gap: Discrepancy between potential and performance • Performance on NAEP across ten years of high stakes

testing remains “languid” for the gifted while all other groups show growth (Fordham Foundation, 2008)

• Underachievement among the majority of gifted students – especially underrepresented populations

•  Teachers report spending less time and attention on high performers in the classroom than on low performers (Fordham, 2008)

Misconception #1: Once the Common Core standards are taught we will meet the needs of gifted in the general classroom. •  The Case of Tennessee:

•  “Compared to Tennessee’s stated goal of proficiency for all its students by 2014, as well as in relation to the standards and proficiency levels of other states, Tennessee’s standards were simply not high enough.” (International Center for Leadership in Education)

State % Proficient in Reading % Proficient in Math

Tennessee 88% (NAEP: 28% proficient /2% advanced – 2009)

87% (NAEP: 21% proficient/4% advanced)

North Carolina 82% 91%

Iowa 77% 80%

Florida 71% 63%

California 48% 51%

Misconception #2: Gifted students will struggle with Common Core and as such will not need differentiation •  We have had low expectations for all students – especially when compared to

other nations. •  Gifted students learn at a pace that is faster in pace and depth of

understanding. NAEP, 12th Grade Science •  Is a hamburger an example of stored energy? Explain why or why not. Applying Knowledge and Reasoning Skills to Real-World Situations •  (Sweden, year 5) •  Carl bikes home from school at four o’clock. It takes about a quarter of an

hour. In the evening, he’s going back to school because the class is having a party. The party starts at 6 o’clock. Before the class party starts, Carl has to eat dinner. When he comes home from school, his grandmother, who is also his neighbor, calls. She wants him to bring in her post before he bikes over to the class party. She also wants him to take her dog for a walk, then to come in and have a chat. What does Carl have time to do before the party begins? Write and describe below how you have reasoned.

Misconception #3: Teachers will be able to differentiate for gifted learners in the general classroom . • Less than 17% of educators have had any training in gifted education

• Most gifted students spend over 90% of their time in the general education classroom with teachers who are not equipped to meet their needs

• Westberg studies on differentiation

Misconception #4: Gifted education instruction should avoid the Common Core content and focus on isolated problem solving and critical thinking skills • Rogers, 2007

• Meta-analysis: .32 effect when isolated skills and a .65 effect when linked to accelerated content standards

• Developing Expertise •  Linked to Advanced Content of the Discipline • Employs Advanced Processes, Sources, and Language

of the Field • Reflection and Practice

•  National Research Council, 2000

Rigor Relevance Framework International Center for Leadership in Education ©

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RIGOR AND RELEVANCE FOR ALL

Emphasis on Rigor and Relevance defined as:

• Conceptual Understanding, Procedural Skills and Fluency, Application (CCSS, PARCC)

OUR RESPONSE FOR GIFTED • Adjust AND Accelerate all levels of curriculum, instruction,

and assessment •  Materials •  Task Demands •  Assessments •  Standards •  Approaches

• Emphasis on Complex and Multi-Faceted Layers – Depth and Complexity

CC Reading Standards

Adaptation for Gifted

Sample differentiated task demand

Assessment Indicators for Gifted

(Key Ideas and Details)

Compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, or events in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., how characters interact).

Compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, and events in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text and explain how the similarities and differences contribute to the theme of the text. Provide challenging resource with more figurative language and inferential learning.

Create a reality TV competition show (eg., American Idol) in which you rate 2 or more characters, settings and events in a text as to how well they depict a major theme of the text. Give specific details that support your ratings (eg. Both MC Higgins, the Great, and his father, Jones, embody the theme of “overcoming prejudice”.)

1.  Linkage of characterization to theme or concept

2.  Accurate depiction of events and interactions

3.  Use of specific evidence to justify ideas/ratings

Teach advanced skills to gifted students by adjusting all levels: standards, resources, tasks, and assessments

Typical Advanced Grade 3 Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.

Students ask and answer student and teacher created questions regarding the plot of Patricia MacLachlan’s Sarah, Plain, and Tall, explicitly referring to the text to form the basis of their answers.

Students ask and answer student and teacher-created questions regarding what the plot says about courage and the life of women in the 19th century, using textual references. Product option: Multimedia project that characterizes courage? (makes it more difficult).

Grade 5 Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.

Students select a line from Carl Sandburg’s poem “Fog” and make an inference on what the author meant.

Students define personification and select a line from Carl Sandburg’s poem “Fog” and describe how Sandburg uses personification to enhance his meaning. Product option: Create your own personification poem using “Fog” as a model or add an additional stanza to “Fog.”

