This activity for gifted learners might serve as a writing activity as part of a larger poetry unit. Students will take part in close readings of a variety of poems throughout the unit.  In this activity, gifted learners would work either individually or with a partner to close read “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost.  They will then work to decipher the poem, it’s meaning, and the point of view from which it’s told.  Finally, they will  “reframe” the original poem and it’s point of view, resulting in a poem told from the horse’s perspective.  This lesson was developed by NCDPI as part of the Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted Instructional Resources Project. This lesson plan has been vetted at the state level for standards alignment, AIG focus, and content accuracy.

This lesson begins with a creative review of the four types of literary conflict and then asks students to evaluate conflict within a particular novel. This lesson was developed by NCDPI as part of the Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted Instructional Resources Project. This lesson plan has been vetted at the state level for standards alignment, AIG focus, and content accuracy.

This lesson allows students to examine the impact of point of view through analysis and creativity. This lesson was developed by NCDPI as part of the Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted Instructional Resources Project. This lesson plan has been vetted at the state level for standards alignment, AIG focus, and content accuracy.

This activity for gifted learners might serve as part of a larger poetry unit. Students will take part in close readings of a variety of poems throughout the unit.  This research project should be assigned to students who demonstrate solid understanding of poetry (figurative language, structure, meaning) and are ready for a challenge as they work individually, or with a partner, to close read “Something Told the Wild Geese” by Rachel Field and then investigate…What is the “something”?  Using the information they discover in their research, they will create a complementary poem to “Something Told the Wild Geese,” explaining the scientific principal behind each stanza in verse which they will read to the class.  This lesson was developed by NCDPI as part of the Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted Instructional Resources Project. This lesson plan has been vetted at the state level for standards alignment, AIG focus, and content accuracy.

In this lesson, students will read and listen to/view a speech by Jesse Jackson during the 1988 Democratic National Convention. Students will deeply analyze the speech for content and purpose, focusing on the relevancy and effectiveness of Jackson’s personal story that he uses to conclude his speech. Students will analyze how this concluding section contributes to the whole speech and to the development of ideas expressed throughout the speech. Students will then independently complete a RAFT assignment in which they may self-select the Role, Audience, and Format; all students will have the same topic – reaction to hearing the speech. The RAFT writing will further explore the impact of the personal testimony on the speech as a whole. This lesson was developed by NCDPI as part of the Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted Instructional Resources Project. This lesson plan has been vetted at the state level for standards alignment, AIG focus, and content accuracy.

This activity for gifted learners follows close reading of Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan.  At the end of the reading of Sarah, Plain and Tall, all students will complete a timeline of events & characters throughout the novel that is differentiated based on readiness.  This project should be assigned to students who not only demonstrate a solid understanding of the novel, but also show keen insight into the main characters’ development (traits, motivations, feelings, etc.) throughout the novel.  Students will analyze the characters’ development through the lens of the American frontier/pioneer period in our nation’s history, determining possible relationships between events during this time period and character development in the novel, through both research and careful reflection of characters/events in the novel.  This will culminate in the creation of a dual timeline.  This lesson was developed by NCDPI as part of the Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted Instructional Resources Project. This lesson plan has been vetted at the state level for standards alignment, AIG focus, and content accuracy.

This activity for gifted learners might serve as part of a larger poetry unit. Students will take part in close readings of a variety of poems throughout the unit.  In this activity, gifted learners would work individually to close read “Fireflies” by Paul Fleischman.  They will then work to decipher the poem and it’s meaning, resulting in a new “Firefly Job Posting” (created in verse) to complement their knowledge/understanding of the poem.  They will then participate in a “Networking Event for Fireflies” with their peers and listen to others’ “firefly job posting” ideas, share their own ideas, and give/receive feedback regarding their ideas, word choice, metaphors, etc, which will culminate in a “Classified Ad” page for fireflies…. a compilation of the students’ work / poetic reinterpretations of “Fireflies.” This lesson was developed by NCDPI as part of the Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted Instructional Resources Project. This lesson plan has been vetted at the state level for standards alignment, AIG focus, and content accuracy.

