Gifted students spend most of their time in the regular classroom, yet few general education teachers have the specialized training to address their unique needs. This book provides the structures, processes, and resources needed to facilitate GT (Gifted/Talented) coaching as a means of building capacity among classroom teachers to identify, serve, and teach gifted and high-potential learners. Guided by best practices and research in professional learning, this resource provides the steps, strategies, and tools needed to create and sustain effective coaching practices designed to maximize access to advanced learning and differentiation throughout a school. Bolstered by downloadable resources, chapters address how to support, stretch, and sustain teachers’ instructional practices through a sequence of co-thinking, co-planning, and reflection that emphasizes ongoing and sustainable professional learning. Outlining a step-by-step guide for the coaching process, this valuable resource equips gifted and talented coaches with tools to support teachers to meet the needs and reveal talent among gifted and high-potential students through differentiation in the regular education classroom.

Includes specific thinking models for teaching English language arts, social studies, and STEM Ideal for teachers who are looking for ways to differentiate and design lessons for their highest achieving students Highlights units and models from Vanderbilt University's Programs for Talented Youth curriculum.

Winner of the 2017 NAGC Curriculum Studies Award Space, Structure, and Story integrates Earth and space science with science fiction and nonfiction texts, poetry, and art. This unit, developed by Vanderbilt University's Programs for Talented Youth, is aligned to the Common Core State Standards and Next Generation Science Standards. Students explore advanced science and ELA content through the lens of structure-its parts, purpose, and function. Mobius strips, the hero's journey, dystopian fiction, black holes, Einstein's relativity, stars, and moons are just a few of the captivating in-depth topics explored through accelerated content, engaging activities, and differentiated tasks. Ideal for gifted classrooms or gifted pull-out groups, the unit features poetry from Carl Sandburg, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and C. S. Lewis; art from M. C. Escher, Vincent Van Gogh, Claude Monet, and Salvador Dali; a novel study featuring A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle; short stories from Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury; speeches from President John F. Kennedy and President Barack Obama; and informational texts about gravity, orbits, and black holes. Grades 4-6

Gifted students spend most of their time in the regular classroom, yet few general education teachers have the specialized training to address their unique needs. This book provides the structures, processes, and resources needed to facilitate GT (Gifted/Talented) coaching as a means of building capacity among classroom teachers to identify, serve, and teach gifted and high-potential learners. Guided by best practices and research in professional learning, this resource provides the steps, strategies, and tools needed to create and sustain effective coaching practices designed to maximize access to advanced learning and differentiation throughout a school. Bolstered by downloadable resources, chapters address how to support, stretch, and sustain teachers’ instructional practices through a sequence of co-thinking, co-planning, and reflection that emphasizes ongoing and sustainable professional learning. Outlining a step-by-step guide for the coaching process, this valuable resource equips gifted and talented coaches with tools to support teachers to meet the needs and reveal talent among gifted and high-potential students through differentiation in the regular education classroom.

Includes specific thinking models for teaching English language arts, social studies, and STEM Ideal for teachers who are looking for ways to differentiate and design lessons for their highest achieving students Highlights units and models from Vanderbilt University's Programs for Talented Youth curriculum.

Winner of the 2016 NAGC Curriculum Studies Award In I, Me, You, We: Individuality Versus Conformity, students explore essential questions such as “How does our environment shape our identity? What are the consequences of conforming to a group? When does social conformity go too far?” This unit, developed by Vanderbilt University’s Programs for Talented Youth and aligned to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), includes a major emphasis on rigorous evidence-based discourse through the study of common themes across rich, challenging nonfiction and fictional texts. The unit guides students to examine the fine line of individuality versus conformity through the related concepts of belongingness, community, civil disobedience, questioning the status quo, and self-reliance by engaging in creative activities, Socratic seminars, literary analyses, and debates. Lessons include close-readings with text-dependent questions, choice-based differentiated products, rubrics, formative assessments, and ELA tasks that require students to analyze texts for rhetorical features, literary elements, and themes through argument, explanatory, and prose-constructed writing. Ideal for pre-AP and honors courses, the unit features short stories from Kurt Vonnegut and Ray Bradbury, poetry from Emily Dickinson and Maya Angelou, art by M. C. Escher and Pablo Picasso, and primary source documents from Plato, Eleanor D. Roosevelt, William Bradford, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry David Thoreau. Grades 6-8

