Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Public school accommodation suggestions please!

We need some ideas for public school classroom accommodations and types of differentiation - for gifted only (no 2E). Acceleration is not an option at this point and even though we might like to see subject acceleration, school can't/won't create a schedule where that would work.
We would love to have a "go to" listing of in-class ideas from others. Would you be willing to share what your schools have done (or are doing) that has worked?
Thanks in advance!!

A similar thread was started a few weeks ago... http://giftedissues.davidsongifted....al_Norms_Success_Stories.html#Post169478

Another poster recently reminded us of the Davidson Advocacy Guidebook:
http://print.ditd.org/young_scholars/Guidebooks/Davidson_Guidebook_Advocating.pdf

Another poster recently shared what worked for their family: http://giftedissues.davidsongifted....ject_acceleration_is_aga.html#Post170857

Each situation is different... there is much research and many anecdotes to draw possible solutions from. Searching the forums, the Davidson Database, Hoagies Gifted Education Page, and Hoagies on facebook may all yield ideas.

I don't have anything constructive to offer, I'm afraid. Every time the school promised DD in-class differentiation, it either came at the expense of social time, or it just didn't happen with any sort of regularity. Our list of in-class differentiation strategies that worked would be a blank sheet of paper.

I'm sure it has worked - somewhere at some point.

I had a bunch of in-class differentiation planned, agreed and implemented on behalf of my DS. All of them failed for 2 reasons: the teacher did not have any bandwidth to implement differentiation in a meaningful way or my DS felt like an outcast when other children questioned him about why he was getting to do "special" stuff and he refused the differentiation outright in order to "fit in".
That being said, the main strategies for differentiation we used (and which were inadequate/failing) were:
1. Seperate reading group for him with books at his level (DS was in tears over this because he was the only kid in his reading group and he is ultra social and wanted to sit with the cool boys in his class for reading group).
2. Work packet sent from home by parents for math time and craft time - I sent in Singapore Math worksheets at a higher grade and special cut and paste work sheets for his small motor skills (Teacher had no time to give out the stickers I sent in when he finished the work and many times forgot to tell him to do his work packet. DS refused the packets because when he used them, the other kids crowded around him and termed it "not fair" that he got a special work packet and he felt that he was doing something bad to them).
3. Accomodation from librarian to attend rading time for higher grade and to check out higher grade books. (this actually worked)
4. Computer lab accomodation to access Type To Learn and some special LA packages meant for higher grades.(this worked after the teacher told kids not to peek at other people's screens)
Good luck.

I would think "fitting in" could be an issue for a fair amount of children.

This was true last year for our DS, because the differentiation (ex. reading higher level books for assignments) meant he didn't get to do the reading aloud with the class, etc. In a different school this year, it seems less of an issue, but the main grade teacher does a lot of small grouping/individual work with all kids and also pullouts seem to be very common for all types of students. Thus, it's not that "different."

In class, he gets different spelling lists and related assignments. They all get to do computer-based learning for a portion of the day, his just happens to be more advanced.

Same here. Based on my experience, "differentiation" when said by a staff member of my son's school, means: "hey - we're using one of the hottest buzz words. we'll say it and tell you that we will do something interesting for your son so that you'll stop bugging us. but we really won't do anything at all."

A thread about a month ago called "Leveling Out" also discussed the mirage of differentiation - http://giftedissues.davidsongifted....s/168943/Re_Leveling_Out.html#Post168943

Differentiation is a distinction without a difference.

Thanks to all that have replied! We are constantly searching for ideas that might work and this forum has been a wealth of information and inspiration!

When our district went "digital" this year we were told the more advanced students would not be help back and in fact they would be able to move through the curriculum at their own pace. I had my doubts, but this seemed logical at the time, since everything was supposed to be computer based. We are through the first quarter, and so far the only thing we have found that DD might get that the other students don't is "enrichment sheets". These are the sheets that ask you to "explain" why 9X1=9 or some other form of extra writing. I finally asked about this the other day and found out that when a student shows mastery of whatever they are doing the program gives them an enrichment page to do. I think this is supposed to be the more "rigorous" in-depth learning Common Core talks about, but all I've seen is fluff. So basically, if my child already knows the material they are teaching, she gets to do more work, what, as a bonus? That isn't teaching at her level, that is just more work!

We have a meeting coming up and we plan to ask that we eliminate these extra sheets (unless she really wants to do them). Sooner or later she will figure out when she does a good job on the assessments she gets to do more work and then we will have another problem on our hands.

We also want to give some good suggestions for accommodations and differentiation to at least try. She already gets different spelling, which I personally think is working out well, since she has been actually studying her spelling list instead of just looking over it. It is good for her to have to work at it for once! She does a totally different computer-based spelling program, by herself, at spelling time and the teacher's aide gives her the test on test day. I have heard no complaints other than the program takes too long to load on the computer. She is in the top reading group and I don't know what level the other students are at, but she likes her reading group and she can read higher level books on her own for AR.

I don't want to make her an outcast. I just want her to be challenged instead of coasting. What I really want is for the digital curriculum to do what they told us it would do and let her work on her own level and at her own pace, then if it shoots out an enrichment page for her to do that would make sense.