All students are capable of distinguished work...it is not the property of a small group of gifted individuals...it is just a matter of asking the right questions and not giving up until you get the answers.
Guiding questions for distinguished work:
Primary question: Who am I learning this for?
The distinguished student answers, “For myself. Because it is important to me.” There are many reasons why learning might be important (the joy of learning for its own sake, self-respect, desire to do a good job, interest in the subject, need to know, desire to please someone else, desire to achieve a particular goal, etc.), but the key is to make a conscious decision that you will learn for your own sake, for the sake of the learning, because it matters to you.

The distinguished student then asks:

• Do I understand this?
• How can I make sense of this?
• How is this related to what I already know?
  • About science?
  • About math?
  • About history?
  • About language?
  • About art?
  • About life?
• What does this remind me of in my own experience?
  • Things I have seen?
  • Things I have heard?
  • Things I have done?
  • Things I have thought?
• How does this extend what I already know, or know how to do, in useful or interesting ways?
• What new possibilities does this open, what new ways of looking at things?
• If I don’t understand this fully, what parts do I understand?
  • How important are the parts I don’t understand?
  • Which parts of this can I hold in my set of “things I almost understand” or “things I am working on” until I learn enough to make better sense of them, and which parts do I need to know right now?
  • Is there something more I need to know in order to make sense of this? What is it? Where might I find it? Who might I ask?
• Does this new fact, understanding, or skill help me with any of my set of “things I almost understand” or “things I am working on?” If it does, does it help me to fill in any other gaps?
• How would I explain this (or show this) to another student...to my parents...to anyone who will stand still long enough to listen (or watch)?

And finally the distinguished student is always asking:

How can I use this!
(And, since this is, after all, school:) How can I demonstrate my understanding of this? How can I show that I have mastered these skills, grasped these concepts, made this knowledge my own?
The distinguished student is always attempting to weave what he or she learns into a coherent whole&emdash;to make sense out of what is learned&emdash;and life itself.