9 Ways to Differentiate for Gifted Learners
Let’s be honest. Differentiating is really hard. No matter the size of your class and the range of your learners, it is difficult enough to survive a school day, let alone make multiple differentiated, quality lesson plans.
Often, gifted learners are the first ones to lose services because they are most likely already advanced. In an environment that prioritizes teaching to the test, I totally understand why focusing on our underperforming students seems more urgent.
Let me help! I’ve come up with 9 broad ways to differentiate for your gifted learners. Since all teachers at one point or another will have gifted learners in their classroom, I thought this could be an easy reference for anyone!
Part of differentiating is finding ways to modify work that is already created. Small changes can make a big difference.
Here are 9 ways to adapt your lessons to differentiate for gifted learners.
Quicker Pace
Allow students to work more quickly through an assignment. After they finish, they can access independent reading, choice work, or enrichment opportunities to further their development. This strategy requires very little prep on your part.
More Choice
Open up an assignment to have more choice by removing some of the required criteria. For example, for a geography unit on continents, instead of requiring students to write about a specific continent, allow them to choose which continent they are most interested in. OR instead of requiring students to create a Google Slides presentation, let them choice their method of product creation. Choice creates more buy-in from students and really is beneficial to all learners!
Open Ended
Creating a more open ended response can be a quick and easy way to differentiate for gifted learners. If you have a graphic organizer that has sentence starters and a word bank, try removing those scaffolds so the assignment is more open-ended. This can provide challenge for gifted learners and only requires quick tweaks on your end. Instead of asking yes or no questions on worksheets or assignments, allow for deeper thinking with open ended questions that may start with “tell me about…”, “explain why….”, or “what if…”
Next Grade Level
Look at the next grade level’s standards. This can be a lot of work. You will have to recreate assignments and quizzes to make advanced materials. There are ways to make this easier. Talk to a teacher who is part of the next grade level. See if they have any materials already made that they are willing to share with you. Even better, see if the student can sit in on their classes. Plus, there are lots of tech tools available that allow for easier personalized instruction. Khan Academy and IXL allow you to assign students to higher grade levels without too much prep on your end.
Divergent Thinking
This way of thinking is seen to be more creative. It is known as thinking outside the box. For gifted students, allow them to come up with “what if” scenarios and recreate endings to their favorite novels. Keep a handful of divergent thinking tasks on hand for early finishers. One of my favorite things to do it “Figure It Out Friday”. Ask the students a riddle where they can only respond with yes or no questions.
Depth & Complexity
Depth & Complexity are important concepts to include in lessons. They are also great ways to differentiate for gifted learners. Sometimes students do not need more practice with a skill or concept, but instead need to dig deeper to remain engage and grow academically. Through depth & complexity students become experts in a certain topic. I am honestly not an expert on this topic, so I would suggest to check out this blog post by Byrdseed or go straight to the source and check out Sandy Kaplan’s resources.
Real World Connection
A real world connection can make all the difference to many students. Of course, building a whole project-based learning unit with a real world connection and alignment to state standards can seem daunting. There is a time and place for that. If you are looking for a quick way to differentiate with real world connections, ask the students. Give them the concept and let them come up with the application. Not only will the students have more ownership over their learning, it is also less prep for you.
Interest Based
For many assignments, the topic is predetermined. Are there any times during your week that you can allow students to choose the topic based on their interests? This will not only help your gifted learners, but it will inspire all your students to be more engaged.
Convergent Thinking
Convergent Thinking typically means there is only one answer. This type of thinking might be difficult for your more creative learners. However, many gifted learners love to think like this. They enjoy finding the one right answer for their math problem. To challenge your gifted learners, ask them to get to the same answer in different ways. See if they can find 2, 3, or 4 different paths to the same solution.
