Dr. Bob Seney - Creating Empathy and Understanding through Bibliotherapy

Seney - Creating Empathy and Understanding Through Bibliotherapy.pdf

What fiction does best is to create a space for readers to gain empathy with others, even if their situations are different. -Carlos Hernandez: Sal and Gabi Break the Universe

In presentations, when I reference Bibliotherapy, most questions are about this strategy – even though it was not the focus of the presentation! Obviously, this reflects a strong interest in this best practice strategy. Bibliotherapy is a counselling technique, adapted for classroom use, and is a tool for helping people deal with problems or issues through reading novels or short stories about characters that possess similar problems. Because reading appeals to the imagination, Bibliotherapy provides an interaction between readers and the story/action of the novel, leading to a less threatening situation than direct confrontation, thus “defusing” the problem. The idea is to help individuals realize that others have the same
problems and that they are not alone. This is often the first step in effectively dealing with a situation and creating empathy. This technique has become a popular strategy in working with gifted students. Since many of our gifted students are avid readers, Bibliotherapy is a very effective way to respond to their social/emotional needs. Because we are using gifted students’ strength areas: i.e. reading and problem solving, we often experience success. Bibliotherapy can be used to explain problems/issues; to define problems/issues; to solve problems/issues; and to create empathy. In this session, we will define and describe the strategy, provide guidelines for implementation, and share resources that will help participants locate literature that directly addresses a variety of issues. A Resource List will be provided.

Robert W. Seney, PhD Professor Emeritus/Gifted Studies, Mississippi University for Women, has worked in education for over 46 years, 40 of those in gifted education. He was a classroom instructor, district administrator, head of private schools, and university professor. He is most known for his advocacy of using Young Adult Literature with Gifted Readers and his work with gifted readers. At MUW, he directed the graduate programs in Education and was the primary instructor in the Masters of Gifted Studies program. He was also the director of the Mississippi Governor’s School, a three-week summer residential program for gifted high school students. Upon retirement, the Mississippi University Board named him Professor Emeritus for his educational service to the state of Mississippi, the university, and the field of gifted education. He has been active in several state gifted organizations, NAGC, and the World Council for Gifted Children. He was the 2005 World Conference Chair in New Orleans.

Dr. Jessica Howard - How to fly when you feel like falling…Understanding the social emotional needs of gifted learners 

SEAD - DU conference note catcher.docx

SEAD - Anxiety presentation flyer 2019.pdf

SEAD - Social-Emotional resources 2020.docx

SEAD - Strategies.docx 

It is difficult to help students if you do not know they are struggling. Low flyers are students that fly under the radar and avoid letting adults know when they need help. Gifted learners are often low flyers, wanting to appear as if everything is fine, when they are actually struggling. If not addressed, this can have negative, lifelong consequences. In this session, we will explore the factors that affect the social and emotional development of gifted learners. Understanding the underlying issues can assist practitioners, teachers, and parents as they support these students. Perfectionism, anxiety, and depression are often exacerbated by over excitabilities and asynchronous development. We will discuss the relationship between these topics and share strategies that are easy to implement and will allow students to overcome setbacks in order to foster lifelong success. Low flyers require proactive support to address their needs. Gifted girls are a large subgroup of low flyers. Female low flyers often deal with Imposter Syndrome and Horner’s Effect. We will spend time understanding the unique characteristics and needs of gifted girls, how to identify them, and ways to support their individual needs. If low flyers are not supported, they can become lost and disengaged in the world around them. They may lose their enjoyment in activities and collapse within themselves. Suicide rates are high for this type of student. We cannot let these amazing children fall through the cracks. It’s imperative to be highly aware and support them early and often as they move through childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood.

Jessica Howard, EdD is the founder of the SEAD Program and has been involved in special education and gifted education for decades. The SEAD program offers an online platform for adolescents to learn about specific social and emotional topics. She has three children, 15-year-old twins and a 17-year-old. Jessica has been featured in Your Teen Magazine, presented at national and international conferences, and offers professional learning opportunities across Colorado and beyond. She holds a doctoral degree in curriculum & instruction specializing in gifted education, as well as master’s degrees in educational psychology & elementary education. A board member of the Colorado Academy of Educators for the Gifted, Talented & Creative, she has been worked in public schools, private schools, universities, and the Colorado Department of Education.

