Books by TIP Staff

For Parents and Teachers

Stephens, KR., ed., (2006). Tapestry of talent: Educating north carolina's gifted and talented for the 21st century. Durham, NC: Duke University Talent Identification Program and North Carolina Association for the Gifted and Talented.

This white paper is organized around gifted education’s contribution to six critical areas that challenge state and federal policymakers: 1) education, 2) business and industry, 3) healthcare, 4) immigration, 5) class society, and 6) homeland security. It is hoped that Tapestry of Talent will help raise awareness among policymakers and ensure that the educational needs of our brightest students will not be forgotten. The white paper was disseminated to all North Carolina school system superintendents and to attendees of the National Association for Gifted Children’s Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina in November 2006. It will also be shared with key North Carolina legislative members at a breakfast to be held in January 2007.

North Carolina residents may also want to share it with 1) their child's teacher, 2) other parents and PTA groups, 3) superintendents and district level curriculum personnel, 4) their legislative representatives, particulary if that person serves on education or other related committees, 5) local community foundations that may have money earmarked for education, 6) business leaders, healthcare professionals, and any others that may be stake holders in the community (those who are depending on graduates of the local school system to be employed in the workforce).

Practical Strategies Series in Gifted Education, Edited by Frances A. Karnes and Kristen R. Stephens. Waco, TX: Prufrock Press:

