Keeping Nonfiction Creative for Gifted Students

Some teachers fear that the Common Core State Standards’ emphasis on nonfiction will exacerbate a problem already noted in our education system: discouragement of creativity. In an Education Week article called “Inspiring Creativity Through Nonfiction Texts,” one teacher argues that this need not be the case, describing some of his own nonfiction assignments—which can include asking students to compare the Declaration of Independence and Taylor Swift’s “We Are Never Getting Back Together.” In this spirit, we are sharing a few resources to help keep nonfiction materials fresh and thought-provoking for your gifted students.

• Educurious offers a free unit, “Mining Personal Histories,” that gives nonfiction text the angle of personal interest that we often look for in literature.
• The New York Times learning blog features suggestions for integrating its print and Web resources in your classroom in fun ways. This can include pulling in nonfiction articles to help students contextualize and understand a work of literature, as in the entry “Teaching The Great Gatsby With The New York Times.”
• This National Writing Project article can help you turn a unit on creative nonfiction into practice writing the perfect college admissions essay.

Time is Running Out!

Just Two Days Left for Prufrock's 99¢ Clearance Sale

You have just two days left to take advantage of Prufrock’s 99¢ Spring Clearance Sale—snap up many Prufrock Press books for just 99¢. Once every two or three years we need to clear out some of our overstocked or out-of-print titles to make room for our exciting new releases for the next school year.

New Titles Added

If you visited the sale earlier in the month, take a minute to revisit the sale items. We've added a few titles since the sale started.

Act quickly. We’re truly clearing out odds and ends, so once a title sells out, we pull it off the website. Sale ends April 30. Supplies are limited.

Inspiring Reluctant Writers With Technology

Do you know a child who avoids classroom writing assignments at all costs but can spend an entire day texting friends or posting status updates? This LearningWorks for Kids article discusses how parents and educators should begin seeing these technologies as tools they can use to help students develop writing skills, rather than as mere distractions from “real” writing. A child who enjoys this form of self-expression can learn to value more rigorous writing exercises as well.

Consider assigning extremely short, unusual pieces alongside more traditional writing instruction. English professor Andy Selsberg offers several interesting ideas (such as “Describe the essence of a chalkboard in one or two sentences”) in his New York Times op-ed “Teaching to the Text Message.” The National Writing Project’s Mozilla Thimble application makes it easy to assign students a six-word memoir. You could also direct students to one of the many apps designed to engage struggling writers in creative expression.

Renzulli Scales Available From Prufrock Press

Sold separately, the Technical and Administration Manual for the Renzulli Scales features administration guidelines and research support information.

The Renzulli Scales are now available in packs of 100. Visit the Prufrock Press website for more information about this time-honored identification tool.

Prufrock Press is now the source for the Scales for Rating the Behavioral Characteristics of Superior Students (Renzulli Scales).

Now in its third edition, the Renzulli Scales are the nation's most popular tool for identifying gifted children. Supported by 40 years of research, the Renzulli Scales are used by gifted and talented programs across the country. This standardized, observational instrument is completed by teachers and provides an effective method for identifying gifted children.

Research shows that gifted children tend to exhibit certain observable behaviors, such as using advanced vocabulary, grasping underlying principles, and making generalizations from complex information. The Renzulli Scales asks teachers to rate children in comparison to their peers on a host of these observable behaviors. The children who score high on the scales are more likely to be gifted. Using a tool like the Scales, a school can narrow the number of students who will be fully evaluated for a gifted program.

The Renzulli Scales include 14 scales (for a full listing see the Renzulli Scales product page). The first four scales (learning, creativity, motivation, and leadership) are used by most schools that use the Scales. The remaining ten scales are focused on specific areas. They are used by schools when those areas seem appropriate for a gifted program's goals. For example, a program serving gifted math students would use the mathematics scale, a science academy would use the science scale, etc.

As your gifted program prepares for its identification needs, look to Prufrock Press for all of the components of the Renzulli Scales.

Wear It Blue: Raise Autism Awareness April 25

As part of Autism Awareness Month, Wear It Blue, a national campaign to raise awareness and funds, is calling for students, teachers, parents, and anyone whose life is affected by autism to join the cause by wearing blue next Thursday, April 25.

Wear It Blue was launched in 2012 by the 16-year-old sister of a teen with autism as a way to build support for families for whom autism is a constant, year-round challenge. Be sure to check the details on the website for information on how you and your school can participate. 

In the meantime, the folks at TeachThought are recognizing Autism Awareness Month with six tips for teaching students with autism in mixed settings. Check out their strategies for advice on how to face the challenges of meeting and balancing the needs of children with autism in inclusive classrooms.

And don't forget to check out our website for resources on parenting or teaching children with autism.

