Distinguished Lecture Series 2007-08
Registration form (click here)
Date |
Lecture, Content Area, Grades, & Cost |
Presenter |
| September 26, 2007 | Administrators
Conference Cost: $135*, includes lunch 9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. This Conference will be held at the SMU-in-Legacy campus. |
Dr. Nicholas Colangelo, Keynote Speaker, University of Iowa |
| October 3, 2007 | Helping
Gifted Boys to Succeed in
School Cost: $115, includes continental breakfast 8:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. This Conference will be held at the main SMU campus. Parking rules and regulations for main campus. |
Dr. Terry Neu, Sacred Heart University |
| October 4, 2007 | 6th Annual Gifted Boys Conference This conference is full. Registration is closed. 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. This Conference will be held at the main SMU campus. Parking rules and regulations for main campus. |
Dr. Terry Neu, Sacred Heart University |
| October 24, 2007 | Beyond the Basics: Authentic Differentiation for Gifted Students 8:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. This Conference will be held at the SMU-in-Legacy campus. |
Dr. Diane Heacox, The College of St. Catherine |
| December 5, 2007 | The
Theory of Positive Disintegration and Gifted Children: Overexcitabilities and
More! Cost: $115, includes continental breakfast 8:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. This Conference will be held at the SMU-in-Legacy campus. |
Dr. Cheryl Ackerman, University of Delaware |
| January 16, 2008 |
Escalating
Language Arts Cost: $115, includes continental breakfast 8:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. This Conference will be held at the SMU-in-Legacy campus. |
Dr. Susannah Richards, Eastern Connecticut State University |
| April 16, 2008 |
The Twice-Exceptional Dilemma |
Dr. Elizabeth Nielsen, University of New Mexico Dr. Dennis Higgins, Albuquerque Public Schools |
| May 1, 2008 | 10th Annual Gifted Girls Conference 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. This Conference will be held at the main SMU campus. Parking rules and regulations for main campus. |
Dr. Bonnie Jacobs, Southern Methodist University |
The Administrators Conference is from 9 a.m. - 3 p.m., lunch included.
The Boys and Girls Conferences are from 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m., lunch included.
All other workshops/lectures are from 8:30 a. m. - 3:00 p.m. with Continental
Breakfast beginning at 8:00 a.m., lunch is on your own.
Click on these links to download a map to the SMU-in-Legacy Campus or to the Main Campus.
Parking on the SMU-in-Legacy Campus is free.
Click here for rules and regulations
applying to parking on the Main Campus.
Administrators Conference September 26, 2007
SMU's 10th annual conference for coordinators, principals, and counselors fulfills the mandate for 6 hours of initial training as well as the 6-hour update requirement for administrators in districts seeking an "exemplary" rating from TEA.
Keynote with Dr. Nicholas Colangelo: A Nation Deceived: How Schools Hold Back America's Brightest Students:
Acceleration of students is one of the most controversial issues in the education of gifted students. This presentation will focus on the national report known as "Nation Deceived." This report has had a major impact on gifted education and K-12 schools. The report covers the last 50 years of research concerning the acceleration of gifted students. It highlights the disconnect between research and practice on acceleration. Also, it highlights why acceleration has not become more prevalent in schools, although it has the research support.Dr Nicholas Colangelo is the Myron & Jacqueline Blank Professor of Gifted Education at The University of Iowa. He is also Director of The Connie Belin & Jacqueline N. Blank International Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development. He is author of numerous articles on counseling gifted students and the affective development of gifted. He has edited two texts: New Voices in Counseling the Gifted (with Ronald Zaffrann) and Handbook of Gifted Education, Editions I, II, and III (with Gary Davis). He has authored "A Nation Deceived: How Schools hold Back America's Brightest Students" (with Susan Assouline and Miraca Gross). He has served on the editorial boards of major journals. Along with numerous other awards and honors, Dr. Colangelo received the President's Award from the National Association of Gifted Children in 2002. In 2005, he received the Upton Sinclair Award as a top ten influential educator. In 2007, he was selected as the Association Editor for the National Association for Gifted Children.
