Again, I eliminated many otherwise-awesome books as candidates for the list because they didn’t meet this criteria. Third, I wanted books that have at least one main character who is relatively obviously gifted AND their giftedness is a relevant factor in the storyline. Most of my 5th & 6th graders read on a high school level and I want the vocabulary and sentence structure to be challenging enough for them. Secondly, I wanted books with a reading level of about 5th grade or higher, preferably higher if possible. While on my hunt for books to add to the list, I came across many that would be excellent to use in this way with older gifted kids, but I didn’t feel comfortable putting them on the list for my 5th & 6th graders. So I set some criteria for creating a booklist for this lesson:įirst, in my case I am doing this with my 5th and 6th graders, so criteria #1 is that the content of the books has to be appropriate for them. There are certainly millions of books out there that gifted kids would love reading, but I know that “just any ol’ book” wouldn’t qualify for the purpose I have in mind. My angle today is to offer a concrete example of how I’m using this strategy with my students, with the aim of perhaps giving the rest of you some ideas for how to use this strategy with your own gifted students or children. It’s often their first acknowledgement from someone outside the family that raising their gifted child is far more of a challenge than others realize.) (I’ve had parents’ eyes tear up when I say that to them. because they come packaged with all these worries, sensitivities, quirks, and surprises, together with their unique intelligence. They’re certainly not all in need of clinical therapy, either, but - as I point out to the parents of my students - raising (or teaching) a gifted child is usually not the cakewalk that everyone else assumes it to be. The reality is that gifted kids don’t always have everything going for them, despite what others may mis-perceive about them in that regard. And it can help them gain insight into themselves by connecting with or identifying with a character in a book who is similar to them or who has similar obstacles to overcome. It can expose them to new ways of thinking about and seeing the world around them. It can allow them to learn about themselves vicariously and to know that they’re not alone, that others have - and have had - the same concerns or problems. In addition to helping them learn new strategies for dealing with their various social and emotional issues, bibliotherapy with gifted kids can help them to better understand themselves, their sensitivity, and their quirks. These struggles can include trouble finding meaningful friendships, existential depression, dealing with high expectations (whether internal or external), and being a unique learner when most around them don’t learn as they do. Through bibliotherapeutic reading, the gifted kids are presented with ideas for how to cope with some of the struggles they encounter because they are gifted. Essentially, by having gifted students read literature and/or biographies featuring gifted children or adults, the students can gain insights into their own giftedness. A fair amount has been written already (see links at the bottom of this post) about what bibliotherapy is and why it’s important to do with gifted students. Today I want to talk a bit about using developmental bibliotherapy specifically with gifted students. The reading is typically followed up by discussion with a trusted adult.īibliotherapy of course can be done with all students, particularly students who might be experiencing a divorce in the family, a learning disability, adoption, etc. Taking this experience a step farther is the strategy of bibliotherapy, the process of helping the reader learn about and cope with any social or emotional struggles or developmental needs by identifying with a character in a book who shares a similar struggle or need. Hopefully we’ve all had that experience of reading a book that powerfully “spoke” to us, a book whose characters we could relate to, and whose struggles and triumphs we identified with.
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