Cassidy, a talented artist in my third-grade classroom, struggled with classroom assignments. It's not that she wasn't capable of high-level work, but tasks such as spelling tests, arithmetic practice, and test preparation worksheets were making for a very unhappy child. Cassidy was consistently eager to participate in learning activities that had…

Teaching in a regular classroom has become more complicated than ever with increased student diversity and pressure to connect learning experiences to educational standards and test preparation. Although teaching to the middle is often what occurs in traditional classrooms to meet required standards, it is neither an appropriate nor meaningful…

This article describes Project Athena, a Javits program funded by the U.S. Department of Education and developed through the Center for Gifted Education at the College of William and Mary. Project Athena seeks to find ways to help impoverished children develop advanced skills in reading comprehension, literary analysis, and persuasive writing. Its…

Social, physical, emotional, and cognitive developmental rates for gifted children do not correspond to each other and--except for physical development--do not necessarily correspond to age peer norms. Giftedness itself causes asynchrony; that is, it causes children to be out of sync with other components. In the classroom, the teacher is…