Dr. Susan Daniels - Visual Learning & Teaching: Developing an Educator Toolbox of Strategies to Boost Engagement and Increase Retention

Emojis . . . avatars . . . icons . . . Our world is becoming increasingly reliant on visual communication. Visual thinking, imagery, and imagination have long been recognized as key aspects of creative thinking and creative giftedness in both the arts and sciences. Yet our classrooms still heavily focus on traditional oral and written instruction. Visual thinking is essential to imagination, design, problem solving, and invention. Moreover, visual learning methods have shown to increase retention by 29%!
Based on the visual triad model, Dr. Daniels channels over twenty years of research and experience into a comprehensive guide of creative and practical visual learning strategies that enable educators to rise to the challenges of 21st century education. In this talk, Dr. Daniels will look at how we can use the images we see, imagine, and depict while teaching and learning visually. She will examine research based on dual-coding theory, which illustrates how students learn best and have greater retention when working both visually and verbally. Attendees will develop a visual toolbox for use in visual learning and teaching.

Susan Daniels, PhD, is Professor of Educational Psychology and Counseling at California State University
– San Bernardino. She is also a co-founder and Educational Director of the Summit Center, with offices in Northern and Southern California. At the Summit Center, Dr. Daniels provides personality, creativity, and learning profile assessments for children and adolescents as part of the center’s comprehensive psycho-educational and neuropsychological evaluations. She is also available for consultation with families and schools. Dr. Daniels is an internationally recognized expert in the field of gifted education and creativity, with numerous publications and presentations given annually at educational and psychological conferences. She specializes in the social and emotional development of gifted children and adolescents, intensity and sensitivity of gifted individuals across the lifespan, and the development of creative potential. Dr. Daniels is co-editor and co-author of Living with Intensity (Great Potential Press). In addition, and along with Dr. Peters, Dr. Daniels is co-author of Raising Creative Kids (Great Potential Press). Her most recent book Visual Learning and Teaching: An Essential Guide for Educators K-8 was published by Free Spirit Publishing.

Dr. Lindsey Reinert and Dr. Ruthi Manning-Freeman - Why are We Ignoring the Researched Benefits of Acceleration?

Reinert and Manning-Freeman - IDGE 2020 Pre conference Why are We Ignoring the Researched Benefits of Acceleration.pdf

In light of the current national debate regarding the elimination of gifted programs, Renzulli and Reis (2019) state, “The recent controversy over the elimination of gifted education programs in New York City’s public schools must be viewed in the larger context of the role that schools need to play in changing world conditions, career development opportunities, the job market and the ways in which we can better prepare all of our young people for happy and productive futures.” This session will provide resources and ideas to consider when programming for gifted learners; not eliminating gifted programming but rather changing what gifted programming could look like.
The overwhelming research surrounding the academic benefits of acceleration and peer ability grouping continues to face opposition with many public school districts choosing to turn their backs on the research and best practices of acceleration (Colangelo, Assouline, &; Gross, 2004). Borland (1989) promotes, “Acceleration is one of the most curious phenomena in the field of education. I can think of no other issue in which there is such a gulf between what research has revealed and what most practitioners believe” (p.185).
During the past two decades of research, evidence supporting acceleration has continued to accumulate (Kulik 1984, Rogers, 1991; Colangelo, Assouline, & Gross, 2004; &; Colangelo, Assouline, Van-Tassel-Baska, &; Lupkowski-Shoplik, 2015). Despite the evidence, advocates remain concerned that educators continue to hold negative attitudes and schools and districts remain reluctant to implement acceleration models. This session will describe twenty different types of acceleration options, discuss national, state, and local acceleration policy, and engage participants in collegial discourse addressing these dimensions of acceleration. Educators will be empowered to be change agents in helping to remove barriers concerning acceleration such as scheduling issues that can often block creative programming to meet students’ learning needs. Doctors Reinert and Manning-Freeman are experts in the field of gifted education and specialize in Early Access, a form of acceleration, as well as meeting the unique individual academic and social emotional needs of the students they serve.