Afternoon
Breakout Sessions:
The Right Level of Challenge
Dr. Lee Alvoid, Senior Lecturer, School of Education and Human Development, SMU
The session will examine the new Bloom’s Taxonomy as a tool for administrators to analyze whether instruction and assessment procedures designed by teachers are at the appropriate level of challenge. The Taxonomy, published by Lorin Anderson and David Krathwohl in 2001, can be used to help teachers align assessment items and instructional activities at a more precise level of cognition. Administrators can use the Taxonomy to facilitate better instructional alignment on their campus for all students—especially gifted students who need engaging and challenging activities
Building
a Rigorous and Engaging Middle School Gifted Program
Todd Kettler,
Director of Advanced Academics, Coppell ISD
Gifted students often describe middle school as some of the least challenging years of their school experience. This session will examine some unique characteristics of middle school gifted students and describe appropriate program options that are both rigorous and engaging. The session includes suggestions on how to build a gifted program that goes beyond Pre-AP courses and includes acceleration options and opportunities to develop skills of research and communication. Suggested program options will include: integrated research courses, advanced problem solving mathematics courses, acceleration through credit by exam and correspondence courses, and summer programs.
Helping Gifted Boys Succeed in School
October 3, 2007
Recent national attention has focused on the problems faced by boys in the school systems. Gifted boys are not immune to these same challenges. This session will describe data and research trends that indicate gifted boys are not succeeding in school as they once were. Whether they are the “genus”, the “rabble rouser,” the “class clown,” the “all American”, or the “social outcast,” gifted boys have unique needs that may be interfering with their school success. Multiple case studies of gifted boys that have faced social and emotional challenges as well as academic challenges and succeeded will be presented. Possible support systems and recommendations for supporting gifted boys will be discussed.
Terry W. Neu received his Ph.D. from the Talent Development Program at the University of Connecticut and currently serves on the faculty of Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT. Terry currently serves as the Vice President of the Association for the Education of Gifted Underachieving Students (AEGUS). He has done extensive work with gifted students with disabilities, modifying the classroom environment for these students as well as developing a challenging Dually Differentiated Curriculum (DDC) to meet their unique needs. He has consulted nationally and internationally on teaching strategies for gifted students with disabilities, the gifted with emotional or behavioral disorders, and differentiated instruction. Dr. Neu taught in the Arkansas public school system at White County Central in Judsonia. He was a secondary science and history teacher for seven years, four of which were spent working with secondary gifted and talented students. Dr. Neu has recently completed “Helping Boys Succeed in School” which is based on his years of experience working with young men in a variety of different settings.
6 hours Nature and Needs/Social Emotional
Beyond the Basics: Authentic Differentiation for Gifted Students
October 24, 2007
Although differentiation has improved the quality of classroom learning experiences for many gifted students, "differentiation for all" can also result in lack of attention to their specific learning needs. Differentiation for gifted and high ability learners requires teachers to use more advanced levels of complexity and difficulty. This session presents the critical elements that characterize authentic differentiation for gifted and talented students. Practical strategies and techniques essential for planning for and managing the specialized learning experiences of gifted students will be provided.
Dr. Diane Heacox, is an Associate Professor of Education at the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, Minnesota. She is the author of Up From Underachievement and Differentiating Instruction in the Regular Classroom. Diane has taught at both elementary and secondary levels and has served as a gifted education teacher and administrator as well as an instructional specialist in public education. She is the past president of the Minnesota Educators of the Gifted and Talented and the Minnesota Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD).
6 hours Differentiated Curriculum
The Theory of Positive Disintegration and Gifted Children: Overexcitabilities and More!
December 5, 2007
The Theory of Positive Disintegration (TPD) is a developmental personality theory that helps us understand differences in social and emotional needs and development. TPD reframes individual characteristics and experience by giving people alternative view of intensities, sensitivities, and difficult times as potential for growth. When assisting gifted children to develop optimally, it is necessary to consider their individual characteristics and adjust your work with them in light of their differences, and this theory offers ways to do this. The following questions will focus the activities for the day: What are the main components of TPD and why should people working with the gifted understand it? How can educational professionals and parents use the theory? How can students benefit from learning about TPD?
The morning session will be devoted to an overview and historical context for TPD, as well as relevant research. It will cover the main theoretical components: overexcitabilities, dynamisms, levels of development, and developmental potential. In the afternoon session, we will spend time exploring some aspects of the theory in more depth and applying them to your work as an educator, counselor, administrator, or parent. Implications and strategies for using the theory with gifted children to enhance social-emotional well-being will be discussed. Both morning and afternoon sessions will include opportunities for self-exploration and considerations for everyday life.
