At home the other night we were hard at work on a Social Studies project when I got to thinking about social studies resources for gifted students. I know that these materials can be hard to find and many teachers create their own gifted and talented lesson plans.
But there’s a great social studies curriculum for high ability learners: the Center for Gifted Education (CFGE) at The College of William & Mary. Have you checked it out? You can find it here on the Kendall Hunt Publishing website: http://www.kendallhunt.com/index.cfm?PID=219&PGI=251.
CFGE Social Studies offers great topics, including these, just to name a few:
- Gift of the Nile
- Ancient China
- The Civil War: It’s Causes and Effects
- The Road to the White House: Electing the American President
- Defining Nations: Cultural Identity and Political Tensions
And the program meets the needs of Grades 2 through 12. It even includes implementation support such as guidelines, learning centers and teaching models, along with additional resources. Where else can you find this? As the world gets smaller and smaller, it seems to me at least that our kids really need to learn about these things. Many gifted education books offer science and reading programs, but it seems social studies is a little harder to find.
Do your schools have talented and gifted resources for social studies? Tell me what you’re using and how you use them, I’d be really interested to know.
My son was recently invited to participate in an area Eco-Meet. They chose three fourth grade gifted students and two fifth grade students from each of the participating districts to make up that district’s team. This is quite the inquiry based science event, it seems! Each team member received a packet about an inch thick of materials they need to study to prepare. Additionally, they will be working with the gifted and talented teacher, who is the coach, each week leading up to the event in mid-May.
The Eco-Meet is a day long event held at a local park high above the Mississippi River. The park rangers and Army Corps of Engineers will involve the students in activities and presentations on different subjects, including Fish of the Mississippi. After each event, the teams will take a test. The tests will be graded and winners announced.
Wow, talk about accelerated learning resources! I can’t imagine how much these kids will learn by the time this is all done. And it doesn’t come straight out of an elementary school science textbook or gifted education books…they’re doing and learning. I’ll keep you posted on how it all goes. In the meantime, do your schools do anything like this? I’d love to hear about similar ideas that are happening out there!
Your erstwhile blogger has returned from the land of vacationers, fully refreshed and ready to blog. I don’t know if it was the time of year, or what, but while I was off I started wondering about the question in the headline of this post. How did we end up with “talented & gifted” resources, gifted education books, accelerated learning resources? Where did the terms come from?
So out of curiosity, I did a little research while I was off. It turns out there’s no general consensus as to the origin of the term “gifted.” And, in fact, as we’ve all known for years, there is quite a bit of controversy surrounding the use of the term. But that wasn’t the interesting part. Along the way I learned that what we call gifted education and curriculum for accelerated learners, etc. has been around, literally, for thousands of years. In the sixth and seventh centuries, under China’s Tang Dynasty, children identified as prodigies were summoned to the imperial court for advanced education. Also, Plato was a leading advocate of specialized education for those who were intellectually gifted.
Now, I knew that the Marland Report, A Nation at Risk, and the Jacob Javits Act more recently had memorable impacts on talented and gifted education, but I certainly had no idea how far back the origins went. See what happens when I have extra time on my hands!
It appears that many high school chemistry teachers are looking for innovative secondary school textbooks for their classrooms. At the NSTA regional conference in Phoenix, AZ earlier this month, author Kelly Deters presented
Kendall Hunt Chemistry: Discovering the Chemistry You Need to Know to a full house.
Teachers listened with great interest as Kelly detailed how her experience as a classroom teacher, combined with extensive research, led to the development of this highly-engaging high school chemistry textbook. Attendees were extremely impressed with the program's concise, practical approach to teaching chemistry. They said it was so unlike the encyclopedia-type of textbook published by other educational book companies. They knew their students would be able to make real-world connections with this high school chemistry textbook.
Dr. Deters truly showed how this approach allows teachers to teach chemistry without hearing "When am I ever going to need to know this?" (which just happened to be the title of the workshop). I enjoyed speaking with many attendees following the session, and look forward to working with them as they implement the program in their schools next year!
Wow, you want to talk about inquiry based science? Then check out our new Astronomy program,
Starry Night. It's available for the elementary, middle and high school levels, and is completely interactive and inquiry based. Kendall Hunt has just partnered with Starry Night Education to provide schools with greater access to this program in volume license format.
This isn't just any elementary education book or high school physics textbook. In fact, it's not a book at all. It's actually astronomy simulation software that includes more than 25 lessons at each level, extensive teacher resources, hands-on activities, computer exercises, worksheets and assessments, and a DVD with dramatic and realistic astronomical phenomena.
It's a great way for children as young as kindergarten to begin to understand space science, is flexible enough to use as talented and gifted lesson plans, and works as a full astronomy course besides.
Our website has screen shots and sample lessons available, so check it out when you have a chance!
I'm going to be out for a couple weeks now, but others will be staying in touch, so happy holidays to all!
