Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Ideas when no reading teaching needed--updated

We will soon meet to discuss a plan for DS6, who has been IDed as gifted based on IQ test. The school is very familiar with him and he was accelerated part-time to 1st last year on their initiative. The area he is most advanced in achievement-wise at this time is reading. Though I do not have numbers (the school may), he reads books like Harry Potter at home. He emphatically does not need any reading or phonics instruction. His spelling is also very good, and his handwriting and writing are good (not nearly at that level, but good--like 2nd grade level or so).

I would like to ask that he not have to complete reading and phonics instruction. But what should he do instead? In other areas he is "enrichable" within a range close to true grade level, but here he kinda isn't. Should he just read? Do a writing journal? Reading comp workbooks? Should he do another subject? Assume unusual cooperation from the school. However, his teacher has a lot of kids with lower literacy and will be busy. There may be a couple of other kids in his class who are strong emergent readers, possibly ahead of grade.

I come from the camp that everyone can use more instruction/thought in their reading skills.

Can he discuss the books he reads? Can he synthesize material? Can he make inferences, and harder for young kids, inferences about the motivations of characters? I'd go for whatever skills he does not have in place and take aim at that.

As for getting it done in the school - this level of differentiation takes teacher time or peers or both. It's hard. I spent 5 years discussing books with DD before school was able to take up these skills.

Would they consider continuing to cross-grade him in language arts?

Can they send him up to second (or even third) for reading? If not, can they group the stronger readers in the grade with their own teacher?

Not sure if this would work, but could he independently work on Michael Clay Thompson books? My son does this at home by himself. I just "check" that he understands the concepts once a week. Might be a good supplemental idea. Also, I took over writing questions to required reading (I gave). Maybe your dc could work on answering these type questions during phonics.

My ds7 sounds quite similar (in this post) to yours. He could not tolerate the boring grade level (even the high group) work. I did a lot of extra work to help support him, but it has been worth it so far. I think public school is not equipped to challenge kids that are years ahead- and got there with zero instruction.

Good luck. Keep us posted!

Sorry--I didn't mean to imply he could not benefit from any type of reading instruction! Only that I did not want him to have to sit through first-grade phonics and reading lessons, and that he is at this point so far past early-grade reading mechanics that differentiating isn't very easy in class.


Well, I don't know. This was promised to us, as a matter of fact. But we think he has been placed with a small group (2-4, I think?) of other competent (possibly gifted) kids. He had no such cohort last year. Because of this placement I kind of doubt they will want to continue the PT acceleration, because it could create the expectation that all would be accelerated. It could be that these kids are also very good readers, but in my experience there are not many 1st graders reading at this level even among gifted kids. (I don't mean to sound snotty. My own DD was not reading this well at this age, either.)

I think his other needs can be met in the classroom without too much trouble, but in this area he is just kind of out there. Last year he did do a journal, which was great. I am happy to buy materials and the school is fine with him using those, though it might be weird if there are other kids with advanced skills. Last year I sent in some reading comp books, which I think he used some. They weren't...great, but I have not found any that are. I will look at these Thompson books.

He will also be receiving some pull-out programming, but no idea how much or what it will be yet.

I think it's perfectly valid to ask the school what their plan is for this year.

I looked at Michael Clay Thompson and it doesn't seem quite right--seems like it isn't something you can pick up here and there, but a full course of study needing quite a bit of instructor support.

DS can write pretty good short answers--a few sentences at a time. Surely there must be some decent reading workbooks out there? (Ha ha ha. I don't know why I'm asking this when I see the stuff DD10 has to do.)

At my daughters school they told us before she entered first grade that they do not teach reading, they teach the first graders reading skills that they may have missed out on by teaching themselves to read. What these skills are precisely, I am not sure.
Just something to think about!

