“The satogy | usd wae: Ihaped me ierove Strategy Debriefing Sheet Challenging Students Who Are High Achieving tudents who are regularly high achieving in mathematics often rave intellectual stimulation. Finding or designing just the right Tevel of challenge that is neither too easy, nor beyond their grasp car be challenging for teachers. These students often react emotionally when they are bored with easy work, or they disengage when work is #00 inech of a reach, When the work is right at their challenge level, they nhibit an almost perceptible sense of enjoyment in their engagement Their body language or comments offer valuable feedback that teachers tan use to make ietructional changes and inform future planning Gevisions. Eoventially, students’ responses to the work they are given. provide valuable guidance, which is important to use asa gauge since Tese empirical research on teaching this population exists than for hers. The research that does exist (Tieso, 2005) suggests that two fread factors should be kept in mind when planning for the students: ‘exemptions and higher order thinking, ‘One caveat to beat in mind that I often hear from practitioners that is true for this chapter, as well as for the previous chapter, is that the Strategies mentioned in both of these chapters are often good for all students, 107EXEMPTIONS BASED ON PRIOR KNOWLEDGE OR PACE OF LEARNING ‘Two major reasons exist as to why students should be allowed to be ‘exempt from completing all of the regular work assigned to the entire lass. First, when formative assessments reveal a student has alzeady ‘mastered certain information, then that student should be exempt from having to complete some or all of the practice material. Second, although some students may not have been exposed to certain math content before and so will not recognize it on preassessments, they Jeam at an accelerated pace. They master new material far more quickly than do their peers and require fewer repetitions of practice problems to achieve this. Therefore, they should also be exempt fom rogular amounts of practice Yet, meeting the needs of the second group requires greater flexibility fon the part of the teacher because it requires shifing gears, often mid. Jesson, when it becomes apparent that some have mastered the topic and soare ready to move ahead more quickly than others. Ideally, teachers will ‘have predicted this and will have alternate activites prepared. However, at times this can happen unexpectedly. For that reason it can be help 10 keep emergency spare folder of challenges on hand to be used rarely. ‘These challenges should never be extea work but should instend replace ‘work that is unnecessary. When students clearly master a concept after doing half the required practice, they can do the challenges in place of the tunnecessary practice. Challenges should alwaysbe viewed as replacements and not as extra work Dale Seymour publishes excellent mathematical challenge materials that can be used for this purpose. The joumal Mathematics Teaching in the Middle Schoo! also often publishes excellent challenges that can be copied and saved. In addition, these students may participate in math ‘competitions, and so making challenge problems from resources such ‘6 "Math Counts” or “Math Olympiads” available to them can be helpful as well. However, programs for math talented students are often criticized for merely offering such types of ancillary enrichment. More substantial enrichment with a scope and sequence that is tied ‘more closely to the curricular topic being taught to the full class is preferable and will be described Iater in this chapter. The above Suggestions are merely for those unanticipated times when students appear disengaged while having to wait for peers to master material that they have already mastered ‘Strategies for Instant Enrichment ‘As mentioned, teachers can keep folders with entiching activities on hand for unexpected times when some students are ready to move fon and others are not. In addition, and more strongly recommended, teachers can offer instant enrichment through asking students who have completed their work early the following kinds of questions related to the current work: + Can you solve this problem in another a9? . {Design and explain an alleratve new algorithm for solving this ron «Bote sveral ways to slve his then defend which she mont efficient and why. Time pt of imine oss an be pst nn, Yanan aun “Tn dome aces can meri hse Upton a te dom alt is os en king Be Ei roasts koowing whee ano By ea it for themselves. Curriculum Compacting hea seg for exempting sade fom regular practice i le cesta iawn Seca ial compact on posrsnens ace ner Sits ay sane tens ny coma pins jet pbs ena op wen gy pope also often the most dificult problems as well It isa constant judgment Sn awrne he ca cou of pce ech sae ese inthe omg rat sta acho Seen amount they nea fers a tens who oe ath le Te hemogunn gp, cs ec beware ft det an Sse ppen ran eect et te ete itm iy ve some ana fl Atratey,whes che ten rts rs over ey ‘Sint oh fy tow sens todo fever Pele Fom reo le vhdetomake nts cnstdety paper and none fade ‘ebicwen doing this, because tea be easy to forget which stadents Were to vodo wat Codesigned Learning Contracts ‘When preasssments eves hata student as already mast the sjoiy or ne unt muy sometimes be belo deig leering “Rata ith hat student (Gee Figure 1), These work wel with students ‘who are exceptionally well directed ® Students can complete these at C Some, afer taking a reassessment. They an then come in and se the teaches before or fer school o at nother convenient time we to discuss the plan. The teacher may attach a list of challenges and project coordinate with the uni topic forthe student to reference when proposing alternative work to do. es (3 xm! (a \ 6) .a Parallel-Related Curriculum i “a a ) @ Another option for stud have already mastered nit amie opti lenis ty comet @) is for them to work an a parallel related curricular topic during the ‘option works better for students who benefit from more structure. On the ‘reassessment items from this parallel curriculum ean also be assessed to ‘ensure that students don’t already know the parallel curricular topic as well For example the following absolute value questions were placed atthe end of integers preassessment. Several ofthe students who performed well on the presssesment missed these questions, so they worked on these types of problems in place ofthe regular class materal that their preassessments had Shown they had already mastored (see Figure 52). Math Learning Contract, ‘Summary ot what he peotsesomnt haw Have wasters: CLES Integers Parallel Curriculum Determine wheter each statements wut. hiya reasonableness of your eiion or each 1 0 Wx>o aa y0.then at y <0 ace Dandy-<0,thon x= y>0 Wace andy=0.tane + y>0 Wa y.then t= y>0 Wa> thane y>0 7. Wx Dandy <0 thenx— ¥>0 8 WxO,thon|x+ >0 8. Wx 0, thon {3 poste 10, W-xaho y ve naga ntopars. then x + yis negate 1, and ya postive mages, en e+ = DA = 12 axon yor logs, and + 2 > y+ 2, thon > Uf 12 an yaw ntgars and — <8 yen I< f 1. a) + 91 a postive tes, than al > OPPORTUNITIES FOR HIGHER ORDER MATH Students who complete work early because preassessments show they already know the material or because they master it more quickly than their peers should use their freed up time to engage in higher order math allenges that are not viewed as extra work, but as replacement or