EGI 6417: Counseling and Guidance Strategies for the Gifted

I AM IN FOCUS GROUP A FOR TEACHERS. The Case Study (Category 3 for Focus Group B Counselors) was optional as it is intended for Focus Group B for counselors and I am in Focus Group A for teachers. I chose to complete a comprehensive assignment pertaining to developing an affective education website with strategies, activities, and resources. 

Per Syllabus 2017: "If the 2 chosen assignments, 1 comprehensive assessment, 10 module tasks and 5 CEA’s in the course are completed excellently, a grade of A will be assigned.  Students may choose to complete 3 assignments in place of completing 5 CEA’s (you will complete 3 from any category)."  I HAVE COMPLETED one from Category 1 (Both Focus Groups), and Category 2 (Focus Group A Teachers), and Category 4 Comprehensive Assessment, which is completing three assignments/projects from the categories.

Please look to the right for sub-pages that contain the assignments.  Thank you

INDEX
PART 1: SELF-EVALUATION OF COURSE PARTICIPATION 

PLEASE SEE WORD ATTACHMENT ON BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE FOR THE FOLLOWING:

1. Completion of Modules
2. Completion of CEA’s
3. Completion of Assignments
4. Demonstration of Skills learnt
5. Open Response

PART 2: DOCUMENTATION OF COMPLETED ASSIGNMENTS

PLEASE CLICK ON THE SUB-PAGES ON THE RIGHT FOR DESCRIPTIONS.

1. Category 1/Critical Incident: "Responding to Sarah's Incident Using Creative Problem Solving"

Description: Given the critical incident regarding a fictitious student named "Sarah," who has exceptional verbal abilities receiving enrichment services one day per week in distress after receiving a grade of "C" on an English report at her regular school, Sarah is questioning her giftedness.  While Sarah has been working on a play about of the young girl from Afghanistan whose face became known from the photographer who went back to find her many years ago, she earned a "C" on an English report pertaining to the topic of women's rights.  Sarah wrote a collection of five experiences of women around the world with few rights, but her teacher graded negatively with correct grammatical structure and accuracy being weighed heavily.  As Sarah's gifted teacher and advocate, I used the Creative Problem Solving (CPS) model by Osborn (1965) to provide guidance and direction for some workable solutions.  As I went through each phase/stage of the CPS (Objective Finding, Fact Finding, Problem Finding, Idea Finding, Solution Finding, and Acceptance Finding), I displayed my goals, questions and possible answers, and thinking for the action plan.  My action plan involves having two parts: having a meeting with Sarah's English teacher to review grading while sharing her previous work/portfolio to show her abilities and giftedness along with creating a counseling group for Sarah to focus on the understanding of giftedness.  Roadblocks from Sarah's English teacher were anticipated just in case.  Suggestions for the future like inviting Sarah's teacher to use a clear grading rubric were also stated.  I also shared an additional note for better understanding verbal giftedness.         

2. Category 2/Journal Article Topic: "The Unnoticed Unhealthy Perfectionist Perspective"

Description/Abstract: Many people associate giftedness with consistent, nearly perfect achievement and performance.  Perfectionism is a popular topic of discussion, especially among the gifted.  It is a popular belief that perfectionism stems from within or transmitted from parents’ expectations.  This paper focuses on the topic of perfectionism, which is relevant topic pertaining to the social-emotional development for gifted children and adolescents. Identifying and understanding perfectionism is essential for examining and better meeting gifted students’ affective needs; however, perfectionism can go unnoticed by parents, teachers, and guidance counselors.  This paper also aims to better define and clarify perfectionism with a brief review of research and findings, alternate viewpoints, inclusion of possible counseling strategies, curricula, and/or possible programs and services to better address the issue of perfectionism among gifted students.  A personal account of dealing with unnoticed perfectionism is shared, which aims to reveal how perfectionism can be perceived internally and by parents, peers, teachers, and guidance counselors.  A reference to The Pit and the Pendulum by Edgar Allan Poe is also related to healthy vs. unhealthy perfectionism with consciousness.  This paper also brings awareness to the implications for identification and counseling where relevant.

3. Category 4/Comprehensive Assignment Affective Education Curriculum: "Rising to Shine" Affective Education for Gifted (http://risingtoshinegiftedaffectiveed.weebly.com/) 

Description: This Weebly website is designed to be the ultimate resource tool-box for research-based strategies, examples, lesson plans, and activities for affective education/curriculum.  Part of my Journal Article about unhealthy perfectionism with the research on affective curriculum inspired my strategies!  Of course, I chose to bring awareness to the overexcitabilities (OEs) and provide resources for every OE: Psychomotor, Sensual, Intellectual, Imaginational, and Emotional.  Each OE listed has research-based strategies and other resources for teachers of all classrooms.  I also chose to focus on the Growth Mindset by researcher Carol Dweck from Stanford University.  The growth mindset also relates to other theories of intelligence and Renzulli's Three-Ring Conception of Giftedness as shared in the Weebly.  Specific strategies for teaching the gifted students growth mindset are shared (with attention to underachievement and perfectionism in mind) like using self-assessment and self-reflection along with integrating bibliotherapy.  Moreover, bibliotherapy has its own page on the Weebly.  Multiple blogs and lesson plans are shared on the page for teachers.  I also included a personal list of books with physical differences and disabilities to help build empathy through the guided reading model of bibliotherapy.  Moving along, the Creative Problem Solving Model (CPS) with Service-Based Learning is also recommended as a part of affective education as it also integrates bibliotherapy and all the other subject areas while also building empathy and socialization skills.  Additional resources to develop advocacy, especially for the unique social and emotional needs of gifted students are shared.  Overall, the Weebly is very interactive and easy for teachers to navigate for the resources!