The Cluster Grouping Handbook: A Schoolwide Model: How to Challenge Gifted Students and Improve Achievement for All

Definitive resource for implementing, sustaining, and evaluating schoolwide cluster grouping, fully revised and expanded.

In today's standards-driven era, how can teachers motivate and challenge gifted students and ensure that all students reach their potential? This book provides a compelling answer: the Schoolwide Cluster Grouping Model. The authors explain how the model differs from grouping practices of the past, and they present a roadmap for implementing, sustaining, and evaluating schoolwide cluster grouping. Readers will find a wealth of teacher-tested classroom strategies along with detailed information on identifying gifted students for clusters, gaining support from parents, and providing ongoing professional development to teachers and other staff. The new edition:

• offers identification and placement guidance for a wide variety of student ages and populations
• directs special attention toward empowering gifted English language learners
• shows teachers how to use the Depth of Knowledge framework to differentiate learning tasks
• offers new ideas for integrating technology into both professional development and student learning

The Cluster Grouping Handbook offers a guide for schools to create a workable, defensible gifted program; to simplify teachers' jobs; and to maximize learning for all students. Digital content includes customizable forms from the book and a PDF presentation; a free PLC/Book Study Guide is also available.

About author(s):Dina Brulles, Ph.D., is a school administrator and the gifted-education director for Arizona's Paradise Valley Unified School District. Recognized for her expertise in creating and supervising schoolwide cluster grouping, she also assists districts throughout the United States in developing gifted-education programs, including those districts serving culturally and linguistically diverse gifted students. She holds a Ph.D. in gifted education and an M.S. in curriculum and instruction and serves on the faculty of the Graduate College of Education at Arizona State University. Prior to becoming an administrator, Dina was an elementary classroom teacher, a bilingual teacher, an ESL teacher, and a gifted-cluster teacher. She lives in Peoria, Arizona.

Susan Winebrenner, M.S., is a full-time consultant in staff development. She presents workshops and seminars nationally and internationally, helping educators translate educational research into classroom practice.