3 Develop and Use One Question 4 Activity

As a team, brainstorm a list of the things you have done over your careers when you have challenged a student outside of normal classroom instruction. Of these strategies, what worked? What didn’t work? What might you suggest your team use? ere are many di erent types of activities to consider— choice boards, alternative assignments, question formulation, badges, gami cation, problem-solving teams, and curriculum compacting, to name a few.

We recommend curriculum compacting as a great strategy to begin question 4 work. A curriculum compact is an agreement between the teacher and the student that includes how the student demonstrated knowledge of the area, the alternative extension activity, and how the grade will be determined. Being clear, transparent, and upfront with students on how this process works is a great step toward implementing question 4 strategies. Curriculum compacting is a tried-and-true resource for question 4 learning (Renzulli & Reis, 2021).

Next, develop an activity that your entire grade level or content area can use to extend learning for the students you deter- mined were ready for it based on the preassessment. We suggest that you work together on this activity to ensure that it is:

• Connected to the agreed-on learning standards for the unit.

• Manageable and doable for your team to implement.

• Valuable for your students to extend their learning. When we were teaching, the most popular way to challenge question 4 students was to have them create a poster or PowerPoint to show their deep learning. Nowadays, there are so many other great resources to use, particularly with tech-savvy students. Videos, collages, drawings, visuals, infographics, music, podcasts, blogs, online discussions, presentations, and digital portfolios are all ways students can show what they have learned at a deeper level. ( e website https://sites.google.com /westside66.net/tech-to-help-learners-create/icreate provides a how-to for each of these tools.) Share these options with students when completing the following “I already know it” contract.