Center For Gifted Education

This is literally just a collection of short works (short stories, poetry, document extracts, informational texts) and about 6 higher order thinking questions for each story. That's it. You can get that anywhere. Not to mention that most of the selected pieces are far more developmentally appropriate for high school (or college, in some cases) than even the most advanced of fifth graders.

Finally, some of the informational extracts include blatantly false information:

-The invention of paper show more money was placed a millennia after it was actually invented
-The piece discussing weight v. mass claims that the EARTH'S gravitational pull determines our weight on the moon (and explicitly states that the moon's gravitational pull has almost no effect on our weight on the moon...da fu--?)
-It also mistakes Archimedes water displacement discovery as a way to measure density instead of correctly identifying it as the way to measure volume.

Very shoddy (or other sh---y word) work. show less

As background, I am a homeschool parent (even before the COVID-19 crisis) with a passion for math curricula. I have also Beast Academy and books by Edward Zaccaro, Cleo Borac (Competitive Mathematics for Gifted Students), in addition to standard curricula.

In my opinion, this book is better suited (and designed) for small group, math circle, and/or classroom use. Some of the activities are interesting and fun (for kids who like math), but this book is definitely written to a teacher and some show more of the activities would be more fun with a small group of (math-loving) kids. (Looking at you, Airplane Toss, in which players compete for the longest flight, but also at many of the questions.)

The difficulty of the problems definitely varies. Some are pretty challenging. Some require gifted-level creativity but many do not. Some are relatively simple: for instance, measuring and plotting line segments to the nearest eighth inch, or rounding decimals. And because I am the Fake Word Problem police, I'm still trying to figure out the word problem about the bakery that makes 3/4 of a cake in July.

I'm definitely going to use a number of these activities with my fifth grader. There are some great ideas-- shopping for a vehicle, making a budget, playing connect the coordinates. This is a good supplement for kids who want or need more math in their lives, and parents or teachers who have the time to do it with them. I think it would be suitable for kids who are gifted, advanced, or who just really enjoy math and aren't easily frustrated. show less

”Math Curriculum for Gifted Students (Grade 6)” was created by the Center for Gifted Education at William & Mary School of Education. The learning units were designed for students with demonstrated advanced achievement in mathematics at the 6th grade level.

From my point of view, the five lesson plan sections were excellent at providing extended learning of mathematical concepts to build on a student’s prior knowledge. The activities were engaging to help a student practice their math show more skills. The book used large fonts for easier reading. The graphs/tables were designed simply and effectively. There were both multiple choice and fill-in-the-blank activities.

Lesson activities that I found challenging were Lesson 2.2 - Creating Monster Multiples (involving DNA and zoo identification), and Lesson 3.2 - Chess and Expressions (chess moves using equivalent expressions). One lesson activity that I found interesting and fun was Lesson 3.4 - Fantasy Football Expressions, which taught students how to draft real NFL players, solve equations, figure statistics, and simulate a Fantasy Football game. In Lesson 5.2, students learned how to interpret sets of data.

Various lesson plans included index cards and there was a full answer key at the end of the book. Overall, this hands-on workbook was well-designed and comprehensible with suitable curriculum for advanced 6th grade math students. It included practical math concepts such as ratios and fractions, as well as more complex concepts such as geometry and statistics. show less

I got the second edition of “Jacob's Ladder Reading Comprehension Program” Grade 4 to consider for my church’s school assistance and home schooling aid. It looks very good.

I am not sure how it would work in a standard classroom. Teaching with this would expect too much of most English teachers, as they would need to have one or more of these every week in order to complete the system in one school year. That is in addition to state required English curriculum. They would also need to show more score a full classroom’s full of small essays a week for that same time. In current classes, that is an average of over 23 students. Some classes are, of course, over average, and some state’s average is over 30 students per classroom.

I also thought about how speakers of non-standard English would fare, as in multiple guess questions they can show comprehension, but only teachers who speak their own dialect would be able to interpret the written answers in dialect. This would penalize individuals whose whole life is in that dialect. Although I agree that standard English must be taught, a comprehension program is not, in my opinion, the correct place for this specialized education.

For the purpose I desired the book, I expect that this program will work well, and I am recommending the church get this book in multiple copies for each level available. show less