Q
I am a fifth-grade classroom teacher. I have children with a very wide range of abilities in my classroom, including one gifted child. I am spending an incredible amount of time differentiating my lessons to help this child, yet I feel I am still not tapping into her true abilities. I'm looking for help so that I don't have to constantly reinvent the wheel.
A
The reference that I always recommend for teachers in your position is Teaching Gifted Kids In The Regular Classroom by Susan Winebrenner (Free Spirit Publishing, recently updated). Teachers always find it helpful.
I would also ask you if there are any resources within your school building that could offer learning opportunities for this student -- such as periodically having him work with the teacher of a class of younger students to help them learn a special topic. What about an online class, through a school computer, to allow the student to pursue a more advanced subject? The Council for Exceptional Children also offers free handouts on teaching gifted students. These topical papers from the ERIC Clearinghouse on Disabilities and Gifted Education can be downloaded free of charge from their website http://www.eric.ed.gov/. You sound like a very caring teacher for your gifted student. Thanks for getting in touch with us.