I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I'm so happy for see a resource for middle schoolers concerning rhetoric, which, as a previous reviewer has pointed out, is underrepresented at best in primary and secondary education. That being said, I question whether the two halves of this book would better serve instructors as separate works.

I think this is an excellent book. It is a teacher's outline of a research and rhetoric class, and I think it's very clever. It has easy to engage in activities and follows a logical progression. Note, it's for grade 5. Research is introduced as exploration and the researchers are explorers. After the students master research and presenting research, they are introduced to rhetoric and the ways it is used. I think I would recommend this book to schools and to home schooling teachers. Research papers are hard to teach, even harder to engage kids in, and rhetoric is an all too neglected area of writing expertise. ( )

SUMMARY: This book contains two Language Arts units for gifted students in the 5th grade. The first unit is on Research which includes topics such as "What Do I Know and Where Do I Go," "Texts on the Internet: Friend or Foe?" and "How to Create a Research Question."
The second unit is on Aristotle's Rhetoric: Learning the Art of Persuasion. It has topics such as "Understanding Rhetoric," "Rhetoric in Corporate Advertising," and Epideictic Rhetoric."

REVIEW: I taught both fifth grade and inclusive gifted student classes so this is the type of book I might have reviewed for use in my classroom.
First, I will review the units themselves. The first unit on research is really nothing special or stretching. This is the exact unit I taught to my fifth grade students as a whole. It is a very good unit to teach to this age group as they head into middle school, but seems very out of place in this two-unit gifted education book. The second unit on the other hand is exactly what gifted students need to stretch their minds. It is actually quite high on the difficulty level and could easily be used for gifted students of grades 5-8. The two lessons taken together are a strange pairing in one book.

This book is based on the CLEAR model which means it has five elements:
1. Continual formative assessment
2. Clear learning goals
3. Data driven learning experiences
4. Authentic products
5. Rich curriculum

All this really means is that this book is "research based" and if your administration requires you to use this kind of curriculum, it fits the bill.
However, it also means it is not a user friendly book with rich extension activities that allow the child's mind to reach new heights. Instead, there are blurbs on each page instructing the teacher as if he/she is not of average intelligence such as: "Remind students to save this handout and brainstorming exercise. They will need it for future lessons." The language and the layout of the workbook are not user friendly and have extra things thrown in to meet the CLEAR method, but clog up the lesson. On the other hand, there are handouts for each lesson which can be very helpful in moving a lesson along.

If you are looking for a difficult unit to challenge your gifted learners, I recommend the unit on rhetoric in this book. However, this book carries a very high price tag only to be half useful.

NOTE: I received a free copy of this book from LibraryThing and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. ( )

As an educator I find this book helpful to use for my classroom planning. I like the sample charts in each chapter as well as the tips on the side of the pages. The way the chapters are outlined make everything easy to follow. ( )

This book contains two language arts units for 5th grade gifted students. The teacher can use the icons throughout the book to include whole group, small group, independent work, and an anchor activity. Lessons focus on word study, reading comprehension, writing, and critical literacy. The teacher can differentiate instruction as well as look for parts that include special gifted students (twice-exceptional). The plans include background, objectives/standards, outlines of the units, handouts, and assessments/culminating activity. The 278 pages are packed full of everything a teacher would need to conduct the units. ( )