Jo-Ann's+page+1

=Thoughts on Talent and Giftedne ss = The bottomline in the discussion of programs and services is still the question “Who is the gifted learner?” Only a deeper understanding of the uniqueness of each gifted learner underlies the nonnegotiables. One may exhaust all curriculum resources, strategies, and measurement tools, but if the focus has moved away from the learner, even well-meaning efforts like acceleration might end up detrimental to the student. The Templeton report entitled “A Nation Deceived” (Colangelo et al, 2004) has included one of the most important points that educators should be more concerned about the question “how” than just asking whether to accelerate. Vantassel-Baska’s nonnegotiables succinctly address this but any gifted education service should cyclically go back to “who” the gifted learner is. One of the pitfalls of any program is to assume that a class of students is all the same when they have been identified even within the gifted population. One must constantly be warned of dangerous mindsets – “one size fits all”, labels, prejudice, and worst of all, apathy towards our gifted children.

//--- Jo-Ann Reyes, (An excerpt from an article review of // //Vantassel-Baska's "What are the Non-negotiables?" //

Properly identified, the //twice exceptional// students now need a balanced program that fits them. Just what kind of program is that? After extensive reading on this topic on //twice exceptional// learners, I learned that there is no one method that fits all. One thing to remember though is, the //twice exceptional// students should have time among their peers in giftedness to give them a chance to nurture their talents and also have time with special education specialists to help them in their weaknesses .
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Emmeliza L. Cabanero, (on Twice Exceptional Leraners) **

 The article //Nurturing Giftedness in Young Children// by Wendy C. Roedell talks about the usual practice of placing a young gifted student in a program matched to his/her weaknesses, which is physical and socialization, rather than to his/her strengths in academics. Roedell (1990) wrote, “Children should be encouraged to progress at their own learning rate and teachers should make appropriately advanced content accessible to young children.” To support this, I believe that all classrooms need to be a place where children can easily engage in activities and projects at their own level and pace. Developing learning centers can support creative learning in the classroom environment. This provides opportunities for the students to explore topics of interests independently and also encourages them to become self-directed.

--- // Geraldine Rosos (An excerpt from an article review of Wendy C. Roedell's "Nurturing Giftedenss in Young Children") //

Tolan’s metaphor about the parallelism of Cheetah and gifted students strikes a lot of resonant chords. She probed deeply about the nature of giftedness as something that is innate gifts longing for its expression. A painter needs to paint, a musician needs to create music, an inventor needs to invent, a runner needs to run. A boat on the shore is safe but that is not what the boat is made for. A gifted student is not made for repetitive tasks. It needs expression of it innate gifts. As Thomas Peters and Robert Waterman, Jr. point out in their book, In Search of Excellence, “man is simply designed wrong for any mechanistic system”. Similarly, gifted students are designed incorrectly for drills and dead lessons. For cheetah, to nurture its “giftedness”, two conditions are needed: (1) a playing field wide enough for it to attain its top speed (2) an antelope fast enough to pose a real challenge to satisfy their hunger (something to run for) To nurture their giftedness, gifted students need a **stage** where to perform and not a **cage** to limit their giftedness. They need a goal high enough to bring the best out of them, a challenge hard enough to motivate them. *** Mary Dominic C. Lorena //( An excerpt from an article review of Stephanie Tolan's "Is It a Cheetah?")//
 * Metaphor B etween the Cheetah and the Gifted**