Ungifted

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. What do people mean when they talk about “gifted and talented” programs in schools? What is the purpose of these programs? Do they achieve this purpose?

Teaching Suggestion: In Ungifted, Donovan is accidentally chosen to attend a gifted and talented school. Many students will be aware of what this means, but if you identify gaps in their understanding, you might offer them the first resource on the list below. Fewer students will have a solid understanding of the purposes and efficacy of these programs. The second and third resources in the list are intended to offer some insights into this area. After students have been exposed to this information, you might ask them what ideas they have for improving gifted and talented education.

• This article from NPR offers a basic introduction to gifted and talented education.
• This factsheet from Western Kentucky University discusses research into common ideas about gifted education.
• This article from The Washington Post explores the mixed findings from research into the effectiveness of gifted and talented education.

2. What does it mean to be “impulsive”? Is being impulsive a characteristic that all people have, or just some people? What is the difference between being “impulsive” and being “spontaneous”? Is one more of a problem than the other?

Teaching Suggestion: In Ungifted, Donovan’s impulsivity is a problem for him. Without some insight into what leads some people to be naturally more impulsive than others, students may struggle to have empathy for his character. This prompt is intended to help students understand the distinction between ordinary spontaneity and true impulsivity and to get them thinking about the ways in which being naturally impulsive can be a significant obstacle for some people.

• This article from Verywell Health explains impulsivity and when it can be harmful.
• This article from Psychology Today explains situations that can lead to impulsivity.

Short Activity

In Ungifted, the main character gets involved with a robotics competition. Imagine that you are on a robotics team and you are in charge of designing a robot to perform one of the tasks on the list below. Draw a picture of your robot performing the task it is designed to accomplish.

Possible Tasks:

• Safely carry an egg while racing other robots through a maze.
• Shoot the most basketballs into a basketball hoop.
• Race other robots through an obstacle course.
• Push another robot out of the ring while preventing your robot from being pushed out.
• Capture a flag and return it to your home base without letting another robot steal the flag.
• Play soccer against another team’s robot.

Teaching Suggestion: This activity is intended to generate student interest in a key part of Ungifted’s plot and offer basic information about robotics competitions. If students are anxious about their ability to design a realistic robot, you might want to reassure them that their robots can be as realistic or as fanciful as they like, and that they should mainly focus on being creative and having fun with the activity. The resources listed below offer more ideas about what competition robots look like. Students might watch this video or similar resources to see what these competitions are like.

• This 3-minute video shows robotics students explaining their design choices.
• This 2-minute video is of a VEX robotics competition.
• This 4-minute video profiles a high school robotics team and their robot, “Monkey.”

Differentiation Suggestion: Students with aphantasia may struggle to draw a robot from their imaginations; these students might be offered the option of going online to find visual references for their drawings. Students with visual impairments may not be able to complete the activity as written; a reasonable alternative might be to ask them to add five or so new ideas to the list of potential competition tasks for robots.

Personal Connection Prompt

This prompt can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before reading the novel.

In Ungifted, the main character ends up attending a new school that is very different from his old school. Neither school is perfect for him, of course, since schools are not designed to be perfect for one specific person. But what if they were? What would your perfect school be like? Why?

Teaching Suggestion: Donovan’s experiences at Hardcastle Middle School and ASD demonstrate that there are benefits and drawbacks to most situations, including school. This prompt invites students to think of a school that would be all benefits and no drawbacks. Discussion of this prompt will offer students insight into how individualized the “perfect” school would need to be. You might challenge them to come to a group consensus about how a school can be beneficial to as many students as possible without creating significant drawbacks for some.