Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Requesting differentiation

My dd5 is in kindergarten this year (it's been almost 3 months since school started) and I really do love her school and her teacher. She's happy to go to school and is a teacher's dream student (no behavior issues whatsoever). I've been assigned to volunteer in the classroom every Monday and so I've been able to observe what they are doing. For reading it appears the teacher is working with children either one on one or in small groups based on ability. So that seems to be covered. But there appears to be no math differentiation at this point.

My dd5 has not been tested but I've been told by many that she is 'different'. She was able to do 100 piece puzzles before age 3, knew her letters and sounds they make by 18 months, and sounding out words at 24 months. At the age of 3 she insisted I teach her how to play chess. In pre-k they did a K readiness test and she scored a 99% (the highest possible). She also did the same pre-k program the year before as a 3 yo and scored a 95%. Her pre-k teacher repeatedly would tell me how disappointed she was to hear we were moving and dd's kindergarten test scores wouldn't be applied to their school for their district score.

She is reading at almost a 3rd grade level, able to do basic addition/subtraction/division and recently she has done some work out of a 2nd grade Singapore math book. At home she enjoys puzzles, writing books and playing games like monopoly, checkers, chess and UNO.

Her current school has a gifted program starting in 2nd grade so I picked it in hopes that one day she may qualify for it. At the moment though I'm uncertain if I should say something to the teacher about challenging her more. Is it still too early in the year to ask for differentiation? Should I let it go since my dd is happy and not causing problems in class? I just don't want to be one of 'those parents' who thinks their child is better than all the rest when perhaps she's average in class.

Is it full day or half day Kindergarten? Either way I would say something to the teacher, but my approach might vary depending on whether it was full or half. With half, you have plenty of time to afterschool.

One thing I found with the K (and to some extent 1st) curriculum in math was that it covered some things that I didn't think about. My DS could do long addition and sub. in K, as well as understanding square roots, squares, easy division, mult. etc. However, he had some gaps in some areas in K (e.g.,telling time). He is now in 4th accelerated in math to 7th, but most math in K is fun enough that I wouldn't be too worried about it until the next year, and it does help form strong number sense. Number sense is important. For example, my DD who is now in 1st can do some math work that is 2-3 years ahead, but she lacks the same number sense and intuitiveness that my DS had (she is strong in math, but her extreme strengths are in other areas). I would not feel confident pushing her ahead a year at this point, although it may be called for next year.

But, you should bring it up with the teacher either way - bring in some of the sheets she has done and ask the teacher how you can both work to keep her challenged. Why not?

Hi!

Based on our experience, it is never too early to ask and pave the road for future accommodation. Having said that, what kind of vibes are you getting from your DD's teacher? Is she open to suggestions or someone who prefers status quo? Have you noticed any other children in the class who are also good in math, thus the teacher can teach to a group? (Easier to sell the idea to the teacher if there are more than one child that will benefit from the differentiation.)

As for your school's gifted program.... Does it offer math differentiation in 2nd grade (ability grouping for math classes)? Or, is it a pull-out once a week for an hour program? It might be worthwhile to "bump" into the GT teacher when you are volunteering and find out more about the program.

Have a dedicated notebook and start jogging down notes. Hopefully your journey will be a smooth sail.

Good luck,
Mag

It's full day kindergarten and they go from 8:30 to 4pm so she's wiped at the end of the day. She's never done a full day program so it took a good 2 months just for her to adjust to the length of the day. She's always been the type of child that needed 'a lot going on' or she'd be crabby/misbehave/etc. Even as an infant she would cry and scream at home and as soon as we were out and about she was calm. I'm noticing this now with school, on the days there is no school she's a wreck. I think it's keeping her entertained.

You're right about the gaps and I never considered that. I'm sure she has a lot of gaps as I don't really do any instruction with her and she just sort of knows what she knows. So when it comes to things like telling time I doubt she knows it.

I've noticed her teacher is a little shy or socially awkward. To others she may come off as rude (unsocial) but b/c I'm also shy and somewhat socially awkward I can understand why she is the way she is, if that makes any sense. Observing her in class I can tell she really loves the kids and working with them. But b/c she's hard to read I don't know how she'd respond to me making suggestions. I have yet to see any math work in the classroom. They do have a math center but it is just something the kids play with on their own and consists of things like dominoes and beads which they don't really use in any math way. They just sort of play with them and build things. So I can't say how the other kids compare in math.

In reading there is only one other kid that I've noticed that can probably read at the same level as my daughter. There may be a few more but the majority of the kids can't read at all.

The gifted program isn't a pull out program but rather is an actual gifted class with only gifted kids in it. So they have 2nd/3rd graders together, 4th/5th, and then 5th/6th.

So an actual gifted class is better than a pull out program, but I would try and spend some time observing the 2nd/3rd graders in the gifted class. You might be delighted or upset - only way to know is to watch.

With a kid that gets cranky without stimulation, I would be sure to ask early on for accomidation. I remember being very perplexed at Math for Kindy and 1st grade. I had no idea that my child was 'different' and couldn't imagine why they gave such elementary stuff to the other kids. But slowly I began to see that the school wasn't being mean or misguided. My kid was on his own developmental path was all.

Smiles,
Grinity

Instead of asking for differentiation, can you ask that she be moved to 1st grade for math? We asked the school to do a math assessment for DS6 at the beginning of kindergarten, and requested he be moved to 1st grade for math. Timing worked out so that he got K math too. No one voiced concerns about gaps, because he passed the assessment; but getting the K math would have addressed those concerns if they had been concerns for us.

Never thought of that, that may be a possibility. Is there a standard assessment that they can do that will tell them if she could handle the 1st grade math class? Again, I have this fear that maybe she is average and that I just think everything she does is wonderful b/c she's my dd.... kwim?

Today I did vaguely ask her more about her class to try and get a feel for how things are, what she does in class, etc... she says in math they have 'math monsters' which are + and -. I asked if she does any written work during math and she said no, that they just watch a math video or play. And she told me during writing workshop (when they write in their journals) she gets bored and that the kids draw mostly in their journals but she will write stories.

If she can understand a decent amount of the math in a 2nd grade workbook, then she's advanced beyond the K math curriculum that our school district teaches.

Regarding assessments, different schools/districts have different assessment tests they use. I'd recommend looking at your school district's elementary math curriculum to compare your daughter's math skills to K, 1st, 2nd, etc. math skills; or if you're in private school, request a summary of year-end skills or a copy of the year-end proficiency test for each grade. That comparison will tell you if your DD is average, or if she really is accelerated.

We did that before we requested the acceleration, and it gave us the information we needed to feel confident in our request. DH and I then listed out DS's math skills and presented them to the K teacher. They did a math assessment and moved him up fairly quickly. If he hadn't passed all of it, they told us they'd do curriculum compaction and then move him to 1st grade math for 2nd semester, so that's another option if for some reason your DD has some gaps. If your K curriculum is similar to ours though, I'm guessing she's not going to have gaps based on your original post.