|
Home | Bio | Resources | Workshops | Conferences | E-zine | Teacher Idea Exchange | Links | Contact |
||
|
E-zine What
Is Curriculum
Compacting? Curriculum
compacting, developed by Dr. Joseph Renzulli and
Linda Smith in 1978, is a differentiation strategy
that is extremely beneficial to many gifted and
high ability students. It is a process by which
students are pre-assessed to determine what parts
of the curriculum they have already mastered. When
those areas of knowledge and skills are identified,
these students are not required to complete the
grade-level work. Instead, they work on alternate
activities. Curriculum
compacting is a particularly important strategy for
gifted and other high-ability students because they
often come to school already knowing much of the
grade level material. If these students are not
challenged with new or different content, they
waste time in school, do not learn important study
skills, and do not grow as learners. The first step in
curriculum compacting is to identify the content,
skill areas, standards, or benchmarks students have
mastered. Compacting works particularly well in
subjects or topics that are easily pre-tested such
as math, spelling, grammar, vocabulary, and map
skills. Questions in these subjects generally
require one right answer. It is easy, therefore, to
determine who knows the information and who does
not. In order to use
curriculum compacting successfully, it is important
to learn exactly what students know and what they
need to learn. Pre-assessment determines knowledge
mastery. Often a pre-assessment is a pretest, but
it can also be a classroom observation, a short
discussion with the student, a checklist of what
the student knows, or even a brainstorming session.
Prior to the
pre-assessment, the teacher determines the
requirement for mastery. For example, mastery might
be 90% or higher on a pretest or no more than one
mistake in a writing sample. In a discussion, the
teacher might use his or her professional judgment
to decide if the student has mastered a certain
topic. After mastery is
determined and documented, the next step is to
choose alternate activities. Many teachers are
concerned that they do not have appropriate
alternate activities for high ability students.
However, there are a multitude of resources. The
teacher's editions of many textbooks suggest
activities for advanced learners. Supplemental
books that focus on activities to develop higher
level thinking skills are excellent sources for
alternate activities. Independent study in an area
of interest is another possibility. Finally, the
students themselves often have ideas of what they
would like to do, how they would like to do it, and
what product will result and represent the
learning. Do the alternate
activities need to be in the same subject in which
the student has compacted out? This is the
teacher's decision. It may be that a math teacher
wants students to work only on math compacting
activities. Another teacher may decide that an
activity in any subject area is appropriate. Either
approach is acceptable. An essential factor to
remember is that compacting activities should never
be drill and practice worksheets covering skills
and content the student already knows. Most teachers and
parents like the strategy of curriculum compacting,
but they are often unaware of what exactly occurs
when this method is used. Below are practical ideas
and suggestions for implementation. * The teacher meets
with compacting students to decide with them on
which alternate activity or activities they will
work. * Some type of a
time line is established, including when the
students will meet with the teacher again and when
the alternate activity is due. Compacting students
can work independently or together, but it is
important that they touch base with their teacher
often. * The score that
determines mastery is also the score that goes in
the grade book. Students may receive extra points,
if necessary, for compacting activities, but they
should not be penalized with a lower grade if they
work on a more challenging activity and do not get
a high score. Gifted students are sometimes
reluctant to work on alternate activities because
they think a possible lower score will negatively
affect their grades. Steps must be taken to ensure
that does not happen. * Sometimes
compacting students from several classrooms are
grouped together for an alternate activity and work
with one of the grade level teachers while the rest
of the students are working with other teachers at
the same grade level. This functions well if all
teachers at a grade level are targeting the same
skills and content at the same time. * The most
important rule for a compacting student is: "The
one choice you never have is the choice to do
nothing!" This is because learning time is so
valuable. Therefore, it is important that it never
be wasted. * Each student
should be responsible for keeping his/her own
compactor folder with the work in it. This is a
good way for disorganized gifted students to learn
skills in organization, and it gives them practice
in taking responsibility for their own work and
their own learning. * Parents need to
discuss and show interest in their child's
compactor activities. However, parents should not
pressure their child to compact out of the
grade-level work every time. Even gifted students
have some academic weaknesses. Most gifted children
compact out some of the time and usually in a
specific subject. Very few compact out all of the
time or in every subject. Dr. Karen Rogers
(2002) cites current studies that found 75-85% of
average and above average elementary school
students can pass subject pretests with 92-93%
accuracy. The United States Department of
Education's National Excellence Report (1993) found
that gifted and talented elementary school students
knew 35-50% of the entire curriculum in the five
major subject areas at the very beginning of the
school year. Renzulli and Reis (1992) directed a
comprehensive national study that found elementary
teachers could eliminate 40-50% of the regular
curriculum for the top 10-15% of students with no
negative effects on their achievement. Based on
these studies, curriculum compacting is a viable
strategy for the Education Plan. Rogers (2002),
however, cautions against too much compacting. When
students compact in all academic areas, they can
become stressed due to the fast pace of their
learning. We need to remember that our gifted
children, like all children, need time to reflect,
think, relax their brains, and sometimes slow their
pace. We want our gifted children to make
significant academic gains. However, they must
balance their social and emotional needs with their
academic and intellectual needs. The "Pieces of
Information" article in the next FGN newsletter
will focus on that balance. Pieces of Learning
is one of the leading publishers of enrichment
materials for and about gifted and talented
children. Student activities in many of the Pieces
of Learning resources are excellent to use as
alternate activities for curriculum compacting.
Visit online at www.piecesoflearning.com or call
1-800-729-5137 to request a free
catalog. In Australia,
Hawker Brownlow Education is your best resource for
a wide range of educational materials. Visit their
website at www.hbe.com.au or call (03) 9555 1344
for more information. |