Besnoy, K.D. (2006). Successful Strategies for Twice-Exceptional Students.
Some kids, including gifted students, have difficulties in school. A gifted student with learning disabilities may continuously struggle with certain areas of instruction, but never receive identification of or accommodation for their difficulties, because their gifts mask their disabilities. Gifted students with learning disabilities need unique instruction and a practical use of accommodations to succeed in school. It is important for educators to familiarize themselves with the definitions and characteristics of various learning disabilities, and learn the strategies they can use in the classroom to help gifted/learning-disabled students succeed. In this book, Kevin Besnoy takes an in-depth look at the various learning disabilities and difficulties some gifted students face, provides practical tips for accommodating and planning instruction for those students, and gives an overview of federal law related to this population.
Callahan C.M. (2006), Assessment in the Classroom: The Key to Good Instruction. The goal of all classrooms is to maximize the learning of all students; therefore, correctly assessing what students have learned is an integral part of good instruction. By keeping the goal of good, strong assessment in mind, a teacher can clearly see his or her desired outcomes for a lesson, activity, or unit. It is critical to take into account a student's level of knowledge, understanding, beliefs, skills, dispositions, and learning styles when planning for good classroom instruction and assessment. Carolyn Callahan, a leader in the field of gifted education, guides teachers toward answering these questions about their students and planning for quality classroom assessment. In addition, the book provides an overview of the most common and successful assessment methods, including formal and informal assessments, student self-assessments, and preassessment strategies for planning instruction.
Cramond, B. (2005). Fostering Creativity in Gifted Students.
It is not possible to teach someone to be creative. It is not possible to teach someone to be intelligent. It is, however, possible to teach students to use the creativity and intelligence they already have. Students can be taught to think more creatively or intelligently, and can also learn strategies for thinking more rationally or imaginatively.
Encouraging creative thinking in the classroom is an exciting component of any effective gifted education program. This guide offers basic foundations required for supporting creativity. From establishing the right classroom environment, to using creative teaching strategies, to assessing student outcomes, this book is filled with practical information. The book also includes a listing of competitive contests and programs and an extensive list of resources.
Ford, D.Y. & Milner, H.R. (2005). Teaching Culturally Diverse Gifted Students.
The 21st century is witnessing an unprecedented change in its demographics, especially in school settings. Like no other time in history, our nation is becoming overwhelmingly diverse, with Hispanic Americans and African Americans increasing in numbers. However, as our nation and schools become more diverse, we have witnessed little demographic changes relative to diversity in gifted education classes, programs, and services.
This guide offers practical advice for building gifted education programs that serve a rich diversity of students. This book features an overview of multicultural gifted education, effective teaching strategies and best practices that support a diverse population of students, and an effective model for building a diverse, successful gifted program. The book also includes a sample curriculum and an extensive listing of print and Web-based recommended resources.
Johnsen, S.K. (2005). Identifying Gifted Students a Step-by-Step Guide.
This publication will provide directors and coordinators of programs for gifted and talented students with a specific step-by-step plan for developing an identification procedure in a school or school district. While the sections of this publication are laid out sequentially according to the steps, identification is an ongoing process. The goal of identification is to ensure that every gifted and talented student who needs a program that is different from the general education curriculum receives one that is matched to his or her specific characteristics.
Perfect for anyone seeking a concise introduction to the identification of gifted students, this book is designed to offer administrators, teachers, and parents an overview of the critical issues in building effective identification procedures. This book overviews definitions and characteristics of gifted students, qualitative and quantitative assessment, using multiple assessments, identification procedures, and decision making about placement.
Johnsen, S.K. & Goree, K. (2005). Independent Study for Gifted Learners.
Independent study is one of the most frequently recommended instructional strategies for differentiating and individualizing instruction for gifted students. When compared to learning styles of more average students, gifted students like instructional strategies that emphasize independence such as in-depth study and discussion.
Allow your gifted students to study a high-interest topic with depth and complexity. This book offers the advice you need to help your gifted students explore important content and show their learning in creative and innovative ways. From selecting a topic, to using innovative research strategies, to reporting results in an interesting way, this book shows you how to help your students succeed at independent study.
Hebert, T.P. (2005). Inventions and Inventing for Gifted Students.
Inventing involves creativity applied to a problem-solving process, which can be taught. Through teaching instructional units on inventing, multiple creative skills are infused into one unit. Teachers who provide their students with such instruction see inventions as a natural way of packaging creativity training in an authentic and meaningful way.
Applying creative thinking skills and a knowledge of a field of study to create exciting inventions is at the heart of the inventing process. This guide offers a practical introduction to the inventing process: getting students interesting in inventing, teaching the inventing process, patenting new product ideas, participating in inventions conventions and competitions, and an extensive listing of print and Web-based resources
Matthews, M.S. (2006). Working with Gifted English Language Learners.
English Language Learners are increasingly underidentified for gifted programs, although many of them possess high academic abilities and have a high motivation to learn and succeed in school. This population is poorly represented in many gifted programs due to a myriad of reasons, including lower test scores on English-based tests, language barriers, and cultural differences. Educators must learn to recognize and provide enrichment for gifted English Language Learners, despite the language barriers that exist. Michael S. Matthews introduces educators to the complexities and challenges of providing appropriate educational experiences for gifted English Language Learners. This unique, comprehensive book guides educators toward identifying gifted students in this population, including a look at nonverbal and Spanish-language testing, and gives advice for integrating these students into any gifted program.
Nugent, S.A. (2005). Social & Emotional Teaching Strategies.
