When Smart Kids Underachieve in School: Practical Solutions for Teachers

There are misconceptions about gifted students. Many think that if students are gifted, they can automatically take good notes, know how to study for tests, or write in complete sentences. These assumptions cause a lot of gifted students to find themselves in a place where they do not have the skills to be successful. Skills are much different than ability. A student may be gifted in math, so he has the ability to answer complex problems. He might not, however, be able to explain to others how he got his answer.

People often say that the best athletes are not necessarily the best coaches of their sport. For example, Ken Griffey, Jr., was once the best player in baseball, as evidenced by winning the league’s MVP in 1997. He possessed a very natural swing and was a five-tool player, meaning he had speed and could catch, throw, hit for average, and hit for power. These sorts of players are very rare, which is part of the reason Griffey was enshrined into the Hall of Fame in 2016. But would Griffey make a very good coach? Probably not. Griffey possessed natural talent. You cannot teach speed. You cannot learn strength. You either have superb hand-eye coordination or you do not. These things came naturally to him. Because of this, it may be difficult for him to put into words how he does what he does. It just comes to him from his talent. The same can be said about many gifted students. You cannot teach someone to be gifted. These students just have the natural ability to look at something from another perspective or see a pattern others do not. This is not something they have developed; it is something they were born with. A lot of times, answers come easily to them, but they cannot necessarily explain them. As a result, getting gifted students to show their work in math or to write a detailed response in English language arts can be a challenge. This gap between ability and skills can cause a gifted student to start to fall behind—and begin to underachieve.

In their younger years, gifted students stick out a lot more. If you were to have someone observe an elementary classroom that had one gifted student, it probably would not take very long for this person to be able to spot which kid it is. If you put that same person in a high school classroom with the same mission, however, it is probably going to be more difficult to discern. Why?

Students considered gifted in the lower grades usually have a lot of content knowledge that their age-mates do not possess. This is part of what identifies them as gifted. A student who has been reading since she was 3 is going to be ahead of the other first graders who maybe did not learn to read until they were 6. Or a student whose parents took him to the conservatory every week might have a better grasp on science than the student who has never been. There are clear gaps between these students due to different experiences. Although it is impossible to fill in all the gaps, once students are in school for several years, others may begin to catch up with those who came in with the advantage. Suddenly a wide gap between students is either closed or much smaller.

Not only that, as the students move up in grade levels, the schoolwork becomes much more difficult. This is a natural progression as students are introduced to new content they have not been exposed to before. There are not many chances in everyday life to be exposed to quantum physics or algebraic notation. At this point in their school careers, things have always come easy to them and they have not had to work as hard as age-mates in order to produce quality work. They do not have the skillset to learn new material or push past a challenge. When students have faced challenges their entire school careers and are faced with another, they have coping skills to get past it. If a student has never had a challenge until he gets into middle school, the obstacle may prove to be immovable. Rather than tackling it, these types of students stop in their tracks. This is when underachievement can set in.

Students often must employ lower level thinking skills in order to be successful. Most states employ content standards, which teachers are responsible for teaching to their students, leading to state assessments. How many of these state assessments are asking higher level questions that dig deep into the learning that has occurred? Considering these assessments are mostly multiple choice, not many. In order to prepare students for these high-stakes tests, teachers resort to teaching a lot of facts, but do not go into much depth.

If a classroom requires a lot of rote memorization, or completing and turning something in gets students full credit, the gifted student is not going to be able to access the depths of his talents. If the gifted student gets bored, he may even elect not to complete assignments or turn them in, causing underachievement. A mediocre student, on the other hand, could be very successful accessing the lower levels of Bloom’s taxonomy (see p. 153 for more about this concept) and working hard. The compliant student is going to find much more success in this setting than a student who is itching to be challenged.

This is not to suggest that the standards should not be taught, but the method in which these standards are taught needs to be more than just surface level. You need to allow students to learn valuable skills, skills that they will be able to use later in life, as well as the content. The problem with the focus on content is that many students will never use it again. Are you computing geometry in your everyday life, have you ever had to recite the Gettysburg Address, or have you ever in a job interview been asked to provide an analysis of The Great Gatsby? Probably not. But there are 21st-century survival skills we could instill, while teaching the content, including (Trilling & Fadel, 2009):

If you were a prospective employer looking at applicants’ skills, you would want to hire the person with these skills on the spot.

