Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Elementary School 2nd/3rd Grade 2011-2012

Thanks, good to know. I have an OT report with diagnosis. I suppose if we wanted to go for the testing I could have the school psych & guidance counselor help me out. She doesn't like math much or testing and she is in a great gifted program so I don't really see any point in putting her through it. DS10 loved it though.

DS6, in second this year, is supposed to have enrichment/differentiation in math and language arts. In TAT (Teacher Assistance Team) meetings last year, it was planned to have criteria for the differentiation in place by the end of the year, but it wound up not happening, with the new teacher entrusted with developing the differentiation plan for this year.

This year's teacher has no GT experience, so we've been a little worried, especially since she delayed getting back to us initially and after that did not have time to meet for a while. Our DYS family advocate sent a letter offering help to the teacher, the principal and my son's guidance counselor, but the teacher has not followed up yet to contact the advocate. (This was all understandable, as here the teachers don't come back from break until just before class starts. In addition the teacher has been busy with her own initial assessments. Here these things take a number of weeks to finish, and she may also be waiting for the results of the initial MAP tests.)

Last night was curriculum night. Unfortunately, I couldn't attend due to lack of child care support, but my wife went. Some highlights from her report:

1. The teacher "gets" him, and says she's never taught anyone like him, so she wants to make sure she does right by him. She says she has some other advanced children, but that DS6 is far different from them. She believes he has a photographic memory (I don't think he has a full one, at least), and said that he only needs to be shown something once to learn it (this is also something I take with a grain of salt, and chalk it up in large part to him not being shown anything yet in class that he doesn't already know; he certainly learns quickly, but not always instantly).

2. The new vice principal is a former GT coordinator for an entire school district (in California; in our New Hampshire school district there is no GT program), and has asked to be present at our next meeting with the teacher to discuss differentiation options.

3. DS6 been placed in the highest reading group, but it's not enough for him, according to the teacher (true). The second grade math is also a waste of DS's time, according to the teacher (yep). According to her, even third grade math would likely not be enough (probably true conceptually, though at least he'd get some calculation practice out of it).

4. The teacher is not sending home math homework until the math differentiation gets resolved. She is worried about losing DS6, since she says that she already sees him spacing out when he gets bored.

5. DS6 gets 100% on spelling pretests, but then can also get 100% on challenge word lists with no study. She's suggesting that instead of spelling, she give him vocabulary and grammar work. This will probably be the very first differentiation he gets.

6. The teacher's hesitant to recommend pull-outs for anything, even math, because she would like DS6 to stay with his peer group as much as possible, and he would stick out like an even sorer thumb in third grade (his current classroom already has some kids two years older, and he's on the young side at six with a July birthday, and is not on the large side for his age). This makes me wonder what sort of full-contact math they're practicing in higher grades. But for better or worse, there is apparently a fair bit of resistance to subject pull-outs at our school.

7. The teacher never looked at his IQ and achievement test report, because she wanted to form her own opinions of him first. My wife mentioned that the report has some potentially useful recommendations, and the teacher says she's ready to read it and will do so. The teacher also said she is ready to ask our DYS family consultant for advice.

I continue to like this teacher, and hope for the best. For now, DS6 is academically bored though enjoying the social aspects of school. MAP testing is next week, then we will have the meeting with the teacher and VP, then in October have a follow-up scheduled with the TAT team.

Sounds hopeful, Iucounu. Liking the teacher is hugely important, I think.

