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

Important Links For Teachers and Parents

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#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