Supporting the Gifted and Talented with Strength-Based Challenges

Problem-solving activities from Breakout EDU to engage today’s high-ability students on their journey to become tomorrow’s innovators and entrepreneurs.

The US Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights estimates 6% of public school students are enrolled in gifted and talented programs - a number likely to rise exponentially given evolving identification practices including universal screening. Without question, every student has unique interests and characteristics, but those identified as gifted or twice exceptional require a differentiated instructional approach to experience success. 

Gifted and talented learners, as defined by the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESSA) are those who:  

“Give evidence of high achievement capability in areas such as intellectual, creative, artistic, or leadership capacity, or in specific academic fields, and who need services and activities not ordinarily provided by the school in order to fully develop those capabilities.”

An ongoing challenge for educators is developing equitable processes to identify gifted students while also creating rigorous, problem-oriented learning activities to meet their needs. Teachers need the support of their administrative leadership team to provide them with accurate information, easy-to-implement resources, and relevant training to be successful. 

Highly capable students enter classrooms from every racial, ethnic, and cultural, and economic background. To support their academic growth while piquing interest in grade level learning standards, an investment in high-quality instructional resources designed to nurture their innate curiosity and strengths is essential. Both Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) call for teachers to recognize and address student learning differences while implementing lessons requiring students to apply higher-order thinking skills.

Twice Exceptional Learners

Twice-exceptional students (sometimes referred to as ‘2e’) are learners who qualify as both gifted with high capability in addition to having a diagnosed special need or disability as defined by federal or state criteria. 

Often, these students find it challenging to thrive within a traditional school environment emphasizing organization and participation. Twice exceptional learners can be highly creative, imaginative, and curious with strong problem solving abilities. Depending on the student, they may hold a wide variety of interests or one sole all encompassing interest. 

Because these students tend to have difficulty within traditional schooling structures, they are often mislabeled as having inconsistent academic performance. These children regularly display signs of frustration and experience difficulty with written expression. It’s easy to understand why these circumstances might hinder their excitement for school - as well as being detrimental to self-confidence and motivation. 

Game Design Studio from Breakout EDU gives teachers an opportunity to create standards-aligned games in a quick and easy platform. Within moments, they can create personalized learning challenges for gifted and twice exceptional learners. For example, let’s pretend there is a student who has a deep fascination with spies of the cold war era. Here is an example story line to pique their interest:

A rogue U.S. spy, G. McFly, decided that he wanted nothing else to do with the spy game and decided to start sharing top secret information with informants all over the world in an attempt to compromise the United States spy program as well as the head of the FBI, one J. Edgar Hoover. 

Contained within this box is the current hiding location of G. Mcfly... Can you solve the clues to find him before he shares more information with nefarious international spies?

The puzzles and locks themselves can be set to any difficulty necessitated by the learner to feel challenged, engaged, and successful - all while the student learns the content required by their age and current grade.

Teachers lead the way 

Without question, educators play a pivotal role in the lives of gifted children and their families. Their job is critical in helping children develop to their intellectual and academic potential. 

In addition to recognizing the traits of a gifted student, teachers also need to plan lessons with more depth and complexity to accommodate their learning journey.

It is a herculean task to differentiate instruction for children across the achievement spectrum to grow and learn each day. Strategies like acceleration, flexible grouping, and pull-out programming are a few ways to serve the gifted and twice-exceptional population of a classroom, but ultimately, any strategy selected requires an investment of time and research to cultivate engaging, diverse, challenging experiences for all.

Building and district-level leaders are in a position to help. Absent their support, teachers face an uphill task potentially leading to professional burnout and the associated retention implications. One simple, cost-effective support education leaders can invest in is a platform providing a wide variety of standards-aligned instructional activities to lean on. A tool like this protects a teacher's valuable time while ensuring student learning continually progresses in classrooms throughout the building and district. 

Breakout EDU’s customizable games can be played either virtually or as hands-on kits. Teachers select from a voluminous library of predesigned games aligned to the standards for each age and grade level. Understanding instructional time is valuable, our activities span anywhere from 10 minutes to a full traditional class period (~50 minutes). For the creative instructors on your faculty, our Game Design Studio with Adobe Express integration allows teachers to craft their own clues and locks to meet the needs of their unique student population.  

Strengths-based education for gifted and talented learners

Strengths-based education is a learner-centered approach to instruction supporting students as they learn to identify, share, and apply their unique skills. 

This approach is built on a foundation of research from fields such as social work, psychology, and business leadership. Approaching tasks with a strengths-based mindset helps students develop confidence, competence, and self efficacy. Likewise, students achieve the 3 goals of the National Association for Gifted Children for classroom instruction: enjoyment, engagement, and enthusiasm for learning. 

Enrichment models, such as strength-based education and problem-based learning, have been shown to improve student achievement, attendance, minimize disciplinary action, increase student and teacher engagement, and promote greater job satisfaction on the part of teachers. Education programs that place a premium value on creativity and joyful learning opportunities attract future teachers to the profession and graduate lifelong learners. 

If a school or district is considering moving towards a strengths-based, or enrichment, model of education, consider adding gamification to instruction that:

Breakout EDU checks each of those boxes. Give students the gift of agency and a deeper appreciation of their education by engaging them in a task that meets them where they are cognitively, emotionally, and academically. Grit and rigor are ingrained characteristics of Breakout EDU games. 

Conclusion

Ensuring equity and success in gifted and talented programs requires effort, but there are supports available. Begin with providing teachers and students access to challenging learning opportunities so that emerging talents may be recognized and further developed. Alongside that access comes a commitment to a strengths-based, talent-focused approach to intentionally address the diverse needs of an ever changing student population. 

Breakout EDU is a transformative experience for students - and a restorative one for teachers. Our nation and world needs people equipped and comfortable to think-outside-the box. We offer a variety of options to meet every need and budget (we are ESSA IV certified). 

From our Lock of the day (quick, single puzzle to warm up brains for learning) to full class period digital or hands-on games in every subject, grade, and age level - Breakout EDU is available for your students and teachers to make this the most exciting, engaging, thrilling school year yet!

Contact us today for a quick 15-minute demo to see how Breakout EDU projects and problem-based learning can boost student learning and catalyze teacher practice.