educationportfoliosidneygiesbrecht

Resources

Gifted Traits and Characteristics

Knowing what consulates to a gifted student can be confusing. This article from the Davidson Institute discusses the common characteristics and traits of gifted children. The article also explains how giftedness can affect development socially and emotionally. Some highlighted characteristics of gifted students include curiosity, advanced problem solving skills, creativity, emotional sensitivity, quick understanding and high interest in certain topics. The article also makes it evident that gifted student’s do not always achieve the highest grades or appear to be the best student. Sometimes gifted students get bored in class or do not try and participate in class. This resource is valuable to me because it reminds me that gifted students may have different educational and social needs than their peers. This resource can also help me connect with families who’s child is showing sign of being gifted. In my classroom I want to make sure all students are being challenged and learning to the best of their ability. To accommodate a gifted student I can provide more challenging activities, more opportunity to go in depth in topics and extra independent projects.

Characteristics and traits of gifted children. Davidson Institute. (2025, September 8). https://www.davidsongifted.org/prospective-families/gifted-traits-and-characteristics/

Giftedness in Children and Youth

This article looks at Giftedness from a psychology perspective. It gives instruction of what a parent should do if they think their child is gifted and how they can support their child. The article also goes over the signs and commonalities that gifted children usually share. This website is a great resource for parents and teachers of gifted students as it provides a ton of information on gifted children all in one place. This article also discusses twice exceptional learners, a term that I wasn’t familiar with before taking this class. I can use this resource in the future to look at the steps of what to do if I have a student who I suspect is gifted and look at how I can best support them.

Webmaster, C. (2024, November 27). “psychology works” fact sheet: Giftedness in children and Youth – Canadian psychological association. Canadian Psychological Association – The national voice for psychology in Canada. https://cpa.ca/psychology-works-fact-sheet-giftedness-in-children-and-youth/

Finding Support for Your Gifted Child

This article from the Gifted Children’s Association of British Columbia discusses the different resources available to support gifted children, as well as their families. The article explains how parents can work together with teachers, school admin, education specialists, resource teachers and psychologists to better meet a gifted child’s needs. This article also discusses how important an individualized education plan (IEP) is. An IEP is vital for a gifted student to succeed in the classroom because it ensures they are being challenged and having their intellectual needs that differ from the rest of the class met. This article will be helpful if I have a gifted student in my class who is struggling in some areas. I can use this article to help make an IEP for the student with the aid of other educational professionals. I can also use it to connect with families, showing what resources are available for them locally in British Columbia.

Gifted navigation: Finding support for your gifted child. Gifted Children’s Association of British Columbia. (n.d.). https://giftedchildrenbc.org/new-to-gifted/gifted-navigation-finding-help-in-understanding-your-gifted-child/

Videos

Redefining Passion for Gifted Children

This TED talk is about the pressure and expectations that can some with being a gifted student. The speaker, Julie Zhu talks about her own experience of being identified as gifted and how she feels like it quickly became her identity. She discusses how she began to make extremely high standards for herself and how it became a never ending cycle of trying to achieve more. She also discusses the idea of “gifted kid burnout”. She refers to this as students who are identified as gifted become exhausted and overwhelmed and begin to achieve less than what they are capable of due to high stress and unrealistic expectations for themself. To work through the stresses developed from being gifted Zhu suggests emphasizing to gifted kids self empathy and separating your identity from achievement. She encourages healthy study habits and hobbies away from school where gifted students can unwind and not set expectations for themselves.

Gifted AND: A Story about Twice-Exceptionality

This video goes over the story of kid named Collin who is gifted and has ADHD. Because Collin is gifted and has been diagnosed with ADHD he can be referred to as “twice exceptional”, meaning he has two exceptionalities. Through this video Collin shares his struggles and experience with being twice exceptional. His story shows that it is very important that teachers understand that students who are gifted need to be supported in the classroom too. As a teacher I could look back on this video if I have a student who is twice exceptional and remind myself of the struggles they may be facing and need extra support with.

