Mark Hess & Portable Gifted and Talented

The common core wants effective speakers and 21st Century Learners! Here is a template for the one to two minute informative speech in handy notecard-sized cutouts. This document includes public speaking tips and tricks for all ages and ability levels.

Just say YES to the five C’s for gifted learners with CHALLENGES, CHOICES, COMPLEXITY, CONTROL over what and how they learn, and teachers who authentically CARE. Energize all readers with this project choice menu – FREE! Come back for over 200 lessons and units specifically designed for gifted learners.

4th Graders through adults find this video and activity fascinating. Let's try it FREE! Maybe your students will ask the same question mine did, "When can we do this again?" Using a short 2 minute video and an accompanying "Visual Inference Guide," students quickly become engaged in a critical analysis as they share insights with classmates--connecting video and literature. This format works for upper elementary through high school honors classes because students respond according to their abi

The Feature Profile Test was a wooden block puzzle test administered to Ellis Island immigrants because IQ tests involved language translation issues. Instead, the Feature Profile Test became an instant nonverbal IQ assessment. The Feature Profile was made from wooden blocks that—if placed in the proper order—formed the profile of a human face. According to the Smithsonian Magazine, this test was used at Ellis Island in the early 1900’s to keep out “feeble-minded” immigrants. The idea was th

Make a cool top in just about an hour with a few materials! They work great, are fun, and are a good engineering challenge for upper elementary students. Materials • 110 weight or heavier card stock • Construction Paper • Compass or circle template • Glue • 5” of 3/16” round dowel per student – only costs about 25 cents per 3 feet • ¾” diameter wooden wheels with 3/16” holes (optional but with the optimal coolness)

Here's a quick free challenge with the mystery of the Sphinx. Using a primary source photo, students measure, estimate, and use ratios to calculate the height of the Sphinx. Part of a ratio six pack for gifted grade 4 and grades 5 and 6, this activity is also included in an engaging unit for gifted grade 4 on pyramids.

Use these guides to explore all things visual—from fine art to historical primary sources, from poetic videos to kids’ cartoons and from public service posters to visual instruction guides. These guides are designed to generate discussion, insight, inferences, and deeper understanding for a visual generation of learners. Do We Write Our Answers? We want to encourage collaboration and discussion—especially from your most reluctant writers. I don’t recommend writing more than a part or two in

I am always looking for “report cards” for gifted and talented. Here is a rubric for a gifted and talented pull-out talent pool which has served me well. Perhaps it will work for you, too, with some edits here and there? You might also see my free “Enrichment Literacy Group” rubric as well . . .

Can you solve my little picture mystery with only part of it revealed and only five questions before I open the door or window?Openings seems simple, yet it is a powerful activity built through creativity, critical thinking, and metaphors. Just give it a try to find its depth! Use Openings with KG through adult—for gifted pull-outs or for regular classroom enrichments. Openings might take 15 minutes or carry into an hour of critical thinking and lively exchanges. It’s the sort of activity tha

It’s the popular smart phone puzzle in a fun, creative challenge for your classroom. It’s fun and easy to create Flow Free puzzles and fun to share and solve them. My 4th and 5th graders designed these puzzles as warm-ups but ended up obsessed for an hour.

This is the introductory slide show for my unit, "From Putt-Putt to Pebble Beach: Table Top Mini-Golf."

Trundle wheels are a simplified version of a surveyor’s wheel. In this basic student edition of the trundle wheel, students roll their own version of trundle wheels across all sorts of things. They work especially well to measure curved surfaces or for applying a map’s scale of miles on highways. A bonus to using trundle wheels in the classroom is that students must apply math skills to convert their measurements from the revolutions of the trundle wheel to yards, feet, inches, meters, centim

This vocabulary in context activity is an excerpt from my Brave Irene unit for GATE 2nd and 3rd grade. It can be used with any age or any piece of fiction, non-fiction, or poetry. Keep the dice chart handy and a collection of vocabulary words written on notecards for sponge activities throughout the school year. My class returns to it often, and we have fun sharing our examples and performances.

Use this slideshow as a blended learning resource to spur critical thinking and analysis about print advertisements. Each slide leads students through a series of questions and teaches various advertising strategies in the process.

I am always looking for “report cards” for gifted and talented. Here is a rubric for an enrichment group in literacy which has served me well. Perhaps it will work for you, too, with some edits here and there? You might also see my free “Gifted and Talented Talent Pool” rubric as well . . .

I am always looking for specific, student-friendly ways to help students dive into a deeper reading—a more analytical and critical thinking view—of any text. This activity (and discussion) works well in my 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade GATE literacy groups, but there’s no reason it cannot be used up through 10th grade. The students will simply think at different levels; however, the format remains the same (see Common Core Standards below). We need this in my school to help students move to “advanc

If you’ve ever thought, “I’d like students to try something other than writing out answers to show what they know . . .” or “We need more energy in this classroom . . .” or “How do I know if they ‘get it’ if they don’t write it out?” THEN THIS INFORMATIVE SLIDESHOW IS FOR YOU! Why are products a good measure of critical thinking? What is the difference between a product and simply “making a cute craft item?” How do products show understanding? What makes a good product? What if a product l

Think of commercials as little 30-60 second visual persuasive essays, and as such, they have great potential in the classroom. We teach to a visual generation. Let’s harness some of the power and appeal of screen time to generate discussion, examine new ideas, and spur interest in various topics! This guide offers tips for commercial analysis and sample lessons using commercials. It also contains suggestions for dozens of commercials and short videos to use in the classroom.

Best practices in history through primary sources, economics, critical thinking with logic and inferences, expository writing, and a creative extension – all in one lesson! In this lesson, students discover the relationship between historical highways and motels and the interstate system through examining primary sources. A full extension lesson is provided which taps and student’s creativity, spurs historical and future thinking, and provides further depth of knowledge. Using guiding questions

Great for sponge activities or to enhance concentration and memorization . . . What follows are a number of activities and games that are loads of fun and all fall under the concentration, observation, and memorization categories. Most of these are not original ideas of mine but have been gleaned over the years from here and there. Enjoy for free!