Resources for Parents and Teachers

Unlocking Emergent Talent is a report that makes recommendations for practice, policy, and research for low income, high-ability children. You can read it by clicking on the link below.  

A Nation Deceived highlights disparities between the research on acceleration and the educational beliefs and practices that often run contrary to the research. For more information on acceleration go to http://www.accelerationinstitute.org

Unlocking Emergent Talent Doc

Young Gifted Child

A Nation Deceived Report

A Nation Deceived Poster

Important Links For Teachers and Parents

---

#gtchat Resources

#gtchat  Blog
#gtchat Transcripts

Chart Comparing High Achievers, Gifted Learners, or Creative Thinkers

A High Achiever…

• Remembers the answers
  
• Is interested
  
• Is attentive
  
• Generates advanced ideas
  
• Works hard to achieve
  
• Answer the questions in detail
  
• Performs at the top of the group
  
• Responds with interest and opinions
  
• Learns with ease
  
• Needs 6 to 8 repetitions to master
  
• Enjoys the company of age peers
  
• Understands complex, abstract humor
  
• Grasps the meaning
  
• Completes assignments on time
  
• Is receptive
  
• Is accurate and complete
  
• Enjoys school often
  
• Absorbs information
  
• Is a technician with expertise in a field
  
• Memorizes well
  
• Is highly alert and observant
  
• Is pleased with own learning
  
• Gets A’s
  
• Is able
  

A Gifted Learner…

• Poses unforeseen questions
  
• Is curious
  
• Is selectively mentally engaged
  
• Generates complex, abstract ideas
  
• Knows without working hard
  
• Ponders with depth and multiple perspectives
  
• Is beyond the group
  
• Exhibits feelings and opinions from multiple perspectives
  
• Already knows
  
• Needs 1 to 3 repetitions to master
  
• Prefers the company of intellectual peers
  
• Creates complex, abstract humor
  
• Infers and connects concepts
  
• Initiates projects and extensions of assignments
  
• Is intense
  
• Is original and continually developing
  
• Enjoys self-directed learning
  
• Manipulates information
  
• Is an expert who abstracts beyond the field
  
• Guesses and infers well
  
• Anticipates and relates observations
  
• Is self-critical
  
• May not be motivated by grades
  
• Is intellectual
  

A Creative Thinker…

• Sees exceptions
  
• Wonders
  
• Daydreams; may seem off task
  
• Overflows with ideas, many of which will never be developed
  
• Plays with ideas and concepts
  
• Injects new possibilities
  
• Is in own group
  
• Shares bizarre, sometimes conflicting opinions
  
• Questions: What if…
  
• Questions the need for mastery
  
• Prefers the company of creative peers but often works alone
  
• Relishes wild, off-the-wall humor
  
• Makes mental leaps: Aha!
  
• Initiates more projects that will ever be completed
  
• Is independent and unconventional
  
• Is original and continually developing
  
• Enjoys creating
  
• Improvises
  
• Is an inventor and idea generator
  
• Creates and brainstorms well
  
• Is intuitive
  
• Is never finished with possibilities
  
• May not be motivated by grades
  
• Is idiosyncratic
  

Characteristics of Students with Gifts and Talents

From the Wisconsin State Gifted and Talented Service Plan  
During a child’s first five or six years some of the most commonly exhibited characteristics are: 

• extraordinary vocabulary at an early age; varying sleep patterns and needs
  
• exceptional understanding of complex or abstract ideas 
  
• precocity in math and language tasks – knowledge and behaviors that are not taught or coached, 
  
• but surface on their own 
  
• advanced sense of humor and understanding of jokes and puns 
  
• heightened sensitivity to feelings and ideas 
  
• amazing curiosity – questioning and touching almost everything 

General Intelligence 
• Recalls facts easily 
• Is very well informed about one or more topics 
• Shows keen insight into cause-effect relationships 
• Has exceptional ability to solve problems 
• Has phenomenal memory 

Intelligence in a Specific Academic Area 
• Exhibits extended attention span in a particular content area 
• Displays a passion for a topic of interest 
• Makes independent contact with or carries on correspondence with experts in the field 
• Puts extensive efforts into a project - time is of no consequence 
• Manages to change a topic under discussion to the discipline of his/her interest (e.g., a discussion 
on today’s weather soon becomes focused on meteorology or global warming) 

Creativity 
• Possesses strong visual thinking or imaginative skills 
• Transfers ideas and solutions to unique situations 
• Prefers variety and novelty and an individual way of solving problems 
• Asks many and unusual questions 
• Often has several projects going at once 
• Resists external controls, tests and challenges limits 


Leadership 
• Relates to and motivates other people 
• Organizes others for activities 
• Demonstrates high levels of self-assurance when making decisions or convincing peers 
• Sees problems from many perspectives 
• Listens to and respects the opinions of others (or listens to and debates the opinions of others) 


Visual/Performing Arts 
• Shows very high ability in the visual arts, i.e., painting, sculpting, and/or arranging media in a 
unique way 
• Possesses unusual ability to create, perform, or describe music 
• Possesses unusual talent in drama or dance 
• Uses artistic ability to express or evoke feelings
• Persists with an artistic vision