EDUC 240: Educating Exceptional Students

'Best Practices in Gifted Education' provides concise, up-to-date, research-based advice to educators, administrators, and parents of gifted and talented youth. The 29 practices included in this volume are the result of an extensive examination of educational research on what works with talented youth. The interest in culturally diverse and low-income learners, the means to identify talents, and the need for curriculum that appropriately challenges high-abilityyouth constitute just a few of the 29 practices.Each practice is organized into a chapter containing two sections: What We Know and What We Can Do. The first section briefly describes the practice and summarizes the research. The second section suggests what course of action a parent, teacher, or administrator might take at home, in the classroom, or at school. The book is a must-have for those who want a guide that makes a connection between research and practical action in gifted education.

This text is the definitive reference book for those searching for a summary and evaluation of the literature on giftedness and gifted education. The book presents almost 50 summaries of important topics in the field, providing relevant research and a guide to how the research applies to gifted education. Sample topics addressed include alternative assessment, counseling, early childhood, highly gifted students, homeschooling, parenting, and policy and advocacy. Each chapter adopts a rigorous, empirically grounded approach to inform the reader's understanding of the research in gifted education. Despite a century of research on giftedness, the enthusiasm and rhetoric surrounding various programs, models, and approaches often exceed the level of available support, or even contradict the available evidence. This book provides an objective assessment of the status of available knowledge in each area, offers guidance in the application of the research, and suggests areas of needed research.

"This user-friendly guidebook educates parents and teachers about important issues facing gifted children and the adults who guide them, such as selecting appropriate schools, expanding and differentiating the curriculum for gifted learners, and supporting children who experience stress, depression, perfectionism, friendship issues, and more. The information and useful advice contained in this book make it an ideal resource for those just starting to learn about gifted children as well as seasoned veterans."--P. [4] of cover.

Identify, understand, and engage the full range of gifted learners with practical, brain-compatible classroom strategies! The updated edition of Sousa's bestseller translates the latest neuroscientific findings into practical strategies for engaging gifted and talented learners. Individual chapters are dedicated to talents in language, math, and the arts, and offer instructional applications for both elementary and secondary classrooms. This reader-friendly guide uncovers: How the brains of gifted students are different How to gauge if gifted students are being adequately challenged How to identify students who are both gifted and learning disabled How to better identify gifted minority students

With all the talk of failing schools these days, we forget that schools can fail their brightest students, too. We pledge to "leave no child behind," but in American schools today, thousands of gifted and talented students fall short of their potential. InGenius Denied, Jan and Bob Davidson describe the "quiet crisis" in education: gifted students spending their days in classrooms learning little beyond how to cope with boredom as they "relearn" material they've already mastered years before. This lack of challenge leads to frustration, underachievement, and even failure. Some gifted students become severely depressed. At a time when our country needs a deep intellectual talent pool, the squandering of these bright young minds is a national tragedy.There are hundreds of thousands of highly gifted children in the U.S. and millions more whose intelligence is above average, yet few receive the education they deserve. Many school districts have no gifted programs or offer only token enrichment classes. Education of the gifted is in this sorry state, say the Davidsons, because of indifference, lack of funding, and the pernicious notion that education should have a "leveling" effect, a one-size-fits-all concept that deliberately ignores the needs of the gifted. But all children are entitled to an appropriate education, insist the authors, those left behind as well as those who want to surge ahead.The Davidsons show parents and educators how to reach and challenge gifted students. They offer practical advice based on their experience as founders of a nonprofit organization that assists gifted children. They show parents how to become their children's advocates, how to win support for gifted students within the local schools, and when and how to go outside the school system. They discuss everything from acceleration ("skipping" a grade) to homeschooling and finding mentors for children. They tell stories of real parents and students who overcame poor schooling environments to discover the joy of learning.Genius Deniedis an inspiring book that provides a beacon of hope for children at risk of losing their valuable gift of intellectual potential.

GIFTED CHILDREN and adults are often misunderstood. Their excitement is viewed as excessive, their high energy as hyperactivity, their persistence as nagging, their imagination as not paying attention, their passion as being disruptive, their strong emotions and sensitivity as immaturity, their creativity and self-directedness as oppositional. This resource describes these overexcitabilities and strategies for dealing with children and adults who are experiencing them, and provides essential information about Dabrowski¿s Theory of Positive Disintegration. Learn practical methods for nurturing sensitivity, intensity, perfectionism, and much more.

