Changing Tomorrow 2: Leadership Curriculum for High-Ability Middle School Students (Grades 6-8)

A well-rounded curriculum needs to address the more formalized development of leadership abilities that will ensure that young people acquire the knowledge and skills essential to assuming leadership roles. Changing Tomorrow 2: Leadership Curriculum for High-Ability Students offers instructional activities for high-ability middle school students based on the Common Core State Standards that emphasize critical and creative thinking skills and gives gifted students an opportunity to apply these skills in an integrative and substantive way. This book includes 11 lessons that address leadership skill development and assignments that require students to research and compile biographical information on seven influential men and women drawn from multiple disciplines and diverse backgrounds. Instructional questions, pre- and postassessments, and appropriate rubrics are also included.

Grades 6-8

Joyce VanTassel-Baska, Ed.D., is the Jody and Layton Smith Professor Emerita of Education and former Executive Director of the Center for Gifted Education at William & Mary in Virginia, where she developed a graduate program and a research and development center in gifted education. She also initiated and directed the Center for Talent Development at Northwestern University.

Linda D. Avery, Ph.D., managed the Center for Gifted Education at The College of William and Mary upon receiving her doctorate in educational leadership, policy, and planning from that institution in the late 1990s. Previously she helped establish the first gifted education program at the state level in Michigan and helped administer the long-established state program in Illinois. She has authored language arts curriculum materials based on the Integrated Curriculum Model (ICM) and oversaw the preparation of a collection of social studies curriculum units. She has conducted several state and local gifted program evaluation studies over her career and numerous professional development workshops in curriculum development and implementation. She is currently living in Seville, OH.