Literacy for Gifted and Talented Learners

Differentiation is a struggle that we as educators face but needs to be faced if we are to meet the needs for all children in our classes. Often we are more adept at meeting the needs of the struggling children but truth is our able children need rigour and their unique needs to be met as well.

Issues to Consider

• Identification: Who are these children? Have they arrived already reading independently?
• Challenge: How can we help our gifted readers become more discerning readers?
• Interaction: How can these children share their reading with others? 
• Goals:Ensure we are setting realistic goals for these children.
• Reading skills: Are we teaching to read smartly, utilising features of text and to understand deeper concepts of print?
• Problems: Do we recognise that some of our gifted students may have reading problems and respond to these accordingly.

Brooke Trenwith from Cognition Education has provided these links to resources that primary schools are using to extend their gifted students.

Writing

Reading

A magazine created by kids for kids

 Reading lists can be found here

Resources to consider for purchase

Gail Loane's Book, 'I've Got Something to Say'.

Resources to Use

Search for Sandra Kaplan's 'Depth and Complexity Framework', via Google and you will find many examples that others have created that you might modify.

Experts to Contact

Robert Seney's reading lists and literacy tips are worth a look

• Books to inspire the gifted reading
• Wikispace with some links and resources from Robert Seney
• Gifted Readers and Young Adult Literature Reading
• Seney handout to read

Handwriting - Resources for staff

Teaching Handwriting

The teaching of handwriting is has been the subject of many discussions.

• How often should it be taught? 
• How should it be taught? 
• What is important about the teaching of handwriting? 
• What is the purpose of teaching handwriting?

For many years we have been offered good voice recognition software. Many hours are needed to perfect touch typing, far more than what can be provided with the time and resources have at school.

Here are some links to interesting and informative readings and blog post to help us consider this.

• A debate tool providing arguments both for and against the teaching of handwriting. 
• A blogpost from a NZ teacher providing a wealth of tools and information about the teaching of handwriting.
• An article from the Guardian asking, "Is the Pen Mightier Than the Sword?" 
• An article from the NY Times asking "What's Lost as Handwriting Fades?"
• Business Insider, 'Here's why writing things out by hand makes you smarter"
• It is also worth looking in Twitter and Pinterest for ideas on teaching handwriting.

Touch typing tools

The flip side of teaching handwriting is ensuring that we are equipping our children to live in a digital world. Can we provide links in our blogs to touch typing tools that children can use at home as part of their home learning?

• BBC Dance Mat Typing
• Typing Club
• Keyboarding Games for Kids

Voice Activation Software

Voice activation software is great for children with a learning disability, giving them the space they need to get their thoughts and ideas down quickly. Smart phones have voice capability that allow users to dictate messages, emails and texts.

Feedback and a Growth Mindset

Austin's Butterfly is a fabulous illustration of how children are able to respond to quality feedback and make improvements to their work. In order to do this children must have a growth mindset and be aware that learning is a process, seeking to challenge and improve. The use of praise is interesting too, Austin is given praise for persevering and his efforts that lead to improvements.





Dylan Wiliam shares a snippet of his work with self and peer assessment.  This is not the marking of another's work but time for students to formatively assess each others work which has huge benefits for both children involved in the process.

Great Sites and Apps to Motivate Writing

At a recent professional development session with Louise Dempsey some great sites were share to motivate writing.

Bored Panda is a site filled with fabulous photos and motivational stories that will inspire writing.

The Kids Should See This is a collection of smart videos for curious minds of all ages. Topics included are: science, nature, tech, DIY, music and much more. They are high quality, age appropriate and kid friendly making them perfect resources for the classroom.

Go Pro is worth investigating as it houses hundreds of videos and photos submitted by Go Pro users from around the world. From wild animals to riding waves you can join in the fun and see if from a unique perspective. Perfect to use for first person stories.

Apps worth investigating include:
Book Creator - an app that easily allows ebooks to be published.
Popplet - a tool for the iPad and web that allows you to capture and organise your ideas.
Telligami - an app that lets you create an avatar in front of a background then record a message worth sharing.

Mindmapping and Beyond

When I had the privilege of teaching Year 6 students a few years ago, I enjoyed introducing them to the skill of mind mapping. I love these diagrams and ways of recording notes. I would have a lot of fun making them and they are far more interesting to revise than pages and pages of written notes. Maybe time could be spent in reading and/or writing lessons developing this skill.

Click on the picture to visit te@chthought and explore this idea further.

The Literacy Shed

The Literacy Shed is another amazing place to access inspirational idea for the teaching of writing.
Spend some time checking it out.

It also provides links to other 'sheds' which are collections of resources to enhance other aspects of your programmes.

The Writing Book

Team leaders at St Albans all have a copy of 'The Writing Book' for the team to access. It is a resources that is worth purchasing as you don't like sharing it. It is full of fabulous, practical ideas that make teaching writing easier.

A day spent with Louise Dempsey last week reminded us of the need to move away from teaching genre and think about purpose. Snippets of writing and writing exercises with clear expectations so the children experience success.

If you are a facebook user they have a page that is well worth liking and send links that provide motivation for classroom writing. Worth checking it out.

Playing with Words

I love to use technology to engage children in writing and these ideas for using wordle are fabulous. I few I have used but many are new. Like anything, there are a few you would skip and I am sure you will think of a few more. If you do, post it in a comment!

Here is the wordle link http://www.wordle.net/ there are similar other tools.

Click on the link to find the wordle ideas.

Writing Poetry

I love working with children writing and reading poetry. Here is a fantastic blog that is updated daily and designed for New Zealand children. Each day Paula Green posts poetry ideas and things to think about. A great addition to classroom blogs.