A Writers' Workshop for Highly Verbal Gifted Students

Abstract

In 1989, the Carnegie Corporation of New York published Turning Points: Preparing American Youth for the 21st Century, one of the first documents to give credibility and visibility to middle-level education. The report recommended, among other “turning points,” that middle schools “ensure success for all students.” Although this recommendation can be taken as a warning not to ignore “high-risk” or special-education students, gifted students also fit into this category. As Plucker and McIntire (1996) pointed out, “Although researchers have found that students of all ability levels are bored in school, high-potential students are especially affected by a lack of challenge in the classroom” (p. 7). The more highly gifted the student, the more likely this boredom tends to be true.