EL Study Guide

Anyone who's spent time with groups of children will know that not all children are the same. They differ in temperament, interest, background, and ability level, among other things. Yet educators are charged with ensuring that all children in their schools reach a certain level of academic achievement. But how can teachers reach so many different students with so many different needs? The February issue of Educational Leadership looks at ways educators can organize their schools and classrooms to ensure that all students have the opportunity to excel.

Same or Different?

Discussions of learning styles, multiple intelligences, and personalized learning often focus on the differences among students, but are there qualities that all—or most—students share in common? How can teachers leverage those commonalities in their instruction without neglecting variations among students? In "Teaching to What Students Have in Common" (pp. 16–21), Daniel Willingham and David Daniel suggest that teachers should focus on characteristics that all students have in common.

• What common characteristics and needs have you seen among your students? How might you use awareness of these shared qualities in your instruction?
• What do you think of Willingham and Daniel's suggestion that teachers pay more attention to these commonalities than to student differences? What are the possible benefits and drawbacks of such an approach?
• What room does a focus on commonalities leave for variations in student ability levels, interests, and backgrounds? For example, how might a teacher focusing on commonalities also implement the principles for "teaching up" (p. 30) that Carol Ann Tomlinson and Edwin Lou Javius present in their article, "Teach Up for Excellence" (pp. 28–33).

Passion for Learning

Will Richardson opens his article, "Preparing Students to Learn Without Us" (pp. 22–26) by wondering whether his son, Tucker, can learn everything he needs to know about math through the context of basketball, something he's passionate about. When Richardson posed that question on his blog, the possibilities poured in. Richardson became convinced that such learning is possible, but he's not convinced that schools are providing it.

• Choose a topic that several students in your school care deeply about (for example, fashion, animated movies, football, pets, rap music, or cooking). Generate a list of ways that they might use that passion to learn a subject that you teach.
• How do you currently make use of student interests in your classroom? How helpful has it been to do so?
• In a classroom of 20 students, teachers might find themselves faced with 20 completely different sets of interests. How can teachers guide students in their areas of interest when there's so much variation among them? How might technology help?
• What do you see as the role of the teacher in the world Richardson envisions? How might the work of educators change if such a vision were to come to fruition? How can educators prepare for such change now?

Students with Gifts

Several articles in this issue address the needs of gifted learners. In "Helping Gifted Learners Soar" (pp. 34–40), Susan Rakow discusses how schools can ensure that students keep learning, even after they've mastered grade-level standards. In "Clustered for Success" (pp. 41–45), Dina Brulles and Susan Winebrenner propose a model for grouping students in classrooms to ensure that they all make progress every year. And "The Right Fit for Henry" (pp. 71–73) by J. Christine Gould, Linda K. Staff, and Heather M. Theiss tells how one school helped a twice-exceptional student get the accommodations he needed for his learning disability and the challenge he needed as a gifted student.

• What approach does your school take to supporting gifted students? What is working well, and in what areas could your program improve?
• What do you see as the biggest challenges in ensuring that gifted students continue to grow, even when they've met academic standards? How can schools and teachers surmount these challenges?
• Read Susan Rakow's suggestions for what teachers (p. 36) and schools (p. 39) can do to improve the education of gifted students. Which strategies seem most feasible and beneficial to you? If you've tried some of these strategies, what was the result?

Making the Unlikely Likely

In her One to Grow On column, "For the Unlikely Ones" (p. 86–87), Carol Ann Tomlinson tells the story of Andre, a student who in elementary school looked perilously close to becoming "the wrong kind of statistic." Teacher Terry Greenlund challenged Andre to do five minutes of work, then 10, then 15. That challenge started Andre on a path to academic success, and he later became a teacher and is now in a doctoral program for teacher educators.

• Who are the Andres in your school? Think of one student in particular and consider how you might encourage that student to take a first step toward success.
• Greenlund shared with Tomlinson four principles that he uses to help students whose prospects seem dim. What concrete actions can you take to apply these principles for the "unlikely ones" in your school?