Gifted Brains. State Testing. Minds on Mute: How to Keep Students Engaged During Testing Season

Michelle Robinson
Apr 12
4 min read

Testing season in Tennessee is here, and if you're anything like most gifted teachers, your schedule is all kinds of unpredictable. You’ve got early finishers zipping through state assessments, lunch schedules shifted for testing rotations, and a classroom that feels like Grand Central Station—minus the coffee cart.

For gifted students—who crave novelty, purpose, and challenge—this can be the most disengaging time of year. So, what do you do with all those weird pockets of time when nothing seems to fit?

Let’s keep things simple, sustainable, and effective. Here’s how to create a flexible, meaningful plan for engaging your gifted learners when the calendar goes sideways—and how one big-picture project can make testing chaos manageable.

💡 Why Testing Season is Especially Hard on Gifted Kids

State testing throws off the rhythm of your classroom. But for gifted students, it does more than that:

It disrupts their need for structure and flow.
It strips away enrichment time in favor of review or make-up testing.
It often results in “dead time” where they’re told to “just read” (again).

That’s why now is the perfect time to bring in independent, creative, and flexible projects—and set up systems to keep gifted brains engaged when everything else feels off track.

🌱 Anchor the Week (or weeks) with a Big-Picture, Go-To Project

Instead of trying to plan a dozen mini-lessons to plug the daily gaps, give students an overarching, flexible project they can return to all week long. Think of it as their “basecamp”—a meaningful activity they can work on when testing is done, schedules shift, or class feels chaotic.

✅ Project Ideas That Work (Even During Testing)

🔍 Passion Project Choice Board Let students dive deep into a topic they choose—animals, animation, aviation, whatever lights them up.
🎲 Create-a-Game Challenge Students invent a board or card game based on a topic they’ve learned this year. Let them include rules, challenges, and a scoring system. This works beautifully for individual or partner work.
💡 “Shark Tank” Invention Pitch Give students a challenge like: “Solve a springtime problem at school” or “Invent something to help students focus during testing.” They design it, create a mini-pitch deck or poster, and present.
📬 “Dear Future Me” Time Capsule Have students reflect on the year and write a letter to their future self. You can also have them create a legacy binder or tips page for next year’s gifted class.

🎯 Pro Tip: Set up a project station with folders or bins, include printed checklists or a digital guide, and assign each student a personal folder to keep materials organized. That way, they know exactly where to jump back in—even if you’re proctoring or juggling three things at once.

⏰ Plug-and-Play Fillers for Weird Pockets of Time

When you need something quick and quiet between testing rotations, these are lifesavers:

🧠 5–10 Minute Brain Snacks

Would You Rather?—Gifted Edition Ask questions like: “Would you rather have a photographic memory or be able to forget things instantly?” Then let them justify their answer. *Check out https://briantolentino.com fun writing prompts or ByrdSeed.tv
Visual Logic Puzzles
Quick Sketch Prompts: “Draw your testing brain as a creature,” or “Sketch a solution to make school more fun.”

🔍 15–20 Minute Cooldown Challenges

Silent Solve: Post a logic riddle or a mystery scenario they solve on scratch paper.
Creative Spark Box: Fill a bin with challenge cards like “Design a treehouse for introverts” or “Invent a test-day snack that makes you smarter.”

🎯 30–45 Minute Block Projects

Escape Room-Style Challenges: Use logic puzzles, ciphers, or academic riddles in groups for fun, collaborative energy after testing. I love BreakoutEdu but Matt Miller of Ditch That Textbook has a collection of free breakouts here: https://ditchthattextbook.com/digital-escape-rooms/

🧩 Make it a System, Not Just a Survival Strategy

Testing season isn’t just about surviving—it’s about systemizing. Let’s make it seamless with simple prep and consistent routines:

✅ Set Up a “Testing Survival Center”

Folder bin for projects + early finisher activities
A printed menu or Google Slide with activity options
Whiteboard prompt: “When You’re Finished, Go To…” - obviously not during testing, but after. Also, having choice after testing, especially choices that really get their brains moving, will really help calm our gifted learners after the mind-numbing tests.

✅ Keep Your Goals in Mind

Many of these activities can be tied to your gifted learners' goals:

Critical Thinking
Creativity
Self-Directed Learning You can even document some of this work as part of their WEP or IEP enrichment evidence. (Double win!)

🌟 Final Thoughts: Spring Brain Isn’t a Bug—It’s a Feature

The truth is, testing season doesn’t have to feel like a total derailment. It’s actually a perfect time to bring creativity, choice, and independence back into your classroom—and give gifted learners exactly what they need to thrive.

When you give them the tools, systems, and autonomy to explore big ideas—even in short bursts—they’ll surprise you. (And you’ll breathe a little easier.)