How difficult would it be to have students working on something where they are learning one or maybe more of these survival skills, mastering the content at the same time? Take, for example, the social studies project in Figure 14. Students might learn a lot of facts about the Renaissance and be able to take it a step further and see connections between the accomplishments of that time and what they led to. More importantly, however, they are going to have to learn and employ the following 21st-century survival skills (Trilling & Fadel, 2009):

» curiosity and imagination—when creating their structure in the bonus opportunity;

» effective oral and written communication—in the presentation where they convince the class of their choice;

» critical thinking and problem solving—determining which ideas are more important than others; and

Figure 14. Sample social studies project.

Renaissance Hall of Fame

There are all sorts of hall of fames, whether for sports, music, motorcycles, inventions, etc. You have been charged with creating a hall of fame that represents the Renaissance. Your group will choose 10 ideas from the Renaissance that will be inducted into the hall of fame. Decisions you will have to make:

• What makes it in? What doesn’t?

• What scientific, cultural, or social changes did each idea lead to?

• Why have you made the choices you have?

You will present these decisions to the class for consideration. You must also create an exhibition for the top 3 ideas and how they will be displayed in the hall of fame.

You will be graded on the following three criteria:

• Presentation

• Content

• Display

Bonus Opportunity: Design the building/make a model of where the Hall of Fame will be housed based on Renaissance architecture and/or influence of other Renaissance ideas.

These are all skills they can use in any class, including science, health, or even home economics. Information about the Renaissance will not come in handy as much in those classes, but the skills learned will continue to be useful. If you are going to buy a car, you would want to analyze information about what sort of car is best for you. You would have to have effective oral communication skills to broker a deal with the salesman. You might have to employ critical thinking in order to see how it might fit in your budget or what upgrades would be affordable and practical. Collaboration might come in handy when working with the financial person, the service person, and other people involved in the buying and selling of the car.

Teaching students valuable skills on top of the content they are required to know will go a long way in equipping them to succeed in learning and in life.

If you are teaching sixth graders, you might assume students coming to you would have at least seven years of test-taking skills. This would be a poor assumption to make. You would be better to assume that students do not know how to properly take a test and to provide them with these skills. What you do not want is a student missing a question because he does not have the test-taking skills. If a student misses a question, you want it to be because he has not mastered the content.

Here is an example of how an English teacher might train her students how to write an essay:

› Would someone who knows nothing about the topic understand it the way you explained it?

› Make sure you explain the examples clearly and how they fit with your statement.

By introducing these guidelines at the beginning of the school year, students will clearly understand expectations and learn skills that will benefit them in any essay they write.

This goes for any type of test you give in your classroom. Are students properly trained on how to take that format of test? Even if you have multiple-choice tests and in your directions you say, “Make sure you read all of the questions before answering any of them,” your last question could read, “Leave this test blank with the exception of your name for full credit. Any erasure marks will result in a zero.” Although some students might feel they are being tricked, it is just a method of getting them to slow down and take their time on the test. Are students knowledgeable about how to eliminate distractors and use process of elimination to find the correct answer?

If students take a majority of their end-of-year exams on a computer, are they comfortable with using this format? Do you need to create tests of your own that use this model so that students can develop confidence in using it?

When a test is coming up, teachers often assign studying as homework. But have students ever been shown how to study? Gifted students might be able to wing some tests using their keen common sense and critical thinking skills, but sooner or later, whether in junior high, high school, college, or the bar exam, they will come across a test they need to study for in order to succeed. Have your students been given the necessary tools in order to study effectively?

Students need to find the right study strategies for them. Here are some examples to share with students:

1. Rewrite information in your own words: Try to rewrite what you have learned so that it makes sense to you. Recopy notes, put the essential question in your own words, or summarize the main lesson that was emphasized. You can even elaborate on what was written, providing more of an understanding.

2. Use mnemonic devices: These are triggers used to remember pieces of information using an association. For example, you can learn the cardinal directions using “Never Eat Soggy Waffles,” or use “HOMES” to remember the Great Lakes of Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior.

3. Practice with friends or family: Have someone quiz you. Have a friend or family member review your notes and formulate questions from them or test you on essential vocabulary.

4. SQ3R method: This strategy will help you think about a text (Robinson, 1970):

› Recite: Say the answers to the questions and quiz yourself on your comprehension of them.

› Review: Go over your answers and see if you have any unanswered questions.

5. Use notecards or flashcards: A memory retention strategy that focuses the attention on key points helps both auditory and visual learners. By saying words aloud you are hearing them, and by reading you are seeing them. This causes the information to transform from short- to long-term memories.

