Gifted and high-potential learners thrive when instruction goes beyond recall to include rich opportunities for critical thinking and creative expression. The Project LIFT ELA Lessons are a free set of English language arts lesson plans developed through a federal Javits Gifted and Talented Students Education Act grant by the University of Connecticut’s Renzulli Center for Creativity, Gifted Education, and Talent Development. These lessons support teachers in infusing discourse, higher-order thinking, and creativity into ELA instruction for primary grades.
What Is Project LIFT?
Project LIFT (Learning Informs Focused Teaching) was funded by the U.S. Department of Education and aims to enhance teacher preparation and practice in recognizing and developing advanced academic potential in early elementary students, especially in traditionally underserved populations. A core part of the project involved developing and sharing lesson clusters in both language arts and mathematics that promote discourse, complexity, and evidence-based thinking practices.
Overview of the ELA Lessons
The ELA packet includes a wide range of lessons for grades K–3 that (see lesson index). They:
- Align with Common Core standards and promote academic rigor.
- Emphasize critical and creative thinking within authentic literacy tasks.
- Provide structured opportunities for students to read, analyze, create, and communicate about text.
- Highlight observable high-potential behaviors such as fluency with ideas, originality, elaboration, and perceptive reasoning.
Sample Lesson: “What Happened in This Hole?”
One example from the kindergarten lessons invites students to explore a page from The Book with a Hole and use the FFOE strategy (Focus, Fluency, Originality, Elaboration) to generate ideas, draw scenes, and write narratives based on their interpretations. This task is designed to simultaneously build imagination, oral language, text interpretation, and narrative skills—while giving teachers a chance to observe high-potential thinking in context.
Why This Resource Is Valuable for Gifted Learners
The Project LIFT ELA lessons offer several advantages for teachers of gifted students:
- Ready-to-use lesson structures that embed challenge through questioning, discourse, and creative thinking.
- Differentiation built in through extension tasks and open-ended assessment prompts.
- Formative observation opportunities that help teachers document advanced behaviors during classroom learning.
Practical Tips for Implementation
- Begin by identifying specific high-potential behaviors you want to elicit (e.g., elaboration, resourcefulness).
- Use the reflection prompts included in lessons to guide student discussion and metacognition.
- Pair lessons with small group extensions for students ready for deeper exploration.
How to Use It
Teachers, gifted specialists, and homeschool parents can use Project LIFT ELA lessons in several flexible ways:
- As enrichment lessons embedded within core ELA instruction.
- During small group instruction to extend thinking for advanced or high-potential learners.
- As professional learning tools to study questioning strategies and observable gifted behaviors.
- With homeschool or parent-led learning groups looking for high-quality, research-based literacy experiences.
Because the lessons are free and clearly structured, they are especially helpful for educators who want to increase rigor without having to design tasks from scratch.
In Sum
Project LIFT’s ELA lessons are more than worksheets. They are tools that help educators blend core literacy instruction with the kind of high-level thinking gifted learners need. Grounded in research and designed for classroom use, these free resources are a valuable addition to any gifted or talent development toolkit.
Your Turn
Have you used Project LIFT ELA lessons or similar open-ended literacy tasks with your students or children? What kinds of thinking behaviors did you notice? Share your experiences or questions in the comments below. ~Ann
Teaching for Talent 