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Theorists and Theories

Business Cards & Compare and Contrast

Part 1: Design the Theorist’s Business Card

Business cards are a relatively modern invention designed to quickly introduce a person and
provide information about themselves or their business. The design of the card often expresses
a person’s values and reflects his/her personality. After you have reviewed the resources,
design a business card for each theorist. How will the business card represent the theorist’s
framework? You may use whichever media you desire for the business card design
(PowerPoint, Photoshop, Illustrator, marker or crayon, etc); however, the design needs to be
uploaded as an image file (i.e. jpeg, png) and pasted into the table below. In addition to the
theorist’s name, consider including a quote or motto, tagline, graphic or logo. Think of a
creative email address, webpage, or social media address.

*Note: The example shown is from a social studies class. The time period is during
Revolutionary War. The British invaded Lydia Darragh’s Philadelphia home to hold their “secret”
meetings. Unbeknownst to them, Mrs. Darragh eavesdropped to their conversation and was
able to deliver information to
George Washington and the
Continental Army warning them of a
pending British attack. The Twitter
address, webpage, and email are
made up.

This was created on PPT with

transparent pictures. It was then
saved as an image file and inserted
in the table.

.
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Part 2: Compare and Contrast Organizer

1. Choose one of the pairs of theorists listed below to research.

2. Complete the Compare and Contrast Graphic Organizer.
o Gardner and Renzulli
o Betts and Renzulli
o Gagne and Sternberg
o Dabrowski and your choice of Gagne, Renzuilli, Gardner, Betts, or Sternberg
3. Upload your completed

Compare and Contrast Organizer

Theorist’s Name Theorist’s Name
Joseph Renzulli Howard Gardner

How are they alike?

These theorists and theories are similar in the fact that they both allot for the individual’s
abilities to help create and determine their giftedness.
Significance of the Similarities
Their theories focus on the qualities that the individual has and helps build upon them for the
growth and success of their talents.

A gifted student is someone who A person’s intellectual behaviors

is high achieving, but they can
also be productive in a creative
way.
A gifted student could also be a
student who overlaps in the Venn
diagram of average ability,
creativity, and task commitment.
If they have all three then they
can be added to the group.
When you grouped gifted
students together, they might not
be gifted in the same manner, so
you will want to have them
working either individually or in
small groups for balance to
investigate real problems and
solutions.
Motivation and commitment are
key factors in the gifted child.
They need to have these
internalized in order for success.
Ensure that students’ work in
their gifted field is focused with
are not based on a single quality,
but from different kinds.
A person’s giftedness can come
from an educational background or
even a survival background or
even the arts.
How are they Heavy focus on differentiated
different? instruction with more applied
work because that would result in
a deeper understanding of the
material.
Students are able to express their
understanding in a way that is best
fit for their learning.
Focus on the skills to help create
thinkers rather than focusing on a
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an audience that is beyond the certain standard of materials. Once

limitations on the classroom. This they have their curiosity, the
will help encourage students to students will become interested
put forth their best work. and seek the learning on their own.
Significance of the Differences
The significance in these differences is not vast but it is significant. Gardner’s theory was a
focus on how a student’s giftedness could be determined beyond an IQ exam and what to do
once you know which intelligence they would categorize under. He established that the
students should be allowed to learn differently and encouraged to find their internal drive for
learning. However, Renzulli’s theory was that students can be involved within the gifted
program if they have an overlapping in ability, creativity, and commitment. These students
within Renzulli’s model would have the challenges of those within the gifted program and
work together to solve real world problems. In addition, Renzulli also believed that we should
be using key words to encourage a deeper level of work from all students and not just those
that meet the gifted criteria.

Interpretation
My final thoughts are both Renzulli and Gardner thought that presenting information and tasks
to students needed to result in their own exploration of the topic. They both showed that
students would learn better if their internal commitment and drive were greater. Also, their
understanding should be measured beyond that of an assessment with an essay, instead we
should allow our students to present their findings in a way that best meets their creativity.

From Advanced Differentiation: Thinking and Learning for the 21st Century by Richard M. Cash, Ed.D. copyright ©
2017. This page may be reproduced for use within an individual school or district.

Exemplary Proficient Developing Emerging

*Conclusions can be *Conclusions can be *Unclear and/or *Unclear and/or
Business Cards or drawn of salient drawn of main points inaccurate inaccurate
Theorist T-shirt points about each about each theorist's information about 1 information about 3
theorist's beliefs. beliefs. or 2 theorist’s beliefs. or more theorists’
*Creatively includes *Shows some *Shows little beliefs.
major contributions creativity and creativity and lacks *Shows little
and the impact includes major major contributions creativity and lacks
contributions major contributions

*Interpretation *Provides similarities *Provides similarities *Provides vague or

Compare/Contrast provides thorough and differences and differences unclear similarities
similarities and *Examines the *Examines the and/or differences
differences significance of the significance of the *Examines the
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*Thoroughly similarities and similarities and significance of the

examines the differences differences similarities and
significance of the *Interpretation *Interpretation differences
similarities and includes drawing includes drawing *Interpretation is
differences conclusions conclusions vague
*Analyzes beyond the *Shows strong *Shows a vague *Shows some
obvious to make understanding of the understanding of the understanding of the
inferences and draw two theorists two theorists two theorists
conclusions
*Shows strong
understanding of the
two theorists