6. Practice time management: Cramming just hours before your test might allow you to learn the information in the short term, but will not help you to understand it. If you know your test is a week away, do not wait until the last minute to study. Spaced repetition is one such strategy. It involves spreading out the studying over a period of time, increasing the amount of time with each session. The first time you might sit down and study for 15 minutes. The next time could be half an hour. Eventually you would work up to even longer stretches of time, such as an hour. You do this over the course of a week rather than trying to cram in a 4-hour session all in one evening when most of what you have studied will be forgotten.

7. OK4R method: This method allows you to comprehend and retain information (Levy, 2011):

› Reflect: Reflect on the previous steps to keep the information in your memory.

8. Overlearn: Manipulate the material in as many ways as possible, such as writing, reading, touching, hearing, and saying it. Review the information in multiple ways to increase your chances of retaining it.

9. Frequently review material: If you do not review material, you can forget 80% of what you learned. Even before you have a test coming up, review what you have read, your notes, or your assignments as often as possible. The first review should come the same day or the day after you learned it. By reviewing often, studying for the test will not be as daunting.

10. Chunk material: Organize information into groups. You can chunk material in different ways depending on what you are trying to learn. If you have 10 terms to learn, you can group them into two groups of five to make it more manageable. Finding patterns in information is another way. This can be mnemonic, or it could be sequential. Remembering the pattern will trigger your memory of the individual pieces. A final way to chunk information is through organizing it by an essential question or theme. By finding the information that fits into a theme, you can organize it and make it easier to recall.

Note-taking is a very important skill. Without it, when you go to study, you are working with incomplete or incorrect material. Teaching a student to take good notes need not wait until junior high or high school. As early as elementary school, a student can be exposed to strategies for taking notes.

Good notes require taking large amounts of information and recording them in a much more succinct manner. Notes should not be a transcript of what was said, but a summation of the main points. Note-takers do not need to worry about writing conventions, such as complete sentences, punctuation, spelling, or other grammar. The idea is to capture the main idea in as short a sentence as possible. Think of Tarzan. When Tarzan introduces himself, he does not worry about formality. He would not say, “Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Tarzan.” He would say, “Me Tarzan.” Each says the same thing; one is just more concise. The same thing goes with notes. If the information you have been given is, “With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the United States purchased approximately 828,000,000 square miles of territory from France, thereby doubling the size of the young republic,” then with some creative note-taking, this mouthful could become the much shorter: “Louisiana Purchase (1803), 828 thou. sq. mi, doubled U.S.”

» Don’t use complete sentences—think in Tarzan talk. Eliminate articles (the, a, of), and don’t worry about correct punctuation or spelling.

» Use abbreviations (e.g., Native Americans = NA, United States = U.S., environment = env.).

» Use symbols and Twitter talk (e.g., definition (=); and/or (&, /); BTW, B4, NBD, TL).

» Organization is essential. Don’t cram notes into a single paragraph. Use a system that allows the notes to flow and makes it easy to find information.

There is no right or wrong way to take notes, but organization is really important. Here are a few examples of methods to share with students:

1. The Cornell method: Divide the paper into two columns—a smaller column on the left and a wider one on the right. The larger column should be used as the main area to take notes. For each new topic, the notetaker should skip a couple of lines to indicate a new topic. Use the column on the left to place important phrases and terms that would cause the reader to remember the more detailed information (see Figure 15). This is a good method for notes you are taking for information needed for a test. The keywords and phrases in the left-hand column act as a trigger for knowing the more detailed information you will need for the test. It does require some organization skills and possibly summarizing notes after the class is over.

2. The outlining method: This involves using a system of dashes or indented outlining. Begin at the left with a main topic. With each piece of information related to the main topic, you indent to the right (see Figure 16). When a new topic is introduced, you go back to the left margin. This is a useful method because notes can be written in short spurts linked together by the overall main topic. Also, most speakers give their information in an outline format.

3. The mapping method: This method involves drawing blocks or circles of information and then mapping evidence and supporting in connected boxes or circles. The middle bubble or block has the main point and anything connected to it are subtopics or pieces of evidence or support. This is a very visual style that takes up a lot of space, but it is helpful to those who like to draw (see Figure 17).

Often, the information students receive is being spoken to them in either a lecture or oral lesson. This requires that the student listens and captures the main information. Share with students some things to listen for when taking notes:

» If the teacher is using a PowerPoint, look for things that are underlined, italicized, or in bold.