As a classroom teacher, you play an active role in your students' social and emotional development. This excellent guide offers useful advice and suggestions for classroom teachers seeking to support the emotional growth of the gifted children in their classroom.
Elements associated with social and emotional education include a wide range of personal attributes, including value systems, attitudes, interests, feelings and emotions, interpersonal relationships, and character and leadership. With so many factors linked to social and emotional education, the affective domain should be given a priority in school curricula. However, prior to crises or overt threats, schools have traditionally paid little attention to the social and emotional needs of the student body. Stephanie A. Nugent explains the necessity of social and emotional education in nurturing the development of gifted students and offers strategies for the classroom that work for both groups and individuals.
Rimm, S. (2006). When Gifted Students Underachieve What You Can Do About It.
Underachievement in gifted students has long puzzled teachers, parents, and students themselves. For gifted underachievers to change their habits and begin to succeed in school, educators must take action to identify, challenge, and motivate these kids. Sylvia Rimm, one of the leading experts in the underachievement of gifted students, looks at the various causes of underachievement, discusses the characteristics of gifted underachievers, and provides educators with solid advice on combating underachievement in this population. This guide offers guidance for understanding the pressures students face in school and at home, motivating students for success, adjusting curriculum to engage these students, improving the self-concept of students, and working with parents to reverse the patterns of underperformance
Roberts, J.L. (2005). Enrichment Opportunities for Gifted Learners.
From a mentorship with a local archaeologist, to a medieval festival, the opportunities for gifted learners to explore a topic in depth are too numerous to mention. This book offers an introduction to structuring enrichment activities that add depth and complexity to a gifted child's learning experience.
"Enrichment provides students with opportunities to extend learning," Dr. Roberts, the book's author, explains. "There are three primary purposes for enrichment: fostering interest; nurturing talent, developing expertise, or both; and increasing achievement."
This book shows teachers how to provide meaningful enrichment experiences for gifted students. The book offers effective strategies for enriching the curriculum and creating in-depth learning experiences both in and out of the classroom.
Rogers, K.B. (2006). A Menu of Options for Grouping Gifted Students.
From grouping by ability, to grouping by interest, to grouping by learning style, the use of grouping in the gifted and regular education classroom has proven to be a successful method of instruction for students. Grouping provides teachers with an effective means of providing gifted students with challenging coursework and access to advanced content, and gives students an avenue to create a peer group of other gifted students.
Shaunessy, E. (2005). Questioning Strategies for Teaching the Gifted.
In order to stimulate creative development among gifted students, the use of questioning techniques has proven to be a successful strategy for encouraging purposeful inquiry. Students need to learn to generate alternatives to solving real-world problems, and teachers can help them do this by regularly incorporating divergent questions in the classroom. Teachers can incorporate questions effectively by knowing the various purposes, types, and intended outcomes and by establishing a classroom climate that promotes active engagement, exploration, and inquiry to further student achievement.
Learn to generate classroom or small group discussions that challenge students to think critically and creatively. Elizabeth Shaunessy offers classroom-tested strategies for developing questions and activities that challenge students to think in new ways. Create a mutually respectful classroom climate and design appropriate questions to elicit higher level thinking from your students.
Siegle, D. (2005). Developing Mentorship Programs for Gifted Students.
Mentorship programs can provide motivated gifted and talented students with an opportunity to apply inductive thinking and problem-solving skills to advanced content that is often associated with real-life situations. They need to investigate the complexities and interrelationships among disciplines that can only be discovered with assistance from highly knowledgeable experts.
As gifted students develop their interests and talents in a chosen area of study, it is often necessary to structure learning experiences with out-of-school mentors. This guide offers practical strategies for starting and developing a mentoring program. From structuring a program, to selecting a mentor and monitoring progress, to ensuring success, this book provides an excellent introduction to the topic.
Siegle, D. (2005). Using Media & Technology with Gifted Learners.
As technology has become a ubiquitous part of education in the 21st century, it is now imperative that students become technologically literate by knowing what technology is, how it works, and how it can be put to use to attain goals. Because of their capacity for depth and complexity, ability to transfer learning from one situation to another, fast processing, and inductive learning, gifted students are particularly adept at becoming technologically literate and putting technology to use to solve problems in novel ways.
Gifted students are particularly skilled at becoming technologically literate and solving problems in creative ways using technology. From computers and the Internet, to video and sound editing software, to new research tools, education for gifted children in the 21st century offers exciting opportunities. Let this book show you how to incorporate these technologies in your classroom.
Siegle, D. & McCoach D.B. (2005). Motivating Gifted Students.
Motivating gifted students can present a challenge for any teacher. This book is packed with strategies and helpful tips to help you motivate your gifted learners. The authors offer specific ideas for making sure that the gifted children in your classroom stay engaged and excited about learning. Although gifted students are not normally considered at risk for academic failure, the seeming lack of motivation of many academically gifted students is a continuing area of concern and frustration for many teachers, parents, and counselors. Del Siegle and D. Betsy McCoach explore crucial issues such as why some students who seem capable of outstanding performance fail to realize their potential and what causes some gifted students to be more motivated than others.
VanTassel-Baska, J. (2005). Acceleration: Strategies for Teaching Gifted Learners.
Acceleration, or the idea that gifted students should be allowed to move more quickly through a subject area, is a practice supported by a wide body of research. However, it can be a challenge to implement. This book focuses on multiple strategies for accelerating gifted children in any school setting.
In this concise introduction to the topic, Dr. VanTassel-Baska offers many teacher-friendly ways in which acceleration can be employed in classrooms at all levels and in all subject areas. The author offers specific strategies for identifying candidates for acceleration, programmatic approaches to employ, and teacher strategies to use for content acceleration in the classroom.

