’09 TAGT: Educator Perspective by April Tate

Comments from April Tate from Valley Ranch Elementary.

Guiding the Gifted Reader

– Don’t assume gifted readers don’t need guidance
– There is a problem in pushing students to read when they are not emotionally mature enough for the content. Be sure they are ready for what they are reading, not just reading because they understand individual words.
– Stress INTERACTION with the book.

Characteristics of Books for Gifted Readers:
1) Language: high level (age appropriate), descriptive, authors delight in language and nuances, and language from other times and places.
2) Style: figurative language and literary devices
3) Plot: unfinished or misunderstood, different perspectives, forces the mind to work, unpredictable but realistic
4) Setting: allow for various experiences and are imaginative

Recognizing Good Fiction
1) honest and accurate
2) enough depth to engage the imagination
3) plots must be plausible
4) something should happen within the characters (they change through the course of the book)

Characteristics of Good Fantasy and Science Fiction
1) more likely for gifted readers
2) some adults see it as escape literature, but it does develop imagination
3) productive and imaginative (left & right brain)
4) should still be belieable even with “other worlds”
5) there is usually a separate set of rules for the other world