Featuring 16 field-tested lesson plans, this book presents a high-quality curriculum that helps urban youth develop key learning skills such as resiliency, self-motivation, and collaboration.

The new Pre-K-Grade 12 Gifted Education Programming Standards should be part of every school district's repertoire of standards to ensure that the learning needs of advanced students are being met. NAGC Pre-K-Grade 12 Gifted Education Programming Standards: A Guide to Planning and Implementing High-Quality Services details six standards that address the areas critical to effective teaching and learning, along with suggestions for implementing each one. The Gifted Education Programming Standards are focused on student outcomes that address both cognitive and affective areas. Aligned to each of the outcomes are research- and practice-based strategies known to be effective for this special population of students. The book includes sample assessments of student products and performances, which will assist schools in developing program and service evaluation benchmarks. This book is a must-have for school leaders and gifted education professionals who want to offer the most effective services for gifted and advanced students.

As a result of the mandates of the Individual with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA), inclusive practices have become the norm for addressing the needs of all learners. In addition, these mandates require that steps must be taken to guarantee that all students are successful in all school settings, regardless of ability. Possibly now more than ever, educators should be experts in building collaborative relationships for inclusive settings. The perceived positive benefits of collaboration among teachers for inclusive settings creates a topic of interest. Research has begun to focus on the study of the deep, or integrated, collaborative relationships between special education and general education teachers and the use of inclusive learning communities to support practice. Building Integrated Collaborative Relationships for Inclusive Learning Settings provides background information on special education law, inclusion, and strategies for integrated collaborative relationships that include the creation of inclusion professional learning communities and a map for intended collaboration. Moreover, the book provides insights and supports professionals concerned with the evolving environment of schools and education and how to best meet the needs of all learners. This book is intended for teachers, special education teachers, counsellors, professionals, and researchers working in the field of education, and inservice and preservice teachers, administrators, teacher educators, practitioners, researchers, academicians, and students looking to improve their understanding on how to build and maintain practices to support inclusive learning settings.

"The Core Deconstructed" Practice Journal for Middle and High School Educators- Learn the unique "The Core Deconstructed" (TCD) process for deconstructing literacy standards, how they interact and how to teach the fullness of a standard. Use the TCD Practice Journal to analyze standards and determine how to accomplish the following the through the unique TCD process: create pre- and post-unit assessments; write lessons that allow for teaching multiple standards at a time; design tiered lessons for special needs; struggling and advanced learners; use the deconstructed standard to pinpoint exactly where students are struggling in the process of mastering a standard and much more. Become empowered with tools, resources and skills that result in improved educator effectiveness and increased student learning.

Going beyond the theory of differentiation to actual classroom practice, this book presents a 10-step framework, examples, and classroom-ready tools for putting differentiation into action.

'Gifted and talented' is a zombie. It is dead, but still walking around. There are new labels to stratify students - 'more able', 'significantly able', 'high-aptitude learners'. New labels do not equal new thinking. The concept of 'gifted' is still stubbornly embedded in our educational structures, with its legacy of social immobility, racism and sexism. Students can be 'more able' when they have more financial resources, more access, more visibility, or more cultural acceptance. There are pervasive narratives that educators should prioritise extension for some students and not others. We can dispel the myth that pitching lessons judiciously to 'middle ability', and then differentiating up and down, is effective. This book explores how we can provide every student with rigorous challenge. Challenge for all is an inclusive approach to teaching, whereby every student is invited, and given the tools, to reach a place of mastery. This can be through project-based learning, Harkness round-tables, oracy, adaptive teaching, inclusive enrichment programs, dynamic classroom strategies and a schoolwide mission for equity. Educators can embed powerful knowledge into the curriculum, reimagine teaching to the top, and stretch learners through personalised and responsive instruction. The shift to enrichment, challenge and equity creates magnificent possibilities. The message to all students is: you belong here.

"There is a freshness to Purcell and Leppien′s approach transforming the curriculum into a platform for active investigation of our rapidly changing world. Your learners become 21st-century social scientists as they engage in probing timely issues and problems." —Heidi Hayes Jacobs, Curriculum Expert and Author President, Curriculum Designers, Inc. Design Parallel Curriculum units for in-depth learning in social studies! The Parallel Curriculum Model (PCM), as described in the best-selling book The Parallel Curriculum, is a framework for developing a dynamic curriculum that helps students acquire expertise in specific subject areas. This resource deepens teachers′ understanding of how to use the PCM to provide rigorous learning opportunities for students in social studies. In Parallel Curriculum Units for Social Studies, Grades 6–12, experienced teachers contribute sample social studies units that demonstrate what high-quality curriculum looks like within a PCM framework. Covering history, geography, sociology, and interdisciplinary studies, these field-tested units each contain: Teacher explanations of the unit design Connections to concepts, skills, and standards Step-by-step directions for delivering the lessons and units Modification strategies and methods for assessment Use these examples to design your own units and enhance your ability to provide challenging curriculum tailored to the abilities, interests, and learning preferences of each learner.

This book reports state-of-the-art results in Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Networking and Parallel/Distributed Computing. This edited book presents original papers on both theory and practice. It addresses foundations, state-of-the-art problems and solutions, and crucial challenges.