Dr. Cheryl Ackerman has been involved in gifted education and psychology for the past 15 years with a focus on social and emotional issues for gifted children and adults. Her work has afforded her the opportunity to present locally, nationally, and internationally on Dabrowski’s theory and other social and emotional topics. Cheryl has been actively involved in the Conceptual Foundations divisions of the National Association for Gifted Children and currently serves as Past-Chair. Dr. Ackerman is also a Past-President of Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted and served as a member of their Board of Directors. She is currently guest-editing a special issue of Roeper Review on Dabrowski’s theory. Cheryl is Senior Associate for Evaluation at the Delaware Education Research & Development Center at the University of Delaware, where she conducts educational program evaluations and policy research in education.
6 hours Nature and Needs/Social Emotional
Escalating Language Arts/ Reading for Talented Elementary and Middle Grades Readers and Writers
January 16, 2008
While many students have demonstrated that they have met or exceeded the reading and language arts standards with regard to reading and writing, these students are often completing the same lessons and assignments as their peers. The goal for this session is to explore strategies and lesson ideas to support highly able elementary and middle grade readers and writers to continue to develop their abilities. The focus will be on building on students' interests to create opportunities to explore reading and writing experiences in variety of genres. Criteria for book selection, and suggestions for locating high interest, quality literature, and ideas for increasing reading engagement will be addressed. Sample learning experiences, suggested literature, and teaching materials will be shared and used to model high level differentiated curriculum for verbally talented students. The goal of the workshop is to create an environment that supports lifetime readers rather than school-time reader
Susannah Richards is an Assistant Professor of Reading/Language Arts at Eastern Connecticut State University where she teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on language arts methods, children's and young adult literature, and reading and writing strategies for elementary and secondary teachers. After 11 years of elementary and middle school teaching and facilitating gifted and talented programs, she completed her Ph.D. at the University of Connecticut where she studied classroom practices for talented readers. She reads, collects, reviews and presents on books for youth at state and national conferences.
6 hours Creativity and Instructional Strategies
The Twice-Exceptional Dilemma
April 16, 2008
Twice-exceptional students, those who have outstanding gifts or talents, are capable of high performance in some area, but who also have a disability that affects some aspect of learning present a unique service delivery dilemma for educators. Parents of these children dread assignment deadlines, report card time, and school conferences. Their teachers feel frustrated, challenged, and generally unsuccessful. Often educators, parents, and students are asked to choose between services to address their giftedness or to address their disability. Who are these twice-exceptional students? How can we best educate them?
According to the National Educational Association and National Association for Gifted Children (2006), twice-exceptional children are at risk for not achieving their potential because of the complex relationship between their enhanced cognitive abilities and their disabilities. They are among the most frequently under-identified and under-served population in our schools. This session, based on the joint NEA-NAGC publication The Twice-Exceptional Dilemma, dispels the myth that individuals “cannot be both gifted and disabled.”
The collaborative team of Dr. M. Elizabeth Nielsen and Dr. L. Dennis Higgins are nationally recognized experts in the area of twice-exceptionality. In this session, they will translate outcome information from two federally funded grants, share the stories of children currently served in a twice-exceptional program located in New Mexico and provide classroom techniques gathered from more than twenty years of work with hundreds of twice-exceptional children into specific classroom-based techniques and strategies.
Dr. M. Elizabeth Nielsen is an Associate Professor of Special Education at the University of New Mexico (UNM) and serves as the coordinator for the Gifted Education Teacher Training Program. Dr. Nielsen has served as a UNM College of Education Assistant Dean for Research and is the recipient of the Burlington Foundation Faculty Achievement Award for Excellence in Teaching. Since 1985, Dr. Nielsen has focused much of her university work and research on the unique populations of gifted learners with learning disabilities. She has published numerous articles and textbook chapters regarding these twice-exceptional students. She has been the principal investigator for two university and public school district collaborative projects focused on gifted students with disabilities. Dr. Nielsen has served as a reviewer for several gifted education/special education journals and is an active member of the National Association for Gifted Children’s Special Population Division. Dr. Nielsen holds B.S. and M.A. degrees in Education from the University of Louisville. Her Ph.D. is in Educational Psychology from Purdue University
Dr. Dennis Higgins has authored and co-authored numerous articles and two book chapters that focus on twice-exceptional children, produced many educational video tapes, audio tapes, and music CDs that contain his original music about gifted children and twice-exceptional children which have national distribution, and contributed and consulted on the joint CEC/NAGC Twice-Exceptional guide.
6 hours
Registration form (click here)
For More Information
The Gifted Students Institute
PO Box 750383
Dallas, TX 75275-0383
Phone: 214-768-4383
Fax: 214-768-3147
gifted@smu.edu