This article presents four strategies for identifying young gifted children: recognize the limits of testing; network with parents; consider new ways of thinking about and observing giftedness, including incorporating different learning styles in teaching; and use portfolios to collect actual samples of children's work. Advantages of portfolio…

This article discusses strategies for encouraging the gifted child's brain to make the most of learning opportunities. Strategies include offering programming enrichment classes, accelerated classes, and teachers trained in differentiating instruction. The importance of providing enrichment, challenges, and feedback are stressed and the game "20…

This article discusses the paucity of gifted females taking advanced math and science courses and the widening gender gap in computer science courses and the information and technology (IT) field. A list of Internet resources that examine this issue is provided, along with resources for fostering IT skills in girls. (CR)

This article examines the effects of labeling students "gifted." Educators are urged to spend less time on identification and more on providing services, conduct ongoing needs assessments, allow students to self-select areas of independent study, and educate stakeholders so the label is not perceived as the access to services. (CR)

This article lists common pitfalls in parents' gifted advocacy attempts: believing exceptionality is synonymous with entitlement; responding to stated boredom without determining the meaning; waiting for a crisis before advocating; pushing for a response before agreeing on the issue; and advocating from their own issues. Strategies for developing…

This article discusses identification methods and practices for gifted education and barriers to appropriate identification. Internet addresses are provided for accessing federal legislation requirements, a multiple intelligences framework for identification, the Renzulli Enrichment Triad model, and 13 assessments used to identify gifted students.…

In this article, parents of gifted children describe the issues that matter most to them. Parents want professional co-advocates to help them be heard; regular, clear, and open communication to promote understanding; and administrative help navigating the school system so that expressed need will be translated into identifiable improvements.…

This article offers the following advice for parents of gifted students who wish to home school: have patience with the children and with yourself; practice the arts of home schooling and parenting; and persist in the face of complexity. Parents are urged to be flexible in accommodating changing learning style preferences. (Contains 2 references.)…

After reviewing the needs of culturally diverse gifted students, the following recommendations are made: seek gifted programs that meet the dual needs of students who are gifted and diverse; encourage the hiring of culturally diverse teachers; expose children to diverse gifted mentors, and encourage school personnel to use multicultural materials.…

This article discusses the obstacles one parent faced in advocating for her gifted children and the positive outcomes of her persistence. A list of strategies for parenting gifted children is provided that include model lifelong learning, nurture strengths and interests, and listen and respond compassionately to your child's emotional needs. (CR)

This article discusses the four elements to learning successful test taking: time strategies, error avoidance strategies, guessing strategies, and deductive reasoning strategies. Test tricks and gimmicks are described and a list of Web sites is provided that includes resources for identifying learning strategies and for accessing study guides. (CR)

This article describes key steps parents can take to develop an achievement orientation in gifted children: heal the gifted child within the parent; give consistent messages; develop early independence; utilize encouragement; develop multiple self-definitions; set challenging but realistic goals; and model persistence. (Author/CR)

Four questions are presented to help organize indicators of gifted differentiation: is there an institutional recognition of giftedness; are services characterized by choices for learners; is instruction characterized by a challenging curriculum; and is the importance of continued motivation to learn recognized. Markers are also identified.…

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…