com·mu·ni·ty, n. \kə-ˈmyü-nə-tē\ 1. a unified body of individuals
Building a strong community of learners is a challenging, but critical, component in supporting students with their academic and social growth. Students need to learn to build relationships with others. These connections lead to increased trust among classmates, better cooperation and teamwork, and overall, a stronger sense of learning throughout a course.
Traditionally, gifted students have tended to have a more difficult time relating to others in their same age group, grade level, etc. With highly gifted students, there is sometimes a social disconnect, which inhibits their ability to feel connected to their peers. They do not feel as though they have much in common with their peers because their intellectual abilities extend far beyond those of their age-appropriate peers. This makes community-building difficult with gifted students, but also all the more crucial.
One way to help gifted students build relationships with their peers is to help them identify areas of commonality. Gifted students tend to prefer engaging in relationship-building activities with others who share their ideas, versus those who are in their same age range. They are curious learners who question concepts in unusual and unforeseen ways, and need others to relate to who share these skills. This can make it tricky to help gifted students build a sense of community with their age-appropriate peers, but certainly not impossible. By connecting gifted students to other learners who share their intellectual interests, and can pose complex questions on common topics, we can help set our gifted students up for success with community-building activities.
The key to success in any classroom, but especially the virtual classroom, is developing a sense of unity among learners. Guiding your gifted students to seek out relationships with others, as well as build upon those relationships on a regular basis, will help every child in your classroom to feel connected, supported, and valued in amazing ways!
