Observations in a Gifted and Talented Classroom

OBSERVATIONS IN A GIFTED AND TALENTED CLASSROOM 1
Community Awareness Project: Observations in a Gifted and Talented Classroom
Katy Przybylski
Washington University in St. Louis

Abstract
In this observation report, I account two different instances of my own personal observation in a
3rd grade gifted and talented classroom. After a description of my observations and the
demographic of the school and community, I relate what I have observed in my observations to
current professional literature on the subject of gifted and talented students. Some of the items
that I focus on are students who are twice exceptional, the debate over early intervention, and the
difficulty of defining and assessing students with gifts and talents. Finally, I relate my
observations and analysis to my own future career as an educator and my own personal
philosophies.
Keywords: gifted and talented, twice exceptional, early intervention

Community Awareness Project: Observations in a Gifted and Talented Classroom
My Expectations Before Completing This Project
When we were first assigned the community awareness project, I knew that I wanted to
complete my observations at Flynn Park Elementary School where I have been working as a
teacher’s aide in one of the third grade classrooms all school year. On Wednesday afternoons,
some of the third graders retreat to a separate classroom to go to GATE—Flynn Park’s gifted and
talented education program. Because I had interacted with some of the third graders in a general
education setting, I was interested to see what they were like in the context of the gifted and
talented program. My goals and expectations were as follows:
1. Gain a more thorough knowledge of Flynn Park’s and Missouri’s specific requirements for
assessment for the gifted and talented programs by talking with Mrs. Lecours, the GATE
teacher.
2. Synthesize my own knowledge of the students I had been working with all year with my
new knowledge of their activities in GATE to determine my own opinion if special
programming for gifted and talented students is beneficial.
3. By seeing all of the gifted and talented students together in one room, I hope that I will be
able to more easily identify the academic, social, intellectual, and emotional
characteristics that are typical of students with gifts and talents.
4. I hope to observe the different teaching methods, classroom activities and behavior
management strategies that Mrs. Lecours uses in her classroom to gain a better
understanding of how the pedagogical practices differ from the general education
classroom to the classroom of students with gifts and talents.

5. In no way do I mean to undermine Mrs. Lecours’s teaching abilities, but I hope that I can
also use knowledge that I have gained this semester about students with gifts and talents
and other subjects such a best practices, LRE, ILPs, students who are twice exceptional to
identify specific areas of the classroom that I think could be improved in order to offer
the students the best educational experience possible. I like to think of my observations as
a realistic reading of one of our case studies, and I wish to apply my experience analyzing
those case studies to my observations.
Summary of Contextual Factors
It is a bit difficult to gather up information on contextual factors as a non-St. Louis
resident, to be completely honest. It seems that most teachers at Flynn Park already have a good
understanding of the community and district because they have been teaching and/or living there
for so long. Flynn Park is one of four elementary schools in the University City school district,
located in University City, just a few blocks northwest of WashU. I do not know much about
University City
In Mrs. Scola’s third grade class that I usually work in, there are 19 students, about 50%
African American, 40% Caucasian, and the remaining 10% are Latino or Asian American. In
talking to Mrs. Scola throughout the year, I learned from her that this racial breakdown is
indicative of the breakdown of the school as a whole—in general, the students are about 50%
African American and 50% Caucasian, Latino or Asian American. There are no students with
learning disabilities or IEPs in Mrs. Scola’s classroom, but Flynn Park does have separate
classrooms for students with learning disabilities, Autism, and speech and language disorders.
Mrs. Scola has also indicated that about 70% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch.

In the GATE classroom, there are 13 students from three different classrooms. There are
four boys and nine girls, which is interesting given that girls are typically underrepresented in
gifted and talented programs. However, there are only two African American children in that
classroom, and one Asian American; the other ten students are Caucasian. The classroom is
divided in half—one half contains tables where the students work, and the other half is a
relaxation and library area where the students do independent work. There are also computers in
the classroom that the students can work on, especially if they are typing a paper. The students’
chairs rest on tennis balls, which at first might serve some purpose, but upon reflection I believe
this is just for the ease of the students moving the chairs on the floor.
Summary and Description of All Activities I Completed
Observation 1, Wednesday April 15th
To begin my first observation, I talked to Mrs. Lecours about her experience with the
GATE program. She has been leading the program for twelve years at Flynn Park. She explained
to me the process by which students are identified and integrated into the GATE program. Each
grade level has a specific day that they attend the GATE program. In the first six weeks of each
school year, Mrs. Lecours uses an assessment and differentiation plan called KOI (Kingore
Observation Inventory) to push GATE practices into all the grade levels. Mrs. Lecours stated that
the KOI plan provides her with opportunities for enrichment activities in the classroom while
simultaneously allowing her to identify gifted and talented students through their observable
behavior. After the KOI push-ins, she begins her regular GATE programs. She told me that 3rd-
5th graders get GATE programming 2.5 hours/week, 1st and 2nd graders get 1 hour separate to