Lindsey Reinert, EdD is an adjunct faculty at the University of Denver in Curriculum & Instruction, a GT Resource Teachers for Jefferson County Public Schools supporting pre-K through 12th grade students, schools, and families, and has her own educational consulting business; Little Red Backpack, LLC. She is the presiding secretary for the Gifted Education State Advisory Committee (GE-SAC) and is Co-Presiding Governor for the Colorado Academy of Educators for the Gifted, Talented and Creative (CAEGTC). She has actively worked in the field of gifted education for the past 20 years.

Ruthi Manning-Freeman, EdD is serving Academy District 20 Schools, Colorado Springs as the Assistant Director for Learning Services responsible for Gifted and Talented Programs, Enrichment Programs and Foreign Exchange Programs.  Ruthi has an interest in the arts and oversees two large partnership grants with The New York Metropolitan Opera Company and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.  Ruthi is a graduate of Chatham College, earned her master’s degree at The University of Virginia, and her Doctorate in Gifted Education from the University of Denver.  Ruthi is passionate about gifted young learners and acceleration in all forms.

Anna Armitage, MA – Increasing Opportunity: Integration of Choice for All

Armitage - Increasing Opportunity Integration of Choice for All.pdf

James T. Webb Influence Scholar

Increasing Opportunity: Integrating Choice for All will provide guidelines and examples for secondary teachers looking to start or increase their integration of choice in the classroom. Choice is essential for gifted students, but it benefits all. Guidelines will be differentiated for student needs’ and teacher comfort with choice in the classroom. Special attention will be paid to creating choice for students who struggle with ambiguity, perfectionism, underdeveloped executive functioning skills, and work avoidance.

Joi Lin, MS – Exploring the Phenomena of Gifted Graduate Students Studying Gifted Education

Lin - Exploring the Phenomena of Gifted Graduate Students Studying Gifted Education.pdf

James T. Webb Influence Scholar

This session will reflect on the educational experiences of gifted graduate students who have taken graduate coursework in gifted education. A phenomenological research study was conducted using a convenience sample of the researcher's peers. Graduate students, who self-identified as gifted, completed two interviews designed to explore their experiences as a gifted student, experiences studying gifted education, and goals for their future impact as educators of gifted and talented students.

Stephanie Peralta, MA – Early Childhood Gifted Students of Color: A Curriculum Implementation Exploration

Peralta - Early Childhood Gifted Students of Color A Curriculum Implementation Exploration.pdf

James T. Webb Influence Scholar

Early Childhood Gifted Students of Color are a population that needs further identification and support. This presentation will aim to answer questions about general educator knowledge surrounding the topic of early childhood gifted students of color, and how discrepancies between that of general educators and their knowledge of gifted students can be reconvened. The presentation will encapsulate the researcher's intent to collect data and the protocols to be used as mechanisms in understanding the discrepancies that may exist between general educator knowledge of gifted students of color and curriculum based in the literature.

Colleen Urlik, EdD – Working with School Leaders

Building strong relationships with leaders who influence gifted programming at the school level is essential to providing equitable gifted programming. In a state where local control is implemented, it is critical for gifted leaders to understand how to best work with and support school leaders. During this session, we will analyze how collaboration with school leaders and challenges within the site based gifted programming have traditionally been approached. We will explore and apply a new framework to collaborating with school leaders, understanding issues within site based gifted programs, and creating long-lasting solutions.

Connie Brown, MEd – From Socrates to STEAM: Student Agency Impacts the Future

Brown - From Socrates to STEAM.pdf

While Agency feels like a new buzzword in education, it has been around since the 5th Century, BCE. What does it really mean?  Why does it matter?  How has it changed (and stayed the same) throughout all these centuries? How can we help our students develop it, and why should we?  This session is for any educator who is hoping to understand the meaning of this concept as well as explore opportunities to inspire and invigorate their most complex learners to become the best version of themselves.

Brenda Kay Hardman, EdD & Dialne McCall, MS - The Secondary School Leader’s Role in Gifted Education: Building for Success?

Small and McCall - The Secondary School Leader's Role in Gifted Education.pdf

School administrators of the future have more ability then they realize over how to meet the gifted student’s needs. With knowledge of state and federal standards, the building administrator can create innovate programs specific to their population. We present examples on how to staff a school and create consistent accountability structures at little or no cost. An innovative school leader is pivotal to the success of gifted secondary students as they build a master schedule which facilitates their diverse populations with unique curricular needs. Participants will be inspired to purposefully align scheduling and programs to meet the gifted student’s interests.

