Differentiation for Gifted Learners: Going Beyond the Basics, Revised & Updated Edition

With increasing numbers of students receiving gifted services every year, it’s more important than ever to make certain we are meeting their unique learning needs in the classroom. Differentiated instruction for these learners must go beyond adjusting content levels, task complexity, or product choice—it must truly challenge and support learners on all levels: academic, social, and emotional. A leading resource in the field of gifted education, this book connects the unique learning differences among gifted students to the specific teaching methods used to tailor their learning experiences. Expansive new content in the revised edition includes:

1. a discussion of underserved learners—particularly English language learners, students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and economically disadvantaged students
2. updated information on learning standards, MTSS, and universal screening
3. new guidelines for honors courses
4. a focus on scholarly questioning, ethics, and empathy
5. a novel new strategy to increase curricular depth and complexity
6. information on learning orientations
7. new research on neurological differences of gifted learners
8. the pros and cons of co-teaching and how to assess its progress
9. new tools to increase achievement, plus a discussion of “underearning”
10. the benefits of coaching and lesson study
11. the authors’ perspectives on and guidelines for grading

Downloadable digital content includes customizable reproducible forms and a PDF presentation; a free PLC/Book Study Guide for use in professional development is also available.

About the Authors:

Diane Heacox, Ed.D., is a consultant and professional development trainer focusing on strategies to increase learning success for all students. She is professor emerita at St. Catherine University in St. Paul, Minnesota. She is a national and international consultant and professional development trainer to both public and private schools on a variety of topics related to teaching and learning. Dr. Heacox has taught at both elementary and secondary school levels and has served as a gifted education teacher and administrator, as well as an instructional specialist in public education.

Dr. Heacox is also the author of four books. Her first book for Free Spirit Publishers was Up From Underachievement: How Teachers, Students, and Parents Can Work Together. Her second book, Differentiating Instruction in the Regular Classroom: How to Reach and Teach All Learners was updated and re-released in 2012. Making Differentiation a Habit earned the 2010 Association of Education Publishers Distinguished Achievement Award and was updated in 2017. Her book coauthored with Richard Cash, Differentiation for Gifted Learners: Going Beyond the Basics, received the 2014 Legacy Book Award for Educators by the Texas Association for Gifted and Talented.

Dr. Heacox’s books have been translated into Dutch, Hungarian, Korean, Arabic, and Portuguese. Her Differentiation Classroom Practices Inventory was used by the Ministry of Education in Portugal for conducting a national survey of classroom practices.

Dr. Heacox serves on the Board of Directors of the Minnesota Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development (MN ASCD) and the Minnesota Department of Education Gifted Education Advisory Board. She is the past chair for the Middle Level Network and the Education committee for National Association for Gifted Children and the current facilitator of the Higher Education Division for international ASCD.

Dr. Heacox was recognized by the Minnesota Educators of Gifted and Talented as a Friend of the Gifted for service to gifted education. She is also in the University of St. Thomas Educators Hall of Fame for contributions to the field of education.

Dr. Richard M. Cash is an award-winning author and educator who has worked in the field of education for over twenty-five years. His range of experience includes teaching, curriculum coordination, and program administration. Currently, he is an internationally recognized education consultant (www.nrich.consulting). His consulting work has taken him throughout the United States, as well as into Canada, the Czech Republic, China, England, Indonesia, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Poland, Qatar, Spain, South Korea, and Turkey.

Richard received his doctorate in educational leadership and a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction from the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Along with his bachelor’s degree in education from the University of Minnesota, Richard holds a bachelor’s degree in theater from the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire. For over ten years, he codirected a children’s theater company in Minnesota, and coauthored four award-winning children’s plays. He was recipient of the National Association for Gifted Children’s Early Leader Award (2011), recognizing his leadership in programming for gifted children. Richard was also named the “Friend of the Gifted, 2016” by Minnesota Educators of the Gifted and Talented.

His areas of expertise are educational programming, rigorous and challenging curriculum design, differentiated instruction, 21st century skills, brain-compatible classrooms, gifted and talented education, and self-regulated learning. Dr. Cash is the author of Advancing Differentiation: Thinking and Learning for the 21st Century (2011), a finalist for the Association for Educational Publishers Distinguished Achievement Award; Self-Regulation in the Classroom: Helping Students Learn How to Learn; and coauthor of (with Diane Heacox) Differentiation for Gifted Learners: Going Beyond the Basics (2014), winner of The Legacy Book® Award for Outstanding Educators Publication.

Richard lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.