Social and Emotional Curriculum for Gifted Students

Grade 4, Project-Based Learning Lessons That Build Critical Thinking, Emotional Intelligence, and Social Skills

Mark Hess

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000503272
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Bildung
• Subtopic: Inklusive Bildung

The Social and Emotional Curriculum for Gifted Students series provides the gifted resource specialist, regular classroom teacher, or counselor with the tools they need to help gifted students in grades 3-5 develop interpersonal skills, reflect on their often intense emotions, and express their creativity. The grade 4 book:

• Contains five units and more than 50 hours of instruction.
• Shares helpful directions for implementing lessons and connecting content across the curriculum.
• Addresses psychosocial skills.
• Features critical thinking activities, hands-on building and design, reading, writing, creativity, and math and science connections.
• Covers relevant topics, including resilience, growth mindset, perfectionism, empathy, self-understanding and identity, friendship, and what it means to be gifted.

Each classroom-tested lesson addresses one or more affective standards from the National Association for Gifted Children, psychosocial development areas for gifted learners, and academic standards.

UNIT 1
Superheroes

Perfectionism and Self-Understanding

DOI: 10.4324/9781003238010-2

Background

If teachers were superheroes—and some days it seems we are, with both virtuosities and foibles—we would demand engaging hands-on activities, metaphors, critical thinking, art, and creativity for our very own social-emotional units. We will not disappoint with this unit.

The superheroes in this unit will teach gifted learners about perfectionism (a big issue for such amazing beings as superheroes); recognizing their own talents, abilities, and positive attitudes; friendship; and finally, not taking themselves too seriously.

Unit Objectives

Students will:

• » recognize their strongest talents and abilities,
• » identify people and ideas who support them, and
• » address perfectionist tendencies.

NAGC Learning and Development Standard

1.1. Self-Understanding. Students with gifts and talents demonstrate self-knowledge with respect to their interests, strengths, identities, and needs in socio-emotional development and in intellectual, academic, creative, leadership, and artistic domains.

Themes and Skills Addressed

Social-Emotional Themes

• » Effort
• » Humility
• » Growth mindset
• » Perfectionism
• » Friendship
• » Identity

Academic Skills

• » Inferences
• » Collaborative discussion
• » Metaphor analysis
• » Metaphor creation
• » Graphic design
• » Building and engineering
• » Improvisation

Launch

Launch the unit by showing the following Hotstar commercial about superheroes: https://www.youtube.com/wat.ch?v=s-W3himDkwY. This commercial is not in English, and interpreting its meaning through the characters' actions, gestures, movements, and other sorts of nonverbal communication is an excellent critical thinking activity in and of itself.

After the students' first viewing of the commercial, discuss the following as a class:

• » What did you notice? List details. (No inferences here; let's save those for later.)
• » What stands out?
• » Who are the superheroes in this commercial, and what are their superpowers?

Before a second viewing, present the following prompts for students to consider as they watch:

• » Situational irony is when one thing happens, but we had expected something else to happen. List and explain ways that situational irony is used in this commercial.
• » What are the superheroes actually saying to one another?

After a second viewing, invite students to consider the answers to these questions in a small group or in pairs. Then come together as a full group to discuss the questions. End the discussion with this final question:

• » Some people say that we all have a little superhero inside of us. Does this commercial support that view? Explain.

To extend the launch further, ask students to describe another superhero. How might that superhero be using their superpower in an extended version of the commercial?

Lesson 1.1
Superhero Commercials

DOI: 10.4324/9781003238010-3

How will Dead Battery Boy advertise umbrellas? Wait—what and who?

This is a creative and quick lesson that will engage students right away. Superheroes must be very resourceful, and our gifted learners can be, too. Equipped with only three craft sticks, a foot of tape, five notecards, and some unlikely superheroes matched to random products, can our superheroes-in-training create and perform a commercial?

Materials

• » Handout 1.1: Superhero Commercial
• » Commercial materials (per small group of 3-4 students)
  • » 3 craft sticks
  • » 1 foot of masking tape
  • » 5 notecards

Estimated Time

• » 20 minutes to introduce and complete the creative activity. Live performances of students' commercials will vary depending on the size of the class. These performances are meant to be quick and improvisational, not planned and perfected.

Procedure

Arrange students into groups of 3 or 4. Distribute commercial materials and Handout 1.1: Superhero Commercial to each group.

Launch right into the creative commercial activity. The final product is a commercial that students may perform for the class. Do not supply additional details or materials. If students ask questions, simply refer them back to the activity's guidelines. Part of the challenge and creative task is to work with ambiguity, trust oneself, and let go of perfectionism. Similarly, invite students to share their performances without additional rehearsal time. The commercials are intended to be improvisational and far from perfect—which is both part of the fun and part of the social-emotional lesson here.

For an extension activity, you might suggest that students create a video for their commercial and add background music. I do not. In my experience, filming and editing a video can be a long and sometimes frustrating process for fourth graders—sometimes a little obsessive, too, and worthy of a whole unit in and of itself. Students can get forever bogged down in the details of filming, rehearsals, writing scripts, and creating props.

The key takeaway from this lesson is that all students have a little superhero inside of them. Specifically, tell students: This commercial creative task was demanding and had to be completed under time constraints, but just look at all of the little heroic efforts that went into the final product! Our creative responses were created from deep inside, and we followed through with entertaining performances. Just like a superhero, we came through in the clutch.

NAME: _______________________________________________________ DATE: _____________

Handout 1.1
Superhero Commercial

Directions: With your group members, choose a superhero and make a commercial advertising a product featuring that superhero. You have 15 minutes to create your commercial.

Choose One Superhero: » Dead Battery Boy » Sniffles Girl » Too Many Hats Guy » Lady Toothpaste	Make the Commercial: Make a commercial that is 30 seconds or less advertising one of the following products featuring the superhero you have chosen: » Dog food » Umbrellas » Breakfast cereal » Yard care » Used cars » Jewelry
Create a Prop: Create a prop or props from the materials provided. These are the only props allowed in the commercial. Materials include: » 3 craft sticks » 1 foot of masking tape » 5 notecards	Heroic Bonus Challenge: Add a jingle to the commercial!

Lesson 1.2
Superhero Abilities

DOI: 10.4324/9781003238010-4

In this lesson, students cite their strengths, both inside and outside of school. Students also note the vital ideas and behaviors that help them succeed. In a perspective-taking activity, students also think about how others perceive them—noting what strengths friends and family would likely recognize.

Materials

• » Handout 1.2: Superhero Possibilities
• » Handout 1.2: Superhero Possibilities Sample

Estimated Time

• » 15 minutes

Procedure

Distribute Handout 1.2: Superhero ...