Library
If you are interested in checking out a title from the Gifted Ed department's lending library, please contact your child's resource teacher or call Felicity Hanson at 952 848-4910.
Parenting
- Benson, Peter, Judy Galbraith, Pamela Espeland. What Kids Need to Succeed: Proven, Practical Ways to Raise Good Kids. Minneapolis: Free Spirit Publishing. 1998.(2 copies)
Identifying and building students' developmental assets - family support, a caring neighborhood, self-esteem, and resistance skills. - Benson, Peter, Judy Galbraith, Pamela Espeland. What Teens Need to Succeed: Proven, Practical Ways to Shape Your Own Future. Minneapolis: Free Spirit Publishing. 1998.
Identifying and building a teen's developmental assets - family support, a caring neighborhood, self-esteem, and resistance skills. - by Barbara Clark
Clark, Barbara. Growing Up Gifted: Developing the potential of children at home and at school. 4th ed. New York: Merrill. 1992.
Inclusion and connectedness are themes of this work. There is a great need for appropriate inclusion and so many examples of inapprpriate and damaging attempts to thoughtlessly merge very bright children into the mainstream of education, that knowledgeable planning and dissemination of information on gifted learners is essential. The book also provides information to enrich the field of education from the disciplines of the neurosciences, genetics, cognitive psychology, physics, and systems theory. These overviews will enhance your understanding of the need for connectedness and how to achieve it. - Freeman, Joan. Gifted Children Growing Up. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. 1991.
Based on research over a 16-year period, the book descrives the experiences and reactions of gifted young from a wide variety of backgrounds. Personal details are startling and at times distressing as they reveal how much talent and untapped potential have gone to waste. Some young people collapsed under pressure to constantly do better without the emotional support they needed; others were restricted by poverty; still others got on the academic treadmill. For their own happiness and for the future of society, the gifted need adequate resources and healthy role models in order to make the most of their abilities. - Karnes, Frances and Tracy Riley. Competitions: Maximinzing Your Abilities. Waco: Prufrock Press. 1996.
A treasure trove of information about selecting, entering, and competing in contests. Features a list of more than 273 competitions, contacts, how to enter, prizes, judging criteria, etc. With an extensive competitions journal to help students understand why competitions are important to him or her, what to enter, and how to follow up. - Perry, Susan. Playing Smart: A Parent's Guide to Enriching, Offbeat Learning Activities for Ages 4-14. Minneapolis: Free Spirit Publishing. 1990.
Ideas for what to do with children that is different, enriching, and fun. From photography to psychology, cooking to cultural relativity, you'll learn to find adventure in ordinary places close to home. Not designed to make your child read more, write better, or score higher in math and science. But don't be surprised if his or her scores improve...that happens naturally when you play smart. - Rimm, Sylvia. Growing Up too Fast: The Secret World of America's Middle Schoolers. Emmaus, PA: Rodale. 2005.
Introduction -- Growing up too soon -- Is sexual development happening earlier? -- Gender stereotypes and sexual orientation -- The buzz on drugs -- Technology is keeping kids busy -- Sex and violence in music, movies, and media -- Your kids are watching you--and plenty of others -- Bullying in our schools -- Terror in our world -- Fitting in with fashion and friends -- Tween weight problems -- Achievement or underachievement -- Parenting for achievement -- Parenting in the middle of the v of love -- Epilogue - Rimm, Sylvia. Keys to Parenting the Gifted Child. 3rd ed. Scottsdale: Great Potential Press. 2007.
Forty-two keys to help parents unlock the potential of bright children, including: how to enhance learning in the family; parenting with a united front; homework issues; underachievement; perfectionism; creativity, pretending, and lying; gender issues. - Rimm, Sylvia. Raising Preschoolers: Parenting for Today. New York: Three Rivers Press. 1997. Clear, workable advice for parents and preschool teachers to apply what research teaches us about preschool children such as enriching your child's environment; teaching social skills and emotional intelligence (including manners, chores, play dates); finding quality daycare and communicating with providers; sibling rivalry, tantrums, fears, sleep problems, aggressive behavior; preparing for kindergarten.