work on thinking skills and 1 hour together to work on projects, and kindergarteners get 1 hour
per week for thinking skills.
My first hour in the 3rd grade GATE classroom was spent observing the students as they
completed a math worksheet. The students were used to this routine—when they walked into the
classroom, they sat down and started working diligently on the worksheet in silence. The
worksheet that they were completing today focused on logic puzzles. The problems on the
worksheet, for example, were similar to:
At a restaurant downtown, Mr. Red, Mr. Blue, and Mr. White meet for lunch.
Under their coats they are all wearing either a red, blue, or white shirt. Mr. Blue
says, ‘Hey, did you all notice we are all wearing different colored shirts from our
names?’ The man wearing the white shirt says, ‘Wow, Mr. Blue, that's right!’ Can
you tell who is wearing what color shirt?
If a student raised their hand to ask a question, Mrs. Lecours would encourage them to attempt
the problem themselves. On this day, Mrs. Lecours checked the students’ work on an individual
basis. If she found a mistake, she told them which problem to take a second look at, and they
revised before having her check their work again. When students were finished with all of their
work, they were allowed to leave their seats to “relax” independently in another section of the
classroom with rugs, pillows, and rocking chairs. If the students were “relaxing” they had to be
reading a book of their choice—whether it was a book from home or one from Mrs. Lecours’s
library.
After all the students had completed their worksheets, Mrs. Lecours transitioned from
math to writing skills. On this particular day, the students were working on writing their own
mystery stories. Most students had written a first draft of their stories and now were in the

process of editing. In writing, they were encouraged to include a title page, table of context,
chapters, and dialogue. During writing time, I got a chance to work hands on with the students. I
sat down individually with a student and edited their papers for grammar and clarity errors. I
made sure to explain to the student why I was making the corrections I was so that they would
hopefully remember the grammar rules for their next time writing, especially if an adult wasn’t
present to edit their papers. I also tried to ensure that I gave each student positive reinforcement
on the things that they had done well in their writing processes.
Like I stated previously, in the 1st and 2nd grade GATE programs, their time is separated
into 1 hour for thinking skills and 1 hours for projects. In 3rd grade and beyond, these two
different aspects are all combined into their 2.5 hour session. In short, in my observations of the
3rd grade GATE class, the logic puzzle worksheet was their exercise in thinking skills, while the
mystery stories were their current class project.
Observation 2, Wednesday April 22nd
Most of the activities that I took part in during my second observation were quite similar
to what I saw during my first observation, because I did my observations in two subsequent
weeks. When I talked to Mrs. Lecours during my second observation, we spoke more about the
testing and assessment requirements that are given prior to a student’s entrance to the GATE
program. She told me there are three components to securing a students position in the GATE
program: teacher recommendation, achievement test scores, and intelligence test scores. She
stated that GATE screening occurs at the end of every year and also that the state of Missouri
gives Flynn Park a choice of the tests they choose to use. Unfortunately, I don’t recall the exact

tests she stated that they use at Flynn Park, but I do recall that there were several different
components to the test, including a creativity aspect.
The math worksheet that the students completed this week was slightly different than last
week’s worksheet—it focused on multiple operations. For example, one of the questions on the
worksheet was:
Manuel filled 120 glasses of water for a race. Then, he put 15 cups on each tray.
After he had done that, he accidentally spilled 3 of the trays. How many trays did
he have after the spill?
Again, the students worked independently on the worksheet. Instead of checking the students’
work on an individual basis, however, the class went over the problems verbally together. I
believe that Mrs. Lecours made this decision because this lesson seemed a bit easier for the
students, so Mrs. Lecours didn’t feel the need to treat each student with individual attention.
After math, the students transitioned to reading, where they continued to work on their
mystery stories. Mrs. Lecours began the lesson by teaching the students how to format, print, and
cut out the stories so that they would fit in the hardcover books they would be making and
decorating. The writing time was spent almost exactly as the last class—I edited students’ first or
second drafts, with an emphasis on formatting quotation marks and how to properly incorporate
dialogue into a story.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my time in the GATE classroom. The activities that the
students participated in were engaging and thought provoking. Not only did it help me
understand the students that I typically work with in the general education classroom in third
grade, but it gave me a clear context to understand many concepts related to gifted and talented
students.

