Debbie Triska KeiserRezensionen

This has some nice ideas for planning projects for gifted students to do, but I felt like nothing was "ready to use."

Units of study will need to be created/developed or fit into the already existing curriculum. Many activities will need to be modified to meet the needs of your students. When I am looking for help modifying curriculum for a group of students this is not a resource that I would use.

I will keep looking to find resources on teaching gifted students.

Review

Differentiated Projects for Gifted Students Grades 3-5
by Brenda Holt McGee& Debbie Triska Keiser
Prufrock Press

I requested this book for ideas to use in our enrichment program, but also to find application in higher middle school classes. With those classes not designated gifted I found numerous applications. For instance, one of our state standards for the eight grade level reading concerns graphic aids. I found the Graphs introduced in Types of Graphs a good starter and connection with our course of study.

I also shared the volume with our elementary level with some success. Throughout the volume I found clarity and usability.

Differentiated Projects for Gifted Students by Brenda Holt McGee and Debbie Triska Keiser provides project ideas for thirty-two science and social studies topics. Aimed at grades three through five, the authors provide a few ready-to-use activities for independent study. Choice is an important part of differentiation and this book does a great job providing several choices for each topic.

Unfortunately, there's no narrative or lesson to support the activities. As such, it's unclear where in the instructional process these activities fit. While they provide a great starting point for planning, the details on how these activities fit into the larger topic of "differentiated instruction" is missing. If you're looking for resources related to differentiated instruction, stick to the works by Carol Tomlinson. However if you have a background in differentiated teaching and learning, this is a great resources for developing differentiated projects.

This book provides great examples to use with gifted students in elementary grades. The projects label the grade levels in which they should be used, supplies needed, and step by step instructions. A great resource for teachers, special educators, and parents!

Differentiated Projects offers many great extension activities for gifted students. I like how the projects address topics across content areas. There are some good ideas to implement in the classroom. I liked how the projects included websites and some hand outs. I think these activities could be used as-is in the classroom or can be used as a springboard for others.

I think this is a wonderful resource for teachers who have those high ability students who finish early or need to further challenge their knowledge of a subject due to high interest and/or intelligence. I feel a lot of the activities could be offered to all students through a choice board, centers, or rotating stations. My only piece of constructive criticism is that the subjects covered were mainly Social Studies and Science and I teach Language Arts, but I plan on sharing this reference with my colleagues. Great ideas throughout!½

The book is divided into sections for Science, History, Culture, immigration, etc.
The projects are simple and straightforward and don't require any materials. Most and/or all require research using the internet.
Good resource to use with gifted students.

Written for elementary school teachers, the differentiated instructional resource book has some alternatives to the standard lessons for GATE students. The strength in this collection of independent "projects" lies in the science studies. (Although I define a "project" as longer multiple lesson components to a unit, the authors implicitly use the term loosely to include any set of tasks outside the classroom.) Almost half of the chapters are devoted to scientific topics while the rest addresses mostly social studies. The activities are not elaborately detailed or supplemented with model student samples. Yet some worksheets are included for scientific explorations, mostly having fill-in-the-blank charts. Some additional handouts appear for interpreting graphs. The few language arts assignments are weak, such as researching Hammurabi's Laws on the Internet and write a persuasive essay "by encouraging people to return to them or stay away from them." Granted, a fourth or fifth grader would write this paper; however, it would save time to include a listing of the more common ancient Babylonian laws for those not having access to computers outside of school. An added bonus for teachers would have been to include the behavioral objectives which address the new National Common Core of Standards instead of only mentioning that the collection "encourages research and investigative skills." Nevertheless, for a substitute teacher who must fill in for a few months, the book is ideal as a back-up plan to provide squirrelly students with standard enrichment who have mastered basic competencies.