New material in this text takes into account all the changes in practice in the past 8-9 years, such as collaboration with the special education community to ensure that students with disabilities have access to gifted education services, a focus on diversity, the efforts schools should be making to ensure that underrepresented student populations are screened for gifted education, and how technology has increased opportunities for gifted students, especially in rural communities. The whole book describes a change in focus based on the revised gifted programming standards, which are no longer written as inputs ("do XYZ in the area of curriculum planning") but are now written to be student-outcome oriented ("students need to be able to do ABC").

Though nearly 5 million students can be characterized as gifted and talented in the United States, many exceptional learners ""fly under the radar."" Because they are not appropriately challenged in the general classroom, they never meet their full potential in school or in life. Author Jenny Grant Rankin equips general classroom teachers with the information and strategies they need to spot, advocate for, engage, and challenge exceptional learners in their classrooms. Learn how to: Recognize the challenges of each child. Identify the five unexpected traits of exceptional learners. Adjust your teaching to meet the needs of all learners. Filled with useful strategies and poignant personal accounts, this book gives you the ""meat"" of what you need to prevent those students who need to be challenged and engaged from slipping through the cracks.

Gifted kids are so much more than test scores and grades. Still, it's sometimes difficult to see past the potential to the child who may be anxious, lonely, confused, or unsure of what the future might bring. This book, now fully revised with updated information and new survey quotes, offers practical suggestions for addressing the social and emotional needs of gifted students. The authors present ways to advocate for gifted education; help gifted underachievers, perfectionists, and twice - exceptional students; and provide all gifted kids with a safe, supportive learning environment. Complete with engaging stories, strategies, Q&As, essays, activities, resources, and discussions of ADHD, Asperger's, and the Common Core, this book is for anyone committed to helping gifted students thrive. Online digital content includes reproducible forms from the book.

Driven by a passion for music, for excellence, and for fame, violin soloists are immersed from early childhood in high-pressure competitions, regular public appearances, and arduous daily practice. An in-depth study of nearly one hundred such children, Producing Excellence illuminates the process these young violinists undergo to become elite international soloists. A musician and a parent of a young violinist, sociologist Izabela Wagner offers an inside look at how her young subjects set out on the long road to becoming a soloist. The remarkable research she conducted - at rehearsals, lessons, and in other educational settings - enabled her to gain deep insight into what distinguishes these talented prodigies and their training. She notes, for instance, the importance of a family culture steeped in the values of the musical world. Indeed, more than half of these students come from a family of professional musicians and were raised in an atmosphere marked by the importance of instrumental practice, the vitality of music as a vocation, and especially the veneration of famous artists. Wagner also highlights the highly structured, rigorous training system of identifying, nurturing, and rewarding talent, even as she underscores the social, economic, and cultural factors that make success in this system possible. Offering an intimate portrait of the students, their parents, and their instructors, Producing Excellence sheds new light on the development of exceptional musical talent, as well as draw much larger conclusions as to ""producing prodigy"" in other competition-prone areas, such as sports, sciences, the professions, and other arts. Wagner's insights make this book valuable for academics interested in the study of occupations, and her clear, lively writing is perfect for general readers curious about the ins and outs of training to be a violin soloist.