Talent Development for English Language Learners: Identifying and Developing Potential

Talent Development for English Language Learners offers concrete guidance to teachers, schools, and administrators seeking to maximize the potential of all of their students. Each chapter will focus thematically on an issue relevant to developing the talents and potential of gifted English language learners (ELLs) in inclusive educational settings. Examples of how schools or educators might conventionally conceptualize and handle the issues related to ELLs and what the concerns or unintended negative outcomes are for gifted ELLs are provided. The authors focus on what an “ideal” response might be from the lens of both the gifted education and the language education field, and how collaborative efforts across these perspectives yield effective interventions in schools and related educational settings for students who are both English language learners and highly academically able.

Michael S. Matthews, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Department of Special Education and Child Development at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He previously served as an assistant professor at the University of South Florida in Tampa and as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Duke University Talent Identification Program. Matthews earned his doctoral degree in educational psychology, with a concentration in gifted and creative education, from the University of Georgia. He is a regular presenter at state, national, and international meetings on gifted education. He was the 2006 Program Chair for the special interest group, Research on Giftedness and Talent, of the American Educational Research Association. He serves as a reviewer for several journals, including Gifted Child Quarterly and Journal for the Education of the Gifted. Matthews' research interests include underachievement, science education, and varied issues related to cultural and linguistic diversity in gifted education.

Jaime A. Castellano is one of the nation's leading authorities on the identification, recruitment, and retention of low-income, culturally, and linguistically diverse gifted students. Dr. Castellano has particular expertise and success in working with school districts across the nation to increase the number of Hispanic/Latino students, as well as English language learners, in gifted education programs. With more than 20 years in the field, he has served as a teacher of the gifted, school-based assistant principal and principal supervising gifted education programs; district-level administrator, coordinator, specialist, and director; state department of education specialist; and adjunct and/or visiting graduate school professor in gifted education, educational leadership, English to speakers of other languages (ESOL), and special education. Castellano has edited three books on understanding our most able students from diverse backgrounds; written and/ or edited multiple chapters, articles, and monographs in the field; and serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Advanced Academics, Journal for the Education of the Gifted, and Roeper Review. He also has served as principal investigator and professional development consultant on a number of Javits grants. Castellano continues to consult with school districts across the county on the inclusion of low-income, culturally, and linguistically diverse students in gifted education programming. He currently resides on the Navajo Nation in Ganado, AZ, where he serves as an elementary school principal and director of gifted education and advanced placement.