Terri Lee Nielsen, MA - Sharpen Your Tools: The Endrew F. Supreme Court Decision

Nielsen - Endrew F Presentation.pdf

This session maximizes the opportunity to share our experiences with several important Education Law tools that may touch the lives of Gifted and other Learner types, such as ALPs, 504 Plans, IEPs, Reading Plans, Independent Learning Plans, FBAs, School-wide MTSS and PBIS planning, along with legislatively required (in Colo) ICAP career planning that often begins in "the middle years" but is required for 9th - 12th grade students, along with a quick magnifier on some specific criteria that help lay the foundation for success for these documents.

Benjamin Hershelman & Jennifer Fredrickson - Transitions are Internal: Mindshift Matters

Hershelman and Fredrickson - Middle School Transition Process.pdf

If change is external and transition is internal, what structures might support a MINDSHIFT that paves the way for a successful and smooth transition from elementary school to middle school?  Investigating, strengths, super-powers, passions, challenges and catalysts WITH students allows teams to identify tools and resources that support the learner and the learning ahead of the transition. Explore how we embraced the transition MIND SHIFT and created partnerships and pathways to prepare for successful transitions to middle school for students, educators, and families!

Aleah Dacey, MA - The Harkness Method: 21^st Century ‘Power’ Skills and Gifted Learning

Dacey - Harkness Presentation.pdf

Dacey - Overview of Harkness Presentation for Gifted Conference 2020.pdf

Dacey - Harkness Materials for Presentation.pdf

Gifted learners have an opportunity to explore and receive feedback on 21st century ‘power’ skills, like communication, problem-solving, critical thinking, and collaboration, through the use of responsive, student-led Harkness discussions. This strategy encourages students to practice reasoning, analysis, and argument while simultaneously developing impulse control, taking risks, negotiating conflict, managing time, and practicing flexibility. In this session, attendees will receive an overview of the Harkness method and listen to samples of student-led discussions along with sample rubrics, student reflections, and feedback strategies.

Sylvia Rimm, PhD & Julia Link Roberts, EdD – Gifted Curriculum and Social-Emotional Health—The Crucial Connection

Rimm and Link Roberts - Gifted Curriculum and Social-Emotional Health The Crucial Connection.pdf

2013 & 2015 Palmarium Award Recipients

Curriculum that is challenging is a necessary component of appropriate schooling for high-ability students. Strategies must remove the learning ceiling at the same time that learning opportunities are built around complex content. Rigor and relevance combine to encourage the development of confident, creative and competent learners.

In the early days of gifted education, educators assumed that advanced curriculum alone would ensure dedicated learning.  While some students adjusted well to new challenges, others equally gifted, defensively avoided them. Some struggled with perfectionistic anxiety and ignored challenges that demanded discipline and concentration. Some came from enriched home environments, while others came from diverse backgrounds that obscured their giftedness. Still others masked their giftedness because of disabilities or emotional exceptionalities.

Educators, counselors and families discovered the crucial connection of social-emotional needs with advanced curriculum. That challenge continues and leads to under identification and underachievement of gifted students. Our presentation will emphasize that crucial connection of curriculum and social-emotional learning and how educators and parents can deliver the appropriate magical combination.

Marla Caviness-French, MEd - Connecting to the Quantitative Strengths of Gifted Readers

Caviness-French - Skills Your Child Needs for Different Math Subjects.pdf

Caviness-French - MCF Quantitative Reasoning Strategies for the Classroom.pdf 

Understanding and developing the quantitative strength areas of gifted and talented readers leads to deeper, richer thinking. Incorporating quantitative strategies into literacy classes will inspire readers to engage in text using a very different cognitive thinking style. Quantitative reasoning strategies are necessary job skills that need to be regularly incorporated into a wide variety of content areas to adequately prepare our students for their future career environment.