Personal Reflection of Completed Activities
One of the most valuable experiences for me during my observations in the GATE
classroom was being able to observe students who were considered to be twice exceptional. One
student, whom I shall call Maddy for the sake of privacy, Mrs. Lecours thought to have
Asperger’s syndrome. Maddy was not officially diagnosed with Asperger’s, but she does exhibit
some of the common behaviors associated with Asperger’s. In her article outlining the
differences between Asperger’s and giftedness, Cindy Little discusses the shared behaviors of
the two conditions, including advanced vocabulary, excellent memory, and being socially
introverted (2002, pg. 59). One characteristic that Little identifies as a common trait of
Asperger’s is a “pedantic or bookish way of speaking” (pg. 60). I noticed this manner of
speaking when I discussed Maddy’s mystery story with her. When I asked her if her story needed
editing, she told me that her story was “complete and finished to the expectations of the given
project.” I was impressed with her tone and vocabulary for a girl of her age. She continued to
talk about the type of rocks she included in her story in great detail. This intense focus on one
particular subject is also characteristic of students with Asperger’s.
Another student, whom I shall call Thomas, was on the Autism spectrum, and was also
considered gifted. Thomas qualified for special services through IDEA, and was provided with
an aid for all of his classes, including his time in GATE. Mrs. Lecours told me that while
Thomas is a very bright student with a high level of intelligence, he exhibits frequent behavioral
issues such as outbursts that distract the entire classroom. Thomas’s aid really focused on
keeping Thomas on task and providing him with the attention that he sought for through his
outbursts.

Doing my observations in the Flynn Park gifted and talented program was particularly
interesting for me because GATE services begin at the kindergarten level, whereas most gifted
and talented programs do not begin until later in high school. When I questioned Mrs. Lecours
on this, she stated that the kindergarten programming only began about eight years ago, and up
until then, GATE was not introduced until the third grade level. In recent professional literature,
there has been much debate over early intervention for gifted and talented students. Advocates
for early intervention argue that it offers greater developmental benefits for gifted and talented
students who might not otherwise be challenged enough in a general education classroom
(Friend 2011, pg. 484). Advocates also suggest that loneliness could be more prevalent in
younger students with high abilities, as they have fewer students their age that share their same
abilities. Opponents of early intervention focus on the idea that all children would benefit from
an enriched early childhood program. Mrs. Lecours suggested that she has tried to mitigate these
two viewpoints by utilizing the KOI system to push into all of the classrooms for the first six
weeks of school, which does allow all children to experience an enriched early childhood
program. She said she was indeed quite torn herself whether she supported or opposed early
intervention, which proved to me what a point of contention it could be.
One characteristic of giftedness that really stuck out to me in my observations was their
preference for independent work. The students had no complaints about their math worksheets,
and I was extremely impressed with how focused all of them seemed on their work, especially in
comparison to the chattiness of the general education 3rd grade classroom. I related their
independent reading after the completion of their assignments to the case study we read about
Carolyn, who was exhibiting disruptive behavior until she was allowed to read books after she

had finished her work. I also think that this system of “utilizing your time wisely” incentivizes
the other students to finish their work so that they, too, can read in their free time.
I related the logic puzzles and the math problems with multiple operations that the students
did in class with Bloom’s taxonomy. The work that the students completed in these worksheets
transcends above the basic “remembering” of information. Logic puzzles and multiple steps
require higher-level thinking. For example, when the students did the logic puzzle on T-shirt
colors, they were expected to make a chart and use deductive reasoning to find out the answer to
the problem. To me, this kind of thinking combines three of Bloom’s terms—evaluating,
analyzing, and applying. The fact that the students were able to utilize different intelligence
skills, to me, really showcased their giftedness.
Impact on My Philosophy and Future Career
Getting to see first hand a gifted and talented classroom made me realize exactly what
difficult issues special education and gifted teachers have to face. I think many people assume
that gifted teachers have an easy job because they get to teach the “smart kids” all day. However,
students who are gifted present their own challenges, especially because students can be gifted in
many different ways. It sounds fairly obvious, but one of my biggest take aways from this project
is keeping in mind the notion of multiple intelligences. Assessments for gifted and talented
programs include assessments of a student’s creativity—something that might seem out of the
box for an “intelligence test.” While one student might excel in science experiments, they might
consequently suffer in the area of creative writing. Because of this, it is difficult to challenge
students in elementary school all to the same level. In high school, students can benefit from
having a different teacher for each class and having the option of taking “advanced” classes for
some subjects and not others, but in elementary school, this is not an option. This makes me

