How are you serving gifted students in your classroom? While advanced texts and extended writing prompts are great, gifted student enrichment really takes off when it’s digital. In this post, I’m going to cover three reasons why digital is amazing and how you can start today!
What is Gifted Student Enrichment?
Let’s start at the beginning. When I say gifted enrichment, I am referring to learning opportunities that go beyond the standards taught in the classroom. I am talking about acceleration, creative thinking, problem solving and extension. Gifted students need enrichment that not only provides a chance for deeper understanding, but also challenges them to think outside the box.
My first year teaching, about half of my fourth graders were gifted. The other half were mostly high achievers who also needed a bit of an academic push. I had seen amazing growth through our 10 months together and didn’t want anyone to suffer the “summer slide”.
So, I created reading and writing packets for kids to take home. Inside each packet were reading passages, writing paper, drawing paper, and a special calendar I had created for June and July. Each day on the calendar had a prompt for students to complete. Thus my Calendar Choice Board was born!
While the packets were cute and helpful, it was a lot of paper and time to put each one together. In addition, every prompt was paper based. Now, don’t get me wrong, I live for journals and pens and all things hands-on, but our students are growing up in a very digitally savvy world. It’s our responsibility to teach students how to use paper and digital resources together, instead of one or the other.
From Paper to Digital
In 2018, I officially opened my Teachers Pay Teachers store. There wasn’t much available, but I started to see a need for access to easy enrichment for gifted students. So, I created a printable March Calendar Choice Board and posted it. I was thrilled when I sold the first one, and another, and another! Then, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Quickly, I realized digital needed to be a priority.
Knowing gifted students need enrichment and teachers need something quick and easy, I posted my first fully digital Calendar Choice Board in September. The response has been wonderful. Students are engaged, challenged, and given a creative space that provides easy enrichment both online and offline.
Why Digital Enrichment is Important for Students
We live in a digital world. It’s easy to order anything online and have it delivered to our door. We connect with people all over the world via our cellphones. Heck, we can even talk to a speaker to find instant answers to any question. Our students know how to navigate this world easily. Technology for them is second nature. But, students are trained to use it for fun, not necessarily for learning.
My biggest goal with digital Calendar Choice Boards is to provide students a way to use technology to create something of their own through research, writing, drawing, reading and more. Many of the skills students need to create digitally utilize offline practices like running experiments or sketching out ideas.
3 Reasons Gifted Student Enrichment Needs to be Digital
1- Digital enrichment opportunities allow gifted students the option to learn in a way that suits their educational needs while continuing in a general education classroom. This inclusion is essential for social-emotional learning. As stated
in a paper titled BE COOL! a digital learning environment to challenge and socially include gifted learners, students are best served in a”digital learning environment that challenges gifted children while socially including them in the regular classroom.” Gifted students need enrichment that meets their needs academically, emotionally and socially.
2- Students must practice safe digital practices. The only way for students to function efficiently and safely online is by modeling digital citizenship and providing opportunities from them to practice.
Hoagies’ Gifted Education Page states “We need to teach our kids how to avoid e-mail, internet, and social networking pitfalls, how to avoid becoming the victim or perpetrator of cyber-bullying, and how to live as responsible digital citizens.” They also offer several links and resources to support digital citizenship.
3- We can serve gifted students anywhere because of digital classrooms and resources. This is vital for ensuring our gifted students are not overlooked when a school moves from face-to-face to virtual learning. The National Association for Gifted Students agrees by stating, “Online learning presents opportunity for gifted students to shine. We can provide learning environments that foster academic growth and positive social interaction from a distance.”
If you give a gifted child an inch of enrichment, they will run miles with it!
How can you enrich your gifted students tomorrow?
Try having them make an online quiz, create a digital book, or use one of my Calendar Choice Boards.
