Author: Vanessa Ryan Rendall
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Timing those questions
Have you ever wondered what the students in your class are thinking as you give instructions or content? Or do you just teach, ask a few questions at the end and then set students off to work? Have you ever considered re thinking how you ask questions to your students? Have you ever tried: “Do…
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Student directed learning
When your bright and gifted students and moving beyond the curriculum through achievement of the outcomes or even when they are moving within the outcomes, we need think more creatively as to how we can support them so they develop skills as future problem solvers and creative thinkers. Weekly self check Rather than continue on…
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Goal setting with bright and gifted students.
All students need to learn how to set goals and monitor them for growth (see https://education.nsw.gov.au/about-us/educational-data/cese/publications/practical-guides-for-educators/growth-goal-setting) But when it comes to gifted students we really need to take more time to ensure the goals they are setting are not only challenging them, they are also supporting them to reach these goals. Many of our gifted…
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Finding your child’s gift
Have you ever wondered if your child is gifted? Perhaps they taught themselves to read at an early age? Maybe they display empathy towards others beyond their years? Some gifted children can manipulate numbers ten years before their age peers. Being gifted can be seen in many different ways and although my blog has a…
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Adding challenge to a passion project
Passion projects are a bit of a buzz word and can be lots of fun for students to take part in – they get to choose what they study and also how the present it. But are they learning? When we create passion projects we need to make sure that there is: Challenge Limited amount…
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Programming for challenge
When we start a new year or a new topic most teachers are lucky enough to be given a program from the year before to use. This can be fantastic as it saves time and also inspires ideas for the current year but there are many things we need to do before we use the…
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Encouraging creative thinking
All children need to be encouraged to think creatively but our gifted learners are able to really go beyond what we imagine the responses to be. Having a weekly prompt to encourage more than just creative writing helps with not only creative thinking but also problem solving, independent ideas, collaborative planning and working on ideas…
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Aussie STEM Stars Junior Fiction series
Wild Dingo Press have created three great books as part of a new series called Aussie STEM stars. The three first scientists in these books are Fiona Wood, Munjed Al Muderis and Georgia Ward Fear. Each book has also been written by a different Australian author. These books are an excellent addition to the literacy classroom and many…
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Higher Order Thinking: Changing perspective
You may have heard of the Kaplan model and possibly used it in the classroom so in this blog today I am going to outline a way I have easily used ‘Multiple perspectives’ Multiple Perspectives encourages students to think about a topic from various, specific points of view. This aspect of the Kaplan model adds…
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Adding Depth and Complexity to your writing program
Many teachers often look at this concept and worry that they will have to overhaul their whole program to make this happen – but never fear! You do not! As you peruse over the writing program you have, consider how: You can vary the types of text you expose the students to according to their…
Extend, Empower, Enrich 