Joi Lin, MS & Molly Isaacs-McLeod, JD, LLM - Making a Case: Advocating for Math Acceleration

Lin and Isaacs-McLeod - Making a Case Advocating for Math Acceleration.pdf

As educators, it is our responsibility to educate students at their true level of learning. Often, this requires advocating for student acceleration in any areas of advanced aptitude. In this session, we will reflect on the research surrounding the effectiveness and social and emotional impact of different types of math acceleration; discuss impacts of math acceleration interventions; and celebrate stories from the perspectives of a student who was accelerated in math, a teacher of accelerated math, and a parent who advocated for math acceleration. Join us to discuss tips for advocating for the appropriate math acceleration of your students.

Anna Voth, MEd & Jennifer Polk, MEd - Affective Goal Setting with the Habits of Mind

Voth and Polk - Affective Goal Setting with the Habits of Mind.pdf

High levels of achievement are often the results of non-intellectual factors. Using the Habits of Mind to teach our students how to be successful thinkers is one way to reach those high levels of achievement. Changing the state of mind of our students and changing the ways they approach problems and situations can give them the skills needed to be successful in college and career. Using the work of Costa and Kallick I hope to give teachers the tools to write effective affective goals that will change the way our gifted students think about school and themselves as learners.

Michelle Oslick, MA, Renee Cawley, LPC & Allison Armour, MSW – Unplugged: Frank Conversations About Supporting Gifted Learner’s Social Emotional Needs

Oslick Cawley and Armour - Unplugged Frank Conversations Around Supporting Gifted Learner’s Social Emotional Needs.pdf

In a time when reports of childhood mental health disorders are on the rise, and the capacity of mental health staff cannot keep pace with demand, meeting the social emotional needs of gifted learners can seem daunting.

During this session, presenters will reflect on the past by sharing real world experiences and resources developed to provide vertically aligned SEL outcomes integrating NAGC and CAS standards as well as the CASEL model as a foundation for universal social emotional instruction. They will also share their vision of how these resources will impact the future of social Emotional Learning for gifted students.

Felicia Lowman-Sikes, EdD - Is this Child Gifted? Characteristics Prevalent in Underserved Populations

Lowman-Sikes - Is this child gifted.pdf

Frank Worrell, PhD – Motivating Gifted and Talented Students

2019 Palmarium Award Recipient

Worrell - Motivation Talk Handout.pdf

There is an assumption that gifted and talented students are always intrinsically motivated. However, these students are not always motivated to do what you want them to do and it is important that teachers know how to motivate gifted and talented students. In the first part of this presentation, Dr. Worrell will review several motivational frameworks that are useful for educators to know. In Part 2, participants will work on translating the frameworks into activities for the classroom so that participants have a chance to practice applying the motivational frameworks.

Emmaly Perks, MA, CC - Implementing Transitional Talent Development Programs to Support Multipotentiality

Perks - Implementing Transitional Talent Development Programs to Support Multipotentiality.pdf

Perks - Handout.pdf

From an early age, gifted students are often told they can excel in any career they imagine—they need only to choose. However, many gifted students experience difficulty selecting careers due to multipotentiality, or increased aptitude across multiple domains. One solution is to implement transitional talent development programs (TTDPs). Through the framework of a TTDP at the University of Colorado, this session will provide information on developing TTDPs for students of all ages. Attendees will learn how to identify multipotentiality, resolve issues around multipotentiality, and leave feeling empowered to select and develop high-quality TTDPs for gifted students in their lives.

Lindsey Reinert, EdD & Jessica Howard, EdD - Educational Pathways: Thinking Outside the Box & Advocacy

Reinert and Howard - IDGE 2020 Educational Pathways Thinking Outside the Box & Advocacy.pdf

As we are well aware, the traditional school system often does not meet the intellectual and/or social-emotional needs of our gifted children. Luckily, in this age of technology, transition and open-enrollment, there are many options available for families. How can we leverage advocacy to address these options available to families?  Advocacy is "standing up or speaking up" (Corbell, 2000, p. 1) or "giving active support to a cause, putting out a call to take a position on an issue, and acting to see that it is resolved in a particular way" (Dettmer, 1995, p. 389). Through the lens of giftedness, Gallagher (1983) defined advocacy for gifted education as "a set of activities designed to change the allocation of resources to improve opportunities for the education of gifted and talented students" (p. 1).