- Rimm, Sylvia. See Jane Win: The Rimm Report on How 1,000 Girls Became Successful Women. New York: Three Rivers Press. 1999.
Results of a three-year survey of more than one thousand successful women to uncover what elements of their childhood and adolescence contributed to their success - and how today's parents can give their own daughters the same advantages. The book offers informed advice on helping girls deal with middle-school grade decline; math anxiety; eating disorders; social insecurity; self-esteem and competition; career/family balance, and more. - Rimm, Sylvia. See Jane Win for Girls: A Smart Girl's Guide to Success. Minneapolis: Free Spirit Press. 2003. (2 copies)
Presents tips, quizzes, activities, and words of wisdom from successful women for girls trying to make positive changes and choices in all areas of their lives and develop confidence, inner strength, and the desire to learn. - Saunders, Jacqueline and Pamela Espeland. Bringing Out the Best: A Guide for Parents of Young Gifted Children. Rev. & updated. Minneapolis: Free Spirit Press. 1991.
Hundreds of ways to promote creativity and intellectual development--without pushing. Recommended by Head Start. - Sloane, Paul and Des MacHale. Intriguing Lateral Thinking Puzzles. New York: Sterling Publishing Co. Inc. 1996.
These puzzles are to be played as games with a quizmaster and participants. The puzzles, as presented, do not contain sufficient information for the solver to uncover the solution, so a key part of the process is the asking of questions. This questioning helps develop lateral thinking skills to find the best solution. These problems teach you to check your assumptions about any situation and to be open-minded, flexible. and creative in your questioning. - Walker, Sally Yahnke. The Survival Guide for Parents of Gifted Kids: How to Understand, Live With, and Stick Up for Your Gifted Child. Rev. & updated. Minneapolis: Free Spirit Publishing. 2002.
Complete with current information about research and legislation, tests, and testing, trends in gifted education, real-life examples, first-person stories, step-by-step strategies, resouces, and encouragement, this book is for parents who are faced with the task of raising a gifted child.
- Webb, James and Arlene DeVries. Gifted Parent Groups: The SENG Model Training Manual. Scottsdale: Gifted Psychology Press. 1998.
This manual is intended to assist training facilitators in establishing specific guided discussion groups for parents of talented youngsters. These groups help parents better understand, encourage, and nurture their gifted children to develop positive self-esteem and enhanced interpersonal skills. Although this manual was designed to be used in conjunction with a two-day workshop, with suitable caution it can be used alone. - Whitman, Cynthia. Win the Whining War & Other Skirmishes: A Family Peace Plan. Los Angeles: Perspective Publishing. 1991.
A step-by-step guide to increasing cooperation and reducing conflict with children 2-12 years old. These easy-to-use techniques will help eliminate from your home whining, tantrums, dawdling, bad language, name calling, teasing, biting, talking back, and all the other annoying behaviors of young children. A book for anyone who lives, works, or spends time with children: parents, grandparents, teachers, aides, babysitters, etc.
Teaching
- Brooks, Jacqueline Grennon and Martin Brooks. In Search of Understanding: The Case for Constructivist Classrooms. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. 1993.
Activities that occur in the classroom either help or hinder students' learning. This book presents a case for the development of classrooms in which students are encouraged to construct deep understandings of important concepts through student engagement, interaction, reflection, and construction. - Calkins, Lucy, Kate Montgomery and Donna Santman; with Beverly Falk. A Teacher's Guide to Standardized Reading Tests: Knowledge Is Power. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. 1998.
In order to be less victimized by standardized tests, the authors believe teachers need to be more knowledgeable about them. To that end, their book: shows how teachers can use knowledge about tests to be more powerful and articulate in conversations with colleagues, parents, students, and politicians; demonstrates trusted methods in reading and writing test-prep; describes predictable testing challenges and ways students can develop capabilities to meet them; provides guidelines for reading and interpreting test results to minimize damage caused by troubling scores. - Calvin, William. How Brains Think: Evolving Intelligence, Then and Now. New York: BasicBooks. 1996. Science Masters Series.