I just returned from the NABT Conference in Denver, Colorado. It is always so inspiring to see educators taking time out of their busy schedules to focus on their own professional development. We enjoyed talking with teachers from around the country at our exhibit booth, as well as in workshops for our
BSCS Biology: A Human Approach and
Forensic Science for High School programs.
It is also fun to cruise the exhibit hall, mingling with other school textbook publishers, and seeing who has merged with whom in this ever-changing world of school textbook publishers! It makes me appreciate working for a stable company like Kendall Hunt, which has been family-owned for more than 60 years, and is still going strong.
But the best part of the conference for me is getting the chance to sit down and talk with teachers who are interested in, or currently using, our secondary school textbooks. Among educational book companies, the word "inquiry" gets thrown around a lot. It is always rewarding to hear directly from teachers that Kendall Hunt truly has the material to back it up. As one teacher from Massachusetts put it, "I know that when you say 'inquiry' you MEAN inquiry!"
This week I get to pack up my elementary school science textbooks too, as I head out for the Colorado Science Conference. It is at the Denver Merchandise Mart November 19-20. Hope to see you there!
Here’s my question…as a teacher, what do your gifted students do during RTI time? It used to be that the students who struggled or had behavioral issues were the ones who “fell through the cracks.” More and more I feel like it’s now the gifted or advanced students who fall through. Of course, in a perfect world, no one would fall through the cracks. And I give all the credit in the world to the classroom teacher who is trying to balance the needs of 20-30 students with vastly differing needs, levels and abilities.
I know that in my son’s school, everyday they have a half hour of RTI time. During this time, the other students are engaged in group reading. For some students, that group reading is beneficial, for the more advanced students, they are bored. As I’ve indicated here before, his school doesn’t have a lot of accelerated learning resources or books for gifted students - they don’t even have a curriculum for high ability learners. And they only go to their gifted class twice a week. So what’s the answer for these students?
I did give the principal one suggestion when I spoke with him earlier today (first time in five years that I’ve actually felt the need to call him, and I didn’t want to just call and complain without offering at least one solution). I said the teacher create a couple groups of the other students, give them a research topic or question, and tell them that they must make a presentation, complete with visual aids, in two weeks. It would at least put that RTI time to good use for them.
I’d love to hear from teachers who have this same dilemma. I know many schools don’t have gifted education books in class, and some lack even the basic talented and gifted resources. So what do you do?
In response to my post To e-Book or Not To e-Book, one of our readers, Marixi, posted a comment (check out the comment
here) wondering whether it's safe for students to be accessing primary school textbooks via the Internet. I explained that most e-books, whether elementary education books, middle school textbooks or other textbooks, are accessed via a secure portal which is often the only thing the child can login to on the school computer.
But I'm wondering, for those of you whose school districts use e-books, do they use them exclusively or is there, a printed version of, say, that high school chemistry textbook, and the e-book is just an option. And is it more common with high school textbooks, or primary school textbooks? And when they do use e-books, are they part of a learning portal? Is that portal proprietary to the school district, or do your school textbook publishers offer access to their portal upon adoption? Wow, lots of things I want to know!
I got to wondering this week, is creating lesson plans based on books for gifted students different than planning for a regular class? What brought this to mind was a discussion with my fourth grader about the work teachers must put into their jobs beyond the classroom. We talked about grading papers, creating parent newsletters, where tests based on, say, elementary school science textbooks come from, and lesson plans.
This then led to a discussion of what lesson plans are and how they come to be. I explained that many primary school textbooks offer guidance in this area, but he wondered how his gifted teacher (note to self: review sentence structure rules...while I feel all his teachers are gifted, I'm referring to the one who teaches the gifted classes) does it when they don't have gifted education books or a curriculum for high ability learners in his school. :-( I told him I was sure she probably uses the Internet for ideas and planning, but I thought I'd ask you all...those of you who do it without a "program" - how do you create your lesson plans for gifted and talented classes? I'd love to know!
Okay, so that’s pretty bad paraphrasing of The Bard, but my point is, what do you think of e-books anyway? Certainly the electronic book reader a certain online book vendor has taken off, but that’s more in the trade book market. I like the idea of going on vacation and taking one little rectangular, electronic thing instead of a stack of books. But what about when it comes to textbooks for elementary school, or high school science textbooks?
My son’s fourth grade math book is available online. They sent home the access instructions this week. Kind of a cool idea, especially with a fourth grader who forgets to close the freezer, feed the dog, and take his shoes upstairs (and that’s just the first five minutes after dinner!). He can forget his book at school, but still get his homework done.
I can see where having your high school chemistry textbook online would be a great option to lugging it home. Is there a certain level for which it works best? Maybe education textbook publishers should be making all elementary education books available in e-book format. Or perhaps it’s more appropriate for high school science textbooks, and middle school math. I don’t know. What do you think?
As many of you know, the review of High School Science Textbooks can be very overwhelming and emotional undertaking. Have you ever considered first looking at the comments from impartial reviewers to narrow down your search?