Courtney Klein, PsyD & Kendra Doukas, LMFT – The Resilience Project: Understanding School Violence

Klein and Doukas - Trauma and School Violence.pdf

Traumatic situations such as school violence and other life-threatening acts against children and adults continue to impact our community. We look back at our experiences and work to support parents, teachers, and other community members who need to be better equipped to take care of themselves and to speak with their children about understanding, recognizing, and preventing violence through knowledge and improved mental health care. Looking forward we need to increase stress management techniques, self-care for all ages, and understanding of when to be afraid, when to react, and when to enjoy life with security. Ardent Grove presenters will help adults to recognize and address signs of trauma in themselves and children.

Traci Glover, MEd & Leena Weaver, EdS - Emotional Regulation in the World of Gifted and Talented

Glover and Weaver - Emotional Regulation in Gifted and Talented Students.pdf

When it comes to emotional well-being, gifted and talented students come with a unique set of challenges. Many students struggle with frustration tolerance and emotional regulation. We’ll review healthy versus unhealthy development and underlying causes of severe behavior including trauma, attachment, temperament, development, and entitlement, and how they play out with gifted and talented students. Participants will learn what an emotionally healing environment is and the need for healthy boundaries while building healthy relationships with students. This leads to a deeper connection between educator and student which will enhance the student's emotional and academic growth.

Korrie Allen, PsyD – Understanding the Twice-Exceptional Learner

Twice exceptional children often demonstrate performance that falls on both ends of the learning spectrum and represent a diverse group of individuals with a wide range of gifts, talents, and accompanying disabilities (Neihart, 2008; Trail, 2012). These learners tend to be misjudged, misunderstood, and mistreated in the educational setting, and often fall through the cracks because their gifted characteristics can mask the disability, or the disability can mask their gifted potential (Cline, 1999; Brody & Mills, 1997). The goal of this presentation is to review recent findings from the research and discuss practical implications for educators, parents, psychologists, and counselors.

Tracy Cross, PhD – Providing for the Positive Psychological Development of Students with Gifts and Talents

2020 Palmarium Award Recipient

In this session, I will discuss challenges to gifted students’ psychosocial functioning. The day-to-day lived experience of gifted students can include a variety of stressors unique to them. Peers, teachers, and family members may support or undermine their psychological functioning. Using developmental and motivation theory, I will discuss what the research on gifted students tells us about challenges to their happiness, mental health, and productivity. From there, I will explore options for the adults in their lives to provide the support they need.

Mark Hess, MEd - Yellow Labs, Grizzly Bears:  Social-Emotional Lives of Gifted Boys

Hess - Of Grizzly Bears and Yellow Labs The Social-Emotional Lives of Gifted Boys.pdf

Gifted boys, like all gifted children, are wrapped in intensities. How do we invite boys—who might lack the basic vocabulary of emotions--into social-emotional classroom lessons in a non-threatening way? How can we invite them to move beyond the stereotypical roles of masculine from our past and reach out with empathy and understanding to propel us into the future?  This session will examine the wonderful (and conflicted) world of "boyness" and suggest ways we can use humor, hands-on learning, mystery, and activities to engage boys in social-emotional lessons.  Each participant will receive a fully developed lesson plan.

Lindsey Reinert, EdD & Kimberly Schmidt, PhD  – Best Practices for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Learners in Gifted Education

Reinert and Schmidt - IDGE 2020 Presentation Building Bridges Best Practices for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Learners in Gifted Education.pdf

Culturally and linguistically diverse learners have inequitable access to gifted programming, curricula and services; therefore, they do not receive instruction that nurtures their learning talents, culture, and emergent bilingualism. Siegle and colleagues report (2016) that “students from culturally, linguistically, and economically diverse communities represent disproportionately low numbers of students scoring at the highest levels of achievement, rendering concerns that students in today’s schools are potentially being “intellectually barred” from achieving their obvious, emergent, and latent talents and abilities.” (p. 105) Because of this divide, we argue that giftedness programming and identification must also include culturally responsive curricula, build from language strengths and needs of students, and provide access to gifted programming that includes enriched curriculum, cluster groups, differentiated learning experiences, critical thinking. Community-based projects are culturally responsive building from Freire’s conceptions of problem-posing that encourage students to explore the problems, concerns, and needs of their communities through inquiry-based approaches in small groups.

