The Sky is Not the Limit

 How are we meeting the needs of all of our students in the classroom? So often, the consideration of “advanced learner” is one that brings to mind another word: more. More challenging work, more difficult work, and more time consuming work whose goal may be advancing the intellectual ability of that particular learner. While much can be said in research about the acceleration of students according to their intellectual abilities, much can also be said about the power of enrichment for high ability learners.

For students who have been identified as advanced, gifted, and/or talented in particular areas of study, it is often a natural tendency to aspire to advance their abilities in a manner that can easily be documented and followed by teachers, parents, and administrators. However, in that last sentence, there may be someone who is left out. In addition, does the documentation of abilities in a statistical and logistical manner truly equal success for the child? What does this accumulation of knowledge at a faster rate, without a defined reason, other than acceleration, truly aspire to, for the young person? The student and their personal role in their classroom work, endeavors, and what they choose to pursue may actually have an adverse effect on the goals that the teachers, parents, and administrators are trying to achieve if the primary goal for the adults is acceleration. Acknowledging and then allowing the student’s perspective on prospects for enrichment that take into consideration their interests, learning styles, and preferred modes of expression create self-efficacious opportunities for young people to engage in self-discovery, challenging ideas, and new concepts that may be of interest to them.

Differentiation and Enrichment These are two powerful words in education today.
How can we best use these words and more precisely how can we best use the true meaning of these words within our classrooms, and, for each and every one of our students? In addition, how can we infuse enrichment into our classes so as to provide differentiation for each of our students?
These are the questions that can be answered with great joy by each teacher who asks them. With a discovery of each educator’s own individual interests, talents, and gifts as a means to recognize and empower their own individuality, that teacher begins a journey. The curriculum with which the teacher is provided is a base from which this journey begins.

Also read: Why is Blended Learning a perfect match for Inclusive Education? Each child has their own interpretation of what is learned in a classroom, even if the same curriculum is taught to all children in a challenging and precise manner. Regardless of the curriculum’s main objective, the experiences, interests, and social-emotional lives of the students who learn it will each walk away with different interpretations, however slight they may be. For each child, infusion of enrichment and differentiation based on interests, learning styles, and preferred modes of expression as well as ownership of what is learned and allowance to form and share new ideas becomes the inspiration for creation within and outside of the classroom.

The power of this inspiration and creation is what will transform our world. The leaders, artists, scientists, musicians, mathematicians, singers, songwriters, naturalists, doctors, peacemakers, and everything else one can think of, will arise from the classrooms that we create, today.

For whom are we creating enrichment?
For whom are we differentiating?
For whom are we helping to define and understand the best and most beautiful elements of self?
That individual is each and every child who we meet when we utilize the tools of the Schoolwide Enrichment Model.

When we offer the opportunity for young people to discover their gifts and talents, interests, learning styles, and preferred modes of expression, each of them has the opportunity to discover who they are, and who they can become.

Once children are made aware of these pieces of themselves, and are then given the opportunities, through the SEM?s infusion of enrichment into the regular classroom, the commencement of real, authentic, and personalized learning begins.

As Dr. Renzulli explains, it is important to “inject enrichment activities into any and all regular curriculum topics. When it comes to “the rules,” Dr. Renzulli suggest applying as many of the possible, as follows:

1. There is not always a single, predetermined, correct answer.
2. School and class is something kids do rather than sit and listen.
3. School and class is something that is fun for most kids.
4. School and class has various levels of challenge to which interested students can escalate.


5. Type I opportunities offer students a chance to see beyond the curriculum and discover something within it that appeals to their own interests, learning styles, and preferred modes of expression. A Type I provides experiences and activities that are purposefully designed to expose students to a wide variety of disciplines, topics, issues, occupations, hobbies, persons, places, and events not normally covered in the regular curriculum.
   
   Here is where differentiation finds each child. The teacher, who now becomes the facilitator, can step aside, and the student can become the “practicing professional.” From the curriculum, the student discovers his interest and dives into that interest so as to learn more, utilizing Dr. Joseph Renzulli’s Type II Taxonomy of Cognitive and Affective Processes:
   
   
   

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