Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Another look behind the curtain - first grade

I don't even know where to START talking about all the things I've heard from teachers! Although I do think the math teacher who singlehandedly eliminated the ENTIRE upper math track (that's right, no students can take algebra before eighth grade, because someone might just have a fit) gets a good shoutout, right along with the elementary school teachers who (I hate to say, successfully) attempted to slow reading progress by purposely just not testing any one of the advanced kids. Really? I mean, they thought if they just told everyone they weren't progressing, they wouldn't?! (In case that didn't make sense, I'm referring to a certain set of little red books apparently leveled with letters of the alphabet....I can't even find it on the internet so it's almost like they made it up...)
Phew. Rant over.

"there is probably ONE other kid (and perhaps more than one) who can do something other than add single digits in her class. "


I don't know about that statement... we moved to a new district, high socioeconomic, fabulous rankings, every child seems a foot taller than at his last school, all seem to be in training for some unique and unusual talent, etc.

The new (public) school actually brought up the gifted issue with us spontaneously, which is wonderful. I won't go into what they are proposing for DS7 yet, lest I jinx it or it turn out to be one of these empty promise situations I read so much about here.

Anyways it was a shock when I asked "is there another child in his grade with noticeably above level abilities in math?" and the answer was no. And DS is not that far ahead nor particularly fast at math, he is perhaps solidly 1 grade ahead and 2 or even 3 grades ahead in some aspects (though he's uninterested, he could be further along if he had had the interest). But I don't think 2 grades ahead in math is that extraordinary at age 7, it would only mean they could divide and multiply small numbers.

They said there were several above level kids in other grades, just not in his. It averaged out to roughly 1 in 30 kids. I wouldn't have been surprised at his previous school but it was a little surprising to find here in a white collar utopia.

This school does seem to teach about 1/2 grade level higher than his previous school. So I guess noticeably above level means noticeably above this slightly boosted level.

I would normally disagree categorically and assume the school is missing the abilities of some kids in there, but I don't know, I've talked to most of the kids by now and seen stuff they've done etc posted up on the walls... I have no reason to doubt the school. Still it's surprising.

Apparently it I'd easier for the teacher to have someone to 'spark' off. Here gifted isn't acknowledged - it is assumed the research that high average kids don't suffer means gifted children (including pg) won't suffer either. I made a bit of a fuss this time and possibly as a result (or random chance) my youngest has not be separated from all the more advanced kids. A 6 year old boy spending all year in a reading group with 7 year old girls really didn't work. He kept comparing his writing with them even though I pointed out they had had a year more to practice (unusual system in NZ).

The reading levels, yep. "Our classroom books go only to level K so he can't be assessed at a higher level".

BUT, our first grade teacher said in a staff meeting "I can't differentiate enough for this handful of ready-for-4th-grade-math kids, any suggestions?" and a 4th grade teacher said "they can come see me during my prep period 3-4 times a week and I'll take them through the 4th grade math curriculum at their depth and pace". Are you surprised that the 4th grade teacher had previously been the school's gifted class teacher?

Last year, DS had a first grade teacher who made him do grade level math with no differentiation. She told me she was going to have him do a second grade level workbook (from a different curriculum) instead, but never did it. We transferred schools mid-year, and the new teacher put him on the computer to do above-level testing and almost everything came back at a 3rd-5th grade level for math. She sat with him everyday for a few minutes and taught him the concepts that the test showed he needed to learn. She asked paras to help him. The school had an open format with very few walls and there were paras everywhere. She printed out worksheets online of those concepts that testing showed he needed to work on next. When she was instructing the other kids she put him on the computer to do Adapted Mind. She was amazing but she admitted it was very difficult.
Now he is in second grade and the teacher's idea of differentiation is to give the kids logic sheets which are basically word problems and don't necessarily even involve that much math. It is definitely not above grade level in terms of math. While I think it's great for DS to do some of these types of problems, he also needs to learn new math. I threatened to pull him and homeschool and now they are having him do Khan Academy on the computer (he's at the end of 5th grade) and some workbooks that I sent in. He is completely teaching himself, watching the videos on Khan. It's a terrible situation, although it beats him being forced to sit through second grade math lectures. They refuse to accelerate him more than one year because of district policies.

