Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Elementary School reading in kindergarten - is this a good idea

So dd 5 has topped out her years' reading in one term. The teacher approached me this morning to advised that they are no longer going to "teach" her to read as she can do it and is flying - did we mind extending her reading at home and in class she will get individual lessons which are focused on building vocabulary and story telling by using things like book creator on the ipad to do things like retell stories in her own words. She will still get 2/3 new books a week, just not 5 in the usual guided reading group.


This sounds like a great idea to me but I wanted to double check I wasn't missing a red flag. I have already come to terms with the fact that school is going to mostly at home and after afterschool for DD...

IMO. It is one of those things that they will say that on the surface sounds okay but in reality it isn't. I would be cautious.

This is all that is wrong with grouping by age and assuming everyone progresses at the same speed/rate per school year. The institution of school is just not flexible enough.

I am no reading expert but will comment anyhow.

*If* the teacher follow through on the plan, your DD has no reading difficulties, and continues to read books that are appropriate for her age and ability levels--it sounds like a reasonable approach to me.

Kids who are talented/natural readers don't need formal instruction, IME. The only caveat is that she will miss out on the comprehension, discussion piece if she doesn't take part in a guided reading group. I wonder if there would be an opportunity to accelerate into a higher grade, next year? Or if there are some other children in the class that could be reading peers?

The story telling exercise is supposed to involve comprehension. I don't know about a skip yet. The teacher wants to talk to me about dd's problematic birthdate in the morning. I have no idea if she is going to tell me they need her to stay back or want her to go forward, I'll know in 8 hrs I guess - I'll update then...

Sounds like the teacher is trying to do differentiation in the class room. I would wait and see if your DD learn anything from the new approach. The teacher seems willing and I would work with the teacher.

ok so just met with the teacher - it seems by submitting DD's report prior to school starting I have a great big neon sign above her head that says gifted (great!!!)

They are constantly assessing whether she is eligible for a skip, so this mornings meeting was to tell me that academically she is fine for a skip but not emotionally (I agree. I haven't asked or even suggested she needs a skip, but I suppose they can see that she'll need one at some point.

I got told I'd need to start think about high school options now and whether I wanted her to go to HS at 11/12 or not. As this school has composite "modern learning" rooms they have the ability to not assign a year level until 4th grade so they are invoking that right and saying she is an unclassified learner which means good news for us. They will reassess at the end of the year.

Anyway re the reading, teacher said that she could hand DD any book she liked and be confident of her ability to decode it, now she wants to primarily focus on the language arts side of things. I'm happy that she is motivated and has the resources to deliver on this.

I guess my main concern is not whether the school will follow through so much as whether this will benefit DD rather than just being let loose with the schools reading curriculum...

To ensure that your daughter is not sidelined, you might ask what the goals are for her academic skill development throughout this program/activity, and how progress toward these goals will be measured and/or demonstrated, and at what frequency?

If her work is to be graded, what will the grades be based upon, and will those grades be reflective of her doing advanced and/or higher level work (or will the grades be indistinguishable from those of same-age peers doing grade-level work).

You might also inquire as to whether there any other children at a similar readiness/ability level (regardless of age) with whom your daughter might be flexibly cluster-grouped for this program/activity.

This is a good question. I wouldn't care about grades, but that's my opinion.

My son was mostly excused from typical grade expectations for reading in gr 1 and given his own work. It was a much better option but I don't think he really was given any goals to speak of as the other children were. It was difficult for a teacher at his grade level to even do, as he was so far ahead in reading (easily 6th grade level), but his writing skills are just slightly advanced for grade.

In the USA, many parents who are not philosophically focused on grades have developed an understanding of the importance of grading systems which reflect their child's true academic achievements once they become aware that grades are tracked from preschool onward, in longitudinal databases, described on factsheets here and here.

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The US DOE's 2009 SLDS Factsheet is archived on the WayBack Machine - https://web.archive.org/web/20210809095250/https://www2.ed.gov/programs/slds/factsheet.html