Developing Mathematical Talent: A Guide for Challenging and Educating Gifted Students [Paperback]

Susan Assouline (Author), Ann Lupkowski-Shoplik (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2003

Developing Mathematical Talent offers a focused look at educating gifted and talented students for success in math. More than just a guidebook for educators and parents, this book offers a comprehensive approach to mathematics education for gifted students of elementary or middle school age.

This book offers readers the tools needed to build student success. The authors provide concrete suggestions for identifying mathematically talented students, tools for instructional planning, and specific programming approaches.

Developing Mathematical Talent features topics such as: dispelling myths about kids with math talent, strategies for identifying mathematically gifted learners, strategies for advocating for gifted children with math talent, how to design a systematic math education program for gifted students, specific curriculum and materials that support success, and teaching strategies and approaches that encourage and challenge gifted learners.

At this book's foundation is a systematic method for matching the content and pace of the instructional program to the skill level and learning pace of the student. The authors offer specific methods for ensuring that students can move at an accelerated pace through the mathematics program.

The book also includes an extensive section listing both print and internet resources that support math education for talented children. Additionally, the authors include an entire section featuring exemplary sets of challenging math problems for gifted students

Grades K-9

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Susan Assouline is the University of Iowa Belin-Blank Center's associate director and clinical supervisor.

Ann Lupkowski-Shoplik is the director of the Carnegie Mellon Institute for Talented Elementary Students (C-MITES).

Product Details

• Paperback: 413 pages
• Publisher: Prufrock Press Inc. (May 2003)
• ISBN-10: 1882664922
• ISBN-13: 978-1882664924
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,296,554 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Anyone Who is Dealing with a Mathematically Gifted Student, July 6, 2004

By 

S. Uthoff - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Developing Mathematical Talent: A Guide for Challenging and Educating Gifted Students (Paperback)

Developing Mathematical Talent: A Guide for Challenging and Educating Gifted Students by Susan Assoluline and Ann Lupkowski-Shoplik is a good guide to what students, teachers, and parents need to know about teaching the mathematically gifted student. It was written by two leaders of the field whose years of experience make an interesting perspective. It is designed to be read by both teachers and parents. The useful format goes through the basics of what anyone who is dealing with a mathematically gifted student should know.
The book makes some basic points. There are many students who are mathematically gifted who are underserved. Even those identified and placed in gifted programs, often experience problems in getting the proper support in math. Often gifted programming focuses on other academic areas or cultural enrichment rather than providing a replacement for the regular math curriculum that the mathematically gifted students have outgrown. There don't seem to be a lot of standards that describe what should happen for the mathematically gifted student. That can be positive because the needs of gifted children are different. Some mathematically gifted students only need to be accelerated a year or two ahead, others find the standard curriculum totally inadequate to their current knowledge and aptitude. However, the negative part of not having an organized standard means that parents, gifted teachers, and gifted students themselves, need to be strong advocates getting a proper fit for each student. There needs to be a lot of hard information. Just saying that a student is advanced is not enough. You need to determine how advanced a student is (there are many tests available to help do that). Schools have more buy-in if they can help administer the tests and see the scores for themselves. Hard numbers are more convincing to administrators than anyone's opinion. Unfortunately, education is a profession that is constantly beset by fads. Several of the current ones, such as mixed ability grouping, no tracking, etc., are not supportive to gifted education. However, our gifted students cannot afford for gifted education to be a fad.
This book would be a useful for anyone dealing with a mathematically gifted student. However, I think it would be more useful as a reference book rather than as a book to be read cover to cover. The way the book is organized it would be very easy to dip in to find information out about types of tests available or suggestions on how to advocate for a gifted child. There's a good, if not extensive index, the chapter titles are very descriptive, and the title page of each chapter lists its main points. This tightly organized structure makes it easy to reference as needed. It would be a good addition to the professional development section of every library.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Useful and Practical, July 6, 2004

By 

Laura Lynn Walsh "gt-teacher" (Fairbanks, AK USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Developing Mathematical Talent: A Guide for Challenging and Educating Gifted Students (Paperback)

This book is an easy to read and very practical guide to working with mathematically talented students, who may or may not be identified as gifted. It is logically organized and can be used as a resource, but I found it interesting enough to read cover to cover, as well.

For me, an especially useful detail in the book was the description of how to use the results of talent search tests to differentially provide mathematical instruction to students with various score levels. As a parent of a child who took one of these tests, I was never sure how to interpret the results. As a teacher, I will now know.

The book is a very useful guide.