Meeting the Needs of Gifted Readers

Students in the same grade are reading and thinking at a wide-range of levels. They enter a grade with different strengths, weaknesses, and abilities, and educators face the challenge of reaching each individual student and helping them show growth. This research focuses on the student population that identifies as gifted in reading. It examines why this student group is commonly unchallenged in a regular education classroom and, thus, why these students may go one whole school year with showing little to no growth in their reading level. After revealing a clear explanation of why and how this is a problem, this research investigates effective strategies for leading gifted readers to reach their potential and show growth in their reading scores. These results demonstrate the wide range of reading achievement in schools, the challenges that brings forth for educators and students, and key methods for solving the issue. Purpose The purpose of my research is to learn strategies for helping students that are gifted in reading show growth in a school year. The school that I teach at is a smaller school with small class sizes. English Language Arts classes are not leveled, so all students are in a regular education classroom. Each class includes students that are reading at a variety of different levels. There are gifted readers, average readers, struggling readers, and students who have Individualized Education Plans or 504 Plans. There is always a group of students who are gifted in reading, and it can be difficult to reach these students while also meeting the needs of struggling readers who need more guidance and attention. Teachers tend to call on the gifted readers to take on a leadership role in the classroom, assist their classmates, and challenge their peers. Although this teaches these students positive life skills, they can become bored or frustrated from a lack of challenge in their own education. It can be overwhelming for teachers to 3 differentiate often enough to effective meet the needs of students at all levels, and gifted students are typically the first group to be put on the “back burner” because they often appear to be excelling in school. These students may be excelling, but excelling is not the same as growing. This research will provide an understanding of how gifted students can be challenged in a regular education classroom. Ultimately, the purpose is also to create a simple and effective plan to put into action in my own classroom in order to create positive change. Problem Statement A problem in our school is that most gifted readers in 8th grade English Language Arts do not show a growth in their reading level. At the beginning of each grading period (each nine weeks), English Language Arts teachers for grades five through eight give their students the Star Assessment. Star Reading is an online assessment program used to determine a student's overall reading level. It also shows the student’s strengths and weaknesses and provides strategies for improving their skills. We use the data from the Star Assessment at the beginning of the year to show us each student’s reading level. Then, throughout the rest of the year, we use the assessment to show us whether or not a student has grown and is showing improvement in their reading abilities. We hope to see growth considering we have spent nine weeks reading novels and other texts, working on reading comprehension, learning vocabulary, etc. My eighth grade students just took the assessment for the third time this school year. In the eighth grade, there are sixty-five students, and seventeen of them are gifted in reading. In the chart below are the Star Assessment scores these seventeen students received in August compared to the most recent scores in January. The students who showed growth are highlighted in green, and the students who showed a decrease are highlighted in red. Of the seventeen gifted readers in the eighth grade class, only five have shown growth in their reading skills from August to January. 4 Star Assessment Scores for Gifted Readers Student Star Score in August 2020 Star Score in January 2021 Student Star Score in August 2020 Star Score in January 2021 A J B K C L D M E N F O G P H Q I