December 2, 2015 GATE Newsletter

Resources for Home and School for Our Gifted Students

The development of 21st Century skills is important for our students.  All students must learn how to effectively collaborate, communicate, think critically, and think creatively.  The development of these 21st century skills in our GATE identified students provides them with the opportunity to think deeper about a subject matter and share their thinking with others.  

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 The book Questioning for Classroom Discussion: Purposeful Speaking, Engaged Listening, Deep  Thinking by Jackie Acree Walsh and Beth Dankert Sattes is a wonderful resource for teaching  students how to develop questioning and discussion skills.  The table below is from the book and is a  great resource for helping students develop discussion skills.

 

 

 

Scaffolding Students’ Development of Collaborative Skills for Discussion

Skill Stem
Elaborates on classmate’s ideas
  • I want to piggyback on what (student name) said earlier.
  • I’d like to build on what (student name) said.
  • (Student name) reminded me of…
  • (Student name) reinforced what I believe about…
  • I appreciate what (student name) said and wants to add to it.
Actively seeks to include classmates who are not participating
  • I am wondering what you are thinking about this, (classmate’s name)
  • I’ve been talking a lot, and I’m curious as to what others are thinking
Respond to classmates’ questions and rebuttals non-defensively
  • You pose a very good question. this is how I arrived at my thinking.
  • Let me clarify my thinking.  You may not agree with me, but I’d like you to understand my point of view.
Remains open to ideas that are different from one’s own
  • I hadn’t thought of it in this way, but I wonder…
  • This is not what I was thinking, but I’d like to hear more about how you arrived at this position.
  • I’ve been thinking of this differently, but want to suspend my judgement and hear from others who are thinking this way.
Actively seeks to understand a different point of view
  • Can you tell me more about your point of view?
  • This is a different way of thinking from mine. Can you help me understand what makes you say this?
  • I have a question about what (student name) said: (Pose question).
Disagrees in a respectful manner
  • I respect what (student name) is saying, but I want to offer a different perspective.
  • I am thinking about this differently and want to put my idea in the mix.
  • Perhaps we’ll have to agree to disagree, but I wonder if we have the same understanding of the definition or the meaning of this word.
  • I hear what (student name) is saying. I want to offer a different interpretation.
  • I’ve heard several different perspectives. I want to add yet another one.

GATE Teacher Spotlight

Michelle Ho

I love teaching GATE students because they provide the class with a perspective that I might not have even seen myself! When they share their insight or reasoning, it can be eye opening to our whole class. A great Twitter feed to follow is @NAGCGifted to read articles and stay up-to-date with current research.

Whitney Kavanas

I love teaching GATE students because they challenge each other as well as myself daily. I recently attended a conference hosted by the California Association for the Gifted and a great author, Susan Winebrenner, shared some amazing resources from her books. I recommend getting a text written by her for some great ideas.

Wednesday GATE Sessions – December

2nd & 3rd Grade GATE Students: “Saving Water One Drop at a Time”

Our 2nd and 3rd grade students begin to draft  brochures and multimedia presentations that can be shared with parents and other students.

4th Grade GATE Students: “Alternate Energy Fantasy Cars”

Our 4th grade students will  experiment with how to generate their specific form of alternative energy and share their findings from experimentation about the best way to generate their form of energy with their peers.

5th & 6th GATE Students: “(S.O.S) Students Out & Stranded”

Our 5th and 6th grade students are creating a survivor television pilot and will be working on the storyboard for their video this month.

7th & 8th Grade GATE Students: “It’s Simply a Balancing Act”

Our 7th and 8th grade students will create a video about their Rube Goldberg machine and complete the reflection, “If someone was watching your video, what is something they could learn about simple machines? What is something they would learn about you?”