Teaching Advanced Learners in the General Education Classroom

Low-stress tips for challenging high-ability learners

Many teachers ask: "What do I do for students who finish their work before everyone else? Is there anything I can use that doesn′t require me to read a long textbook with complicated instructions?" If you would like to do more for gifted students and need simple strategies that you can use tomorrow, this book is for you. Inside are helpful methods for challenging students who need more than the regular curriculum can provide. Readers will find practical tools, including:

• Tips for using existing resources and potential
• A progression from simpler to more complex adjustments for advanced learners
• Specific lessons for language arts, math, science, social studies, and the arts

The authors′ strategies can be tailored to benefit students of varying abilities. The lessons are easy to integrate, consistent with curriculum standards, and described in practical terms. You will also find ready-to-use reproducibles, helpful vignettes, and additional resources for differentiating instruction so that all students are challenged to reach their potential.

Joan Franklin Smutny is founder and director of the Center for Gifted, a Northern Illinois University Partner. She directs programs for thousands of bright, talented, and gifted children in the Chicago area annually. She also teaches creative writing in many of these programs as well as courses on gifted education for graduate students at the university level. She is editor of the Illinois Association for Gifted Children Journal, contributing editor of Understanding Our Gifted, and a regular contributor to the Gifted Education Communicator, Parenting for High Potential, and the Gifted Education Press Quarterly. Smutny has authored, co-authored, and edited many articles and books on gifted education for teachers, parents, and administrators, including Challenging High Potential Spanish Speaking Students (2012), Teaching Advanced Learners in the General Education Classroom (2011), Manifesto of the Gifted Girl (2010), Differentiating for the Young Child, Second Edition (2010), Igniting Creativity in Gifted Learners, K–6 (2009), Acceleration for Gifted Learners, K–5 (2007), Reclaiming the Lives of Gifted Girls and Women (2007), Designing and Developing Programs for Gifted Students (2003), Underserved Gifted Populations (2003), Gifted Education: Promising Practices (2003), Stand Up for Your Gifted Child (2001), The Young Gifted Child: Potential and Promise, an Anthology (1998), and Teaching Young Gifted Children in the Regular Classroom (1997). In 1996, she won the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) Distinguished Service Award for outstanding contribution to the field of gifted education. S.E. von Fremd is an independent scholar, writer, and editor with a background in education, cultural studies, and dance. She performed with the Never Stop Moving Dance Company in Chicago under the direction of Reynaldo Martinez and taught creative dance and theater to children in the city and surrounding areas. Her interest in creativity and culture eventually led her to do a doctorate in performance studies at Northwestern University. This included a year’s research in Uganda, where she focused on the role of popular theater and dance in reviving cultural identity and educating children and young people throughout the country. She has written several book reviews on African musical traditions, a monograph on the cultural legacy of Kenyan novelist Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Nigerian playwright Wole Soyinka, another monograph on refugees in Africa, and an article on the performing arts as a popular forum for education in Uganda. She has also given presentations on Uganda’s creative artists under the reign of Idi Amin and on dance movements throughout the continent of Africa.