Start Seeing and Serving Underserved Gifted Students: 50 Strategies for Equity and Excellence

by Jennifer Ritchotte, Chin-Wen Lee, Amy Graefe

Overview

2020 TAGT Legacy Book® Award for Educators Winner

Flexible tools help teachers see, understand, teach, challenge, and advocate for underserved gifted students.

The underrepresentation of students from historically marginalized populations—including English language learners, twice-exceptional students, culturally and linguistically diverse students, and economically disadvantaged students—in our gifted programs and services continues to be a critical issue in education. The importance of a caring and committed teacher who sees and supports the potential in all learners and who respects linguistic diversity and students’ cultural identity cannot be overstated, yet teachers need the knowledge and training to do so.

This reader-friendly guide meets that need, promoting equity in gifted education by providing teachers with a variety of flexible tools to nurture the academic and affective growth of their gifted students from traditionally underserved populations.

Over fifty strategies are outlined within five chapters addressing how teachers can see, understand, teach, challenge, and advocate for their underserved gifted learners in all content areas. The authors share numerous student quotes, teacher anecdotes, and spotlights on successful school efforts. Digital downloads include all forms from the book and a PDF presentation. A free PLC/Book Study Guide for use in professional development is also available.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781631983306
Publisher:	Free Spirit Publishing
Publication date:	10/21/2020
Series:	Free Spirit Professional®
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	192
File size:	9 MB
Age Range:	4 - 18 Years

About the Author

Jennifer Ritchotte, Ph.D., is an associate professor of gifted education at the University of Northern Colorado (UNC) and director of the Center for Gifted and Talented Education at UNC.

She lives in Greeley, Colorado.

Chin-Wen “Jean” Lee, Ph.D., is the principal educational consultant of Beyond Inclusion Educational Services, where she reaches out to exceptional learners and their teachers and families beyond geographical and institutional boundaries. 

She currently lives in Taiwan.

Amy Graefe, Ph.D., is an assistant professor and coordinator of gifted education at the University of Northern Colorado and director of the Summer Enrichment Program at UNC.

She lives in Greeley, Colorado.

Editorial Reviews

Start Seeing and Serving Underserved Gifted Students is an easy-to-read, easy-to-use, practical, and much-needed resource for educators. The authors not only demonstrate research- and evidence-based best practices in the field of gifted education, but also give real-world examples from educators who have identified and met the needs of underserved and underrepresented gifted students in their classrooms and schools by using the toolkit strategies. This book is a valuable tool that is greatly needed to identify, understand, and meet the needs of underserved gifted students whose potential, creativity, curiosity, and gifts must be nurtured and developed.

Lois Baldwin

From start to finish, this creatively formatted, multilayered book feels new—unclichéd, generative, and crackling with energy and optimism about caring adults responding to complex needs of diverse students. It is full of practical, personalized strategies, including for engaging families and community, flexibly grouping students according to interests and needs, and attending to social and emotional development. Concepts do not feel ‘borrowed’ because they are explained through real-world experiences of creative educators, and strategies are often unique to the book. Particularly important is the continual emphasis on teacher and student self-reflection, on incorporating the arts, and on the importance of language development. Fundamentally, the perspective of this book is developmental, with a focus on growth for everyone involved.

Jean Sunde Peterson

"Enormous kudos to the authors! Many have written on the need to ‘see and serve’ underserved and underresourced gifted students, including English language learners, culturally and linguistically diverse students, economically disadvantaged students, and twice exceptional students. But this book is unique; it is practical and strategic in that it extends to the how to ‘see and serve’ these students by providing a plethora of classroom-friendly steps and activities any teacher can take to create an environment of equity and excellence for all students in their classes. The abundant strategies, vignettes, checklists, and surveys help teachers home in on all students’ diverse learning needs. This book essentially operationalizes NAGC’s tenets of See Me, Know Me, Teach Me,and Challenge Me, which very successfully represent the framework of the book itself. Founded in research, teaching pedagogy, and practical experiences, this resource should be in every teacher’s classroom. Start Seeing and Serving Underserved Gifted Students poignantly guides us to reflect on our own personal biases and inherent views of others and move toward newfound respect and relationship-building."

Dina Brulles