Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Meeting with principal tomorrow...what to ask?

I've been reading current and past threads on advocacy for differentiation in school, so I don't want BTDTs to have to repost the same advice once again. I so appreciate the advice that's been given.

But what I'm unclear about is what should I specifically ask to happen for ds in school? My ds is a just-turned 6 K-er who is doing well socially and a serious people-pleaser in class (I think going stealth with most of his advanced learning). This school's curriculum is VERY basic in Kindy (pretty much PreK with some journal writing thrown in). There is a workload and responsibility jump in first. He complains that the work is too easy, that he is bored in school, and that 'there's nothing for me to learn'.

There is no GT services available. We are having the meeting because I requested achievement testing. His principal and teacher seem extremely nice and truly caring, so I don't expect a tense meeting - even if they 'nicely' tell me I'm crazy or something. I really do think they are both invested in the welfare of their students and my ds.

I know I want their advice on grade-skipping ds (though he doesn't seem for it - so I hate to push for that- he's a creature of comfort and likes the friends in his class). But what are other reasonable requests beyond assessment? He is reading around 2-3rdish grade, doing simple multiplication/division, enjoys 'algebraic' equations with adding/subtracting, but does not have advanced hand-writing or spelling skills.

What types of things did they do with your advanced learner during classtime?

Thus far, I have sent level-appropriate reading for 'rest time' but haven't sent anything else aimed at his level since I haven't discussed it with the teacher.

We've, honestly, never been totally happy with "during classtime" work (i.e. - when the intervention to meet our kids' needs has been differentiated work in the regular classroom or a parent volunteer, who was often me, pulling some kids out to work on enrichment units, it just didn't work as well). I'd give a try with requesting subject acceleration if your ds isn't in favor of a grade skip or if it doesn't appropriate.

In order for subject acceleration to work, however, the next grade up needs to run its language arts, reading, math, or whatever subject you want acceleration in during the same time that his current class runs it. That has worked quite well for both of my kids when we've had that option.

I would first ask them for where they have assessed your son. You think his reading is at the 2nd-3rd ish level. Do they see the same, and if not, where is his weakness? Same with the math. For our school, they don't assess far above level in math, so they would only be able to tell us if he was on target for K or not. Pushing for more data, however, makes the issue clearer.

With data in hand, then my approach has been to ask questions, all with the attitude that the teachers and administrators are the educational experts. I'm highly differential. I will very rarely ask the school for anything specific. Some are more pointed than others. Instead, some questions I ask are:

"What are your goals for my child this year in math?" "Will this plan allow my child to make a year's growth in math this year?" "Is there a way to balance the needs of the handwriting and spelling skills with the math skills such that handwriting doesn't prevent him from learning math?"

Thanks so much for the advice Cricket and Geofizz. I agree we really need to know where ds is. They don't do map testing. Only grade level or below for math. He's had a few assessments for reading, but I don't know the results. His reading vocab is very high, and he does really well with comprehension, but he does tire easily (thinking this is a maturity thing?).

I want to approach as if we need advice, not that they are doing something wrong.

How did it go?

Looks like not so good- she posted a new thread here: http://giftedissues.davidsongifted....ome_to_the_Twilight_Zone.html#Post140065