I've been looking at the Evan-Moor Daily Reading Comprehension series for one of my own. It's designed for use in 15-minute bursts, basically, and would ideally be briefly teacher-introduced each day, but looks fairly self-explanatory (or he could get the teacher version, which has both directions and full-size worksheets in it, and read the teacher explanations himself, as they're scripted). Each worksheet has a reading passage, followed by one short answer question and a handful of multiple-choice questions. It's laid out a week at a time, emphasizing a particular reading comprehension strategy each week. The reading passages are self-contained for each day. Since it's supposed to be a supplement to a full language arts curriculum, the worksheets are pretty stand-alone, and could easily be done here and there. He could do as many or as few worksheets as he wanted to do on any particular day. There are books from grade 1 to grade 8. It's a teacher resource, which might have more legitimacy in the eyes of the school.

I am not sure what this would mean--but I am certain that most of the students in DS's class are still reading at a pretty early level. It is a Title 1 school with many struggling students who came to K with few skills (for instance, many did not know the alphabet). Of course, there are exceptions. I feel surprised that you would be told that children are not taught to read in grade 1. The answer you were given sounds more like something that would be told to pacify a parent whose child already knows how to read well and taught him/herself.

Thanks, aeh--I will look at that one.

All of the children in first grade at this school are reading at least two grade levels ahead. It is a TAG school.

Oh! Well, that is really different, then.

We wound up having this same problem, and I want to caution you that while cross-grade instruction should theoretically be possible (and probably the easiest thing, really, that is remotely appropriate)-- mostly this was a battle that we wound up losing.

DD did not need reading instruction, even at the third grade level, upon entering school at 6yo. She got it anyway because it was "bundled" with the entire curriculum, and we got a lot of vague answers about why she couldn't move up in language arts-- something about each grade's curriculum being "tied" together and coherent in presentation of themes/concepts, blah-blah-blah.

Well, I understand that such a thing leads to helpful reinforcement and depth for NT (and probably even some MG) students, but it was mind-numbing for my PGlet. We had a lot of battles royale to get her to complete assignments that were absolutely pointless for her. She knew it, I knew it, and the teacher knew it-- but she had to do them anyway. That often burned up so much capital that she was oppositional even about those few nuggets of instruction that WOULD otherwise have been helpful.

Some of the more successful strategies that we employed (mostly appropriate at a 3rd-6th grade level):

• student-selected reading which is at a more appropriate level, at least for independent work
• learning tertiary skills for communicating understanding of literature-- powerpoint/graphical representations, etc. Discussion is the hardest piece of things there, and for that, our model (virtual school-- so one-on-one with a parent) was ideal. We could riff on the ideas presented in Little House on the Prairie and take them into territory that NO 4th grade classroom possibly would-- perspective taking, narrative voice, unreliable narration in biography/memoir, etc. It wasn't like there was a choice, after all-- DD was going there-- it was just a matter of whether or not she got coaching or guidance in the process.
• literature as ART-- poetry, drama, and the ties between literature and the other fine arts as extension activities... and those art skills needed some emphasis anyway.
• literature as history-- a big problem for DD was what to do with all of the extra time she had when doing assigned reading, since she was so FAST at it-- she often completed reading in about 2-5% of the allotted time, and we then had her extend that with author biography, historical context, similar works in the genre...
• or having her read ALL of the "choices" of reading selections... which got her up to 50-75% of the time required by peers, anyway. It also encouraged her to foster a deeper analytical approach to literature, which has served her well in secondary.
• work on fine-motor skills to fine-tune handwriting and writing skills (these were by far DD's weakest skill set)
• pre-testing and NOT offering instruction when those pretests were indicative of complete mastery (>90%)-- in a classroom setting, I think that you'd have to agree upon what the child would be doing with that block of time, though. DD spent it on sustained silent reading of her choice of reading materials.

HK, I adore "PGlet" and plan to use it shamelessly around these parts. Nice neologism.

