Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Dd just shared something with me

that I wish I had known back when she was in 1st grade.

Apparently her reading group, which was the highest group in the class, only 'read' as a group with the teacher a few times all year. So I'm guessing b/c this group was above grade level and had already reached the end of the year benchmarks the teacher didn't feel the need to work with them and just had them sit at their desks and work on fact families.

How is it okay that my child isn't allowed the same amount of time to work on her reading with the teacher as the rest of the class just because she is above grade level?

Utterly unacceptable.

This is a good example of why "They all even out by third grade" has some element of truth to it.

It is sad, but I think it happens way too often. The ones that are behind get extra time and the ones who are ahead get less time. They already know it so what are they supposed to be taught? The worst thing I have heard is if we teach them more this year what will they learn next year? 8-|

...aaand this is why we homeschool now.

I have an even "better" story from my own childhood. My brother was already reading in kindergarten, and none of his classmates were. The kindergarten teacher wanted to have him do reading in the 1st grade classroom, and my mother said no, because she didn't want the other kids picking on him. (I think this was not a great decision on her part, or at least not the one I would have made, but I'm sure she was doing the best she could.) So their solution was to put him in first grade for reading anyway, and swear both him and me (in first grade) to secrecy. She didn't find out about it for years.

Yeah, by the time they get to 3rd grade they have given up learning anything at all, and their brains have turned to mush sitting and "learning" the same thing over and over again.....

Sorry, I should be more positive but I have been watching it happen with my son, and it is hard to try to understand why teachers think that way.

I don't quite understand why it would be so hard to group by ability rather than age. Or maybe a combination of the two - ability within an age group. If everyone in the classroom was at about the same level rather than spanning the whole gamit of levels you find in an age group you would have a group of kids that were at about the same place. There would be fewer children who were bored because they were ahead, and fewer children who were lost because they were behind, and less time "wasted" for the majority when the last 2-3 still hadn't gotten it and the rest had. I don't just say this to help gifted children but to help all children. I can't tell you how often I got in trouble trying to help or explain things while I was in school because I upset the other children because I "got it" quicker than they did. They felt stupid, which was never my intent, and I don't think it is good for any child to feel badly about themselves because someone else processes information differently/quicker. I think in that type of setting there would be less issues with kids moving "up" or "down" to get to their own level as well. We could have a system that actually worked towards teaching to the level of the student rather than what an age group "should be" learning/know. Not that it would be perfect either but I think there would be less issues.

That's an appalling waste of your DD's time. I am fuming on your behalf.

My first thought when I read this is perhaps even more cynical - are you sure the other groups are actually getting any more of the teacher's time?

Only one of my children's teachers ever seemed to be very actively engaged with her students during reading group time... and to be honest, if a teacher is stressed for time and has high-needs students who are struggling to read, I'm ok with her spending more time with those students. I've had both extremes in my family - my EG ds who seemed to learn to read through osmosis - once he knew how to read there wasn't really much of anything (from my perspective) he was going to pick up from being "taught" reading - does that make sense? And my HG+dd who does struggle with reading - kids who struggle really really *need* one-on-one or small group attention to further their reading skills. As long as my EG ds was able to select books at his level to read from and wasn't being held back in those selections, I wasn't really concerned about his teachers not spending time working with him on reading - and it doesn't seem to have hurt him in any way.

Please know I'm completely in favor of all of our kids having the opportunity to work and learn at their ability levels in the classroom - I'm just not sure this statement would have bothered me much. What would bother me re reading would be if my child had to work with a group that was a lot lower than her ability level, was told she had to read books much lower than she was capable of, or had to do a ton of phonics worksheets when she was way past that.

polarbear

Horrible. My own story to add: throughout the entire year last year I brought about 100 books to my son's first grade classroom. (I am a master at finding really cheap used books.) Of course, I brought a wide range so that every child would have something to read - including my own child. I spent the entire year thinking that my son was reading the books I had brought to school. Towards the end of the year, I discovered that the teacher kept all books that were below or at grade level. She kept NONE of the above level books. Not one.

Now, the bright side of this is that my son had been taking books from home every day in his backpack to school. So, he WAS getting access to above level books. But I was disgusted when I found out that the teacher hadn't kept any of the above level books.

Of course this is the same teacher, when asked what my son should do during first grade math time, when he was already working on and mastering third grade math, she replied that he could just do the first grade math over again with the class so that he "really understood" all the concepts.