Grade 8 Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

Students identify one idea that is communicated in Carl Sandburg’s poem “Chicago” and select lines of text to support their analysis. Students will write a poem about their own hometown, using “Chicago” as a model.

Students describe how Sandburg’s tone of “Chicago” changes from the beginning to the end of the poem, using textual evidence to support their analysis. Students will write a poem about their own hometown as “Chicago” as a model. Product option: Students can create a multimedia presentation of the poem “Chicago.” Why can’t all students have a different product option? What makes this multimedia presentation differentiated if it is just comprehension like the typical example as it doesn’t incorporate tone. This should be with the typical and a more complex example could be adding music and color to create tone in a way that illustrates the poem.

Grade 12 Students cite strong and thorough textual At the end of “Ode to a Grecian Urn,” Keats

Features of Task Demands that Are Differentiated and Have Rigor and Relevance:

• Studied a concept in multiple applications or situations

• Conducted original research based on an appropriate question

•  Incorporated multiple standards • Developed a product based on data • Provided evidence to support key ideas • Decided among differing ideas (evaluate) •  Incorporates advanced resources

Center for Gifted Education – School of Education – The College of William and Mary

Sample Task Demand CCS • Students determine the meaning of the metaphor of a cat in Carl Sandburg’s poem “Fog” and contrast that figurative language to the meaning of the simile in William Blake’s “The Echoing Green.” [RL.5.4]

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Modification for the Gifted • Students provide evidence to support how figurative

language is used to emphasize the theme of redemption in the following stories: •  Declaration of Independence •  An Excerpt from Les Miserables

Math Standard to Practice CC Math: Measurement and Data CCR 3.MD.8

Standard to Practice

Tell and write time to the nearest minute and measure time intervals in minutes. Solve word problems involving addition and subtraction of time intervals in minutes (on number lines, in graphs, and in words).

What would this look like in practice in a general education classroom? What would you expect to see? What would this look like in practice with mathematically gifted learners?

Sample Task

*************************************************** Using the following criteria, create a model of an aquarium and explain its make-up: • Specifications of tank size • Number and type of fish and plants • Light & water filtration system • Setting • What variables are most important to consider in constructing your aquarium. Why? • How would you describe your aquarium as a living system?

The Fans Have to Eat Using provided data from the previous two years,

decide on an amount of food to order for this year's concession stand at the local football stadium. Compile a list of food recommendations, amounts, and cost analyses.

Justify your recommendations by writing a persuasive

argument to convince the Athletic Booster Club of the needed amount of food. Attach your cost analysis to the ordering justification for this year’s football season.

Students add, subtract, multiply, and divide decimals to the hundreths using concrete models or drawings; related the strategy to a written method and explain the reasoning used. CCS 5NBT7

From Games for Fun and Practice

Queen Anne’s Island Team, you are needed right away! Queen Anne’s Island,

located off the Northeastern shore, is in an environmental crisis. Many of its water sources have become polluted from industry and traffic. Its farmland has eroded and the air has become increasingly dangerous to breathe.

We need your help to assist Queen Anne’s Island in

conserving its natural resources. Create a plan to combat erosion and pollution. Be prepared to present a plan to present to the board.

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THE POWER OF “THAT” & “AND”

• Create a new ending to the story

• Create a new math problem to teach a friend

• Create your ideal playground and defend your creation.

• Create a new ending to the story that incorporates the theme of beauty and includes symbolism

• Create a problem that illustrates the differences between the distributive and associative property and shows your work.

• Create a playground that is to scale, illustrates at least three simple machines, and uses recyclable materials.

Your turn…

Design an activity, PBL, or task demand for your students that employs standards from three different CC outcomes and is differentiated.

Features of Task Demands that Are Differentiated and Have Rigor and Relevance:

• Studied a concept in multiple applications or situations

• Conducted original research based on an appropriate question

•  Incorporated multiple standards • Developed a product based on data • Provided evidence to support key ideas • Decided among differing ideas (evaluate) •  Incorporates advanced resources

Center for Gifted Education – School of Education – The College of William and Mary

Features of A Differentiated Assessments • Emphasis on thinking and problem solving – • Advanced/off-level

• Open-ended

• Emphasis on articulation of thinking processes

• Real world

• Uses multiple content standards

• Establishes criteria

http://www.assessmentsforcommoncore.com/pdf/Common-Core-eGuide.pdf

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Complete the line plot below to represent the data in the table. SEED MEASUREMENTS ______________________________ 1/8 2/8 3/8 4/8 5/8 6/8 7/8 1

What is the difference in size, in inches, between Gilbert’s largest seed and his smallest seed? Show your work in the space below. Write your answer on the line.