Great Special Education Resources Spotted at CEC 2013

The Prufrock staff recently attended the annual Council for Exceptional Children convention in San Antonio. Not only did we enjoy exhibiting there and supporting our authors, but we were able find some fabulous resources to share with you.

A few of the cool special education teaching ideas we picked up at CEC include:

• The Tough Kid series of books for kids with emotional/behavioral disorders and their parents and teachers allows kids to find new ways to manage their powerful emotions.
• JennyLU Designs was created to showcase the colorful, playful artwork of Jenny Unrein, who has Williams Syndrome. Sharing her art with your students is a great way to show them how they too can express themselves creatively, and perhaps even turn their passion areas into a business like Jenny's.
• Reading Is a Superpower is a comic book program that helps teachers use much-loved comics and graphic novels in their classrooms. The program includes lesson plans, discussion questions, vocabulary guides, and other resources geared to the Common Core State Standards.
• Bookshare.org provides a free, online accessible library to schools for use with students with print disabilities. You can browse the available book lists before signing up for an account.

Academy of American Poets' Dear Poet Project

Established by the Academy of American Poets in 1996, National Poetry Month is held every April to celebrate and promote the study of poetry’s influential role in American culture. For 2013, the Academy of American Poets is encouraging students of all ages to engage with poetry by hand-writing letters to the poets who serve on the Academy’s Board of Chancellors, which includes Victor Hernández Cruz, Edward Hirsch, Anne Waldman, and Arthur Sze, among many others. Selected letters may receive a response from the poet and be featured on the Academy’s website. Check out the details here!

For other ways to incorporate National Poetry Month into the gifted classroom, TeachHUB.com has poetry-focused writing prompts for different grade levels, and NBC Latino has some great suggestions for bilingual poetry books for young children.

As an added bonus for teachers looking to foster a love of words in the classroom, Oxford University Press will be granting free online access all next week to Oxford Reference and the Oxford English Dictionary in celebration of National Library Week. Be sure to check the OUP blog for the username and password starting April 14!

Film Highlights Benefits of School Support for Troubled Students

Kids with emotional-behavioral disorders—which include depression, anxiety, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, and Bipolar Disorder— have the worst graduation rate of all students with disabilities. Research suggests that “zero-tolerance” disciplinary policies that rely on suspension are doing a disservice both to students with disabilities and to the school as a whole.

In the new documentary film Who Cares About Kelsey?, Dan Habib, Filmmaker in Residence at the Institute on Disability at the University of New Hampshire, explores how schools can address this problem by adopting Response to Intervention frameworks like School-Wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports. The film follows the transformation of Kelsey Carroll from a likely high school dropout to a confident and successful young woman (now attending college) through school reforms that met her unique needs.

An 8-minute excerpt of Who Cares About Kelsey? is available here. To view the entire film, you can order the DVD or host a screening at your school.

For more information on how to support kids like Kelsey, check out our book, School Success for Kids With Emotional and Behavioral Disorders.

Study: Middle School Algebra Might Not Improve Scores

A recent Brookings study, part of the Brown Center’s annual Report on American Education, suggests that introducing algebra to middle school students might not boost National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) math scores. An almost nationwide push between 2005 and 2011 to increase eighth-grade enrollment in Algebra 1 classes was based on the assumption that introducing more advanced math to a broader range of middle school students would prepare them for higher NAEP scores and more advanced math in high school. However, the study shows no significant correlation between increased enrollment and higher performance.

Additionally, an analysis of high school coursework conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics concluded that many high school Algebra 1 and geometry classes cover more rudimentary than advanced math principles, which may throw the utility of advanced middle school math courses into question.

What’s interesting to note is that the Brookings study found that NAEP scores actually did increase for eighth-grade Algebra 1 classes in states that did not increase enrollment, suggesting that mean achievement levels drop as enrollment climbs.  

Time for Prufrock's 99¢ Spring Clearance Sale!

It's time for Prufrock's 99¢ Spring Clearance Sale -- snap up many Prufrock Press books for just 99¢.

As many of you know, once every two or three years, we need to clear out some of our overstocked or out-of-print titles to make room for our exciting new releases for the next school year.

During the sale, we offer a selection of titles at drastically reduced prices. Many are priced at just 99¢. The books we have placed on clearance are in perfect condition. Many of these wonderful titles have been quite popular over the years, but we simply have too many in inventory, and we want to sell them while they are still great tools for the classroom.

Many Clearance Items Sell Out Quickly

We know it's a cliché, but do act quickly. We're truly clearing out odds-and-ends, so once a title sells out, we pull it off the Web site. Typically, some titles sell out within a few hours.

Save money on exciting classroom materials during Prufrock's Spring Clearance Sale.

Sale ends April 30. Supplies are limited.