High Achiever vs. Gifted Learner vs.

Creative Thinker
PART I
Review the provided resources (articles and videos). Study the chart
provided in the resources section. Which items have you noticed in
students or other individuals? In each column, enter a minimum of
10 items from the chart that you have seen in others.

A High Achiever...

A Gifted Learner...

A Creative Thinker...

Interested and attentive

Seeks out people that share

ideas-not age (often adults)

Willing to take risks

Memorizes content well

Emotionally intense

Intellectual playful

Often enjoys school

Asynchronous development

Unusual problem solver

Learns with ease through

repetition

Introverted

Asks constant questionsHypotheticals

Grade driven

Can have hidden learning

disabilities

Irreverent humor

Works hard for success

Learn rapidly and easily

Heightened emotional
sensitivity

Retains information well

Advanced vocabulary

Nonconformist

Comprehends information well Works well alone

Intuitive

Enjoys same age peers

Often avid readers

Full of ideas-many unfinished

Completes work accurately

Sees patterns and

connections

Makes mental leaps

Achieves high grades/top of

classes

Curious about learning

Not motivated by grades

Exhibits school appropriate

behavior

Form strong
opinions/perspectives

Focused on concepts not facts

Fits in well

May not enjoy school

Seems off task often

Reluctant to move on until

fully satisfied with current
work or until interest fulfilled

Not afraid to be different

Able to learn with few

repetition

PART II
Consider three (3) different students that you know and/or have
taught that you considered a high achiever, a gifted learner, and a
creative thinking.

Which of the attributes you listed above (or others you didnt list)
were recognized in that student (currently or in hindsight)? Other
than provided chart, which of the resources support your thoughts?

The student that I considered

Student type
High
Achiever

Attributes with resource

reference
I had a student last year that I
would consider a High Achiever.
She was a very hard worker and
was very grade driven. She was
determined all year to raise her
grade from an A- to an A. She
asked for suggestions for how to
study better, what to focus on,
what would be on the test, what
the correct answers were on the
study guide. Endless questions
but all were focused on the RIGHT
ANSWER. She was a fabulous
memorizer. However, she never
saw connections between
countries or regions because she
was so focused on simply doing
well test to test. She was the
ideal student in the classroom,
though. She took her notes,
worked well in small groups, had
a positive attitude and enjoyed
school. She had many friends,
turned in complete and accurate
work. She fits the list I generated
perfectly. She just never saw
beyond the simple facts nor did
she every really have an interest
in looking deeper. And, when I
gave an assignment that had no
clear answer and required more
creative thought, she struggled

I was correct or
incorrect because
I was correct because
the characteristics listed
by Kingore in the article
fit this student perfectly.
As I read through the
chart provided at the
end of the article, every
criteria fit this student.
My thinking was further
reinforced by the Video:
Gifted vs. Bright by Dr.
Brandi Maynard. Based
on the evidence
presented in the video,
my student is clearly a
bright student but not a
gifted student.

and was really uncomfortable

with having to generate her own
ideas. This student could easily
be the high achiever in the
Bertie Kingore article that is
delighted and feels in control
when the teacher poses a
question and she knows the
answer. I can picture this student
in my head as I read!

Gifted
Learner

For my gifted learner, I thought of

a past student that had a broad
vocabulary, wide interests that
reached far beyond our
classroom, and that had strong
ideas and opinions about much of
what we discussed and studied in
Geography class. Based on my
early interactions with this
student, I hypothesized that he
was a gifted student. He learned
the content very quickly at a very
high level. He was able to write
and discuss it. He made unique
connections between regions of
the world that his peers did not
see and/or necessarily
understand. He was interested in
learning beyond the scope of our
lessons and curriculum. He was
often frustrated by group work
and his peers learning speed. All
of these indicated to me he was
gifted. Several resources in this
module reinforce my thinking.
The Varied Faces of Talented and
Gifted Students provided me with

I was correct that this

student was gifted
because he is not a high
achiever nor a creative
thinker. He was not
grade driven at all and
in fact he often
underachieved and was
not concerned by it. He
knew he was smarter
than the B or
sometimes C he was
earning and that the
grades were because he
was not doing
everything school
expected of him. He
also did not have to do
any work to learn the
material, no repetition
was needed. He did not
enjoy school but he did
love learning. He was
not a free, creative
thinker either. He was
not prone to mental
leaps but instead was

Creative
Thinker

a series of characteristics that I

had seen in this student: cannot
finish something because it still
isnt right, understands subtle
humor and nuances of language,
ability to generate original ideas,
persistent intense concentration,
needs little supervision, needs to
see purpose in activity, highly
verbal. The article What does
Motivation and Creativity Look
Like? also reinforced my
thinking. This student lacked
motivation at times in the regular
classroom when he grew
frustrated with the pace of his
peers learning. He was in an onlevel setting rather than a more
appropriate honors placement.
This article was interesting
because it reinforced why this
student was so responsive when I
differentiated his work and
allowed him to do an independent
study at a different pace than the
rest of the class.

much more analytical

and process driven in
his thinking. He was not
a risk taker or irreverent
in his thinking. Of the
three types of learners,
he was gifted.