Understanding and meeting the needs of gifted students in middle school offers unique challenges. This newly revised and expanded second edition of "Educating Gifted Students in Middle School" updates the practical information about meeting these needs offered in the award-winning 2004 edition. A new chapter on the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) areas as well as a completely revised chapter on English/language arts for gifted and advanced learnersin the middle grades are key components of the new edition. The impact of current reform movements, Response to Intervention, new relevant research, updated information on middle school boys and other special populations, changing middle grade configurations, and 21st century skills are added to the already thorough discussions of the first edition. Resources, references, and suggested curriculum materials have all been updated. The focus of this second edition continues to be on helping teachers, administrators, and parents to understand gifted middle school students, implement effective program models, define the role of the gifted teacher, identify best practices for the classroom, and apply curriculum ideas that are effective and research-based. "Educating Gifted Students in Middle School" focuses on creative, practical, and realistic school solutions that create a vital and responsive school community for all students.

Gifted students with learning challenges can be easily missed in the classroom and often have difficulty succeeding with traditional gifted curricula. "Creating Effective Programs for Gifted Students With Learning Disabilities" provides a road map for understanding assessment and programming for bright students with learning challenges in the era of Response to Intervention. The authors seek to help educators understand the often frustrating experiences GTLD students face in the classroom and to identify accommodations and adaptations that allow these bright students to demonstrate their gifts and compensate for their processing challenges. Through an examination of current research and case studies, the reader will be introduced to important features of both giftedness and learning challenges that need to be considered in developing effective assessment and identification procedures for this underserved population and programming that can provide benefitsfor the entire school community.

How do high school students confront and resolve conflicting messages about their intelligence and academic potential, particularly when labelled with social and learning disabilities? How does disability become "disablement" when negative attitudes and disparaging perceptions of ability position students as outsiders? Following the lives of adolescents at home and at school, the author makes visible the disabling language, contextual arrangements, and unconscious social practices that restrict learning regardless of special education services. She also showcases how young people resist disablement to transfrom their worlds and pursue pathways most important to them. Educators and scholars can use this important resource to recognize and change disabling practices that are often taken for granted as a natural part of schooling.

Now in its fifteenth printing, In the Mind's Eye has been recognized as a classic in its field. The book still stands alone as a uniquely compelling argument for the great importance of visual thinking and visual technologies as well as the high creative potential of many individuals with dyslexia or other learning difficulties. In this second edition, Thomas G. West reviews a number of recent developments that support and extend the perspectives and expectations originally set forth in the first edition. In addition to the original eleven portraits of famous individuals with learning difficulties (including Albert Einstein and Thomas Edison), he has added brief profiles of two dyslexic scientists known for their ability to generate, in quite different fields, powerful but unexpected innovations and discoveries: William J. Dreyer, a Caltech professor who used his highly visual imagination to see things in molecular biology and immunology well before others; and John R. (Jack) Horner, who flunked out of the University of Montana seven times (requiring letters of support for readmission) but is now known as one of the three most important paleontologists in the world. Recognized as among the "best of the best" by the American Library Association in their broad psychology and neuroscience category, this title belongs on the bookshelves of all educators and anyone with an interest in visual thinking, visual technologies, and highly creative people with learning difficulties.

The newly revised and updated 'Methods and Materials for Teaching the Gifted' offers strategies and resources for differentiating instruction for gifted learners. The book acts as an excellent introduction to gifted education curricular planning, instructional unit design, evaluation, and teaching methods.The chapters of this comprehensive textbook are written by respected leaders in the field of gifted education. The authors review the needs ofgifted learners, instructional planning and evaluation, strategies for best practices, and ongoing enhancement and support of gifted programs. Chapters include topics such as differentiated curricular design, extending learning through mentorships, building challenging instructional units, and developing creative thinking. Also, instructional practices, such as problem-based learning, independent study, classroom simulations, and more are addressed.The third edition includes a brand-new chapter on educational technology for the gifted, as well as updated information on books, teaching materials, Web sites, and other resources for differentiating instruction and planning gifted education curriculum.Educational Resource

Kids love exploring complex topics, and the more than 150 ready-to-use projects in this book will get their minds working and their hands investigating as they complete fun tasks like "Can You See Sound?" and "It's All in the Advertising." The research-oriented activities in this book will help teachers provide differentiated learning experiences for advanced and gifted learners based on grade-level content. Each project is written for learners in grades3-5 to use independently, and the teacher-friendly projects require very few additional materials and very little guidance. The projects are fully integrated, with many employing skills from several content areas. Learners will use 21st-century skills as they explore grade-level content more deeply through specific, intensive online research.