I think your situation will depend alot on the other children in the class and how your teacher breaks up the students. My DD7 was the similar to your DS last year when she was in 1st grade. She was reading 4-6th grade books before kindergarten and had no differentiating in kindergarten when they were practicing their letters and truly learning to read. That was painful. For 1st she was lucky to be in a class of some higher learners but they don't have a true gifted program in this age so it wasn't really a gifted class. The kids were broken up into reading groups so I am not sure how different the assignments were but the teacher focused on analyzing the books. The books were still far below her level but for analyzing and diagramming the characters and themes etc it was not that bad. Then she got to read alot on her own from the class library. Those books were still below her level but she will read anything and she could finish them in the few minutes they gave her to read on her own. It wasn't perfect but it was not that bad. Hopefully your teacher is planning something like that because this seems like a hard thing to expect a 6 year old to do on their own with a worksheet or workbook. My DD would rather just read so if you want her to discuss themes then it needs to be a discussion and not just writing it down. Then again my DD is quite lazy/slow with her writing so might be less inclined perhaps than your child who sounds more proficient. Good luck.

My DS was given 5th and 6th grade spelling work books in the 1st and 2nd grade and then moved into a middle grade vocabulary book in 3rd grade, when his teachers decided he was "done" with spelling. The vocabulary work was appropriately challenging.

My DD6 is at a similar reading level, and these are a few things her teacher will be doing this year for her language arts (we are at a school that loops, so she has the same teacher for K and 1st....a wonderful thing for us!):

- inferencing work
- story cubes, you can find them at education stores. The teacher bought a set just for her that is around a 3rd grade level, to encourage her to write about what she is reading (precursor to a book report type project, more in depth than basic comprehension).
- including many grammatical concepts into her reading time (adjectives, adverbs, etc).
- they started a spelling program with her last year in K, and will just continue at the level she is at. Spelling at DD's school is differentiated for all kids.
- building vocabulary, particularly non-fiction, topics picked by DD
- an introduction to shakespeare (initiated by DD, using the Usborne Illustrated Shakespeare book).

Our son "tested out" of that part of first grade. First ask that your child be given the end-of-the-year test for phonics/reading instruction to determine he knows all the material. Then ask for the second grade end-of-the-year test for language arts, and so on. Once your child hits an 80% or below grade on that, you know the grade in which they need to be instructed. From that point, I would request the school allow a pull-out for the language arts instruction to attend a the correct level class, perhaps with an aide.

Unfortunately, writing instruction is often part of the language arts (reading) instruction and so if your child is lagging in that, you may want a tutor to help.

Story cubes! I've seen those. It's a nice idea. I know his teacher keeps interesting writing prompt pages around the room.

A vocabulary book would be good.

I need to ask about his tested reading level.

I have some good news/bad news/"I don't know to think" news.

Good news: there is at least one other kid in his class who has read Harry Potter. (Now, it could have been read to him. But grapevine also indicates there are indeed other gifted kids in his class.)

Bad news: admin is not receptive to accelerating him to 2nd PT.

"I don't know what to think" news: IQ test results are in and DS's verbal IQ tested at 150.

Okay-- in light of that, my advice is to go try door number two. Door number two here is not "acceleration" per se, but COMPACTION of the curriculum, or some method of allowing him (and, er-- other kids if they are in the classroom) the ability to move at a more appropriate pace through the grade-level curriculum.

What that means in a functional sense, of course, is that such students mostly spend the first month of school doing assessments for grades 1, 2... in the subject. Or it might mean that they'll burn through workbooks and reading material at a pace that YOU know is possible, but at least then the teacher (and administrator) will see it, as well.

The teacher, fortunately, knows DS well and is good. There is no denial on a teacher level. I may just need to sit back and see what happens. I'm worried, though, that what will happen is a reading group of 4-5 kids who are above grade level. Above grade level in 1st can mean a lot of things, though. We did get a line of "Oh, there are a number of kids in his class at about this level so he'll be fine."

K - 2nd are the years where you see the most dramatic shifts in both absolute and relative reading levels. As a result, these years may also be the ones where teachers/administrators are most resistant to claims/demands regarding your children. I don't have any brilliant suggestions but the two things that have worked fine for my kids have been unlimited access to higher level books (3rd - 5th) in the classroom and open-ended writing assignments related to beginning literary analysis questions. Personally, I wouldn't worry too much about raising reading levels and focus on raising writing levels as ultimately that will likely be the gatekeeper to access to higher level work.

