When Smart Kids Underachieve in School: Practical Solutions for Teachers

When you were a child, do you remember how much you loved school? You were eager to go, you had nothing but good things to say, and when weekends came it was a bit of a disappointment. Then, something happened. There was a tipping point, maybe around middle school, when school transformed from something that you could not wait to do, to something you had to do. It became like a job, dreading Mondays and awaiting Fridays. What happened between the first and latter years? Why do a majority of students come to dread going to school—even though it is the place that houses all of their friends? The major culprit for this switch is boredom.

How did things go so wrong so fast? Why did schools change from the place where everything was new and exciting, to the place where you had to bear down and suffer through so that you could go on and do things you would rather do? A lot of it has to do with how schools are set up in general. In elementary schools, one teacher is typically in charge of 25 students. As any elementary teacher will tell you, you have to keep the students busy; otherwise they will begin to get antsy. So, elementary teachers have a lot of tricks up their sleeves, rotating students through centers, hands-on activities, etc. They keep them out of trouble by keeping them busy. Middle schools and high schools tend to turn to structure in order to maintain order. This means keeping students in perfectly formed rows, and putting the teacher at the front of the classroom, disseminating information while students passively learn. Putting them in collaborative groups or having them in centers might make for a noisy class. Controlling the room cuts down on behavior issues. Of course, this makes students much more inactive, and this is when boredom can begin.

There is also more of a personal connection in an elementary school because teachers usually have students all day, all year. There is time to cultivate relationships, and students, especially compliant ones, want to please their teacher. On the other hand, a high school teacher could have five classes of 25, and only for 45 minutes to an hour a day. Just getting to know students’ names is enough of a challenge, much less getting to know each of them. Amazingly, many high school teachers excel at this, although the degree of difficulty is much higher than that of an elementary teacher.

The other issue with the later grades, and with gifted students especially, is that the gap between student knowledge and skill can widen over time. In other words, in elementary school, a gifted student might be a little ahead of his fellow students, familiar with higher level vocabulary, and able to process content a little faster. Because that student gets a little more ahead each year, by the time he reaches middle or high school, he is way ahead of classmates. As the teacher teaches to the pace of the typical student, this means the gifted students are going at a slow pace and covering content they may already be familiar with. What could be more boring than learning the basics about something you already know?

The overreliance on teacher-led learning and lack of a connection with the teacher at the higher levels of education both combine, causing boredom. The abilities of the gifted student only accentuate this boredom, which is a major cause of underachievement amongst gifted students.

Teachers often feel they need to keep everybody in the class moving at the same pace. The traditional classroom has a traditional setup. Students are seated in desks in rows facing the front of the classroom, where the teacher dispenses information like the sage on the stage. There is a central focus on memorization of facts and application of content. What throws a wrench in this traditional structure is the student who is moving at a quicker pace than a majority of the class. In many cases, the response to this fast-paced learner is one of two things: (1) Have the student slow down and stay with the class, or (2) if the student finishes early, have her complete extra work that addresses more of what she has already been doing. It will not take a gifted student long to figure out that if she gets her work done too fast, it will just result in more work, which takes away the advantage of finishing early. Then, the student learns to pace herself so that she gets her work done but never gets too far ahead of the rest of the class. This slow pace can be extremely boring, just as the fast pace for someone with a learning disability can be too challenging.

Tracking has become a bad word in education, and yet that is exactly what we are doing by placing students into classes based on age. By putting students in a specific grade, we are lumping a group of students together based only on their birthdate. Anyone who has spent any amount of time in education knows that you can have 15-year-old students you can have an adult conversation with and 15-year-old students who still believe in Santa Claus. And yet we are putting these vastly different children in the same classroom and expecting them to achieve at the exact same level. This is not realistic, but it is the structure education has chosen to adopt. If we were setting up our ideal educational system, students would take subjects that were more ability-appropriate than age-appropriate. That would mean having students of various ages taking an algebra class or a low-level high school student taking classes with middle school children. We know that this is next to impossible in our current configuration because students are separated into buildings by age—elementary, middle, high, and even junior high schools.

An accomplished teacher figures out how to let students move at the pace that best suits them so that they do not become bored or overwhelmed. This is easier said than done. It requires more work from the teacher. This is what differentiation is, and it looks very different than the traditional classroom. You may have 30 students in your classroom with 17 working on one thing, 10 working on something a little less challenging, and 3 students working at greater depth than the rest. This is difficult to plan and to manage, but it can be done. The challenge is finding all of the levels of differentiation. In other words, juggling two different levels would be difficult enough, but depending on your class, you might need five or six different levels. By doing this, the pace is not determined by the teacher but instead by the students.