After whole class participation in a Socratic seminar led by the teacher, with procedures and ground rules stressed, AIG students will be grouped in pairs to plan and lead small group Socratic seminars for their second grade class. The seminars will focus on fables during a fables and folktales literature unit. This lesson was developed by NCDPI as part of the Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted Instructional Resources Project. This lesson plan has been vetted at the state level for standards alignment, AIG focus, and content accuracy.

Before reading a complex informational text in a differentiated second grade group during the science unit about states of matter, AIG students will work collaboratively to complete a metacognitive dictionary to predict, explain their thinking, and determine the meaning of unfamiliar words. After reading, the AIG students will apply knowledge of the new vocabulary through writing an original informative text on the same topic. This lesson was developed by NCDPI as part of the Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted Instructional Resources Project. This lesson plan has been vetted at the state level for standards alignment, AIG focus, and content accuracy.

During a second grade science unit on weather, the AIG students will be grouped to extend the topic to include hurricanes. They will gather information and data from multiple print and media sources and will write a meteorologist report to be videotaped using flip cameras. This lesson was developed by NCDPI as part of the Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted Instructional Resources Project. This lesson plan has been vetted at the state level for standards alignment, AIG focus, and content accuracy.

As part of a literature unit, the AIG students will be grouped to extend character analysis. They will work collaboratively to create a new character they would add to the selected story, and create a Voki, a digital avatar, to represent their created character. They will determine a specific purpose for the new character and analyze the relationship of the added character to the story's plot and sequence of events. This lesson was developed by NCDPI as part of the Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted Instructional Resources Project. This lesson plan has been vetted at the state level for standards alignment, AIG focus, and content accuracy.

The teacher will engage the students in a game to introduce the idea of multiple meaning words. The students will brainstorm to generate a list of multiple meaning words for the game. The students will read the book Amelia Bedelia where multiple meaning words are prevalent and will determine from the context clues the true meanings and misinterpretations. Finally, the students will write ten creative sentences with multiple meaning words using declarative, interrogative, exclamatory, and imperative sentence types. This lesson was developed by NCDPI as part of the Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted Instructional Resources Project. This lesson plan has been vetted at the state level for standards alignment, AIG focus, and content accuracy.

Two important speeches to be given during the Cold War were McCarthy’s Fifty-seven Names speech and Truman’s 1947 address to Congress, commonly known as the Truman Doctrine. These documents provide the advanced student the opportunity to analyze persuasive structure in two primary source documents(Reading Informational Texts  5, 6 and 9) as well as provide the opportunity to practice the specific vocabulary that is required for analyzing rhetoric at the advanced and college level (Language 5 and 6). Initially, these documents serve as practice for analyzing rhetoric for advanced students. Beyond the initial analysis of these documents, they pair well with Miller’s popular drama, The Crucible, to support Miller’s interpretation of the zeitgeist of the 1950s. This lesson was developed by NCDPI as part of the Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted Instructional Resources Project. This lesson plan has been vetted at the state level for standards alignment, AIG focus, and content accuracy.

After reading an appropriately challenging story, AIG students will be grouped to closely reread and analyze the literature. They will brainstorm a team name related to the literature. They will be provided ambiguous statements (opinions) concerning the characters, setting, or plot and be asked to judge the statements using a 1 to 10 scale, with 1 being total disagreement and 10 being total agreement. They will also be required to provide justification for their ratings with support from the text. Upon completion of small group analysis, judging, and justification of their ratings, all groups will convene to share their ratings in a tabulation of results. The groups will hold up score paddles as the statements are read and discussed. This lesson was developed by NCDPI as part of the Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted Instructional Resources Project. This lesson plan has been vetted at the state level for standards alignment, AIG focus, and content accuracy.