I have had many, many creative

thinkers come through my
classroom over the years and
they are much easier to spot.
Why? Because they are harder to
teach! They challenge you. They
ask the hard questions that there
are NO answers to all the time! I
had one of these students last
year that I pegged as a gifted
learner in an on level class and
approached working with him as a
more traditional gifted student

I was incorrect in my
thinking. This student
was not a gifted learner
but was a creative
thinker. There are two
resources that have
clarified my thinking on
this student. One, the
article What does
Motivation and
Creativity Look Like?
reinforced the following
characteristics that I

rather than a creative thinker. I

thought he was gifted because he
could learn quickly without much
repetition, he had wide interests,
made unique connections with
the content, was able to converse
widely about the world, had
strong ideas about many things.
Much of these are found in the
criteria provided in the article by
Kingore. I tried differentiating
work for him as if he was a gifted
student. It failed. At the time, I
didnt know why it failed. After
reading in this module, I now
know that although he was
probably gifted, his creative
nature was more dominant and
therefore needed to be nurtured
more in the classroom.

saw in this student:

-sense of humor
-adventurous spirit and
willingness to take risks
-ability to adapt,
improve, modify ideas
-nonconforming ideas
and does not fear being
different.
The article
Characteristics of
Highly Creative
Individuals was also
helpful. This article
reminded me that this
students was always
asking questions,
challenging me (in a
good way), was willing
to disagree with me in
class in unusual and
unpopular ways, would
often propose unusual
or far-fetched
possibilities for the
future/world, had an
irreverent and
borderline sense of
humor for the
classroom, was very
sensitive to other
students, was unwilling
to simply accept things
as they were but
needed to discuss the
reasons. Both of these
articles helped me
better understand this
student and what would
have helped him in my
classroom.

Do you think the school and/or system met/meets the needs of these
students? Why or why not?
I think that the system meets the needs of these students at times. The system
cant meet the needs of any students- people meet their needs whether that be
counselors or teachers or coordinators or whoever is responsible for making sure
these students end up on the right class with the right teachers. Meeting the needs
of these students starts with placement in the correct classes and one of my
students was in the wrong level class. I knew it and he knew it by mid-year but it
was too late to change it by then so we adapted and did the best we could to make
the experience worthwhile for him. The next step is having teachers that are able to
recognize the student needs in front of them and respond to the needs. Do all
teachers do this to the same degree? Arguably, no. So every childs experience will
not be the same. In the case of my three students, I would say that none of them
had all of their needs met in my classroom. My high achiever needed to be pushed
further to grow deeper. This was challenging given that she was in the on-level
class. Could she have been in the honors class where she would have had to work
harder, written more at a deeper level and probably made a B instead of that A?
Yes. Would she sign up for it knowing that she might not get the A? Probably not.
My gifted student needed to be in the honors level. He was intellectually so far
beyond his on level peers that at times conversation was challenging for him.
Differentiating helped but I needed this training BEFORE I met him because the
independent studies he did were better than the daily repetition and work of the
class but they were not inspired work for him. Finally, my creative thinker benefited
the least, which I dont think is unusual. I will say that I think he fared pretty well in
my classroom as I am relatively comfortable giving up control, allowing dissent,
giving students a voice and a degree of freedom. However, I am the first to admit
that the structure of my class needs more creative outlets that he probably
desperately needed. He was probably often bored and frustrated and could have
been much more successful had I recognized his potential sooner. In general, I
think that the research supports that high achievers or bright students fare better in
our schools and their needs are met most often because they are the easiest to
work with in the classroom. They are compliant, driven, motivated and interested
students. Gifted students, at least in Georgia, have programming to support their
development. It is the creative thinkers that are still the least likely to be identified,
nurtured and supported. They are often hard to define, challenging to work with in
the classroom and we dont always agree on how to evaluate what they produce.
The ambiguity and challenge of the creative thinker leaves them least likely to
thrive.