Progress here: we had a good meeting with DS7's new maths and science teacher. (The "high powered maths lady" (mentor?) doesn't seem to be materialising, so far, but as we never had a clear idea of what that would involve anyway, no worries; I'm going to take their attempt at that as another sign of flexibility, and not worry if every such attempt doesn't come off.) She seems to have sensible ideas, although she was clearly only just starting to get to know DS. She was worried about gaps :-( and apparently DS is currently doing an exam paper that they normally give to 13yos, on a syllabus he finished at the end of the last school year but one. He describes it as "easy" but then also says he got stuck on a problem involving a pie chart - argh, it shouldn't be possible for anything of that nature to trip him up! Still, I can't imagine he's going to do badly enough on that to undo the resolve to give him appropriate things to do, and if he has forgotten certain things and they want him to revisit them, it's probably sensible - I just hope they will watch for the difference between "this kid never understood these concepts" (definitely false at this level) and "this kid made arithmetic slips" (bound to be true, requires no action) and "this kid has forgotten a concept here" (could be true, though I doubt it would be anything major, revisiting would be reasonable). I think they will. This teacher also seems happy to select appropriate problems for him to do in class (and seems to be doing fine so far) so I don't have to do this any more. We're doing a bit of calculus at home from time to time, and they know that at school, but there doesn't seem to be any reason for it to interact with what they do there. They're keen to get him more involved in working with others in the class, and it'll be interesting to see how that goes. Could be good; so far, the activity he reports was a game based around place value, where he really doesn't need any reinforcement, but apparently it was fun and I'm not actually against his doing things just for fun in maths classes occasionally. Fingers crossed he's going to be entered into his first timed maths competition this term - there seems to be some resistance somewhere in the system to him doing that, and I'm not clear on where it's coming from and whether it's an actual objection or just "we don't normally do this" inertia, but it sounds as though it may work. It would actually be quite good for him to encounter the concept of other people being better at maths than he is yet :-) and working with a time limit would be an interesting challenge for him, I think.

Other aspects of school also seem to be going pretty well - his anxiety has abated now that he's actually started, and he seems to be getting into the routine and being interested across the board. I'm hoping for a good year.

I am having a rough time with our teacher this year. She doesn't seem to respond to emails. Second grade math thus far is just as bad as first grade math:( . She told dd that she was in a reading group with a couple of other kids because she couldn't have a reading group of 1. This reading group is at the level she was last January and reading the same books as back then.

Well, DD's math homework yesterday was the first math assignment she has EVER had to think hard about. So that was pretty exciting. Rather predictably, she panicked a little and freaked out when I wouldn't tell her exactly how to do it (she had the computation skills but had never seen anything like it before...it was sort of "puzzler" type of math, from an enrichment program). But she got through it and figured it out herself and was proud. Yay! The first useful piece of homework she's had in her whole life.

However, I am still feeling gloomy about the reading issue.

LOL - my ds8 sounds like yours - he has a June birthday, so is pretty young for his grade (3rd) - and he IS the smallest kid in his grade. However, he has managed to survive that full contact math in the next grade up for the past couple of years - must be the padding and helmet we make him wear when he goes to math

I think we have the same child. Crazy.

The spacing out has become a problem for us too with DS6. On spelling practice tests he completely misses writing whole words because he is bored. I am happy with the school we chose, but I am realizing that there is no perfect solution when it comes to a PG kid and school.

Arrrgh! Got a call from DS8s teacher yesterday. He is not doing his work and then lying about it. I guess he told the teacher he had turned it in, when he hadn't, then told her that it was in his desk and finally pulled it out of the recycling bin. She says she recognizes he is smart and wants to accelerate him, but she needs to see he can do the work first. She is planning on sending home a behavior contract today, but we are also supposed to find out if he is going to be put in above grade level math for this year. I am afraid she won't recommend him based upon his performance (or lack thereof) this year. If he doesn't get the above grade level math I think it will just aggravate the situation.

We had a similar experience this year. It was almost exciting for me to feel that DS7 might actually have some challenges!

MAP scores are in and we now have differentiation! I spent about an hour with dd7's teacher. She is in a multigrade school so its a 1/2 class. I LOVED it last year as a first grader and have been iffy so far this year being the older grade. Each class has a partner class and they split for reading and math.

A small group will be starting on third grade math next week. They are starting with multiplication tables. The will also get a pull out at least once a week probably 2 or 3 times a week with logic problem and thinking skills practice. This will occur during the math block. They will work at a pace that works for the group (there are 4 possibly 5 kids).

Keeping fingers crossed!