Underachievement usually begins when a student no longer feels challenged by school. In the early years of school, everything is so new, and students know so little that they can have a teacher who does not challenge them and still be challenged by the content. When students get older and get to know more, it becomes more obvious to them that they are not being challenged. If students go 2 or 3 years without any teachers to challenge them, then they might fall into the rut of underachievement. This is why underachievement rears its ugly head mostly in middle and high school. The school is not keeping up with the student’s ability, so instead there is a lot of repetition and passive learning. If students are given work to supplement their ability, it is just more of the same. And, of course, the worst thing a teacher can do is have a gifted student tutor a struggling student. This does not actually benefit the gifted student. He still is dealing with content on a lower level and has to go even lower to make it accessible to the struggling student. If you want to enrich the gifted student, you should go in the other direction, finding a mentor who is an expert in the subject and can supplement what the gifted student is learning.

Not only does boredom lead to underachievement, it can lead to behavior problems as well. There is a reason for the saying, “Idle hands are the devil’s handiwork.” When gifted students become bored they find other things to do—some productive, some not so productive. This might be talking to a fellow classmate, not working on the work they are supposed to, and instead doing something else or outwardly challenging the teacher. It can eventually lead to even more serious offenses, such as tardiness, fights with other students, or truancy. Many of these students would not be behavior problems if only they were engaged in the class. These students might be behavior problems in classes they are not interested in but ideal students in those classes they are interested in.

According to Michael Linsin (2012), there are several things that can lead to student boredom:

1. Sitting too long: No one likes to sit all day being talked at. This might seem like excellent training for the adult world of sitting in long, boring meetings, but if students are made to sit too long, they will become unengaged. Make sure you pay attention to student body language and get them moving if a majority becomes fidgety.

2. Talking too much: To quote Run-D.M.C., “You talk too much, you never shut up.” Human beings have an attention span that, even for a person who can concentrate very well, lasts no more than 20 minutes. Those who are not giving that effort might only last 10 minutes or even 5. Students need to be moving, involved, and engaged. Talking at them for an hour is not going to accomplish this.

3. Making the simple complex: There is a difference between a complex problem and a problem that requires a student to think at a higher level. Many teachers do not understand how to increase the level of thinking without making the problem complex. They take it to mean that they need to make their instruction more difficult. And yet some of the most thought-provoking questions can be so simple. An example of a higher level question: What is your favorite color and why? The justification of the choice is in the evaluation aspect of Bloom’s taxonomy (see p. 153 for more information about this concept). Teachers need to be teaching students to critically think using this simple questioning.

4. Making the interesting, uninteresting: This all comes down to delivery. If you deliver even the most interesting topic in a method that has students sitting and listening, it will quickly become uninteresting. At the same time, you can take something seemingly uninteresting and make it interesting by engaging students and connecting it to the real world. If you the teacher are not interested in the topic, it will be very difficult for students to become interested.

5. Directing too much, observing too little: Teachers sometimes feel the need to act as cruise director. Some run the show and never sit back and watch students learn for themselves. You should never be working harder than your students. They should be doing the bulk of the work with you guiding from the side. As Sherlock Holmes was known to say, “You see, but you do not observe. The distinction is clear.”

6. Leading a slow, sloppy, slipshod pace: There are a variety of students in the classroom. You may have special education students who need to move at a slower pace, regular students who move at a traditional pace, and gifted students who move at an advanced pace. If you are not skilled at differentiation, you typically teach to the middle. You leave yourself enough space to work with those who may fall behind, but the gifted students have to put on the brakes. If they get too far ahead, the rest of the class will never catch up. This slow, crawling pace often causes gifted students to become bored.

7. Failing to adjust: Any teacher worth her salt must be skilled at adjusting. This means pace, content, rigor, etc. If even the best teacher keeps doing the same thing over and over without adjusting, students could easily become bored.

The key is to find teaching strategies that avoid these causes of boredom. Although there are many strategies a teacher can use to combat boredom in the classroom, the following may solve many of the aforementioned causes.

Just how much does a student know about a given topic? There are times we just assume students do not know anything. Thus, when we begin to teach a topic, we start at the very beginning. There may be some students who benefit from this. There are others who will already know the basics and will be bored having to start at the beginning. What if, before a unit begins, you give a preassessment to see how much students already know? Many teachers do this. But what do teachers do with that information? Unfortunately, if students show mastery of the content, they are often still made to go through the unit at the same pace as everyone else.

