WoW! Webinars on Wednesdays  From now through the end of 2009, NAGC (the National Association for Gifted Children) will be offering free webinars on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of each month (plus a monthly "Parent Night.") 

For teacher resources including Graphic Organizers, Matrices, Bloom's Taxonomy, questioning strategies, etc. go to the Resources page.

For enrichment opportunities and information about the Super Saturdays grants go to the Enrichment page.

 For academic competitions go to the Contests page.

Conference Links  
 
NAGC Annual Convention
CAGT (Colorado Assoc. for the Gifted and Talented) Conference
Beyond Giftedness Conference   
"Our Gifted" Online Conferences  
 

The Institute for the Development of Gifted Education at Ricks Center for Gifted Children at the University of Denver in Colorado is pleased to announce its first conference on highly gifted learners. The conference, “Greatest Potential, Greatest Need: Soaring Beyond Expectations” will be held October 7-8, 2009 on the University of Denver campus.  The major goal of the conference is to focus on highly gifted learners who score over 150 on a formal IQ test. The aims of the conference are as follows:
  1..To provide networking opportunities for participants that engage with highly gifted learners related curriculum and pedagogy
 2.  To engage in discussion regarding needs and considerations of highly gifted learners
 3.   To become versed in current and pertinent research in the field of Gifted Education

For additional information please contact:
Institute for the Development of Gifted Education
Ricks Center for Gifted Children at the University of Denver
Attn: Ellen Honeck
2040 South York Street
Denver, CO 80208
303-871-2982 (main)
303-871-3197 (fax)
ehoneck@du.edu

Note: Advanced Acaemic Services will pay for registration and subs for BVSD teachers of this year's Early Access students.  Contact becky.whittenburg@bvsd.org  for more information.

BVGT  presentations and programs by the Boulder Valley Gifted and Talented, a CAGT (Colorado Assoc. for Gifted and Talented)  affiliate organization.

Parent Education, presentations and programs that are also of interest to educators

Carol Ann Tomlinson's Differentiation Toolbox for teachers

For information about Salary Credit or CDE credit click HERE 

You can information about upcoming trainings in the metro Denver and surrounding area by going to   http://www.greatbooks.org or calling 1-800-222-5870.

Junior Great Books Volunteer Programs
Interpretive Reading and Discussion for grades K-12

The Junior Great Books program benefits both students and adult leaders. As a volunteer, you will have the chance to work directly with students. Your own enthusiasm for literature and for sharing ideas will foster students’ love of literature and learning.

Volunteers usually meet with students once a week for six to twelve weeks to lead them in Shared Inquiry Discussions. It is the students’ responsibility to read the stories to prepare for discussion. (Younger students often have their parents read to them.) Sessions are typically scheduled for between a half hour and an hour. Volunteers will be required to spend some time each week reading the selection and preparing questions for discussion.

Visit the Great Books Foundation Website

The Great Books Foundation discussion groups, "Shared Inquiry," and discussions led as "Socratic Seminar," are quite similar. Training in either method will support the other, not be in conflict, and will lead to higher level discussion of challenging texts.

The 2008-2009 training has been completed.  Check back in 2009-2010. 
 
Socratic Seminar and Language Arts Standards  

As we continue to respond to the needs of standards based education, the question of how Socratic seminar addresses these standards naturally arises. The following list was developed by Jaye Zola using the draft document of the Language Arts Standards to respond to these questions:

Standard 1: Students read and understand a variety of material
Benchmarks:
using word recognition and comprehension strategies
reading a variety of texts
paraphrasing texts
synthesizing information from texts
 

Standard 2: Students listen, speak, and write for a variety of purposes and audiences
Benchmarks:
using responsible listening skills
speaking and writing using a variety of forms (for example: expository, argumentative, persuasive, descriptive, reflective, personal, etc.)
organizing ideas to achieve cohesion in writing and speaking using a variety of strategies to draft and revise written and spoken message

Standard 3: Students use grammatical and mechanical conventions of language
Benchmarks:
The benchmarks ask students to be able to use correct grammar, word usage, capitalization, punctuation, sentence and paragraph structure, spelling

Standard 6: Students read, recognize, and understand literature as an expression of human experience
Benchmarks:
reading a variety of literature
understanding the historical context in which a text was written
understanding the ways in which literature reflects the ethnic background of the author and the culture in which it was written
responding to literature (for example: suggesting an interpretation, recognizing possible ambiguities, nuances and complexities in a text, etc.)
understanding influences on a reader's response to a text

Creating Socratic Seminar Curricula