» Listen for things such as “the most significant thing was” or “the primary effect was” or “what is unique about this is.”

» Don’t write down all examples (3–4 will do) but try to write down ones you will recall later.

Figure 15. Example of the Cornell method.

The Shot Heard Around the World

first battle

English vs. Colonists

Lexington and Concord

American Minutemen, because ready at a moment’s notice

This took place before America had even declared Independence.

Figure 16. Example of the outlining method.

I. Old North Bridge

a. Stopped British

i. 400 men turning away nearly 100 British troops

b. Sign that Colonists were not going to be pushed around

II. Lexington

Figure 17. Example of the mapping method.

Images

Another extremely important skill is the ability to research. This is the first of the 21st-century survival skills: accessing and analyzing information. With the advent of the Internet, information is a mere mouse click away. No longer do students need to toil in libraries, culling books in order to find the information they need, when a simple Google search will provide a million websites full of information. Although having a million places to find information is nice, knowing how to navigate and locate the one that is best going to help you is an important skill to possess. Figure 18 is an example of research tips to share with students. By learning how to conduct research properly, students can find out anything for themselves. This is a skill than can be used in any class as well as in their lives.

Figure 18. Sample student research skills handout. Adapted from 10 Performance-Based Projects for the Language Arts Classroom: Grades 3–5 (pp. 99, 102–103), by T. Stanley, 2017, Waco, TX: Prufrock Press. Copyright 2017 by Prufrock Press. Adapted with permission.

How to Research

You can find almost anything on the Internet, which means you always have to go through a lot of things that might not be relevant to your topic. There are various search engines to help them you information, such as:

• Google (http://www.google.com),

• Yahoo (http://www.yahoo.com), and

• Bing (http://www.bing.com).

When you search, you will want to:

• be as specific as possible without being too specific (e.g., too general = “airplanes,” too specific = “paper airplanes with cool decals”);

• narrow your search without eliminating sites because they do not contain the exact wording; and

• not just use the first website you encounter (i.e., just because it comes up in a search does not mean it is what you are looking for).

Imagine your teacher has instructed you to create a report. You decide that your report will be about hippos. If you do a random search on Google using the keyword hippos, your search would retrieve more than 16 million results. That’s more than you, or anyone, can possibly go through. How do you refine your search?

Step 1: Construct Research Questions

Write specific questions. Doing so will help you narrow your topic and determine exactly what information you need. Sample questions:

• What sort of animal is a hippo?

• Where do hippos commonly live?

• What do hippos like to eat?

• How many hippos are there in the world?

• What is the oldest known fossil record of hippos?

• How many people are attacked by hippos in a year?

Step 2: Figure Out Possible Sources of Information

Before going online, try to identify any sources that might have information on your topic. For example, you might list:

• National Geographic

• African Wildlife Foundation

• Any zoos such as the San Diego, St. Louis, or Philadelphia

• Videos of hippos on sites such as YouTube, Discovery Channel, or Animal Planet

Step 3: Identify Keywords

Review the questions and sources you brainstormed in Steps 1–2, and circle the keywords. What is it specifically you want to find? Use this to refine your search.

Step 4: Get Ready to Search

You are finally ready to choose a tool(s) and begin your search. Depending on the time you have and your own personal preference, you can start with a search engine or a specific site of your own choice.

If you are using a search engine, you will want to use the keywords you identified in Step 3 to develop your search query. The trick is to try several combinations of keywords. Remember—there’s no one right way to conduct research online. Just be sure to start with a strategy and experiment with different search tools to get the best results.

Step 5: Finding Easy-to-Understand, School-Appropriate Sites

Adding a simple suffix to your search may result in more student-appropriate, student-friendly results. For instance, refine your search to add the following:

• . . . for kids

• . . . for students

• . . . for children

• . . . for school

These will make the hits you receive from your search more age-appropriate and easy to understand because you will be the audience they are written for.

Do not assume that just because a student is gifted she possesses the skills needed in order to be successful in the classroom. Many times, because answers used to come easily to her or she was able to get by on her intelligence, she never had to learn the skills until she was far enough into her educational career that underachievement began to creep in. The four skills that would benefit students in school as well as come in handy in the real world would be test-taking skills, study skills, note-taking skills, and research skills. These 21st-century survival skills will enable students to be successful in any setting, school or otherwise.

If you would like to read more in-depth about one of these strategies, a good resource is the 10 Performance-Based Projects series by Todd Stanley.