Grades 6-8
A place for teachers to come for ideas and inspiration for our gifted and advanced learners.
If you have an idea to share, please email it to Kari Clements, kclements@telluride.k12.co.us
Math
Open Middle - Grade level and standards based deep, challenging problems, often with multiple right answers. Lead to great discussions about mathematical thinking.
Problem of the Week - Designed to provide students with an ongoing opportunity to solve mathematical problems. Each week, problems from various areas of mathematics will be posted here and e-mailed to teachers for use with their students.
NRICH - Covers just about every math topic with interesting problems that get kids thinking. I would suggest stage 3 or 4 for sixth grade gifted and stage 4 or 5 for seventh and eighth grade gifted.
You can start with a 1 star challenge level and work students up to 2 or 3 star problems or simply choose a topic.
Art of Problem Solving - Alcumus offers students a customized learning experience, adjusting to student performance to deliver appropriate problems and lessons. Alcumus is specifically designed to provide high-performing students with a challenging curriculum appropriate to their abilities.
Esti-Mysteries - Estimating mystery slideshows, 4 challenge levels that span grades K-12, fun images and clues to get kids thinking! Steve Wyborney also has some other awesome, free math related resources below.
Which One Doesn't Belong? - a website dedicated to providing thought-provoking puzzles for math teachers and students alike. There are no answers provided as there are many different, correct ways of choosing which one doesn't belong. Enjoy!
reading
NOVEL CONVERSATIONS - Almost 60 pages of books with gifted characters. Most have an interest level (IL) and a lexile, along with a brief description.
High Reading Level, Low Maturity Level List - Extensive book list; click the tabs at the bottom to get a more narrow grade level.
Mensa Excellence in Reading Grade 7-8 List - A list compiled by Mensa. If students read all books, they can earn a certificate and t-shirt.
CommonLit is a free collection of fiction and nonfiction for 3rd-12th grade classrooms. The collection can be searched and filtered by Lexile level, grade, theme, genre, literary device or Common Core Standard. Each reading is able to be downloaded or read online. There are guiding questions and activities. My favorite feature is the recommendations for book pairings.
writing
Writing Continuum - Evaluate where students are at on continuums involving organization, ideas, voice, word choice, fluency, and grammar/conventions.
Poetry Example (students can choose 1/3 options) . Grade 5+
Grade 5+
Independent Writing Projects - This example has lessons on starting a great story, creating a compelling character, a page-turning plot, and an immersive setting.
Grade 5+
other
What can I do when I am done?
Here's where you can find all sorts of things for your students to do when they finish early.
Story Corps - Focuses on collecting, sharing, and preserving of people’s stories from a variety of backgrounds with videos, animations, and podcasts
K-12 ADVANCED LEARNING LABS - Duke TIP recently teamed up with the NC Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) to create classroom resources ready to use with students. Advanced Learning Labs are aligned to a concept to use during remote instruction with your students. Choose to use each Advanced Learning Lab as an extension, find a concept to accelerate, or enrich a unit you already teach. With each Advanced Learning Lab, students explore logic puzzles, go on field studies, engage in research explorations, participate in mindfulness activities and continue engaging with math and literacy -- all through remote learning.
Big History Project examines our past, explains our present, and imagines our future. It's a story about us. This growing, multi-disciplinary approach is focused on high school students, yet designed for anyone seeking answers to the big questions about the history of our Universe.
HippoCampus.org is a free, core academic web site that delivers rich multimedia content--videos, animations, and simulations--on general education subjects to middle-school and high-school teachers and college professors, and their students, free of charge. The site collects a wide range of content resources from other sites and organizes them in a central location that can be browsed by subject area.