How can we?

In my class this week, we had the question posed: "How can you better meet the needs of your GT students, especially those from low-income and minority backgrounds?" This is so hard! We can't control what happens once they leave the school building, but we can control what we do and how we reach them. Here's my response...what's yours? "Students with low-income and minority backgrounds often have some gaps in their learning, at no fault of their own. "For students who come from backgrounds of poverty, the role of individuals who take a special interest is central to helping them keep their dream of a better life alive. Sometimes it is a family member, but many times it is also an educator who sees a spark and encourages its ignition." (VanTassel-Baska & Little, 2017, pg 52-53) With this being said, our role as the teacher is even more important for these students! We need to see that "spark" and try to find ways to help them light it to ignite their own learning passion. One lesson idea could be "Who is Missing from Our Library," where students research and keep track of different authors and/or illustrators and see if they can find a population who may be under-represented. This is a real-world based, hands-on application, where they can use different modes to display their findings based on their individual (or group's) learning, as is the lesson example found on page 54. Both lessons also support the Simplified Social Information Processing Model, where "appropriate" teaching strategies for these lessons include: student research and reflection aspects. They also provide students the use of a variety of formats for student products that emphasizes self-knowledge. We have to keep in mind that faster learning is NOT always the goal, although some students will need to progress more quickly, others will need more advanced materials or additional guidance. These both use parts of the School-Based Psychosocial Curriculum Model, found in Chapter 17 of our textbook. They also support the Integrated Curriculum Model, found in Chapter 3. For students from low-income and minority backgrounds, the ICM is flexible enough to accommodate a curriculum tailoring process these students need to make curriculum more appropriate to their characterological profiles. The Social Studies portion of ICM aids critical thinking and promotes tolerance to understanding of diversity. In the Science units of ICM, students come to see the complexity of the world through problem-based learning. In the Math units of ICM, students encounter real-world problems. The ICM encourages safe risk-taking, discussion in small collaborative groups, group research, concept mapping, and metacognitive strategies, all of which reflect the research-based needs of this population for tailored curriculum. This all being said, it is important that we acknowledge and address the psychosocial piece of these students, while working towards finding differentiated methods to teacher these "standards" or goals that the students are trying to master."