Title

Lifting the ceiling for higher ability students

Purposes

1. To stretch the potential of higher ability students
2. To improve the writing performance (content domain) of students

Students’ needs

Most students are able to meet the basic competencies set for the end of KS2.  Nonetheless, after careful analysis of students’ writing, teachers found that there were a few areas which students could improve.

1. Students’ writing did not display evidence of the kind of creative thinking teachers knew students were capable of.
2. Some students stop writing once they have met the word limit required. The points they make are too general and there is little elaboration
3. Students are quick to establish causal relationships without first analyzing all the data available.

Strategies used

1. Setting higher expectations
The topic ‘Fossils & dinosaurs’ could pose significant linguistic challenges given the fact that dinosaurs’ names are difficult to pronounce and reading about them in the authentic materials will expose students to more advanced texts and structures.

2. Infusing gifted elements into the curriculum

Gifted element	Strategies
Higher order thinking skills development	Questioning techniques to help students develop critical thinking skills Open ended questions with multiple answers Question asking for elaboration & clarification (explanation) Questions that probe reasons and evidence Questions that probe implications and consequences Evaluative questions Wait time for students to process the answers Collaborative learning (pair work, group discussion, whole class interaction)
Creativity development	Task design -- leaving space for students to think and show their  creativity The tasks designed should leave space for students to show their creativity. There should be no absolute answers. So long as the students are able to justify their points, the ideas can be accepted. Questioning techniques to help students develop creativity Open ended questions with multiple answers Wait time for students to process the answers
Personal social competence development (self-management, learning skills, communication skills, collaboration skills, respect and appreciation for opinions of others, active participation, offering assistance to others)	Discussions (pair, groups of four, whole class) Creating self-learning opportunities Questions are given to students for discussion during the lessons. They are then asked to read more about the subject and then time is set aside for discussion and presentation in the next lesson.

3. Creating curriculum space for tasks and questioning
To develop students’ creativity and critical thinking skills through tasks and questioning, time was needed.  In order to find some time in the tight schedule, the school made use of the Effective Communication (EC) lessons to provide students with opportunities to complete the discussion and other pre-writing tasks.

Assessment tools