Winner of the 2012 NAGC Curriculum Studies Award In the Mind's Eye: Truth Versus Perception invites students on a philosophical exploration of the themes of truth and perception. Lessons include a major emphasis on rigorous evidence-based discourse through the study of common themes and content-rich, challenging informational and fictional texts. This unit, developed by Vanderbilt University's Programs for Talented Youth and aligned to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), applies concepts from Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" to guide students to discover how reality is presented and interpreted in fiction, nonfiction, art, and media. Students engage in activities such as Socratic seminars, literary analyses, skits, and art projects, and creative writing to understand differing perceptions of reality. Lessons include close readings with text-dependent questions, choice-based differentiated products, rubrics, formative assessments, and ELA tasks that require students to analyze texts for rhetorical features, literary elements, and themes through argument, explanatory, and prose-constructed writing. Ideal for pre-AP and honors courses, the unit features art from M.C. Escher and Vincent Van Gogh, short stories from Guy de Maupassant and Shirley Jackson, longer texts by Daniel Keyes and Ray Bradbury, and informational texts related to sociology, Nazi propaganda, and Christopher Columbus. This unit encourages students to translate learning to real-life contexts and problems by exploring themes of disillusionment, social deception, and the power of perception. Grades 6-8

Finding Freedom invites students to follow America's journey toward finding freedom by examining multiple perspectives, conflicts, ideas, and challenges through seminal historical texts. This unit, developed by Vanderbilt University's Programs for Talented Youth and aligned to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), features close readings of some of the most famous American political speeches from notable Americans, presidents, and minority voices. To sharpen historical thinking, students analyze arguments for freedom, examine dissenting perspectives, and reason through multiple viewpoints of historical issues through debates and interactive activities. To develop advanced literacy skills, students evaluate effective rhetorical appeals, claims, supporting evidence, and techniques that advance arguments. Students synthesize their learning by comparing speeches to each other, relating texts to contemporary issues of today, and making interdisciplinary connections. Lessons include close readings with text-dependent questions, choice-based differentiated products, rubrics, formative assessments, social studies content connections, and ELA tasks that require argument and explanatory writing. Ideal for pre-AP and honors courses, the unit features speeches from Patrick Henry, Frederick Douglass, Carrie Chapman Catt, and Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lincoln, Kennedy, Johnson, George W. Bush, Obama, and others. Grades 6-8

Winner of the 2015 NAGC Curriculum Studies Award Interactions in Ecology and Literature integrates ecology with the concept of interactions and the reading of fictional and informational texts. This unit, developed by Vanderbilt University's Programs for Talented Youth, is aligned to the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Next Generation Science Standards. Students will research questions such as "Should animals be kept in zoos?" and "Should humans intervene to control overpopulation of species?" They will examine relationships among living things and the environment as well as relationships between literary elements in texts through accelerated content, engaging activities, and differentiated tasks. Ideal for gifted classrooms or gifted pull-out groups, the unit features fictional texts from Lynne Cherry, Katherine Applegate, and Jacqueline Woodson; art from Mark Rothko and Georges Seurat; informational texts about deforestation and a variety of animals; biographies about Michael Jordan, J. K. Rowling, and Walt Disney; and videos about food chains, food webs, and more. Grades 2-3

Winner of NAGC's 2021 Book of the Year Award This must-have resource: Provides gifted educators with methods and strategies for successful coplanning, coteaching, coaching, and collaboration. Enables effective management of differentiation. Increases educators' understanding of gifted students' needs. Features the tools and how to steps for facilitating and maintaining collaborative work in order to challenge and support gifted students all day, every day. Encourages professional learning and a focus on shared responsibility and reflection. The book also includes considerations for working with special populations, including twice-exceptional students, underachievers, and culturally, linguistically, and economically diverse learners, as well as meeting students' social-emotional needs, collaborating with families and communities, and advocating for gifted education.