The Challenges of Being a Gifted Student

This video discusses the challenges that gifted students can experience, emphasizing just because a student is gifted it does not mean that they will succeed in all areas of school. A challenge discussed in this video is pressure. Gifted students often face a pressure to succeed academically. This pressure can come from parents, teachers or even themselves, it can become overwhelming and stressful for the student. Another challenge discussed is asynchronous development, meaning the student is developing skills at different rates. They could be very good at math but behind in english. As a teacher it can be easy to assume that a gifted student may not need support because they are doing so well in a subject but really they still may need extra support in another area. Boredom is another challenge faced by gifted children. Boredom comes from students understanding concepts quickly, they can become disengaged or even become a distraction for other. Boredom can also cause poor study habits because concepts have always translated easily to the student.

Strategies

Six Strategies for Challenging Gifted Learners

This article goes over six strategies teachers and support staff can use to challenge gifted students. These strategies include

Offer the Most Difficult First: Allow students to complete the most challenging questions first to demonstrate the degree of their learning. If they complete the most difficult questions they can skip assignments they see as repetitive and move on to more advanced material.

Pre Test for Volunteers: Give students an opportunity to take a test before completing a unit. If they can demonstrate they already understand the material they can move onto more challenging work instead.

Prepare to Take it Up: Teachers should have activities at varying levels of difficulty for students. Teachers can then adjust assignments based on how well students understand the material

Speak to Student Interests: Teachers can incorporate students interests into assignments and activities. For example, if a student enjoys playing soccer they can assign a marketing assignment where they have to finance their own team. This peaks the students interest while challenging them.

Enable Gifted Students to Work Together: Give gifted students opportunities to work with other students who have similar abilities to them. Allowing them to work together allows them to share ideas and challenge each other.

Plan for Tiered Learning: Create assignments and lessons with differed levels of difficulty. Doing this allows student to work at the level that challenges them while they can still receive the support they need.

I can look back at this article if I am working with a gifted student and go through these steps to ensure that they are being challenged and having a positive experience in my classroom.

Azzam, A. (2016, April 1). Six strategies for challenging gifted learners. ASCD. https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/six-strategies-for-challenging-gifted-learners

How UDL Can Help with Teaching Gifted and Twice Exceptional Students

This article discusses how teachers can support twice exceptional students through Universal Design for Learning (UDL). The author, Pam Tupy is a mother of three gifted students, one of which is twice exceptional. She discusses how her experiences with her children has recognized that gifted students can still struggle in the classroom and how UDL has helped keep them on track.

UDL focuses on making sure learning reaches all students. This means providing information to students in different ways, giving students different ways to show their understanding and finding lessons that connect to students personal interests. A UDL can help create a more inclusive classroom. Some strategies Tupy suggests to reach gifted and twice exceptional learning teachers can utilize audio and video resources, graphic organizers, choice based learning activities, movement breaks and chunking.

Tupy, P. (2026, October 29). How UDL can help with teaching gifted and twice exceptional students. Novak Education – UDL, MTSS, and Inclusive Practices PD for Educators. https://www.novakeducation.com/blog/how-to-support-challenge-and-engage-gifted-students-in-your-classroom

Differentiated Instruction for the Gifted

The textbook discuses four ways to create differentiated instruction for gifted students.

Making Content More Abstract: Abstract content focuses less on factual information and more concepts and generalizations. This encourages students to consider ideas in general terms and to move more fluidly between facts and broad understandings. Challenging students with more abstract terms can make content more challenging and complex for gifted students.

Making Content More Complex: Teachers can make content more complex by adding variables, other considerations, different sources and alternative viewpoints to a task. Asking students to research further, look at different variables or even adding restraints to their assignments can keep them intellectually engaged.

Making Content Interrelated: Gifted students often spot the potential for applying ideas from one field of study to another. Teachers can build on this ability by looking for connections from subject to subject. Interrelating content challenges students to use knowledge, processes and skills in different combinations.

Making Content More Constrained: Making content more constrained can challenge gifted students by making it more complex. By limiting the freedom they have in an activity it can encourage them to go deeper into their learning.

Edmunds, A. L., & Edmunds, G. (2014). Special education in Canada: Second Edition. Oxford University Press. (Page 203-204)