Collaborative Literacy: Using Gifted Strategies to Enrich Learning for Every Student

Use these gifted and higher level thinking strategies for all students!

Developed for reading educators, this rich resource incorporates higher level thinking and reading strategies that promote academic achievement for both gifted learners and struggling students. Susan E. Israel, Dorothy A. Sisk, and Cathy Collins Block, recognized leaders in the fields of reading and literacy, provide teachers with tools to create collaborative literacy classrooms where students can generate ideas independently, discuss them, and then develop new concepts within a group environment. Collaboration boosts critical thinking skills and helps develop and enrich reading, writing, speaking, and thinking experiences not just for gifted readers, but for all learners!

You′ll gain important insights on:

• Understanding how collaborative literacy affects gifted students and your entire classroom
• Building collaborative literacy using specific resources such as adaptable lessons and activities
• Creating an enriched collaborative literacy environment for all students
• Involving parents in collaborative literacy learning
• Stimulating creativity to increase critical thinking and develop richer comprehension

Develop higher level thinking and reading strategies to help your students become independent researchers, writers, and readers!

Susan E. Israel is an independent researcher, writer, and literacy consultant and currently serves as President and Director of Reading Alliance for Catholic Education in Indiana, where she works with small and large corporations to enhance literacy products. Her special research interests are in the areas of reading comprehension, writing, and child-mind development as it relates to literacy processes. Israel served as assistant professor at the University of Dayton, and in 2005 she was awarded the University’s Panhellenic Council Outstanding Professor Award. She has also served on the national faculty at the University of Notre Dame Summer Program, where she taught reading and language arts methods. A former elementary teacher, she was awarded the 1998 teacher-researcher grant from the International Reading Association (IRA). Having been an active member of the IRA for over a decade, she has served on a number of IRA committees and interest groups and recently was president of the History of Literacy Special Interest Group. In addition, she has been active with the National Reading Conference. Israel has authored, coauthored, or edited over 15 books and volumes and is the senior editor of the recently published comprehensive volume, Handbook of Research on Reading Comprehension (Israel & Duffy, 2008). Other recent publications include Teachers Taking Action: A Comprehensive Guide to Teacher Research (with Cynthia Lassonde, 2008), Reading First and Beyond (with Cathy Collins Block, 2005), Collaborative Literacy (2006), Shaping the Reading Field (2007), Poetic Possibilities (2006), and Quotes to Inspire Great Reading Teachers (2006).

Dorothy Sisk holds an endowed chair in education of gifted students at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas. Throughout her career, she has been intensely involved with the education of gifted and talented children. Sisk is an international consultant focusing on leadership, communication, and creativity development. She was a professor at the University of South Florida, coordinating programs for training teachers of the gifted, and former director of the US Office of Gifted and Talented in Washington, DC. She currently directs the C.W. Conn and Doroth Ann Conn Gifted Child Center at Lamar University and teaches courses in gifted education. She received the Distinguished Leader Award from the Creative Education Foundation (CEF) in 1989, the Distinguished Service Award from the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) in 1983 and 1994, the Creative Lifetime Award from CEF in 1994, and was selected for the Hall of Fame Award of CEF in 2005.

Sisk served as one of the founders and the first president of the American Creativity Association, and president of The Association for the Gifted (TAG), the Florida Association for the Gifted, and the World Council for Gifted and Talented Children, where she also was the executive administrator and the editor of Gifted International from 1980 to 1990. She has conducted training sessions throughout the U.S. and internationally. Sisk is the author of Creative Teaching of the Gifted; coauthor with Doris Shallcross of Leadership: Making Things Happen, The Growing Person, and Intuition: An Inner Way of Knowing; coauthor with E. Paul Torrance of Gifted Children in the Regular Classroom and Spiritual Intelligence: Higher Level Consciousness; and coauthor with Susan Israel and Cathy Block of Collaborative Literacy: Using Gifted Strategies to Enrich Learning for Every Student. In addition, she has contributed numerous articles and chapters in books on gifted education, creativity, and leadership development.

Cathy Collins Block is a Professor of Education at Texas Christian University. She has taught every grade level from preschool to graduate school, and was elected to serve on the Board of Directors of the International Reading Association from 2002-2005. She has served or is presently serving on the Board of Directors of the National Reading Conference. Nobel Learning Communities, IBM Educational Board of Directors, and the National Center for Learning Disabilities. She presently serves on the Editorial Boards for the Journal of Educational Psychology, Reading Research Quarterly, The Reading Teacher, National Reading Conference Yearbook, and America Tomorrow. She has written more than 30 books and 80 research-based articles relative to literacy instruction and teacher education. She has also served or is serving on several elementary/middle school authorial writing teams for public/private school textbooks and literacy curriculum materials. She has written for Walt Disney Corporation, PBS Television Stations and other national media companies. She has received numerous honors as a teacher, including Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers and Who’s Who in the World.