This was our situation last year. DS has the same verbal. They did a pull out enrichment once a week but it had quite a lot of kids as that makes the most parents happy, so the level wasn't that high. The particular school also was title 1 and some kids in his class were truly struggling to learn to read. It was not an experience that was of benefit to him, and the particular teacher was a brick wall.

If you have a open minded teacher, I would go over all the aspects of "reading" with them to get a clear picture of how much time is devoted to exactly what, whether kids are rotating groups, stations, seated, etc. Then see where differentiation might be possible. It's getting more bits working than not that adds up to a positive overall experience so you don't need it all to be perfect, just something in there has to be more at level.

One wants a bin of books in the classroom that contain appropriate level books, plus a few a little above that. A teacher may think it's appropriate simply because they have a bin that is "above level" but it is worth actually looking through the bin. In a title 1 school 3rd or 4th grade books may be at the bare minimum for reading ability for that grade.

A different rate or mix of spelling words. For example at DSs previous school it was 10 words a week and the administration felt they were meeting each child at their level because each received a test to set their start point (yes better than nothing). The problem lay more in the monotony of the words, and the methods used to teach them (cut them out, glue them, write them over and over in a row, etc). DS was going nuts with that amount of repetition. If the words of the week are sight light night fight etc, then for him it would be better to do 3 with the most common rule and then also throw in petite and height and rite, rather than all ten the same rule.

Spelling is a clear and easy area to differentiate, especially for good spellers, because there is almost nothing easier for a teacher than a different set of words, and kids are hopefully already getting a variety of sets of words. And the words themselves lead to deeper knowledge, assigning a child a word like heuristic means they have to look up the meaning.

As an alternative to a cutting/pasting or whatever the usual teaching technique is, a more creative/open ended activity is attempting to use them all in only 3 sentences, something along those lines. Or trying to think of synonyms and then looking them up in an adult thesaurus, etc. If it's all set up ahead so that each day's activity is the same each week, it won't be that much trouble for the teacher. (ie Monday is always cutting/pasting the words so for DS it's thesaurus day).

One has to be realistic, sending them a few grades up with an aide is not realistic in a title 1 school. Similarly, asking for differentiation that requires much teaching or explanation by the teacher will not be sustainable (An assignment such as writing a paragraph on foreshadowing in Harry Potter would be awesome, but is probably not something the teacher can support with their time in class).

I'd focus on the areas the teacher easily could accomodate/differentiate with the goal not being deep growth, but just getting through the year without going crazy. That would be the bin of books, changing assignments to be more open ended/creative, and altering the spelling words/method to teach them.

If there's any way to get more creative outlet/personal expression put into reading/language arts, do it... it helps the whole day, it's not only practice but also a tension or stress outlet.

In the end we moved.

We are in a similar spot. DS6's teachers and I have discussed the following:

1. Philosophy enrichment questions - https://www.mtholyoke.edu/omc/kidsphil/stories.html

2. Doing dramatic readings of picture books for the preschoolers. He is a little ham.

3. Wait a couple of months for a few other kids to catch up and then start that little group on an accelerated language arts curriculum. In the meantime, he'll work on other things.

He goes to an unusual school so we sometimes come up with "interesting" solutions.

Wow--I LOVE those philosophy enrichment questions. Made my heart go pitter-pat. Why can't we have these kinds of reading questions all the time?? Why isn't my fifth grader even doing this kind of text analysis???? Now I'm simultaneously inspired and depressed.

Polly, those are great, practical suggestions. Yes, it is a Title 1 school, but an unusual one for a variety of reasons.

I thought I would update on this. The teacher has DS independently reading a Newbery winner that is probably around 4th or 5th grade level and completing some text questions and analysis. I did not request this--she came up with it on her own. He still is doing some other grade-level reading and writing work, but seems to be excused from at least some of it. He's excited about this book but has withering scorn for the grade-level work.