Are you relentlessly curious and creative, always willing to rock the boat in order to get things done . . . extremely energetic and focused, yet constantly switching gears . . . intensely sensitive, able to intuit subtly charged situations and decipher others' feeling? If these traits sound familiar, then you may be an Everyday Genius--an ordinary person of unusual vision who breaks the mold and isn't afraid to push progress forward. . . . As thought-provoking as Daniel Goleman's Emotional Intelligence, psychologist Mary-Elaine Jacobsen's Gifted Adults draws on a wide range of groundbreaking research and her own clinical experience to show America's twenty million gifted adults how to identify and free their extraordinary potential. Gifted Adults presents the first practical tool for rating your Evolutionary Intelligence Quotient through an in-depth personality-type profile. Demystifying what it means to be a gifted adult, this book offers practical guidance for eliminating self-sabotage and underachievement, helping Everyday Geniuses and those who know, love, and work with them to understand and support the exceptional gifts inherent in these unique personality traits.

What is it like to be smarter than 95% of the people you meet? Fifty-four-year-old Alison says, "They told me I was smart and I cried. I wanted to be sexy, or glamorous!" Jean, 38, laments, "I learned the whole job in six weeks, and now I'm bored." Gifted Grownups, Marylou Kelly Streznewski's unprecedented, 10-year study of 100 gifted adults, examines how being identified as a "smart kid" early on affects career choices, friendships, and romantic pairings later in life. Why do some talented and gifted people become Mozarts and Einsteins or corporate chieftains, while others drop out of school, struggle to hold down jobs, or turn to self-destructive behavior? What are the signs of giftedness, its pitfalls, and its promise? Marylou Streznewski provides answers to these and other questions, and creates an intriguing picture of what it is like to have an accelerated mind in a slow-moving world. Traditionally, the gifted were measured in terms of intelligence only, and anyone with an IQ score higher than 130 was automatically grouped in with that misunderstood minority. Recently "giftedness" has been redefined to include qualities like extraordinary creative, leadership, or physical skills. Heightened perception, sensitivity, humor, and the ability to put complex ideas together quickly are also aspects of giftedness. These gifts affect the way talented adults react to their friends, families, jobs, and life challenges. Doing for gifted grownups what the bestselling Driven to Distraction did for adults with attention deficit, Gifted Grownups traces many types of gifted adults, including the high-testing, power-achieving Striver; the popular scholar or athlete Superstar; and the creative intellectual, free-spirit Independent. Here for the first time and in their own words, 100 gifted grownups, from ages 18 to 90, and a variety of family and educational backgrounds, occupations, social classes, and races, count the blessings and tally the costs of a high-powered mind. "Highly informative and interesting."--Alice Miller, author of The Drama of the Gifted Child "This book was a delight. It affirmed my own experiences and observations. The author makes her study come alive . . . through the voices of real people talking about their experiences. . . . I highly recommend this book.i--Joanne Rand Whitmore, PhD, Professor and Dean College and Graduate School of Education, Kent State University "Many readers will recognize their own experiences.--Lita Linzer Schwartz, PhD, ABPP Distinguished Professor Emerita, Pennsylvania State University. "This thoughtful book . . . has taken us one step further in our understanding of how and why some talented individuals realize their potential while others do not."--Dr. Sally M. Reis, Professor of Educational Psychology, The University of Connecticut. "Gifted Grownups meets a long-awaited need. This book would be of interest, not only to gifted education professionals, but also to parents, teachers in general, and to gifted individuals of all ages.--E. Paul Torrance, Georgia Studies of Creative Behavior, author of Gifted and Talented Children in the Regular Classroom. ISBN 0-471-29580-9