The Power of Puppets to Reach & Teach Under-Achieving Gifted Children
Conference Strand
Practice, Strategies, Techniques, and Interventions
Abstract
Our session topic will highlight three curricula specifically developed for providing teachers of young children with teaching practices that emphasize positive social change across early childhood settings. New curricula developed by the three presenters will be presented for science, math, and language arts will be presented.
Evidence
Seigle, D. (2013). The underachieving gifted child: Recognizing, understanding, & reversing underachievement. Waco, TX: Prufrock Press.
Siegle, D., & McCoach, D. B. (2005). Making a difference: Motivating gifted students who are not achieving. Teaching Exceptional Children, 38(1), 22-27.
Reis, S. M. & McCoach, D. B. (2000). The underachievement of gifted students: What do we know and where do we go? Gifted Children Quarterly, 44, 152-170.
Format
Individual Presentations
Biographical Sketch
Dr. Paulette Harris, Ed.D., is a Cree-Walker endowed professor at Augusta University and the Founder and Director of the Augusta University Literacy Center.
Mrs. Linda Smith, B.A., is a retired teacher of over 35 years in Aiken and Edgefield County Public Schools. She is currently a preschool teacher in Edgefield, SC. She has worked with puppets including SC EDTV since 1990. She presents locally and nationally.
Ms. Sarah Wong, Ed.S., is a National Certified Counselor who works with children in the early childhood education setting as a K-12 certified Professional School Counselor. She has co-authored the puppetry curricula among scientific research journal articles with the presenters.
Start Date
2-9-2018 4:00 PM
End Date
2-9-2018 5:15 PM
Recommended Citation
Harris, Paulette P. Dr.; Smith, Linda G. Mrs.; and Wong, Sarah E. Ms., "The Power of Puppets to Reach & Teach Under-Achieving Gifted Children" (2018). National Cross-Cultural Counseling and Education Conference for Research, Action, and Change. 18.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/ccec/2018/2018/18
The Power of Puppets to Reach & Teach Under-Achieving Gifted Children
Our session topic will highlight three curricula specifically developed for providing teachers of young children with teaching practices that emphasize positive social change across early childhood settings. New curricula developed by the three presenters will be presented for science, math, and language arts will be presented.
Description
Three specific objectives for this presentation are: Those attending this session will identify comprehensive teaching practices that address 1. Multi-racial identification development, 2. cultural diversity, and 3. gender orientation of under-achieving gifted children. In this presentation, the three presenters will cite practical solutions for addressing positive social change in children’s literacy, science, and mathematics. For example, the presenters will address recent claims that even Dr. Seuss has "racist artwork". Puppets will, in fact, be shown to be multicultural, and the practices provided by the presenters will show how puppets develop positive social change for under-achieving gifted children across a variety of early childhood settings. They will address such topics such as ethnic stereotyping and gender issues beginning in infancy through the early childhood spectrum.
Using the power of puppets, the presenters will reach those in the audience as they show practical and workable comprehensive teaching strategies to help improve under-achieving gifted children’s attitudes about performance in literacy science and math.
Regardless of gender, race, ethnic background, and ability to learn, puppets allow under-achieving gifted children to learn at appropriately challenging levels and make continuous progress focusing on their readiness to learn. This presentation offers sound, research-driven practical advice for using puppets to pre-asses students, implement differentiation strategies, and manage student learning.
Practical/workable solutions to problems that occur in early childhood settings with under-achieving gifted children will incorporate the use of puppets for racial/ethnic/gender identity from a multidisciplinary perspective. Specifically, the puppet curricula authored by the presenters embraces anti-oppressive and multicultural perspectives using proven strategies that work.