Debra Maldonado, MA & Darrell Trujillo, MAT - Underrepresentation of Minority Gifted Students within the Public School System

Trujillo Maldonado - DU Presentation.pdf

One of the goals is to advocate for minority students who are underrepresented and identified in gifted education. In order to provide all students with an equitable education, we need to recognize culturally diverse students who are underrepresented. Another goal is to educate parents on the importance of giftedness of their child and what that means including the support systems that are available to them. Finally, the last goal, is to help educators be more aware of the underlying biases that often prevent them from identifying minority gifted students.

Paul Viskanta, MA – Serving Gifted & Talented GLBTQ+ Students: Supporting CO/CA/NJ/IL Legislation

Viskanta - Serving Gifted & Talented GLBTQ+ Students Supporting COCANJIL Legislation.pdf

Viskanta - Gifted GLBTQ - Handout.pdf

This workshop will focus on this special population by exploring the similarities and differences in each of the states’ (CO/CA/NJ/IL) legislation. We will then review the research regarding how to support this population from a lens of gifted and talented education. Finally, we will collectively study several of the most prominent curricular resources currently available for educators to satisfy the different legislative requirements, then determine strategies to specifically differentiate the content for gifted and talented students. The study of curricular resources will identify specific areas of opportunity, so as to “Impact the Future,” as more states mandate curriculum that is inclusive of the GLBTQ+ population and its accomplishments.

Anna Armitage, MA – Increasing Opportunity: Integration of Choice for All

James T. Webb Influence Scholar

This poster will provide examples of strategies to support secondary teachers in increasing integration of choice in their classrooms.

Laura Boroughf, MA - Creating Relevant Curriculum Through Current Events in the Secondary Classroom

Boroughf - Poster.pdf

Using current events to connect students to the curriculum. This poster will show how to make deeper meaning with the content. Websites, resources and lesson ideas will be shared.

Katie Coggin, MA – English Language Proficiency and General Intellectual Ability: Is there a correlation?

Coggin - Poster.pdf

This presentation would present research findings from my doctoral research proposal. This research will use a quantitative correlational design to investigate the relationship among English language proficiency and general intellectual ability of English language learners for identification in gifted programs. This will be done by correlating test results from ACCESS, a measure of English language proficiency, and the Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test (NNAT), a test of general intellectual ability commonly used in gifted identification.

Clare Hammoor, EdD & Heather Mock, MA - Engaging Documentation: Verbatim and Reflective Practices

Poster - Hammoor and Mock - Engaging Documentation Verbatim and Reflective Practices.pdf

Many schools share frequent documentation of children with families and the larger community. These photos and blurbs form the basis of parents’ understanding of their children’s day-to-day activities. They also support our students as they articulate their experiences and learning.

This poster is particularly interested in discovering ways in which this practice can expand beyond the scope of photographs and adult-written notes and into the voices and actions of young people. By sharing more complicated and engaging documentation of children’s projects, relationships and interactions, we can more clearly identify and support talent in our young people.

Joi Lin, MS – Educational Experiences of Gifted Graduate Students Studying Gifted Education

Poster - Lin - Educational Experiences of Gifted Graduate Students Studying Gifted Education.pdf

James T. Webb Influence Scholar

This poster will share a horizon of quotes of gifted graduate students studying gifted education related to their educational experiences in elementary school, secondary school, and higher education. A convenience sample of eight graduate students were interviewed as part of a phenomenological research study.

Stephanie Peralta, MA – Curriculum Impact for Early Childhood Gifted Students of Color

Poster - Peralta - Curriculum Impact for Early Childhood Gifted Students of Color.pdf

James T. Webb Influence Scholar

Ms. Peralta, MA, has chosen to display the potential impact of curriculum usage in general education classrooms for early childhood gifted students of color. Three mechanisms are used to understand what is currently happening in the classroom and the comparison to vital current literature.

Sydney Slifka, MA – Preparing Preservice Teachers for Working with Gifted Students

What research has explored the preparation of preservice teachers teaching gifted students? This literature review reflects upon current trends in academic research on preservice teachers' preparedness for working with gifted students. Current areas of need and recommendations for impacting the fields of gifted education and teacher preparation will also be identified.