Differentiating Up: Leveling Up Those Ready for the Challenge

What is differentiating up you might ask? Many times service of gifted students comes not in special programming specifically designed for them, but rather as part of a regular education classroom where teachers must figure out how to support those who are struggling as well as challenge those who are ready. Oftentimes these teachers have had the training to meet the needs of the lower students and scaffold down. However, they have rarely been given any training on how to push students to that next level or how to create lessons in which students can work at their own pace and/or in greater depth. What if they were shown how to move the scaffold in the other direction? What if teachers could learn how to differentiate the learning up to challenge students ready for such a thing?