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Gifted Students in Literature:

Both Young Adult and Children’s Literature
Keeley Raye Foley
Eastern Kentucky University
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Gifted Students in Literature:

Both Young Adult and Children’s Literature

When discussing exceptionalities and cultural issues within the students’ school systems

see on a daily basis many people think of students with learning disabilities or an immigrant

child who cannot read, write, and or speak English. However, and exceptionality is not always

something that keeps a student from learning. Gifted students are also considered exceptional

students and are to be differentiated for by law in Kentucky. These students either pick up the

information being taught much more quickly than others or they already know the information

being presented and taught. When the student already knows the information that should be new,

they tend to become bored and behavior issues start to become displayed within the classroom

causing many issues including: the entire class of students being distracted, the teacher being

distracted, the gifted child not gaining anything from the lesson, and the class time being

sabotaged; all because of one student. Many would say that the student has behavior issues that

need addressed at home, however they do not have behavior issues, they are just bored in the

classroom. By differentiating for these students, they are ensured to be challenged and much

better behaved as they actually have something to work out, rather than busy work to breeze

through. I chose to discuss gifted children in the classroom because I was that child who needed

the more challenging work and would be disruptive if not given something to do. However, I do

not feel that I was properly differentiated for while in public school knowing what I know now.

In this piece of writing there will be a few children’s literature/ young adult lit brought up which
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contain gifted characters for these exceptional students to relate to. I feel that these books will be

thoroughly enjoyed by gifted students, as they are tried and true, as they were some of my

favorite books as a child, as I felt that I could relate to the characters.

In the book Matilda the main character is a sweet young girl who is quite smart, but her

parents find her to be an annoying brat. She tends to want to read in the evenings while her

parents and brother watch TV. That does not fly with her parents though, because they want her

to do as they do and watch TV as well. Her parents are not aware of Matilda and her gifts, so

naturally they do not understand. Dr. Silverman states “To be gifted is to be different. That’s the

nature of the beast.” (Silverman, 2011) This statement really says it all in regard to gifted

children. They truly process things in a totally different way and there are many things gifted

people do and think that nongifted people do not understand. Matilda and her family are no

exception to this, as it is clear her family does not understand, and they send her off to school.

Matilda’s teacher, Miss Honey, recognizes Matilda is a very smart girl and should be given more

challenging work and moved up in the school to a higher grade. While Matilda was older than

most children in her class and really should have been in a higher grade, Matilda needed to be

differentiated for, and Miss Honey tried her best to give her harder more advanced work without

Miss Truchbull, the very mean head mistress, finding out, as she did not approve of moving

Matilda up. Dr. Silverman quotes the Columbus Group by stating, “Giftedness is asynchronous

development in which advanced cognitive abilities and heightened intensity combine to create

inner experiences and awareness that are qualitatively different from the norm. This asynchrony

increases with higher intellectual capacity. The uniqueness of the gifted renders them particularly

vulnerable and requires modifications in parenting, teaching and counseling in order for them to

develop optimally. (The Columbus Group, 1991)” (Silverman, 2011) We as educators need to be
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more like Miss Honey and less like Miss Trunchbull in recognizing our students talents and

being sure we are differentiating for them to better themselves in every way they can. We also

need to be sure we are communicating with parents to make sure they understand their child’s

special needs when it comes to their giftedness. This book could be used in many ways in

curriculum as a choice for students to read when doing a reading project for an English class.

Our students should be given some choices when doing something like a reading project so that

they will make it their own and really enjoy and learn from it. A student who is not considered

gifted and talented may not appreciate this particular book as much as a gifted and talented child

might.

Another book I felt that I could relate to was Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. This

is the first book in the series and gives the back story behind Harry Potter. Harry is being raised

by his muggle aunt and uncle, who are scared that Harry will discover who and what he really is.