For reading, he has been assessed as being the same reading level for the past two years. I don't think there are even any reading ability groups. Luckily the teacher allows him to read books brought in from home.

... which presupposes that all gifted students are autodidacts, or at least amenable to that kind of approach.

Come to think of it, that must be why educators deny the existence of children who are both gifted and not already autodidactic.

Yeah. That must be why my 13yo needed a teacher for AP physics. Because she's... not... actually... what she seems to be. Must have been a fluke that she did so well on the PSAT. And the SAT. And the ACT. I know-- we COACHED her into that.


If she were really all that, she could have already had a Nobel prize in medicine for curing cancer, and a Pulitzer too, for her first novel. Without any instruction, of course, because gifted children don't need any.

This is really heartening to hear, actually-- I'm glad that there are SOME teachers that really can do more than just "try" with gifted students.



Hmm- well, not if they are using Math Foundations By Pearson (tm).

I think that Val has nicely explained rather frequently what "Math Instructional Materials" are like these days, and the situation is...


not good. So sure. If you just turned your child loose with The Shopping Network on the cable tv, a few old Sesame Street DVDs and a stack of US Weekly magazines, I suppose that they could learn to read using those materials. Probably. With some help, I mean. But it wouldn't be very systematic. Or pedagogically sound in terms of higher literacy.

If you think that I'm exaggerating, believe me, you haven't seen one of these textbooks. Dog's breakfast is putting it kindly.

[quote=HowlerKarma

... which presupposes that all gifted students are autodidacts, or at least amenable to that kind of approach.

Come to think of it,that must be why educators deny the existence of children who are both gifted and not already autodidactic

Without any instruction, of course, because gifted children don't need any.

[/quote]

This is what frustrates me too.

Honestly-- I wanted to scream about that when DD then developed socially-prescribed perfectionism. Gee, wonder where that notion came from?? So... we expect you to get 100%. On everything. To prove to us that you belong in your accelerated placement, see... and, um... we aren't going to actually give you any HELP to learn the material.

{DD} I have no idea where you got the idea that the world expects you to always already know everything perfectly before you have even been shown this stuff!!



That thudding sound is my head hitting the table, incidentally. I'm really, really sick of the mythology surrounding this kind of thing. Yes, HG+ kids learn VERY quickly-- like sponges. But no, they aren't all little Newtons, figuring out all of integral and vector calculus from scratch and just from their observations in the playpen.

That doesn't mean that they aren't still "that smart." It just means that they need instruction. Like other human children-- and quite probably a bit less of it than most, since they often need less repetition.


The other thing that I find incredibly frustrating is the notion that a child reading 5-7 YEARS beyond his peers might be 'accelerated' one grade via a part-time pullout or move to a different classroom, where... he is still bored out of his mind, the other students don't know him and he decides that they are still not that interested in the things he cares about any more than agemates are...

and this is labeled "social immaturity" and a "failure" in terms of the accelerated placement. Better still, sticking a child like this in the corner alone while classmates all do fun (but educationally useless) activities as a group is used to argue that the child in question "lacks maturity" if s/he acts out over this kind of thing, or seeks attention in maladaptive ways.

All while overlooking the painfully obvious fact that this is STILL in no way an "appropriate" educational placement for that child. This really just stacks the deck against such children. I watched this happen to my own DD a few times, too.


Makes me see red, it does.

This thread is hitting a nerve today. Getting 1st grader DYS DS6 ready for school today, and he was in a VERY bad mood, wailing, "I don't want to go to school! I'm not learning anything!" Of course, I tried to cheerlead him, "Of course you are, honey! And you will see all of your friends."

It is getting harder to talk him through the rough spots, though - his most recent math achievement scores came back... showing that he is on pace with the gifted 4th grade math class at our high performing schools (or 6th grade for the "regular" students; school's data is consistently above national average).

When I recently talked to the teacher though (because this isn't the first time DS has sounded unhappy), she was incredibly focused on the importance of exposure to all of the grade-level standards and the fact that DS occasionally has made a computation error (and he is already a budding perfectionist - ugh!). I'd hope she reads and understands these new scores, but I'm afraid she might just look at the 99% again and set them aside.