States, districts, and educators continue to devote time and resources to overhauling curriculum and instruction so that it is aligned with the science of reading to ensure that all students gain the complex, vitally important skills involved in reading. Attention often appropriately turns to the needs of the far too many students who struggle or who have not yet mastered basic decoding or word recognition.
Yet equity demands that all students receive appropriate educational opportunities to grow and become capable, confident readers and communicators. What about students who are already reading at or beyond basic levels of proficiency? What of students who may or may not already be identified as “gifted”1 and who would benefit from differentiated instruction to ensure that they, too, maximize their potential? What does research tell us about how to best support these learners?
The relative lack of attention to these students’ needs may be due to the perception that the science of reading refers only to the role of phonics/phonemic awareness, instead of to how all five “big ideas” from the research (see diagram below) must be addressed if students are to become good readers. If students are already decoding, or “reading,” in this view, perhaps little more is needed than to provide them with free access to books, right?
Of course, oversimplifying what “reading” involves may coincide with not recognizing that students do learn differently, whether that’s qualitatively or more quickly or easily, with fewer repetitions or less direct instruction.
Science of Reading: Gifted and Talented Readers
The current federal definition of “gifted students,” which is located in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, states:
“Students, children, or youth 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.”
According to the US Department of Education, six percent of public school students are enrolled in gifted and talented programs. This is the current enrollment, which almost everyone agrees dramatically understates the number of students who need and deserve to be served.
The National Association for Gifted Children created a new definition for giftedness which may be more accurate and applicable to the work of schools:
“Gifted individuals demonstrate outstanding levels of aptitude, that’s exceptional ability to reason and learn or competence in the top 10% and in one or more domains . . . as individuals progress through childhood and adolescent achievement and high levels of motivation in the domain become the primary characteristics of giftedness.”2
According to Dr. Sally Reis of the Davidson Institute:
“This group of students has specialized needs involving specific differentiated reading strategies that are necessary to help them continue to progress in reading, both in comprehension as well as engagement.”3
What do we know about these “specialized needs?” In this post, we’ll look at just a few observations and conclusions from scientific research on what these “gifted” learners have in common and how that affects their instructional needs.
Some of these students may be easy to spot as “gifted” or “talented” (which is a slightly broader term) readers. According to the Renzulli Center for Creativity, Gifted Education and Talent Development, these students may share characteristics such as:
- Reading earlier than their peers
- Spending more time reading
- Reading a greater variety of literature, even into adulthood (Collins & Kortner, 1995; Halsted, 1990)
- Reading at least two grade levels above their chronological grade placement
- Demonstrating advanced understanding of language
- Having an expansive vocabulary
- Perceiving relationships between and among characters
- Grasping complex ideas (Catron & Wingengbach, 1986; Dooley, 1993; Levande, 1999)
- Having skills that are advanced in relation to their peers
- Possibly not profiting from conventional instruction in reading (Levande, 1999)
- Benefiting from diagnostically based instruction to ensure that their skills continually improve4
The first and fourth bullet points here are those that come most easily to the attention of parents and teachers. Students who learn to decode early and more easily tend to be identified through current assessments, and in some cases these abilities serve as a kind of de facto identification for giftedness.
Tragically, many other students are less easy to identify as gifted and often come to us with overlapping identifications within the educational system. These include:
- MLs—multilingual learners and students new to English
- Culturally diverse students
Also in this group are 2e and 3+ exceptional individuals, such as:
- Those on the autism spectrum
- Those who are dyslexic
- Those with ADHD, FDAS, and other developmental issues
These students are particularly likely to be under-identified for gifted programs or services.
“Did you know that according to research about half of the gifted students in this country go unidentified and unserved?”5James Webb, PhD
Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted Founder
Cognitive and neuroscience have only begun to explore the ways in which different groups of students identified as gifted may learn to read differently, initially or over time, than those in the general population or than other gifted students. Research in this area so far only gives us a glimpse of what we may come to understand over the next decade.
One research study concluded that there is significant overlap between what students who already read well do and what all students do when they read, suggesting that quantitative differences in processing may be most influential. This suggests the necessary differences in instruction may relate more to pacing or percentage of time devoted to each of the “five big ideas” of reading. According to the study, “our results suggest that reading expertise is the quantitative extreme of the same genetic and environmental factors that affect reading performance for normal readers.”6
Another intriguing study used fMRI to measure variation in individuals’ capacities to engage in higher-level reading comprehension. Part of its conclusion stated:
“The results from this experiment imply that the cortical regions are dynamically recruited in language comprehension as a function of the processing demands of a task. Individual differences in cognitive capacities were also associated with differences in recruitment and modulation of working memory and executive function regions, highlighting the overlapping computations in metaphor comprehension and general thinking and reasoning.“7
These and related technical work on the brain support the idea that students who learn the basics of decoding more quickly may be ready for higher-level questioning and instruction focused on aspects of reading comprehension and metacognitive and executive function activation. However there’s still much to be learned as research continues to connect pure science studies with applied curriculum planning and implementation.
Meeting the Needs of Gifted Students as Readers
Academic and educational research is more likely to offer actionable instructional suggestions, usually compiling multiple studies of various types and often reporting on what has worked for the author or the study participants.
