2021 Keynote Speakers
Dr. Joseph Renzulli
Assessment For Learning: The Missing Element For Identifying High Potential in Low Income and Minority Groups
A major controversy facing the field of gifted education is the underrepresentation of low income, minority, and dual language students. Strategies for addressing this challenge have been to use universal screening and local norms; however, these useful recommendations continue to focus on traditional testing procedures that measure what students already know and overlook other important traits that contribute to high levels of creative productivity. Assessment for learning examines traits such as interests, instructional preference styles, preferred modes of expression, and executive function skills. Although sometimes referred as the “soft skills,” they have gained much more attention on the parts of college admission officers and employers, especially for higher level leadership positions. Instruments that assess these traits are often completed by the students themselves; and technology and artificial intelligence now allow us to administer and analyze them with the same ease used for traditional standardized tests.
Numerous articles and presentations have identified the problem and offered general suggestions for addressing it. The approach recommended here offers drills down to a specific set of instruments that provide teachers with assessment for learning information that can guide them in providing talent development accommodations for underrepresented students.
Dr. Joseph Renzulli is a leader and pioneer in gifted education and applying the pedagogy of gifted education teaching strategies to all students. Dr. Renzulli received the Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Award for Innovation in Education, considered by many to be “the Nobel” for educators, and was a consultant to the White House Task Force on Education of the Gifted and Talented.
Dr. Sally Reis
Using Strength-Based Pedagogy to Engage and Challenge Gifted High-Ability and 2E Learners
This keynote will provide an overview of exciting new work focusing on strength-based pedagogy: what it is, why it works, and why the field of gifted education has pioneered these exciting teaching strategies. The focus of this work is how we can use strengths and interests to help develop talents in a broad range of gifted students, including high-ability and 2E (twice-exceptional) learners. Specific recent research results will be shared on how we can help gifted students realize their potential.
Sally M. Reis is the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and a Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of Educational Psychology at The University of Connecticut. Her research interests are related to special populations of gifted and talented students, including: students with learning disabilities, gifted females and diverse groups of talented students.
Thank you to Keynote Sponsor: University of Denver, Morgridge College of Education
2021 Breakout Speakers & Sessions
Parent Mini-Conference*
8:00 am: Join General Conference for
Opening & Sally Reis Keynote
9:10 am - break/browse exhibits/speed networking
9:30am: Jim Delisle Parent Workshop
11:00 - 11:30am: Meet other Parents in Breakout Rooms
Understanding your gifted child from the inside-out: A guide to the social and emotional lives of gifted kids
Parents of gifted children and teens have many questions about how best to meet their intellectual and emotional needs. They want to know what giftedness entails: is it only intellectual ability, or something more? They want to know how to advocate for their gifted child in a school setting mired in “bringing up the bottom” rather than “raising the bar” at the top. They want to know how to set expectations that are appropriate and attainable. And they want to know how to juggle the wide range of emotional intensities that often “comes with the territory” in raising gifted kids. This session addresses each of these issues…and more.
Jim Delisle, Ph. D. has taught gifted children and their supporters for more than 39 years. He retired from Kent State University in 2008 after 25 years of service as a professor of special education. Throughout his career, Jim has taken time away from college teaching to return to his "classroom roots," volunteering as a 4th, 5th, and 8th grade teacher. He has taught gifted middle school students one day a week in the Twinsburg, OH public schools, and for the past six years, Jim has worked part time with highly gifted 9th and 10th graders at the Scholars' Academy in Conway, SC. He has also been a Yunasa Senior Fellow for the past six years.
The author of more than 250 articles and 20 books, Jim's work has been translated into multiple languages and has been featured in both professional journals and in popular media such as The New York Times and Oprah! His book, Doing Poorly on Purpose: Strategies to Reverse Underachievement and Respect Student Dignity, will be published in 2018. A frequent presenter throughout the U.S., Jim has also addressed audiences in nations as diverse as England, Greece, China, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia.
Jim's wife, Deb, served as the Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education at the US Department of Education in Washington DC for 3 years, and is currently the CEO of ASCD, the nation's premiere association for educators. Their son, Matt, is an Emmy Award winning video editor in San Francisco and the source of many stories about raising gifted and creative kids. In his retirement Jim plans to walk as many beaches as possible and write children's picture books where the main characters are based on young people he has taught or counseled during his career.
*time approximate, subject to change