wonder, however, if elementary school could look more like high school with a clear division of
subjects. I am fortunate that my ultimate plan is to teach at a secondary or post-secondary
institution where subjects will likely be separated, where it will be easier, hopefully, to target and
isolate the different types of intelligence present in students.
As I stated previously in my pre-observation goals, I do not mean to undermine Mrs.
Lecours as a teacher. Seeing her instructional strategies, especially specific tactics like
independent reading or focusing on thinking skills, aligned very well with the exemplar case
studies we have read and the best practices we have discussed. However, being a student so
immersed in the language of best practice and the ethics of special education, I was able to
identity some areas of improvement that I will carry with me to my future teaching career. For
example, Mrs. Lecours discussed with me how she thought Maddy might have Asperger’s. She
had observed her in class and clearly had examples of what made her suspect that Maddy might
be twice exceptional. In Little’s 2002 article about Asperger’s and giftedness, she explicitly
states that, “accurate diagnosis of Asperger’s in gifted children requires the participation of an
experienced, interdisciplinary team” (pg. 61). In my future of education, I shall endeavor to try to
report any behavior that I feel could be indicative of a mental difference with one of my students
to a special education teacher or one of the school professionals so that the student can be
assessed, just in case. Something that we have stressed all year in class is the importance of early
intervention, and I believe especially if the student displays characteristics indicative of a
particular behavior, it is imperative to advocate on that student’s behalf, rather than passively
dismissing the behavior.
One thing that I questioned in my observation had to do with Thomas, the other twice
exceptional student on the Autism spectrum. When I spoke with Mrs. Lecours about Thomas,

she told me that Thomas’s aid was actually not a certified teacher, but rather, one of the school’s
building managers. She continued to explain that Thomas had this kind of an aid because during
his IEP meetings, his mother expressed that she did not want Thomas to have an aid. However,
Thomas’s teachers felt that he needed an aid to successfully stay on task in school, and without
an aid, he would be disruptive. The IEP team came to a compromise, then, that Thomas would
receive a full-time aid, but this aid would not be anyone associated with special education, but
rather, just someone to simply put Thomas back on task if he required. I didn’t inquire with Mrs.
Lecours into how Thomas’s mother felt about this accommodation, but from my knowledge of
reading case studies all year, I can imagine that she’s not too happy with the accommodation. In
this instance, I am very intrigued to see what that IEP meeting would have looked like. From
this, I hope to always remind myself of the importance of parent-teacher communication and
collaboration in the student’s home and academic life. It is sometimes easy, I feel, to over
accommodate for a student by giving them an aid to try to eliminate the distraction they are
causing in the classroom. In this situation, I believe it is best practice to try to accommodate the
mother’s wishes by trying other methods rather than an aid for Thomas. If these methods then
failed, I believe another meeting of the team should be held to discuss Thomas’s behavior
without the aid to explain to his mother why his teachers feels he needs someone to keep him on
task. Again, I freely admit that I do not know everything about this situation, but from the details
that I did hear about Thomas and his aid, I have learned the importance of being flexible to
trying different accommodations for students.
The final idea that I took away from this experience that I will apply to my own
philosophy of teaching is to try to always remember what it is like to be a learner, to never get so
involved in my own subject so I feel so removed from how a young mind perceives the subject,

and to always allow for questions. When students in the GATE classroom had a question about
their math worksheets, Mrs. Lecours encouraged them to just continue and try their best. While
this sort of teaching practice worked for her and her students did well because they were forced
to try to problem solve, I would never like to create an environment where questions feel
unwelcome, especially for gifted and talented students. In a post-secondary environment,
questions are encouraged and, in my opinion, are the best ways to really learn and understand a
subject. I wish to always welcome questions, to inspire students to raise questions about the
things they don’t understand and would like to challenge, and to treat each student’s confusion
with enthusiasm. As an aspiring teacher, the biggest thing that I have learned in my educational
studies thus far is that students are human beings and need to be treated as such, no matter their
exceptionalities or differences. If students are treated with respect, if a positive classroom
environment is first created by myself as a teacher, I will have a much easier time reaching out to
my students both academically and personally than if I were to constantly assert my authority
over them.

References
Friend, M. (2012). Students Who Are Gifted and Talented. In Special education: Contemporary
Perspectives for School Professionals (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson/A and B.
Little, C. (2002). Which is it? Asperger's Syndrome or Giftedness? Defining the Difference.
Gifted Child Today, 25(1), 58-64. Retrieved April 26, 2015, from
http://gct.sagepub.com/content/25/1/58.short

Observations in a Gifted and Talented Classroom

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