The Instructional Design Model is presented for planning effective curriculum for gifted learners. The model first focuses on what basic curriculum dimensions are necessary for serving gifted students and then clarifies the fundamental purposes of a gifted program. Next steps include identifying and assessing learning outcomes. (Contains 3…

The following strategies are presented for creating conditions in which gifted students consistently move forward academically: curriculum compacting and differentiating for gifted students in heterogeneous classes; pre-testing content; and allowing gifted students to be grouped together to work on alternative tasks during cooperative learning…

This article discusses differentiating reading instruction for gifted students in the primary grades. It discusses the need for pre-assessment to guide teachers' use of curriculum compacting, authentically assessing reading comprehension, asking metacognitive questions to challenge students, using rubrics for students' self-assessment, and using…

This article provides strategies for teaching gifted students who have learning disabilities, including making sure students see the big picture before learning its pieces, teaching students to set realistic, short-term goals, making everything visual, providing hands-on situations, and using musical chants and rhymes. Guidelines for parents are…

This article presents a plan for teaching gifted students with emotional/behavior disabilities (EBD). Educators are advised to assemble student background information, consider goals that the student needs to accomplish and needed accommodations, develop specific behavior plans, and design a curriculum that is both challenging and addresses…

Six necessary program components to prepare gifted students with disabilities for productive adult lives are identified: provide challenging educational experiences along with supports, facilitate passion learning through enrichment activities, empower students through student-centered planning, develop self-advocacy, enhance positive social…

This article discusses how critical literacy can offer gifted students a way to research great leaders and their actions in times of crisis, enabling them to project the type of leadership that is called for in today's world. Reading activities, writing activities, and oral language activities are described. (Contains 1 reference.) (CR)

This article offers a list of World Wide Web sites with general collections of resources on students with dual exceptionalities and also on sources of information on specific disabilities. (Contains 3 references.) (LC)

This article discusses ways that educators can encourage critical thinking in their students, including gifted children. Strategies include: questioning students to encourage critical thinking; developing and prizing creative thinking as a partner to critical thinking; and realizing that if students can learn critical thinking skills, so can they.…

This article offers suggestions for using biographies of famous women aviators with gifted students. Aviators suggested include Ruth Law, Jacqueline Cochran, Bessie Coleman, Beryl Markham, and Amelia Earhart. Teaching suggestions include creative book sharing, integration with map work, and student projects based on these lives. (Contains…

This article offers suggestions for using the Internet to stimulate the interest of gifted students in various aspects of American government and the changing of administrations. Ten relevant Web sites are described. (DB)

This article provides a teaching guide to the effective use of biographies and autobiographies with gifted students. Fifteen learning activities are suggested such as conducting an eminent people news conference, creating a biography collage, writing a fictionalized biography, and completing a family tree. (Contains three references and a reading…

This article describes a literature-based unit on mythology taught to 85 gifted middle school students. It identifies project objectives, gives examples of the grouping of myths according to broad themes, and provides more detail about one of the themes, assessment activities, and long-term effects of the project. (Contains six references.) (DB)

Discussion of the nature/nurture controversy in giftedness concludes that giftedness has a strong hereditary basis that is greatly influenced by educational experiences. The importance of the affective domain is also stressed. Some specific suggestions are offered to help students nurture themselves and to help parents and teachers nurture others.…

This brief article identifies software that supports visual spatial intelligence, a characteristic of many intellectually gifted children. Such software should be complex, flexible, and include visual components. The review of five software titles provides information on appropriate ages, computer compatibility, and source, as well as an…