seed 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Size inches 3/4 1/2 1/4 3/4 7/8 3/4 1/8 3/8 1/2

http://www.assessmentsforcommoncore.com/pdf/Common-Core-eGuide.pdf

http://www.assessmentsforcommoncore.com/pdf/Common-Core-eGuide.pdf

Sample Item-Performance Event (Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium) Assess the cost-effectiveness of Ms. Johnson’s new insulation and

window sealing. You will need to research on “heating degree days” on the internet. In your response, you must do the following:

Ø Compare Ms. Johnson’s gas bills from Jan. 2007 and Jan. 2008. Ø Explain Ms. Johnson’s savings after the insulation and sealing. Ø Identify circumstances under which Ms. Johnson’s Jan. 2008 gas bill

would have been at least 10% less than her Jan. 2007 bill. Ø Decide if the insulation and sealing work on Ms. Johnson’s house was

cost-effective and provide evidence for this decision.

(AP and NAEP assessment protocol are being used for development of constructive response items)

Use the boxes below to write 3 different equations whose sum is equal to 5/6. ___ + ___ = 5 ___ + ___ = 5 6 6 ___ + ___ + ____ = 5 6

http://www.assessmentsforcommoncore.com/pdf/Common-Core-eGuide.pdf

ASSESSMENTS CAN BECOME PART OF THE TASK DEMAND WHEN DIFFERENTIATING FOR THE GIFTED

Sample Outcomes and Assessment Outcomes: •  Students will be able to analyze different points of view on a given

topic or issue. •  Students can write about what they read •  Students make inferences from primary sources •  Students take a stand on an argument Assessment: (Controlled setting response: 50 minutes) Given the issue of human cloning, identify three different stakeholder groups in society who would have different perspectives on this issue; analyze each of their perspectives and the reasons behind it in a well-developed

essay.

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Who Stole the Principal’s Water? Dear Students, I vacationed at ocean this summer and collected some ocean water as a souvenir. It was in my office. When I walked into my office this morning, after working with the janitor to fix the air conditioning, my water was gone!

My water dish was still in my office and this white powdery substance was in the bottom. I need your help to determine what happened. Did someone steal my water or is there a scientific explanation? Will you please research this?

I need you to write a convincing argument with evidence that I can give to the police so they know whether or not to investigate.

A Sample Task Demand Incorporating Multiple Standards Across Content Areas

Ask students to design an experiment to test a question of interest to them: Examples: A. Do people prefer Product X over Product Y? B. Are ants attracted to sugar? C. Are girls more addicted to computers than boys? A research report must be prepared and presented, using technology applications. Be sure to address your hypothesis,your data collection techniques, appropriate data tables, your conclusions, and your implications of the findings based on your original question.

Sample Item Year Round School Name _____________

Think of all of the positive and negative effects of the following situation, and record them in the chart below:

Situation: You have been told that your school will go on a year-round schedule next year.

Positive Effect Negative Effect

Choose one positive effect and explain your thinking about why it would be positive. ______________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

Tips for Creating Performance-Based Assessments • Ensure it matches the standards assessed • Make sure it is open-ended to showcase knowledge • Make the rubric accelerated • Provide meaningful feedback or exemplars after

assessment is completed • Be clear about expectations

Planning and Assessing Progress Standards Standards

Adapted for Gifted

Specific Task Demand with Assessment Instructions

Assessment Measures

Resources http://corestandards.org/assets/CCSSI_ELA

%20Standards.pdf (ELA CCSS) http://corestandards.org/assets/CCSSI_Math

%20Standards.pdf (Math CCSS) http://www.youtube.com/thehuntinstitute (CCSS writers

discuss the new standards)

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“For me, the fundamental mandate of school reform is to examine every decision, practice, and policy, and ask the question:

What, if anything, is anyone learning as a consequence of this?

Whether we are called teachers, principals, or parents, our primary responsibility is to promote learning in others and in ourselves. That is what it means to be an educator.

--Roland Barth

How Do You Create A Differentiated Assessment? •  Standard: Tell time to the nearest hour (K), half hour,

(1), and quarter hour (2) on digital and analog timepieces.

Create a Differentiated Task Demand That Allows Students To: Language • Demonstrate comprehension of a variety of literary

forms; • Write about what is read; • Write effective narratives and explanations.

Should The Miser be Required Reading for your grade? Yes, because a lot of people will understand it and it was a good story. No, because some people might think I do not want to read this story.

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Yes, I do think every kid in this grade should read The Miser. Because it might teach some kids to use what they have and not waste things. It would also tell kids to not attract other people. I would also tell children that you should think before you do something. This story will help children in the third grade.

