Gifted Advocacy vs. School Calendars: Advocacy Moves for Spring
Are you feeling like it is too late in the year to make progress on your advocacy goals? Let's talk about what you can do between now and the end of the school year.
Hello Gifted Guides!
We’re so glad you’re here!
How are you doing?
How is the school year going for you? How is it going for the gifted or twice-exceptional (2e) child in your life?
If you find yourself thinking things could be better, but that the school year is almost over, so maybe this is something to pick up next year, this issue is for you.
As we inch closer to the end of the school year, it makes sense that many gifted guides may feel like it is time to pause their advocacy efforts for the year. After Spring Break, it can feel like there isn’t much time to discuss or accomplish advocacy goals before the end of the year. Advocacy can be a long, slow process. Sometimes, even the act of sending an email can seem like more work than it is worth.
What prompts us to think this way?
A variety of reasons could be causing us to preemptively reject our requests or pause our plans before we even get started. However, two common reasons people self-reject are negative past experiences and forecasting probable roadblocks.
Don’t worry. This newsletter will not tell you that you should go into all of your advocacy efforts with only wide-eyed optimism. Instead, we’re going to talk about how to capitalize on your negative past experiences and all the probable roadblocks you find yourself listing out at 2am when you’re frustrated and/or worried and can’t sleep.
Your advocacy doesn’t have to end just because the end of your student’s school year is in sight. Still, you may want to take a different approach, given the limited time left in the school year. In between Spring Break, final exams, and end of year field trips and celebrations, how much advocacy can you do?
Probably more than you think.
Let’s talk about those past negative experiences and probable roadblocks to get a better sense of what exactly you can do now.
Why not leave the negative in the past?
The short answer to this question is that negative information is still information, and when you are working to support a gifted or 2e learner, having more information about a situation is usually better.
The long answer is that negative information can actually be pivotal as you try to move forward with whatever your goal or focus is.
When we don’t have answers—yes or no, positive or negative—it can be easy to get stuck in thought loops or spirals. In these moments, we may be spending a lot of time and energy asking ourselves—and probably others—”what if?” And then, we spend even more time and energy imagining every possible response to those “what if” scenarios.
Imaginational overexcitabilities can be part of the gifted profile. As an adult who is guiding a gifted child, there is a chance that you yourself are gifted or neurodivergent. This means, your own overexcitabilities can influence your advocacy work.
If your imagination is stuck on “what if” scenarios, it can be hard to find a path forward. However, if you start asking questions, even seemingly negative information or responses can help to shape where you go next.
For example, if you have talked to your school in the past about differentiation in the classroom, and they said that was not an option, that doesn’t mean you should automatically never talk to your school about differentiation again.
It means, you should take the information you gathered from that last differentiation conversation and apply it to your next conversation.
Continuing with this example, let’s think about what was asked for last time:
Did you ask for differentiation in general? Or did you ask for a specific type of differentiation?
Who did you talk to about your last differentiation request? Are these the same people you’re working with now?
What evidence did you have to support your request last time? How has your evidence for your student needing differentiation changed?
These are questions that can be modified to fit your situation—even if it doesn’t include a differentiation request at all.
Why is it useful to think through these questions?
First, it will ground you in the present moment. Because advocacy is so often a slow process, it can be easy to lose track of the progress you’ve made, as well as the ways your student’s needs have changed. As we discussed earlier, it can be easy to get lost in thought loops, and pretty soon your advocacy journey starts to feel like Groundhog Day. By asking yourself specific questions, like those above, about the similarities and differences between past advocacy conversations and your current conversations, you can start to identify paths forward that may not otherwise be obvious.
Second, these questions will help facilitate more nuanced, specific advocacy. If last year or last semester (or even last week), you emailed the school to ask for differentiation broadly and were told that wasn’t an option, using your response to the above questions, you might be able to see some new, specific advocacy actions you’d like to pursue.
Building on this example, if differentiation isn’t available across all subjects, maybe after reflecting on your answers to the questions above, you decide that you’d really like to focus on getting differentiation in math. Specifically, you think it would be especially helpful if your student’s homework didn’t have so much repetition. You understand that there may be limitations to what can be implemented in the classroom, but based on your reflection, you realize that repetition of practice is really a key part of what’s hindering your child’s progress in math.
