All educational outcomes need to be pre assessed prior to beginning lessons and projects, so students who already know the material are able to move along the continuum and engage at their individual zone of proximal development, rather than being bored or frustrated when schools track by age year. No ski instructor places expert skiers on the green slopes, nor beginners on the black diamond ones. When we place all students on the blue slopes, we’ve lost motivation for learning in 2/3 of our students.
As an educator who has spent an entire career on creating gifted curriculum, lessons and schools, I was always saddened that students who came from other countries always tested higher on entry exams than same birth year Americans. We underestimate what our students are capable of here in the USA and base our grade level lessons on our most challenged students rather than our most motivated learners. Our schools have been so dumbed down in the last century and we need to change. My experiences and conclusions are based in 40 years of reading gifted literature and working in grades 3-12 in five states. Most suicides and dropouts of our public schools are found to be gifted. So sad.
All educational outcomes need to be pre assessed prior to beginning lessons and projects, so students who already know the material are able to move along the continuum and engage at their individual zone of proximal development, rather than being bored or frustrated when schools track by age year. No ski instructor places expert skiers on the green slopes, nor beginners on the black diamond ones. When we place all students on the blue slopes, we’ve lost motivation for learning in 2/3 of our students.
As an educator who has spent an entire career on creating gifted curriculum, lessons and schools, I was always saddened that students who came from other countries always tested higher on entry exams than same birth year Americans. We underestimate what our students are capable of here in the USA and base our grade level lessons on our most challenged students rather than our most motivated learners. Our schools have been so dumbed down in the last century and we need to change. My experiences and conclusions are based in 40 years of reading gifted literature and working in grades 3-12 in five states. Most suicides and dropouts of our public schools are found to be gifted. So sad.