Title: TalentEd (Strategies for Developing the Talent in Every Learner)
Author: Jerry D. Flack (University of Colorado at Colorado Springs)
Publisher: Teacher Idea Press
Illustrator: Gay Graeber Miller
Copy write: 1993
TalentEd is a fantastic resource of classroom activities designed to bring out the higher thinking skills of every learner. The book is divided into 26 sections, each devoted to a letter of the English alphabet, a topic on that letter, and activities associated therein. The brilliance is in the organization of these activities and the depth of each.
Each activity is not age or grade designated. This is for good reason. Any skilled educator can take any activity in the entire book and extrapolate it to apply to the grade level they teach. Activities are carefully structured around many different modes of thinking and expressing while coupling critical thinking skills and scholastic quality. These include history, hands-on, writing, creative design, multi-product, and artistic activities.
Overall as a fifth grade teacher I find this to be an indispensable resource. If given the time, and I may create the time, I would love to have a long-term letter-based unit using these ideas.
- A is for ABC books
Activities include: Alphabet grids (a la Scattergories), proverbs, and ABC books
- B is for Biography
Activities include: Research of your birthday, reading biographies, and scrap booking
- C is for Creativity Catalogues
Activities include: catalogues created by students of anything
- D is for Daydreams
Activities include: life goals and reading famous goals and success stories
- E is for Entrepreneurship
Activities include: study and research of entrepreneurs, student created businesses, self-evaluation, negotiating, advertising, and student created business magazines
- F is for Fairy Tales
Activities include: story melding and fluency and flexibility in writing
- G is for Garbage
Activities include: explore definitions of garbage, multiple talents activity, and decision-making
- H is for Hope
Activities include: future thinking, predicting, and acting
- I is for Invention
Activities include: problem solving, exploring innovation, and student inventions
- J is for Journals
Activities include: how and what to journal
- K is for Kingdoms
Activities include: creating a personal universe and reading fantasy works
- L is for Literature
Activities include: Reading top-rated suspense and drama works and book sharing projects
- M is for Mystery
Activities include: what is sleuthing, how to collect information, writing a mystery, and race mystery activity
- N is for Newspaper
Activities include: how to write a newspaper
- O is for Olympics
Activities include: Olympic history and product project
- P is for Pigs, Parody, and Puns
Activities include: When Pigs Fly problem solving and write parodies and puns
- Q is for Questions
Activities include: decision making
- R is for Recipe
Activities include: favorite food recipes and recipes for non-food (i.e. unbeatable football teams, popularity, courage, great coaches, etc)
- S is for Service
Activities include: brainstorm, create, and enact a stewardship plan
- T is for (No) Television
Activities include: explore the impact of television both positive and negative, taming the beast, extensive television activities
- U is for Understanding a Word
Activities include: abstract nouns, extensive word research and usage of one word
- V is for Verse
Activities include: writing poems in various forms
- W is for Writing
Activities include: story reactions, dream job, monthly celebration research and creation, autobiography|autobiographies], and many more thoughtful writing activities
- X is for Classroom eXperts
Activities include: lab experiences, guest speakers, audio-visual material creation, and many more hands-on activities created by the students
- Y is for DictionarY and EncYclopedia
Activities include: People, Places, and Things that begin with Y and story writing based on the letter Y
- Z is for Zebras and Zoo Stories
Activities include: collaborative writing