In this example, your student loves math. However, you’ve noticed that they are regularly making mistakes on their homework. This is information you know they know, but since they’re getting so many homework problems wrong, they aren’t demonstrating mastery to their teacher. This is keeping them from moving on to more challenging work. You notice that these mistakes are primarily happening when your student has worksheets for homework. Since many worksheets start with easy problems first, increasing in difficulty throughout the sheet, it seems like your student speeds through the easy problems and by the time they get to the difficult problems that might actually engage them, they’re disengaged and making errors they wouldn’t normally make.
With this specific example and evidence in mind, perhaps you can then reach out to your student’s teacher to see if your student can just be assigned the hardest problems on the worksheet, and if they get those correct, they don’t have to do the easier problems. This proposed solution provides a path for demonstrating mastery without extensive changes to the lesson plan to accommodate this differentiation.
In proposing this solution, you’re filling your child’s teacher in on the challenges you’re seeing, while offering a solution. You’re opening the door for a more collaborative conversation.
But what if this won’t work at your school or in this class?
Not to worry.
Even if the response you receive to your proposed solution isn’t what you wanted, you’ve gotten important information. Now, instead of imagining and planning for numerous “what if” scenarios, you can cross one off your list and move forward with your brainstorming. You can talk to the school about alternative options, and you can brainstorm other ways to support your learner. Whatever you do next, you are now able to build on this additional information you have.
Information gathering is a key part of all advocacy efforts. Receiving a “no” or a negative response is information that can help you move forward and closer to your goal—even if you might not be able to move forward on the exact path you expected.
Don’t cancel your trip just because of detours and roadblocks.
As you gather more information regarding your advocacy goals, you’ll be in a better position to reevaluate and change directions when needed. This means your advocacy efforts don’t have to stop at the end of the school year.
If you’re wondering if it is possible to support your learner in a particular way, send an email and ask that question. Maybe it is possible right now. Maybe it is not. Either way, getting more information will help you determine your next steps and will help you keep your advocacy efforts moving forward. Forward motion—even in small or unexpected ways—can be beneficial to your overall advocacy efforts.
In a world where experiences and programs are not often created specifically with gifted and 2e learners in mind, being a gifted guide and advocate for gifted and 2e learners is an ongoing process. As a gifted guide—whether you are a parent, an educator, a clinician, or another professional working to support gifted and 2e learners—you are working day in and day out to create a world that is more understanding and responsive to the gifted and 2e experience.
Advocacy is an ongoing conversation and an intentional, consistent action. It can feel slow, overwhelming, and frustrating. At the same time, it can feel incredible and rewarding when you see your learners in situations where they can grow and thrive.
Wherever you are in your gifted guide journey, know you are not alone. We are here to support you as you support your learners.
As we grow Guiding Gifted, we want to hear from you! Tell us what your experience supporting gifted and 2e learners has been like by taking our Gifted in My Area Survey. Your responses will help to inform our work as we continue to support the families of gifted and 2e learners.
Thanks for reading and subscribing. If you’d like even more curated resources from the Davidson Institute, click here. To learn more about our Young Scholars program, consider attending our next virtual Young Scholars Application Q&A on Monday, April 8, at 10 am (Pacific).
We’ll see you next month. Stay well, Gifted Guides!
Opportunity Alert!
Reminder: Applications are still open for our THINK Summer Institute for 13–16-year-olds!
THINK Summer Institute, a three-week residential gifted summer program, is one of the first programs created at the Davidson Institute. Since 2004, THINK has offered the brightest minds in the country an opportunity to earn college credit, experience life on a college campus, and build friendships with peers from all over the country!
Students enroll in one course, with options from 3 or 4 credit classes, from the University of Nevada, Reno and work closely with university faculty in small classes. To view the 2024 course offerings and meet our summer professors, click here.
Apply by March 29!
Applications are accepted on a rolling basis during the application window. Course placement is first-come, first-served, so we recommend applying as soon as possible. Interested in learning more about this unique summer opportunity? Click here to view additional information on How to Apply.