Encounters With Archetypes integrates the study of archetypes with the concept of encounters. This unit, developed by Vanderbilt University's Programs for Talented Youth, is aligned to the Common Core State Standards and features accelerated content, creative products, differentiated tasks, engaging activities, and the use of in-depth analysis models to develop sophisticated skills in the language arts. Through the lens of encounter, students will examine the patterns, symbols, and motifs associated with common archetypes by analyzing fictional and informational texts, speeches, and visual media. Students will follow various archetype encounters with conflicts and challenges to explore questions such as "How do archetypes reflect the human experience?" and "How do archetypes reveal human strengths and weaknesses?" Ideal for gifted classrooms or gifted pull-out groups, the unit features texts from Sandra Cisneros, Louis Untermeyer, Rudyard Kipling, Emily Dickinson, and Maya Angelou; biographies of Oprah Winfrey, Mother Teresa, Jackie Robinson, Sally Ride, and Lin-Manuel Miranda; a speech from President Ronald Reagan; a novel study featuring Wonder by R. J. Palacio and/or Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan; and art from Pieter Bruegel. Grades 4-5

Winner of the 2015 NAGC Curriculum Studies Award Perspectives of Power explores the nature of power in literature, historical documents, poetry, and art. Lessons include a major focus on rigorous evidence-based discourse through the study of common themes and content-rich, challenging nonfiction and fictional texts. This unit, developed by Vanderbilt University's Programs for Talented Youth and aligned to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), guides students to explore the power of oppression; the power of the past, present, and future; and the power of personal response by engaging in simulations, skits, creative projects, literary analyses, Socratic seminars, and debates. Texts illuminate content extensions that interest many high-ability students including bystander effect, social class structure, game theory, the use and abuse of technology, cultural conflict, the butterfly effect, women's suffrage, and surrealism as each relates to power. Lessons include close readings with text-dependent questions, choice-based differentiated products, rubrics, formative assessments, and ELA writing tasks that require students to analyze texts for rhetorical features, literary elements, and themes through argument, explanatory, and/or prose-constructed writing. Ideal for pre-AP and honors courses, the unit features texts from Emily Dickinson, William B. Yeats, and Charles Perrault; art from Moyo Okediji and Salvador Dali; and speeches by Elie Wiesel, Susan B. Anthony, and John F. Kennedy. As a result from the learning in the unit, students will be able to examine powerful influences in their own lives and identify their own power in personal responsibility. Grades 6-8

How can we help students develop resilience to persevere in the face of setbacks? How can we ignite a drive that will inspire them to sustain effort even through difficulty? This book equips teachers to deliberately cultivate psychosocial skills, including self-awareness, problem solving to deal with setbacks, assertive interpersonal skills, and intellectual risk-taking. By teaching students to be aware of how their thoughts, emotions, and behaviors affect their pursuit of excellence, students can learn to tackle challenges and setbacks that they might experience as they reach to achieve. Lessons include engaging activities and curriculum connections, covering topics related to perfectionism, mindset, grit, stress, procrastination, social-emotional intelligence, and more. Grades 4-

Gifted students may often perceive that they are valued for what they do rather than who they are. Performance expectations of the gifted can lead to the manifestation of perfectionism, yet the social/emotional needs of gifted students are often ignored within gifted programs. Characteristics of giftedness including emotional sensitivity and intensity may magnify perfectionism within gifted students. The book presents insight to teachers of gifted classrooms on how to address perfectionism as a primary intervention. A series of lessons and techniques are described. Findings support the importance of addressing gifted students' emotional needs to propel them to achieve, not out of a fear of failing, but out of the love of learning.