This booklet of enrichment material contains much that will challenge the gifted/talented child, for it offers more than the set of 'creative thinking' tasks that characterise some Australian and overseas publications aimed at the gifted.

The underlying framework is Bloom's taxonomy, as is explained in an introductory section, though the activities on the various 'cards' or sheets are not individually labelled according to Bloom's levels. Nevertheless, a perusal of these activities confirms that most of what Stan Bailey terms 'Transformations' require responses at the higher levels of Analysis, Synthesis and Evaluation, and that each of these appears in virtually every theme.

Since there can be degrees of difficulty within Bloom's levels it should be noted that while many of the tasks in this booklet are suitable for a wide range of children, being open-ended so that each child can respond according to her/his own combination of ability and interest, there are others that seem designed specifically to extend and challenge the highly able. Examples of the latter are:

• "Imagine you were a servant at Versailles during the French revolution. Write a diary of one or two weeks in your life. (Include an English translation if you write it in French!)" [PB36, 'Castles']

• 'Write a diary for a germ or virus with a conscience." [PB54, 'Life Under the Microscope']

The themes for the enrichment sheets range from the predictable (eg 'Disasters', 'The Olympics', 'Time', 'Mysteries' and 'Space') to the more unusual (eg 'Twins', 'Luck', 'Flags', 'Human Rights' and 'Opinion Polling'). There are also several worksheets on themes that relate to children's social-emotional development (eg 'Body Language', 'Bravery, Big and Small' and 'Perfectionism') and these have the potential to raise gifted students' self awareness. In such cases, and particularly with perfectionism, it may be important that the teacher (or parent) makes time to discuss the student's responses individually, to encourage frankness and to help the student identify personal implications.

It struck me while reading the booklet that its subtitle, 'Talent Enrichment Cards for Middle/Upper Primary', may be unnecessarily restrictive, since many of the cards seem relevant for junior secondary students, too. For example, science is well represented ('Rocks and Fossils', 'Insects', 'National Parks', 'Under the Sea', 'Endangered Species', 'Life Under the Microscope', 'Solar Energy' and 'Space'), as is Social Science ('The History of Costume', 'Castles', 'Wars and Peace', 'The Crusades', 'Flags', 'Time' and 'Human Rights'), while the writing and debating aspects of English regularly appear, examples of these being:

• "Read the poetry of Wilfred Owen and some of the other 'war poets'. Choose two or more of the poems and write your own prose version of the 'story' they contain - as a story, a report, a diary or a play script." [PB40, 'Wars and Peace']

• "Debate the topic: 'Skateboarding should be an Olympic event.'" [PB41, 'The Olympics']

The format for each card/sheet is the same: a piece of information about the theme is presented (eg "There is so much water in the oceans that if the Earth's surface was made level the land would be covered with a layer of water 2,430 metres deep." PB43, 'Under the Sea'), followed by a set of five "interesting questions/problems", presumably to provoke students' curiosity (eg "Why are we not able to eat fish from the bottom of the deepest oceans?"). Students are invited to find answers to these and to add others of their own.

The major component of each sheet are the "Transformations", where students are offered five tasks from which to choose one or more (eg "Choreograph and perform a dance or mime depicting an undersea voyage - the sights seen and the feelings experienced. Invite your audience to interpret your actions."). As this example indicates, the Transformations are meant to have the children not only collect information but also change it into an original product of their own making. Finally, one or two references are suggested, though whether these will be available in your school (or local) library may be problematical.

A commendable addition to this booklet (not included in the previous volume, Personal Bests, Set 1, 1993) is a 'blank' proforma which a teacher may use to have children create their own further 'Personal Bests' cards, either for their personal use or for others in their class. Having children create new cards could be a good piece of enrichment in its own right, for it implies that they research a topic thoroughly before doing so.

Some helpful suggestions are provided on how the enrichment cards may be used but teachers' own ingenuity will no doubt add to this list. However, the tasks included are essentially self explanatory, so that the booklet may be used for individualisation as well as for small group or whole class work.

Importantly, the cards are presented as black line masters, so that several copies of individual cards may be made as required. The booklet is spiral bound to facilitate photocopying without damaging the original.

Personal Bests, Set 2 is only available from the publisher, Tall Poppy Educational (PO Box 1476, Armidale, NSW 2350) and the cost of $25 includes postage to anywhere in Australia. Both the price and, more importantly, the thought-provoking contents suggest it is well worth considering for classroom (or even home) use.

Ron Sinclair, Charles Sturt University, Bathurst, NSW

TalentEd No. 56, Summer 1997

©TalentEd is located at the School of Education, University of New England, Armidale, Australia.

This page updated: 23 January 2006 Webmaker: Howard Smith. hsmith4@une.edu.au