Why Cluster Grouping Benefits Gifted Children

Cluster Grouping Cluster grouping is a method for gifted services where you cluster all of the gifted students in a particular subject area into one classroom. You then fill the rest of the classroom with above average and average students. What this does is narrows the gap of abilities in the classroom, making it easier for the teacher to differentiate and meet the specific needs of students. This Todd Talk shows how and why this might be done.

In The Schoolwide Cluster Grouping Model (SCGM), identified gifted students are clustered into a mixed-ability classrooms at each grade level. The teacher has had training in understanding, planning for, and instructing gifted students. If there are more than eight gifted students in the grade level, two or more clusters may be formed..
Gifted cluster teachers plan appropriately challenging instruction for their gifted students. This may involve acceleration, enrichment, and various extended learning opportunities targeted to develop the following skills through learning in the content areas.In The Schoolwide Cluster Grouping Model (SCGM), identified gifted students are clustered into a mixed-ability classrooms at each grade level. The teacher has had training in understanding, planning for, and instructing gifted students. If there are more than eight gifted students in the grade level, two or more clusters may be formed..
Gifted cluster teachers plan appropriately challenging instruction for their gifted students. This may involve acceleration, enrichment, and various extended learning opportunities targeted to develop the following skills through learning in the content areas..
To order “The Cluster Grouping Handbook: How to Challenge Gifted Students and Improve Achievement for All”, by Free Spirit Publishing, go to: http://goo.gl/wT8XB

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What is CLUSTER GROUPING? What does CLUSTER GROUPING mean? CLUSTER GROUPING meaning CLUSTER GROUPING definition CLUSTER GROUPING explanation..
Source: Wikipedia.org article, adapted under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ license..
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Cluster grouping is an educational process in which four to six gifted and talented (GT) and/or high achieving students are assigned to an otherwise heterogeneous classroom within their grade to be instructed by a teacher that has had specialized training in differentiating for gifted learners. Clustering does not simply fill a classroom with a fraction of the student body representing all the highest performers in the grade. “Through cluster grouping the intellectual, social, and emotional needs of the gifted students can be addressed.” Although typically implemented in the upper elementary grades (3-6), cluster grouping has been used in grades K through 12. The methods for selecting children for cluster groups usually mirror those for other gifted and talented services. Within a cluster, several instructional options are typically used, including: enrichment and extensions, higher-order thinking skills, pretesting and differentation, compacting, an accelerated pace, and more complexity in content..
Merely placing all of a given grade’s gifted children in one classroom will neither form a cluster nor produce positive academic outcomes. For clustering to be effective, a) the teacher must receive specialized training, b) the teacher must be motivated to work with gifted children, c) the remainder of the class cannot contain difficult or demanding students, and d) the curriculum for the cluster must be appropriately differentiated. Other anecdotal success factors for teachers include: fostering the valuing and acceptance of differences within the classroom, allowing pretesting and credit for previously mastered material, designing independent study that utilizes student passion, remaining flexible in teaching style, and maintaining a sense of humor..
There is strong research evidence supporting the academic benefits of clustering gifted students in a single classroom. According to one survey, advantages include: cost effectiveness, high challenge and expectations of students, faster progression through curricula, administrative ease in observation of services, increased understanding of GT students, and an improved opportunity to address the psychological needs of the GT students. Also, children with subject-specific giftedness, who might otherwise be exclude from gifted pull-outs, can be placed in the cluster classroom to take part in advanced work when appropriate. Some research has shown that clustering grouping produces positive academic results for all children within the cluster classroom. Cluster grouping is not experimental; it has been used successfully since 1974. While no practice is a panacea for gifted instruction, Schuler’s national survey showed a 99% positive approval rating among parents of clustered children and a 90% positive approval rating among the children themselves. Over two-thirds of administrators had a similar positive experience..
A comprehensive study of grouping by Rogers states, “Students who are academically or intellectually gifted and talented should spend the majority of their school day with others of similar abilities and interests.” Magnet schools, schools within a school, and classrooms composed entirely of gifted students may not be appropriate in all districts. In these situations, the study goes on to state, “The Cluster Grouping of a small number of students, either intellectually gifted or gifted in a similar academic domain, within an otherwise heterogeneously grouped classroom can be considered when schools cannot support a full-time gifted program (either demographically, economically, or philosophically).”.
Cluster grouping is distinct from tracking in that tracking organizes entire classrooms by ability, and little mobility exists between tracks as students progress through school. Conversely, cluster groups tends to expand over time rather than remain fixed..
While cluster groups allow GT children to spend the majority of their day with academic peers (as encouraged by research recommendations), pull-outs (also called “send-out” or “resource” programs) tend to meet one to two hours per week. A 1993 U.S. Government report found up to 72% of school districts using the pull-out approach despite this method being generally unsuccessful…

