Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments How Does this G/T Program compare?

We're still in the beginning stages of getting resources for DS5, likely to start for first grade of next year. The K teacher met with me and said the G/T program consists of daily 30 min pull out or small group by a gifted educator. The teaching is only in either math/science or language arts (English/reading).

Okay, I guess 30 min per day is better than nothing? Or is it not even worthwhile likely?

Another concern is that they don't actually do acceleration during the pull outs, just more in-depth studies. They are currently changing the program for next year (used to be only math/science with acceleration).

And a third concern is that this pull out program is supposed to focus on the child's strengths. Well, IQ testing was extremely strong in verbal, leading a superficial thought to put him in the language pull out. But the non-verbal the psych thought was artificially low because of how he answered multiple correct questions after getting his two wrong in a row. The reading program at this school is already advanced IMO (end of K and the passing program requires ID of long vs short vowels, many many sight words, dual vowel sound recognition, etc), and DS and I have worked hard daily to remediate. I think we'll be pretty good after the summer, since we're still working, but extra hard reading and writing would be a disaster if I had to judge at this point.

There are gifted magnet schools in the county, but that would be a long drive 30-40 min one way, which I would hate to do to our family so soon.

Thanks for your opinion.

That amount of time at that age may be better than many places. But, yes, it is a small percentage of time. When DC was that age, it was an hour a week total pull-out. It slowly increased over the years.

I think the pull out group is very well done for us, however, you do need to focus on what the classroom teacher can do to combat boredom. In the pull out, they do study topics other kids don't, and do math and logic puzzles.

Maybe you can speak to the G/T teacher?

The next step in the process is to talk with the G/T "team", I assume that's a teacher. They have a formal conference with parents. I never thought to ask if the time increases over the years, so that's a good question.

Anything else I should ask the G/T teacher/team?

Well it is 30 mins more a day than my son gets but that is not saying a lot.

I would ask the G/T teacher if s/he can provide challenging/interesting work for the regular classroom when your child is done with the regular work or has tested out of it (if your school allows pre-testing.) Or can you send in work if they don't do that.

Most of the local districts don't offer anything for 1st, so comparatively speaking, 30 minutes per day is good. I don't think "in depth" is bad either. I would try it for next year and if it doesn't work out, it sounds like the other school could be a possibility later.

I do think it's unfortunate that children can't do both math/science and reading/writing, but then, I suppose they might as well just offer a full-time class at that point.

Thanks for this idea. I hope they may allow this. DS is bored with math but is still making errors in answers, I think just due to age/attention. So if he tests out of some things he may not have to suffer the school's drill and kill techniques.

I think that's what we'll likely end up doing, especially as DS is now finally starting to like school. He used to hate it, was then ambivalent, and now says it's "good". I think because of his increased reading and writing abilities which have caught up. I'm hopeful the G/T program time will increase over the years. If he's happy and not bored, and academically challenged enough, I would be thrilled.