Once Harry is summoned to attend Hogwarts an infamous wizard academy he truly begins to

discover himself and fit in better than he did at home with his aunt and uncle living under the

stairs. Hogwarts presents challenges he has never faced before and is comparable to what would

be considered a full time gifted facility that Colucci mentions in his article. Colucci also states

“Gifted students do not excel at everything.” (Colucci, 2015) Just as Harry didn’t until he had

practice. Many gifted students are gifted in one area and can struggle with others. There are also

gifted students who deal with what is called multi-potentiality; meaning they excel at many

things and struggle at picking one to focus on. (Colucci, 2015) With our ever-changing world we

as educators need to ensure we are teaching our children the “4-C’s” which are 21st century skills

such as communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity according to Colucci in

his article. “One means I use to differentiate for my high fliers in math is to have them
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collaborate to create additional challenging problems to the ones they first complete

independently. This way, I am reinforcing important math concepts while focusing on the

higher-order thinking skills necessary for the 4 C’s.” (Colucci, 2015) Colucci gives a great

example of how to differentiate for our gifted students within the classroom while including

these “4 C’s” which are important to education today These are also applied into the book Harry

Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone when Harry is presented with real life situations in which he can

use the spells he recently learned in class. This book could be used in several activities from

exploring different terms in English to searching for those 21st century skills that Harry Potter

uses.

Archibald Frisby is a book about a young boy who loves science. A boy who would

rather read a book about science than play on the playground at recess. Archibald’s mother is

concerned and wants him to have some real fun without a book. So, she sends him to summer

camp in hopes that his social skills will improve. Little does his mother know that he will bring

everyone to broaden their horizons and love science when his scientific knowledge will win the

softball game. The NPR station also had quite an interesting testimony like Archibald Frisby’s,

talking about an unusually bright young girl named Grace. Grace unknowingly surprised her

parents with her wit all the time. “At 5 or 6 years old, when snorkeling with her family in

Hawaii, she identified a passing fish correctly as a Heller's barracuda, then added, "Where are the

rest? They usually travel in schools." (Kamenetz, 2015) Further into the article Kamenetz looks

further into what makes a gifted child and organizes the different questions regarding the topic of

gifted children. Question number three stood out to me: How do you best serve gifted students?

This is in my and Kamenetz’ opinion the most controversial topic in the subject of gifted

students. "I believe that every single day in school a gifted child has the right to learn something
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new — not to help the teacher," Silverman says. "And to be protected from bullying, teasing and

abuse." (Kamenetz, 2015) I can feel this on a level many people cannot. I was that child who was

the “teacher’s helper” and did not learn something new every day. We as educators need to

ensure all of our students are learning every day and not given busy work or trying to change

them like Archibald’s mom may have been trying to do in a way.

In conclusion, gifted students have to be differentiated for in every lesson to ensure they

are truly getting something out of every lesson. These students have the right to learn something

every day just as the non-exceptional learner does. While it may be an extra step to do so these

children will thank you for it.

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Works Cited
Colucci, A. (2015, November 23). Gifted Ed. Students Are More Than Just Really Smart Kids.
Retrieved from Education Week Teacher:
https://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2015/11/24/understanding-gifted-students.html
Kamenetz, A. (2015, September 28). Who Are The 'Gifted And Talented' And What Do They
Need? Retrieved from NPR:
https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2015/09/28/443193523/who-are-the-gifted-and-talented-
and-what-do-they-need
Silverman, L. K. (2011). Article: The Unique Inner Lives of Gifted Children. Retrieved from
Helios School: http://www.heliosns.org/article-the-unique-inner-lives-of-gifted-children/

Annotations
Author: Roald Dahl
Title: Matilda
Publisher/Year: Jonathan Cape, 1988
Type of Book: Children’s Chapter Book
Reading level: Grades 3-7
Synopsis: Matilda is a really smart girl who has a family that just does not “get” her. She is sent
off to a school where the head mistress is quite mean. Matilda discovers she has powers to defeat
her head mistress, and make all the kids at the school lives better.

Author: J.K. Rowling

Title: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
Publisher/Year: Scholastic Inc, 1997
Type of Book: Children’s Chapter Book
Reading level: Grades 4-11
Synopsis: Harry Potter has no idea how famous he is. Granted it’s in a world he’s never been to.
Because he's being raised by his aunt and uncle who are worried Harry will learn that he's really
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a wizard, just as his parents were. Everything changes when Harry is summoned to attend a
school for wizards. Harry finds himself drawn deep inside a mystical world he never knew
existed and closer to his own noble destiny.
Author: Michael Chesworth
Title: Archibald Frisby
Publisher/Year: New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1994
Type of Book: Children’s Chapter Book
Reading level: Grades K-5
Synopsis: Young Archibald is mad about science! He would rather read a book about science
than play on the playground. He creates experiments with everything he encounters. His mother
packs him off to camp, urging him to forget about science and “have fun” in hopes he will
improve his social skills.