Encouragement to excellence

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  Students get own-time rewards on demonstration of high achievement. This takes the form of individual projects in accordance with an agreed teacher-student contract.
  

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  Goals are set to a high, perhaps professional standard.
  
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  Mentors are appointed.
  
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  Creative abilities are nurtured.
  
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  Projects are completed and work is monitored.
  

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Differentiation remains important in planning for the full Ability Range, thus planning appropriate lesson for most able in the context of a mixed ability group can be done in different ways. The approach will depend on the age of pupils, the subject and teacher. for instance there are two following models/approaches used by different teachers:

1. 
   MUST SHOULD COULD Must (Absolutely necessary) Should (Desirable for whole class) Could (More open activities)
   

2. 
   CORE PLUS ENHANCEMENT
   

task, where higher

level of performance

required

One intervention strategy for talented and gifted pupils is to offer pupils an enriched curriculum, either within or beyond the classroom. With the aim of providing pupils with interesting and meaningful experiences, which motivates their learning and stretch their capabilities there is a need to enrich the curriculum. such enrichment should broaden and deepen the learning experience. Pupils should be encouraged to think and expand their horizons, they should be motivated to want to do more. Thus, according to Graeme Kent (1996, p. 44), "the enrichment process should help the able children's fluency, enabling them to respond in different ways and find different solutions. It should develop the flexibility of the children, helping them to experiment with ideas, situations and techniques. It should provide them with opportunities for originality, using their imaginations. It should lead children to elaboration, adding extra ideas to their responses and using and adapting the ideas of others".

1. 
   Make sure that work for gifted and talented students differs in quality, not quantity - they should not have to do more work than others.
   

2. 
   Avoid what Joan Freeman calls The Three Times Problem - explaining a task to the whole class, then again for those who were not listening and again just to be on the safe side - by which time many able students will have switched off. Direct additional explanations to those who need it and allow the most able to get on.
   

3. 
   Use Personalized homework tasks to challenge students who need more stimulations or are nervous of working on different assignments in class.
   

4. 
   Keep a box of fun thinking puzzles in the corner of the primary classroom for students who finish very early (Pupils will need some kind of feedback/interest from the teacher or they may not do them)
   

5. 
   Have a box of quick subject-specific thinking activities for use at the end of a lesson or when one group finishes before the rest. Some departments have graded activities to encourage sudents to stretch themselves by moving through levels.
   

6. 
   Build up a list of suitable websites for students wishing to stretch topic in greater depth. The school librarian may be able to help.
   

7. 
   Use able students to record key points on the board during discussion sessions.
   
8. 
   At the beginning of the lesson ask a group of able students to prepare the plenary session.
   
9. 
   Where edited texts are used, give the most able students access to the full version.
   

10. 
    Occasionally, limit the number of words able students can use to get across a particular idea. This forces them to use language very accurately.
    

11. 
    Use students' gifts or talents in other arias to enhance classroom learning. For example, ask the creative lyricist to create a rap o a topic being covered in a subject or the keen design technology student to model a particular landform for geography.
    

12. 
    Have fun.
    

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Formative assessment

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  Creating a classroom culture in which all involved see ability as incremental rather than fixed.
  

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  Involving pupils in planning both appropriately pitched content and meaningful context.
  

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  Clarifying learning objectives and establishing pupil-generated and pupil-owned success criteria.
  

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  Enabling and planning effective classroom dialogic talk and worthwhile questioning.
  

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  Involving pupils in analysis discussion about what excellence consists of – not just the meeting of success criteria, but how to best meet them.
  

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  Enabling students to be effective self- and peer-evaluators.
  

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  Establishing continual opportunities for timely review and feedback from teachers and pupils, focusing on recognition of success and improvement needs, and provision of time to act on that feedback.