This lesson should be part of a larger focus on creative thinking and creative writing. This larger context could be poetry, figurative language, creative writing prompts, analogies, similes, metaphors, alliteration, onomonopeia, or other literary elements. This lesson targets the use of humor in writing through riddles. Students will read riddles, learn ways to write riddles and practice creating their own riddles.  As a final product, AIG students will choose to either make a booklet of animal riddles using word processing or to produce a simple PowerPoint presentation with their animal riddles. Illustrations will be included using clip art, computer graphics or their scanned drawings. This lesson was developed by NCDPI as part of the Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted Instructional Resources Project. This lesson plan has been vetted at the state level for standards alignment, AIG focus, and content accuracy.

This activity for gifted learners complements close reading of Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis.  Throughout the reading of Bud, Not Buddy, all students will work to create a glossary of unfamiliar terms/phrases found throughout the novel that is differentiated based on readiness. This project should be assigned to students who demonstrate solid understanding of the novel and are ready for a challenge as they create not only a glossary differentiating the literal and nonliteral meanings of the phrases/figures of speech found in the novel, but also a thesaurus of other figures of speech that could be used in place of the ones used in the novel.  This lesson was developed by NCDPI as part of the Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted Instructional Resources Project. This lesson plan has been vetted at the state level for standards alignment, AIG focus, and content accuracy.

This AIG extension task will be used as differentiation within a second grade dramatic literature unit. AIG students will be grouped to read an adapted version of Shakespeare's Macbeth and complete a character analysis task. This lesson was developed by NCDPI as part of the Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted Instructional Resources Project. This lesson plan has been vetted at the state level for standards alignment, AIG focus, and content accuracy.

This task will extend classroom integrated instruction within a science unit on weather, focusing on the sun's energy. AIG students will use synectics, write an opinion piece and create a collaborative digital product. After whole-class instruction on how the sun's energy heats the air, land and water, AIG students will engage in close reading of nonfiction texts about solar energy. They will then work in collaborative pairs to brainstorm and write similes using synectics to compare solar energy with seemingly unrelated items. The pairs will then create a digital product to publish and illustrate their extended similes. This lesson was developed by NCDPI as part of the Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted Instructional Resources Project. This lesson plan has been vetted at the state level for standards alignment, AIG focus, and content accuracy.

Using the DPI online graphic organizer for synthesizing information found at http://www.ncpublicschools.org/docs/acre/standards/common-core-tools/organizers/ela/synthesizing.pdf, students will identify the reasons the author of the article “Garden Helpers” provides to support his point that not all garden creatures are pests.  The students will fill out a graphic organizer to show evidence that some creatures are helpful, and then they will fill out another organizer to show that some are harmful. After identifying the reasons in the text, the students will write a summary opinion on the organizer, drawing upon other resources for further information and investigation.  After completing both organizers, AIG students will synthesize the information about helpful and harmful garden creatures in order to write an explanatory/informative report on living creatures in the garden. This lesson was developed by NCDPI as part of the Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted Instructional Resources Project. This lesson plan has been vetted at the state level for standards alignment, AIG focus, and content accuracy.

This activity for gifted learners might serve as a culminating activity as part of a larger unit on fables, folktales, & myths. Students will take part in close readings of a variety of stories throughout the unit (including fables, folktales, & myths).  In this activity, gifted learners would work either individually or with a partner to closely read Amos & Boris by William Steig.  They will then work to decipher the central message(s) of the story and what fable(s) this story can be connected to.  As they read, they will pay special attention to two main details that help to convey the story:  the word choice and illustrations.  Using the central message of the story as an anchor and the saying, “A picture’s worth a thousand words,” they will then argue that the Steig’s word choice and illustration do or do not support the story’s central message in the best possible way by creating an audio/visual presentation that supports their argument.  This lesson was developed by NCDPI as part of the Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted Instructional Resources Project. This lesson plan has been vetted at the state level for standards alignment, AIG focus, and content accuracy.