Books

Removing the mask provides research that shows gifted children from poverty may respond or behave differently than children who come from more affluent backgrounds. Case studies illustrate how limited resources impact individual students’ academic achievement. When teachers look at children’s potential instead of their demonstrated achievement, they will discover the brightest and most creative minds in any classroom.

A perfect introduction to gifted education for beginning and early career educators, this engaging book provides field-tested, proven strategies designed to help teachers build their understanding of gifted education and gifted learners. Each chapter features a key question, making the book ideal for an engaging book study as well as survival tips and a survival toolkit of resources to keep readers on course as they navigate through gifted ed. This updated second edition covers topics essential to gifted education teachers, including recognising and identifying giftedness, encouraging creativity and providing multiple resources and opportunities to spur talent development in gifted and high-ability youth.

Personalised competency-based education (PCBE) is a system of education in which students each learn at the individual pace and progress depends on mastery rather than age. While PCBE has countless benefits, one challenge of adopting this system is scheduling classes and organising learning on a daily basis. Scheduling for personalized competency-based education guides F–12 school leaders and teachers through resolving this issue. The authors offer an overview of the PCBE system, describe the use of student data as the foundation for PCBE scheduling and address various considerations related to creating a schedule that prioritises students’ learning needs. They detail the processes for structuring and transitioning to two types of PCBE schedules: (1) horizontal and (2) vertical.

As schools are filled with increasingly diverse student populations with diverse learning needs, inclusive education becomes more important by the day. In Inclusion strategies and interventions, second edition, author Toby J Karten aims to help educators provide consistent and strong learning pathways and create classrooms conducive to learning for both general education learners and learners with special needs.

With warmth and wisdom informed by her experience as a school administrator, autism educator, clinician and a parent of a son on the spectrum, Barbara Boroson provides a holistic look at the challenges students on the spectrum face in the areas of anxiety, executive function, sensation, communication, socialisation, engagement and cognitive acquisition. You’ll learn to decode the functional and behavioural manifestations of the challenges and you’ll gain practical and research-based pre-emptive, supportive and responsive strategies.

Bridges out of poverty is a uniquely powerful tool designed for social, health and legal services professionals. Based in part on Dr Ruby K Payne’s myth-shattering A framework for understanding poverty, Bridges reaches out to millions of service providers and businesses whose daily work connects them with people in poverty.

The autism lens helps teachers connect to students with autism and support them confidently within inclusive classrooms. Exploring communication difficulties that affect socialisation and learning, this book removes the guesswork by offering practical solutions.

In Best practices at Tier 3, the authors provide Years F–5 educators with research-based response to intervention (RTI) strategies to meet the needs of students who have fallen the furthest behind in the classroom. Using this guide, educators will ascertain how to improve their school’s Tier 3 intensive interventions so that they give these students the support they need to learn at the highest levels.

Differentiated lessons for every learner supports middle school teachers in teaching all students, including those with high ability. The extension lessons in this book provide for active learning tailored to address multiple learning levels. Using this semi-structured process ensures differentiated learning experiences that align to the standards while also respecting that students have different interests, have different methods of learning and are learning at different challenge levels. The time is now upon us to emphasise interdisciplinary learning experiences that provide real-world connections and engage students in relevant and meaningful learning. We have long known that while critical for gifted and talented students, these higher-level thinking strategies benefit all students.

Ready-to-use differentiation strategies introduces various low-preparation, low-stress differentiation activities and strategies that can be implemented immediately in any content area in Grades 6-8. Each differentiation strategy encourages higher level thinking and intellectual risk taking while accommodating different learning styles.

Looking for a ready guide for developing and assessing a variety of authentic products in your classroom? If so, then the Developing and Assessing Products (DAP) Tool is for you! The DAP Tool is a protocol that simplifies the assessment process, encourages differentiation and takes the ceiling off of learning. This book provides teachers with everything needed to develop and assess products developed by students. The book includes a list of suggested products; more than 100 DAP Tools that assess content, presentation, creativity and reflection at three tier levels using a multilevel performance scale for a variety of products; and detailed information on how to use these tools in the classroom.

The power of place offers a comprehensive and compelling case for making communities the locus of learning for students of all ages and backgrounds, dispelling the notion that place-based education is an approach limited to those who can afford it.