11/24/15
I was fortunate enough to hear Carol Ann Tomlinson speak at the OCC GATE Conference last weekend and one of the points she drove home was the idea of equity. She referenced the idea of “Pedagogy of Poverty vs Pedagogy of Plenty. This resonates with my belief that all students should have access to the very best lessons, tools, and teachers.
The icons of Depth and Complexity are powerful thinking tools that facilitate critical thinking and analysis. Without doubt, they are vital to meeting the unique learning needs of gifted students. These are good tools. Period. Just like SDAIE strategies are good strategies- not just for students learning English. Please, don’t limit these thinking tools to our identified gifted students. I equate this with giving our brightest students the power tools and our other students, less useful and diverse tools.