Washington state is considered one of the leading states in science reform. In May of 2009, 69 reviewers reviewed 85 individual products from 20 educational book companies. The books levels included:
-Elementary school science textbooks
-Middle school science textbooks
-High school science textbooks
Below is a link to the summary:
http://www.sbe.wa.gov/documents/Science%20IMR%20Preliminary%20Report%20with%20Initial%20Recommendations%206-30-09.pdfIt's exciting to see how well many of the Kendall Hunt high school programs did (see Part 2 for a complete listing). Surprisingly, none of the elementary programs submitted met the composite score threshold so none were on the recommended list. Note that Kendall Hunt did not submit our elementary programs.
So as you begin your review, it may be worth your while to check out the WA review.
I know that this blog is generally about the topics of gifted education books and inquiry based science, but I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that we also have a great depth of resources in the reading area. Our new Reading Resources catalog is now available and offers many products to improve reading, for intervention, for assessment & reading inventory, etc.
Jerry Johns, a renowned expert in the reading field, has been a Kendall Hunt Publishing author for many years. His Basic Reading Inventory is used nationwide and Canada. Check out the catalog when you have a chance!
School started today for my 4th grader. Last night we went to "Back to School Night" so he could meet the teacher, take his supplies and start to get settled in. First thing I went for, being in the science textbook publishing business, was the elementary school science textbook sitting on his desk. Felt like a brand new one too. Love those new books!
Then we stopped by the GATE room where the teacher showed me some of the new accelerated learning resources that she was able to purchase with some stimulus funds, including a few Kendall Hunt items from our
Project M3 program, a math curriculum for high ability learners. She also found some new lesson plans for gifted and talented classes that she's going to try out this year.
Project M3 has some great modules, like "At the Mall with Algebra" that let students use real life experience to learn math. They're not just gifted education books, they're gifted education adventures.
Kendall Hunt Publishing Company (KH) is an educational publishing company with three divisions: Pre-K-12, higher education and Kendall Hunt Professional.
I work in the Pre-K-12 Division. We produce programs for pre-kindergarten as well as textbooks for elementary school, middle school and high school. We work in various disciplines, but concentrate mainly on mathematics, science, gifted education books and custom publishing. We also develop various ancillary materials to go with our textbooks to create solution-based programs.
For this series of discussions, I'll concentrate specifically on the development of a high school science textbook.
Acquisition and Publishing Plan
The initial step for the education textbook publisher is the acquisition of a new product. This would include discussions between the author or curriculum developer and the publishing acquisition editor to determine whether or not it is feasible to go forward with new product. This would include discussions on the physical specifications of the book (size, number of colors, number of pages, etc.) and number of ancillary components (teacher edition textbook, test generator, website, and so on). At KH, the acquisitions editor would work with a project manager to determine a budget. We would also work with marketing and sales personnel to develop a publishing plan. The publishing plan may include review stages and/or field testing. The project manager would also create a schedule for the program.
Step 1a: Development of the Manuscript and Art Package
Once a contract is signed for a project, we begin with manuscript development. The project manager works with the author to ensure the manuscript and art package is being prepared properly. We may have the author work within a template in Word or just directly in Word or a similar word processing program. The art package needs to be kept separate from the Word document. One mistake new authors sometimes make is that they try to make their manuscript "pretty." That's our job! We want our authors to concentrate on the writing and we'll concentrate on the publishing.
The high school science textbook is usually submitted by batches of chapters. The chapters are then run through a safety check to be sure the experiments are safe and to add any cautions or warnings that may be needed. They would also develop a materials list for the kit component of the program.
We would also have the manuscript copy-edited. A copy-editor reads the manuscript and checks grammar, spelling and sentence structure. They may also cross reference the student and teacher editions and any other ancillary components to be sure everything makes sense. They will also watch for consistency in the writing style and may be asked to adjust the sentence structures to lower a a certain reading level, if needed. The terms within the content will also play a role in the reading levels. We would have authors review and approve the copy-edits.
At the same time the manuscript is being developed, we work with designers to create the cover and interior designs. I'll discuss that more in my next submission.
I don’t know about you, but when I was in school, there was no such thing as talented and gifted resources, gifted education books, or, for that matter, talented and gifted education. We had accelerated courses, but those were more about working a grade level ahead, using a high school biology book in 8th grade, or using middle school books in 5th grade, rather than the textbooks for elementary school.
What type of accelerated learning resources is your school using? Do you have a budget for books for gifted students? At my son’s school, the gifted teacher does a wonderful job of creating projects for the children using ideas of her own because she doesn’t have a budget. But I think about how much easier her job would be and how much more robust the program could be if she had a budget to purchase a curriculum for high ability learners.
Have you checked out our gifted and accelerated learning resources lately? Whether it's elementary education books for gifted students or high school science textbooks for accelerated learners, we have something that will meet your needs. One of our partners is the Center for Gifted Education at the College of William & Mary with whom we publish a curriculum for high ability learners that spans the subjects of Language Arts, Science and Social Studies and grades 1-11. Additionally, the program offers teacher resources and lesson plans for gifted and talented. You can find the program 
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