The days of all students being treated the same are long gone. We know through research and observation that students are different from one another, and thus their education should reflect this. If you have a student who is learning disabled, you should teach that student very differently than a typical student. In fact, laws require accommodations for these students. Unfortunately, there is no such law in the gifted realm. Because of this, gifted students often get lost in the shuffle. They are able to keep up with the class, so teachers assume they are fine when in fact they could be moving even quicker or going more in depth.

If a student takes a preassessment and shows he has mastery of the content, what if you give him credit for that without him having to go through the material at the rest of the class’s pace? Can the preassessment act as the proof that this student understands the content? Of course, the logical question is: What does that student do while the rest of the class learns the regular content? This is where you have the opportunity to really challenge a gifted student. You can have the student create an independent study either based on the content you are covering, allowing the student to explore it more in depth, or you can have him choose an independent study based on something he wants to learn about related to the subject area. You can even create a contract with the student (see Figure 2).

You can meet with the student periodically to make sure he is on track to finish the project. Other than that, you can stay out of the student’s way and make sure he has the resources he needs to work on his independent study. By doing this, you are combating many of the causes of boredom because independent study allows students to go in depth on a topic and manage their own pace.

Figure 2. Project contract. From Project-Based Learning for Gifted Students: A Handbook for the 21st-Century Classroom (p. 17), by T. Stanley, 2012, Waco, TX: Prufrock Press. Copyright 2012 by Prufrock Press. Reprinted with permission.

Project Contract

Student Name: __________________________________________

Project Name: ___________________________________________

Estimated Time of Project: _________________________________

(include calendar)

Power Standard(s) Covered: ________________________________

Other Standards Covered: __________________________________

__________________________________________________________

Skills Learned:

• _________________________________________________

Overall Goal of Project: ______________________________________

__________________________________________________________

Product of Project: ___________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

Headings for Rubric Evaluation: ___________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

(include rubric)

Student Signature: ___________________________________________

Teacher’s Signature: _________________________________________

Parent(s) Signature: _________________________________________

In addition to preventing boredom, there are educational advantages to students working independently (DeNeen, 2013). Students:

Using preassessments to allow students to bypass content they already know and instead working on something of their own creation will motivate them much more.

Project-based learning (PBL) is a strategy of teaching that provides many advantages, including (Stanley, 2012):

PBL involves students being given a task to accomplish, usually addressing an essential question the teacher has provided or, even better, one that the teacher and students have created together. Students are either asked to create a product to demonstrate mastery of this concept or are allowed to choose a product they feel will do this. PBL is typically long-term, spanning over weeks rather than just a single day. It is also usually done in groups, which allows for collaboration, although projects can be completed individually.

The most effective aspect of PBL, when it comes to addressing the boredom of underachieving gifted students, is that it naturally differentiates. If a student comes into the project knowing a lot of information about the content, then she can start her project at that point and go as deep as she likes. There is no ceiling on a project because the product allows for a lot of different possibilities to demonstrate mastery. There is also no one correct answer. There are several possibilities because the essential question is open-ended. Figure 3 is an example of a project.

Figure 3. An example of project-based learning.

Paper: It’s Not Just for Writing

Brief Description

Origami is the art of paper design through folding. It involves angles both in the model folded as well as in the unfolded paper. Learn how math and origami are linked and try some of the patterns.

Product

You will create origami animals and research those animals. You will make several of these, either creating a farm, zoo, jungle, or other habitat with many animals. You will also try to invent your own creation in origami paper design, explaining how it is created mathematically.

Content Areas

English/Science/Math

Essential Questions

• How do you locate important details about a topic using different sources of information including books and online resources?

• How do animals fit together in a habitat?

• How does origami use math in order to accomplish the shapes it does?

Inspiration Starting Point

Read “Origami & Math” (available at http://www.paperfolding.com/math)

Estimated Time of Project

2 weeks

Suggested Materials

• Paper

• Patterns for origami (available at http://www.paperfolding.com)

You could give this project to 25 different students and get 25 very different models at 25 different levels of understanding. There would be some who get a basic understanding of the content, but someone else might be breaking new ground. They would all be answering the essential questions, some in more depth than others. This organic differentiation allows you to juggle the various levels of ability, because the students themselves determine how deep they are going to go. You may need to provide some encouragement and coaching, especially for those underachieving gifted students who have gotten used to doing the bare minimum. But by giving them choice and allowing for more creativity, bored students might become engaged in learning.