This book explores how our inner life evolves from one second to the next as we move from one topic to another, create or reject alternatives. - Frase, Jane. Teacher to Teacher: A Guidebook for Effective Mentoring. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. 1998.
Growth and change can be achieved by both beginning and experienced teachers when they work with a mentor. This book is a complete course in effective mentoring with practical suggestions on: establishing and nurturing a positive mentoring relationship; how to help mentees with classroom management; what mentees need to know about learning in order to help students; the role of reflection in teaching; how to work with parents; the importance of reading aloud to students; the practice of peer coaching. - Gallagher, James and Shelagh Gallagher. Teaching the Gifted Child. 4th ed. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. 1994.
Definition and identification of the gifted child -- Characteristics of gifted students -- School adaptations for the gifted -- Mathematics for gifted students -- Science for the gifted -- Social studies for the gifted -- Language arts -- Visual and performing arts -- Problem solving and problem finding -- Creativity -- Administration -- Personnel preparation for gifted education -- Special populations. - Gross, Steven. Staying Centered: Curriculum Leadership in a Turbulent Era. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. 1998.
The author examines ten exemplary curriculum development sites ranging from those that follow detailed state guidelines to those with few external mandates, and identifies common characteristics that lead to success as well as key traits of effective administrators, teachers, and community groups. He provides specific strategies for dealing with the disruption that nearly always accompanies innovation. - Hansen, Jane. When Learners Evaluate. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. 1998.
This book explores the influence of students' insights on teaching. Eventually, teachers find themselves in a teaching situation that cannot exist without students' frequent input. Evaluation and instruction become one continuous act. The book represents teachers at all levels and offers insight into: the importance of students' outside lives in the evaluation process; what to do to help students become better evaluators; ways learners' guide their evaluations and goals; how to discover what students value in order to help them create assignments; how evaluation guides students and teachers through productive learning processes. Finally, the book offers an example of curricula in which students have a strong voice in evaluating, planning, and documenting their work. - Keene, Ellin Oliver and Susan Zimmermann. Mosiac of Thought: Teaching Comprehension in a Reader's Workshop. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. 1997.
The authors examine the thought processes of proficient readers. These processes serve as models for the strategies offered in this book - strategies intended to help children become more flexible, adaptive, independent, and engaged readers. The authors propose a new instructional paradigm focused on in-depth instruction in the strategies used by proficient readers, showing what instruction looks like in dynamic, literature-ric reader's workshops. As students connect their reading to their background knowledge, create sensory images, ask questions, draw inferences, determine what's important, synthesize ideas, and solve problems, they are able to construct a rich mosaic of meaning. - McEwan, Elaine. How to Deal with Parents Who Are Angry, Troubled, Afraid, or Just Plain Crazy. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. 1998.
This book will show you how diplomatically to handle disgruntled parents, disarm their emotionally charged behavior; create a healthy climate for communication, and build parental support for your school. The author includes more than two dozen strategies for defusing out-of-control parents; identifies six "viruses" parents can carry into the school; offers 50 practical ways to build parental support for schools; identifies common school problems and how to apply the seven steps of effective problem solving; and sugests creative ways to work with parents toward the common goal of improving their children's education. - Schmoker, Mike. Results: The Key to Continuous School Improvement. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. 1996.
Tangible, measurable results can be the key to school improvement. The author examines the conditions that bring about this change. He emphasizes the importance of princples and practices that are simple, supported by research, and relatively few in number. Educators can provide a better education for students by focusing unwaveringly on better results and the conditions that promote them.
- Transforming Classroom Practice: The Best of ASCD's Update Newsletters. Eds: O'Neil, John and Scott Willis. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. 1998.
Topics include bilingual education; constructivism; inclusion; integrating the curriculum; multi-age classrooms; multiple intelligences; preparing students for the workplace.