ABSTRACT
This chapter provides strategies to further enhance classroom instruction through vertical differentiation. R. Paul and L. Elder’s elements of reasoning is a model used to develop critical thinking skills, specifically applied to analyze, evaluate, and improve one’s thinking. Although all students benefit from analyzing academic concepts through the depth and complexity thinking tools, combining multiple tools and incorporating higher order thinking increase the level of challenge for gifted learners. The double fishbone offers the opportunity for gifted learners to explore how the cause-effect relationship is impacted through different perspectives and categories. The gifted education teacher helps them integrate multiple perspectives through the Six Thinking Hats. Dimensions of creative thinking are a model useful for developing divergent thinking skills. The stretch prompts serve as tools for vertical differentiation, providing opportunities to “stretch” students to engage more deeply with content.