Yes, I think all the students in 3rd grade should read this book. It’s such an excellent moral. One reason I think everyone in 3rd grade should read The Miser is because it does teach a good lesson. It could help them learn that things they never use are worthless. Another reason I think all the students in 3rd grade should read this story is they use great, funny words. It basicly is a funny story. One of the parts I likes was “He pulled his hair out (not really). It would make our writing better. Also, the students should read this because it’s similar to a true story. If you have a good, healthy body and you never use it, the muscles will be very weak, and you’ll miss out on a lot of things. As you see, it’s a good moral for all the students in third grade. They could learn great details for their own stories, and they can compare it with a true happening like this story. It’s a great story.

Your turn…. Design a performance-based assessment task that would assess a standard of your choice.

Defend using the key features of performance-based assessment.

Pre-Test How would you do a fair test of this question?

Are earthworms attracted to light?

Tell how you would test this question. Be as scientific as you can as you write about your test. Write down the steps you would take to find out if earthworms like light.

Pre-test Response

• First, I would put some earthworms in a container. There would be lights and some dirt. I would put several different earthworms in it. If more earthworms like the light than that would be right. If more didn’t like the light than that would be right. I would try this with about seven groups and decide if they like the light.

CFGE, 3rd Grade

Post-Test How would you do a fair test of this question?

Are bees attracted to diet cola?

Tell how you would test this question. Be as scientific as you can as you write about your test. Write down the steps you would take to find out if earthworms like light.

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Post-Test Response •  Materials:

•  Diet Cola, 3 large containers, 3 small containers, 6 bees.

•  Hypothesis: •  If you give bees diet cola then they

will be attracted to it. 1.  Gather 6 bees, diet cola, 3 large

containers, 3 small containers. 2.  Put 2 bees in each large container. 3.  Pour 5 ml of diet cola in each

small container.

4.  Set the small container of diet cola in each large container that has bees in it.

5.  Watch and observe to see if the bees are attached to the diet cola.

6.  You should record if the bees like diet cola on a chart like below.

Bees If they are attracted to Diet Cola 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

CFGE, 3rd Grade

Your turn…. Design a performance-based assessment task that would assess one of the following: - scientific habits of mind (ie. objectivity and skepticism)

-data analysis skills -interpreting poetry

Differentiation Feature: Acceleration •  Fewer tasks assigned to master standard • Assessed earlier or prior to teaching • Clustered by higher order thinking skills

Center for Gifted Education – School of Education – The College of William and Mary

Example of differentiated task • Pretest student knowledge and skills based on their

understanding of place value. • Group students according to their knowledge. • Combine less complex standards together and create a

more complex standard. • Provide more complex ideas.

CCSS: Example of Grade-Level Vertical Alignment & Progression in Reading •  CCR Standard 3: Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas

develop and interact over the course of a text.

Informational Text

Grade 3: Describe the relationships between a series of historical events, scientific ideas of concepts, of steps in technical procedures in a text, using language that pertains to time, sequence, and cause/effect.

Grade 7: Analyze the interactions between individuals, events, and ideas in a text (e.g. how ideas influence individuals or events, or how individuals influence ideas or events)

Grade 11: Analyze a complex set of ideas or sequence of events and explain how specific individuals, ideas, or events interact and develop over the course of the text.

CCSS: Example of Grade-Level Vertical Alignment & Progression in Math •  CCM: Operations and Algebraic Thinking: Represent and solve

problems involving multiplication and division

Number System

Grade 3: Interpret products of whole numbers, eg. Interpret 5 x 7 as the total number of objects in 5 groups of 7 objects each. For example, describe a context in which a total number of objects can be expressed as 5 x 7

Grade 7: Understand that multiplication is extended from fractions to rational numbers by requiring that operations continue to satisfy the properties of operations, particularly the distributive property, leading to products such as (-1) (-1) =1 and the rules for multiplying signed numbers. Interpret products of rational numbers by describing real-world contexts.

Grade 11: Explain why the sum or product of two rational numbers is rational; that the sum of a rational number and an irrational number is irrational; and that the product of a nonzero rational number and an irrational number is irrational.

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See Page 44 Writing Standards OR the Math Strand Handout

How would you accelerate a writing strand in language arts or a number strand in mathematics?

“For me, the fundamental mandate of school reform is to examine every decision, practice, and policy, and ask the question:

What, if anything, is anyone learning as a consequence of this?

Whether we are called teachers, principals, or parents, our primary responsibility is to promote learning in others and in ourselves. That is what it means to be an educator.

--Roland Barth