Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Dd just shared something with me

Thanks for the input! I think there are a lot of pretty capable kids at this school; I see young students hauling around Harry Potter but my sense regarding the kindies with her last year is off as DD's three to maybe six years ahead, depending on her interest in a text. I know a few others can read fluently but it's her and one boy who are most advanced, but put with two others for language arts, even if sometimes they do their own thing. I remember reading that summarizing is a very key skill for younger students, that it really gives them a strong foundation, and that's certainly something I can help scaffold for her. She's always finding literary devices at work, but I was vague on the big picture stuff. (This is really going to make me a better high teacher when I return, seeing the progression from K thru 6.) Thank you!

I was so distracted that I forgot to get to my main point in the last two posts. The "big picture" goal of the highest 1st grade reading group was to see the connection between reading and writing and then to understand what exactly is literary "voice." Then they had to reflect upon their own writing and what kind of voice they want to develop as a writer. I used to roll my eyes at how developmentally inappropriate this seemed but I now realize I was being rather narrow-minded. I'm now fully reformed.

St. Margaret, I'm so glad to hear that Harry Potter is alive and well. I haven't seen anyone read HP in my neck of the woods in years. I was afraid that it is no longer appreciated by youngsters these days.

Thanks for that insight into potential goals. And yes,several kids were dressed up as Hogwarts students for book character day! (Not DD though; mentioning reading a book with a male protagonist consistently induces tears in her! Someday.)

oh my, alive and strong. DD12 had a HP birthday last year (she made all kinds of props etc.) and most of her friends are huge fans. They frequently reread the books and watch the movies.

DD went through them (HP) like a dose of salts n times - still loves them

My DD9 read the HP series about 6-7 times this summer. She has finally declared herself ready to move on. Interestingly, she resisted the series for about 2 years (thought it was too scary and didn't want to read a male-protagonist book) before giving in. She moans about not being able to go to Hogwarts at least once a day.

Yes, yes, and yes! Only now am I starting to see that he has lost some of his love for math, but I stopped asking for anything more challenging when I realized it would simply be worksheets with operations of multi-digit numbers instead of 1 and 2 digit numbers.

My child has long demonstrated mastery of basic math operations, regardless of the size of the numbers involved, and tested 7th grade to post high school level in math depending on the grade in which the test was administered. And he should be happy to replace 12X4 with 1,289X372 while getting nothing more? Really?

FWIW, all (and I mean *ALL*) of my friends' children over the past 15 years have loved loved loved HP, and my ds was soooo into them. The vast majority of the kids my ds went to school with read them and loved them. Most of my friends' dds have read and loved them. I can't think of anyone really who's a child I've known who hasn't loved them except, for some odd reason, my dds. Go figure!

And fwiw, all of my adult friends have read them and loved them too

polarbear

I only know one other grown up in real life who is a HP fan. I am not so sure it's a regional thing but after the last movie, all thing HP have moved to the clearance bin. Every time we go to the Lego store, I lament on the discontinuation of their HP product line. I refuse to believe that they can sell more of Ninjago than HP.

Sorry for thread hijack but going back to the original topic, I have mixed feelings about ability grouping across grade level but considering the alternatives (high performing students not learning anything, differentiation that is useless, peer-tutoring, etc), it's starting to look like the least worst option.

My 8 year old son will be Harry Potter for Halloween this year. He read all the books last year in second grade.