Continuing for the moment with a focus on those gifted students who do learn to read more quickly or easily and who are ready for instruction and practice with more complex texts, deeper comprehension, and higher-level thinking, authors Laurie A. Sharp and Patricia Clemmer of Tarleton State University, for example, explain that:
“Since AGTLs (Academically Gifted and Talented Learners) are reading to learn, authentic reading instruction requires exposure to expository texts that foster exploration, curiosity, and wonderment with topics of interest (Dooley, 1993; Haslam- Odoardi, 2010). Authentic reading instruction for AGTLs must also include frequent interactions with literary texts that include strong characters, enriching language, complex and unpredictable plots with overlapping ideas, and rich use of literary devices. . . .”8
Patricia Wood provides an excellent summary in Gifted Child Today of what research suggests will most benefit gifted students in her influential paper, “Reading Instruction With Gifted and Talented Readers: A Series of Unfortunate Events or a Sequence Auspicious Results?”:9
All students need to be engaged and to develop higher levels of reading comprehension and critical thinking. However, gifted students may be particularly likely to fail to develop when they are not actively engaged in and challenged by their learning. Instructional approaches, such as Shared Inquiry™, that foreground student voice and choice, are even more essential for this population. When teachers understand how to nurture collaborative environments and gradually release responsibility for inquiry to students, gifted students gain much-needed, valuable communication and social and emotional benefits as well.
As Sharp and Clemmer point out, “Once learners are motivated, they are primed for engagement with frequent and varied opportunities to practice knowledge and skills. Motivation and engagement are derived from learning experiences that are inquiry-based, the inclusion of hands-on experiences intended to foster learners’ understanding through real-world applications, and demonstrating the ‘interconnectedness’ of content areas.” (Bricker, Rogowski, Hedt, & Rolfe, 2010, p. 37, emphasis added.)
Patricia Wood’s components of a reading program for gifted and talented readers.
“Through collaborative experiences, such as a book club, the classroom becomes a safe space for AGTLs to share struggles and provide encouragement for each other. A safe and supportive environment is essential for critical conversations, which work toward developing critical literacy among AGTLs. During critical conversations, AGTLs analyze a text by asking questions, formulating hypotheses, casting judgment, proposing solutions (Wood, 2008) and discussing how they see themselves in the text.” (Wood & Jocius, 2013, emphasis added.)10
Wood agrees, outlining the following program goals for reading instruction with gifted and talented readers:
- Expose students to challenging reading material
- Deepen reading comprehension skills
- Expand students’ metacognitive processes during reading
- Develop critical reading, including interpretation and analysis of text
- Foster an appreciation of diverse, multicultural literature across multiple genres
- Provide opportunities for group discussion of selected texts
- Encourage creative reading behaviors, such as writing and dramatic interpretation
- Promote motivation and enjoyment of reading through choice and self-selection of texts
Wood specifically cites Junior Great Books® as an example of high-quality text and an appropriate instructional approach:
“An excellent program that uses a discussion format is Junior Great Books (Great Books Foundation, 1992). The Junior Great Books program is designed to develop critical thinking and reading skills through the use of authentic literature. Its Shared Inquiry approach stimulates lively text discussion vis-à-vis open-ended questioning that challenges students to think critically about the reading assignment, develop their own interpretations, and support their ideas with evidence from the text.”11
Learn How Junior Great Books Can Help!
Every student should have the chance to hear, read, and engage in collaborative discussions of meaningful, complex texts. Every student deserves effective learning experiences that help them grow and develop. When educators use the science of reading to understand and differentiate learning, all students can fulfill their potential. When educators link the outstanding literature in Junior Great Books with the power of the Shared Inquiry method of learning, all students benefit from alignment with research-based practices to become truly great readers, thinkers, and communicators.
To learn more and discuss how to bring best practices in reading to all your students, get in touch with your Great Books K–12 partnership manager today!
Download these white papers for more information on Junior Great Books and specific student populations or learning requirements.
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Great Books Programs and Your Gifted Students
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Junior Great Books and the Science of Reading
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Social and Emotional Learning and the Shared Inquiry Method
Notes
- The term ”gifted” is generally used here as perhaps the most common way of referring to students who learn in ways that are quantitatively or qualitatively different, such that they benefit from differentiated support. States and schools may also commonly refer to these students as “high ability,” “academically gifted,” “advanced learners,” etc. See also the definitions offered later in this post.
- “Frequently Asked Questions About Gifted Education.” NAGC.
- “Challenging and Engaging Talented and Advanced Readers.” Dr. Sally Reis, Davidson Institute, Aug. 2022.
- “SEM-R and Talented Readers.” Joseph Renzulli, Renzulli Center for Creativity, Gifted Education, and Talent Development, NEAG School of Education, University of Connecticut.
- “50% of Gifted Students in the US are Never Identified and Go Unserved.” Dr. James Webb, TAGT On-Demand.
- Nature, nurture, and expertise. Plomin, R., Shakeshaft, N. G., McMillan, A. & Trzaskowski, M. NIH National Library of Medicine, 2014.
- “An fMRI investigation of analogical mapping in metaphor comprehension: the influence of context and individual cognitive capacities on processing demands.” Prat, C. S., Mason, R. A. & Just, M. A., NIH National Library of Medicine, 2012.
- “The Neglected Readers: Differentiating Instruction for Academically Gifted and Talented Learners.” 2015 Laurie A. Sharp & Patricia Clemmer, Tarleton State University, Stephenville, TX, 2015.
- “Reading Instruction with Gifted and Talented Readers.” Patricia Wood, Gifted Child Today, Summer 2008 • Vol 31, No. 3.
- Ibid.
- Ibid.