Specifically for Teachers

Fairchild, L. (2005). "Which Comes First, the Individual or Society? An English and Humanities Unit on Macbeth" and "Toward Disunion: 1854-1861: A U.S. History Unit on the Path to the Civil War." In Tomlinson, C.A. & Cindy A. Strickland, Differentiation in Practice: A Resource Guide for Differentiating Curriculum, Grades 9-12 (pp. 60-137). Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Join Carol Ann Tomlinson and Cindy A. Strickland in the continuing exploration of how real teachers incorporate differentiation principles and strategies throughout an entire instructional unit. Focusing on the high school grades, but applicable at all levels, Differentiation in Practice, Grades 9–12 will teach anyone interested in designing and implementing differentiated curriculum how to do so or how to do so more effectively. Inside, you’ll find

Annotated lesson plans for differentiated units in English, mathematics, history, science, art, and world languages.
Samples of differentiated product assignments, learning contracts, rubrics, and homework handouts.
An overview of the non-negotiables in differentiated classrooms and guidelines for using the book as a learning tool.
An extended glossary and recommended readings for further exploration of key ideas and strategies.

Each unit highlights underlying standards, delineates learning goals, and takes you step by step through the instructional process. Unit developers provide running commentary on their use of flexible grouping and pacing, tiered assignments and assessments, and numerous other strategies. The models and insight presented will inform your own differentiation efforts and help you meet the challenge of mixed-ability classrooms with academically responsive curriculum appropriate for all learners.

Fairchild, L. & Dalton J. (2004). The Compassionate Classroom: Lessons that Nurture Wisdom and Empathy. AZ: Zephyr Press.
This inspiring guidebook supports teachers seeking to provide a nurturing and creative classroom environment for middle school and high school students. Lessons supply instruction for creating a community of empathy, reverence, self-awareness, and mindfulness. Each entry features a concise lesson plan ready for implementation, as well as a brief summary of the interfaith and secular philosophies that underpin the lesson. Educators are assisted in building connections among diverse populations, cultivating self-awareness, and rewarding reflective thinking. Handouts and sample writings offer inspirational models for students to explore identity and spirituality.

Karnes, F. A. & Stephens, K.R. (2002). How to get money for your school and classroom. Waco, TX: Prufrock Press.
This book offers a complete course in raising funds for the classroom or school. The authors offer a step-by-step guide to grant writing; fun, success-proven fund-raising ideas; and a practical how-to for long-term fund development.

Grant writing can often seem overwhelming to educators. The authors take teachers by the hand and show them how to find grant sources, write query letters, and prepare a winning grant application. Fund-raising needn't be a chore. Let the authors share successful ways to build both parent and student involvement in exciting and unique fund-raising projects. Fund development is critical for developing a stable source of funds for a school's goals. How to Get Money shows teachers how to develop a pool of money from which teachers can draw year after year. This is a must-read for any educator looking for ways to raise money for his or her classroom or school.

Karnes, F. A. & Stephens, K. R. (2000). The ultimate guide for student product development and evaluation. Waco, TX: Prufrock Press.
This book offers a step-by-step introduction to using creative projects in your classroom confidently. The authors give ideas for integrating projects into your existing curriculum, ways to help students plan and create their projects, and easy, effective evaluation strategies. The book also provides strategies for making sure that your students' hard work is noticed by other students, parents, and community members.

For Students

Karnes, F. A. & Stephens, K. R. (in press). A girl’s guide to achieving in the arts. Unionville, NY: Royal Fireworks.
With arts programs in schools diminishing, this is an important and user-friendly resource book. Its aim is to encourage, inspire and help girls interested in all aspects of artistic endeavor.
Practical advice is given for planning for the future and overcoming obstacles, whilst inspiration comes from girls and young women who have achieved in the arts at all levels and tell their stories in their own words. From dance and music to photography and illustration; from painting to lighting design and acting.. the opportunities are there for those with perseverance as well as talent.

Karnes, F.A. & Stephens, K.R. (2005). The ultimate guide to collecting. Waco, TX: Prufrock Press.
The book also features advice and insight from young people involved in collecting cards, coins, dolls, models, insects, memorabilia, rocks, fossils, and stamps who share their experiences and offer advice about the collections process. This book is also filled with great resources, such as Web sites, resource books, and a collection journal, to help in the acquisition and maintenance of a collection.

Karnes, F. A. & Stephens, K.R. (2004). Empowered girls: A girls guide to positive activism, volunteering, and philanthropy . Waco, TX: Prufrock Press.
A hands-on guide for girls looking to take an active role in their school and community. The authors offer solid reasons for active involvement, strategies for choosing which groups to be involved with, and methods for getting involved. It's all here—sage advice to girls seeking to become positive activists, profiles of girls who are involved in leading their community, and resources that range from funding sources to organizations that seek volunteers. The book is filled with useful advice, up-to-date resources, Web sites, and more.

Karnes, F. A. & Stephens, K.R. (2002). Young women of achievement: A resource for girls in science, math, and technology. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books.
This upbeat, very useful resource guide will give young women everything they need to start exploring and planning a career in science, math, or technology. Part I introduces readers to the many exciting career opportunities available in the sciences and provides specific strategies for planning for a future career in these areas. Part II recounts true stories of girls and young women in the sciences, detailing how they got involved and what they have accomplished. Part III offers timelines of extraordinary women throughout history, inspiring quotations, a list of Web sites specifically geared toward women in the sciences, suggestions for science-oriented computer software, and many other recommended resources.