We live in an educational world of high-stakes testing. Nearly every state has an achievement test that measures student progress over the course of the year. These assessments are primarily made up of multiple-choice questions, and to prepare students, we expose them to this type of assessment. Unfortunately, we sometimes take it too far, and every assessment becomes a pencil-to-paper test. Since you have been out of school, how many pencil-to-paper tests have you had to take? Not many. Most assessments in your adult life are going to be performance-based. These are assessments where instead of indicating a correct or incorrect answer, you are producing a product of some sort.

Using performance-based assessments allows you to engage underachievers in a way that traditional testing does not. Performance-based assessments tend to be more hands-on, allow for greater use of creativity, and encourage valuable 21st-century survival skills that will benefit students later in life. The challenge in using performance-based assessments is grading them because they can be subjective, given that there is not just one correct answer. How does a teacher ensure that she is properly measuring whether the student has learned the content or not? The best way to do this is through a well-written rubric. Figure 4 is an example of what a rubric evaluating an oral presentation would look like.

Figure 4. Sample performance-based assessment rubric.

Rubric for Discovery Unit

Content

Presentation

Group Work

Excellent

• Students teach the information in the standard in depth, providing a deeper understanding than needed.

• Students are clear in their teaching of the content, providing examples and detail to help with understanding.

• The questions the group provides capture the standard and all aspects of it.

• Student presentation is well-organized, with everyone sure of his or her role and what is being taught.

• Visuals and handouts that the group uses bring meaning to the presentation and are well-explained.

• Students are confident in their speaking ability and are easily heard by the audience.

• Students work well with one another, listening to everyone’s ideas and allowing all to contribute.

• Students are on task as a group, working with focus and getting tasks done on time.

• Students do a good job of incorporating everyone’s strengths into the design of the presentation.

Good

• Students teach the information in the standard at a surface level, providing the basics but not getting a deeper understanding.

• Students provide examples and detail to help with understanding but need more to help with clarity.

• The questions the group provides capture the standard but not all aspects of it.

• Student presentation is organized, but some group members are not sure of their roles, or there is a moment of confusion.

• Visuals and handouts the group uses bring a basic understanding, but need to be explained better for deeper meaning.

• Students are confident in their speaking ability and are easily heard by the audience most of the time, but mumble or are unclear at times.

• Students work well with one another but don’t always listen to each other’s ideas and allow everyone to contribute.

• Students are on task as a group, working with focus and getting tasks done, but occasionally get sidetracked.

• Students do a good job of incorporating everyone’s strengths into the design of the presentation most of the time, but not always.

Needs Improvement

• Students do not teach the information in the standard, missing the concept they are supposed to address.

• Students are not clear in their teaching of the content, causing confusion by not providing examples and detail to help with understanding.

• The questions the group provides do not capture the standard and/or are off topic.

• Student presentation is not well organized, with group members often unsure of their role and what is being taught.

• Visuals and handouts the group uses do not bring meaning to the presentation and seem off topic.

• Students are not confident in their speaking ability, making them hard to be heard by the audience.

• Students do not work well with one another, not listening to everyone’s ideas and allowing all to contribute.

• Students are not on task as a group, lacking focus and not getting tasks done on time.

• Students do not adequately incorporate everyone’s strengths into the presentation, leaving group members out.

This particular rubric breaks down the performance into two parts—the content of the presentation and the professionalism of the presentation. The essential question is addressed by the content, and the professionalism of the presentation is a 21st-century skill, as is the group work aspect, which measures the effectiveness of the collaboration. These 21st-century skills could not be captured on a multiple-choice test, but with an effective rubric, they can be properly measured.

To make a final case for performance-based assessment, if you think back to the moments in school that you remember, you are probably not thinking about the time you bubbled in a particular letter on a test or when a teacher was lecturing at you. Performance-based assessments, such as building an invention, performing a scene from a book, or giving a presentation to the class, are probably what stand out the most. Why would you not want to provide students with these memorable moments that will elicit an enduring understanding? These types of assessments will engage the students and make it more difficult to become bored.

Combating boredom is something teachers struggle with on a daily basis. Today, when students have much shorter attention spans and their ability to delay gratification is nearly nonexistent, it is even more of a challenge. Of course, it is not our job to entertain the students, but it is our job to engage them in learning. Using one of these strategies with your gifted underachievers to prevent their boredom does not guarantee success, but it would make your classroom more engaging and challenge students.

If you would like to read more in depth about one of these strategies or topics, a good resource is Project-Based Learning for Gifted Students: A Handbook for the 21st-Century Classroom by Todd Stanley, or Performance-Based Assessment for 21st-Century Skills by Todd Stanley.