First, note, in a slip of the tongue, I said “succession” when I meant “secession.” Sorry..
Here is a slightly more sophisticated and nuanced version of the video’s script:
All children are entitled to an appropriate education, to not be bored too much of the time..
But in today’s mixed-ability classes and with pressures to focus on low achievers, bright and gifted kids often get shortchanged..
And that’s understandable. Perhaps you think they’ll do okay without much attention. Alas, there are many brilliant failures. Perhaps you know one. And that’s unfortunate because our bright and gifted kids are the most likely to cure our diseases, design helpful new products, and be wise corporate, non-profit, and government leaders..
Here are six ways teachers can better meet bright and gifted kids’ needs in a regular class without incurring undue additional work..
1. Cluster group: You may be reluctant to divide your class into ability-based groups because of the extra work of creating a separate lesson for each group. But even if each group has the same lesson, a bright/gifted group discussing it among themselves can be more interesting and result in more learning. For example, if a class is discussing the causes of the Civil War, rather than forcing bright kids listen to lots of low-level comments, discussing it among themselves would likely be more interesting and engender more growth. A teacher might designate one student to lead each group’s discussion..
2. Encourage students to propose an alternate assignment. Invite bright and gifted kids (and perhaps others) to propose an alternate assignment they’d find more challenging and interesting. For example, if the standard homework assignment is to write a summary of a short story’s plot, a gifted child might propose, for example, writing a character’s backstory. With younger children, the teacher might well have to propose the alternate assignment..
3. Make gifted kids your assistant teacher…occasionally. Yes, a student reading on a fourth-grade level develops tolerance and patience by helping a slower child learn to read The Cat in the Hat but is thereby denied the right to learn new things. It’s usually best to have gifted students coach others on that which they themselves need solidifying. For example, if they’ve quickly learned how to estimate the probability of drawing a particular playing card in a poker hand, they could probably benefit by teaching that to a weaker student(s.).
4. Have gifted kids teach lessons to a group or even the entire class. This goes a step beyond the previous tip. Teach one or more of your gifted kids how to teach a lesson. For example, you might teach them this model for teaching a new concept: 1. Explain why the concept is important. 2. Explain the new concept. 3. Give an example. 4. Walk the class through an example. 5. Have the class do an example on their own. 6. Give feedback on the example. 7. Summarize. Using that model, have your “student teachers” teach a lesson to a group or even to the entire class..
5. Allow students to join a higher-grade’s class for one or more subjects..
6. Consider having a gifted child skip one or more grades. There’s good evidence that acceleration can be of great value if the receiving teacher is welcoming of the idea and the child is capable and motivated, even if lacking in social skills. There’s just too great an advantage of being in a class in which much more of the instruction is appropriately leveled. Social deficits can be mitigated by pairing the child with a popular child in the higher grade. That child can teach the accelerating child the ropes, help her or him make friends, and the accelerating child starts out with the advantage of being associated with a popular child..
It makes me sad to see so many bright and gifted kids sit stultified for six hours a day, five days a week, for years. They deserve better and so does society.