Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Meeting with literacy coach at school: any advice?

Greetings, I am a new member. Our daughter started kindergarten last week in public school. Her teacher and the literacy coach contacted me today to say they had done some simple assessments of her reading skills and want to meet with me tomorrow to discuss. Evidently she is at a "k" level in the reading guide format; her classmates are at "a" and "b."
I want to make sure that whatever plan is suggested tomorrow addresses growth for our daughter, not just treading water. Any suggestions? She is our oldest child, so this is all new to us.
Jean

Welcome!
...at a minimum I think it would make sense to ask what this level relates to grade-wise, it will help you figure out books for her to read at home, though book selection will still be hard if she is well advanced.

Hi Jean,
Welcome!
I wonder if you already suspected your daughters reading level was high, if you also suspected that it was high in relation to the other in her class.

Do you have an idea if your child is more 'interaction seeking' or more 'internal' yet? I know it's early to tell, but if your daughter seeks interactions then subject acceleration is a wonderful alternative, where she gots up and goes to 2nd grade or 'where-ever' the the 'k' readers are. Yes the two teachers have to coordinate their scheduals, but really that's so little to gain so much.

If your daughter seems to be a more private person, then I would like to see her being in her 'own' reading group, at her own readiness level, in her regular classroom.

So that addresses the 'symptom' that the school is bringing to you - on to the larger issues ---

How does she do interacting with agemates? Does she seem happy? Is she showing signs of perfectionism? tension? acting out or acting in? Does she seem 'out-of-step' in social situations? Is she having stomach aches? Resisting going to school?

If the school has a gifted program, and a screening procedure, I would ask them to start their process. If any of the above are an issue for your daughter, then I would ask them to begin their consideration process for a grade skip, this year or, if it's a half-day Kindy program, perhaps starting next September.

You want her happy and challenged. You want her to have many many opportunities to practice social interactions that have a chance to teach her that the world is a good place, and that she can interact in it. How do I know what you want? I don't really, I was just getting carried away...opps! My biggest problem when my son was in K was that I wanted so many many things, that it was hard to focus on what was key - so I thought I'd take a try at reminding you what is key- LOL!

Love and More Love,
Grinity

Our meeting went well; it is clear the school does not have much experience with "precocious readers" but they want to do the right thing for our daughter.

Here is my question of you guys---there was some talk of skipping right to first grade, but the unofficial plan was to have her go to a first grade class for all of her "language arts" activities, but still be a kindergartener. This seemed like a good plan to me, but I asked to mull it over. Well, today I saw the literacy coach in the hall and she said she had been giving the situation a lot of thought, had talked to her assistant, and both she and the asst. had been in similar situations as children----went to a higher grade for reading---and "it was not a good experience." She said she thinks our daughter should just stay in kindergarten all the time "to have that kindergarten experience and feel like she really belongs." She added they (the school) will do what we want, which is good.
But this threw me---it seems to keep her all the time in kindergarten to have the "experience" is asking her to be someone she is not. She is reading at late first grade/early second grade level and very motivated . But maybe I am not seeing this clearly? Anyone who has had a child in a similar situation, I would appreciate hearing input. THank you! Jean

Of course it depends upon the child, but I was subject accelerated two grades in reading, and it was generally a very good experience for me. Certainly it was WAAAAAAAAY better for me than it would have been to have been bored all day in a class that didn't meet my intellectual needs, as they're suggesting you do with your daughter in K all day.

The biggest issue I see is that it sounds like the literacy team is not really on board with the acceleration. Do they have the capacity to sink it for your daughter, to make her miserable? If so, it may be a self-fulfilling prophesy they're giving you...

Honestly, if that's the case, I'd be tempted to go with a full grade skip, assuming you think your daughter could succeed with it. There's no reason to give the staff a chance to mess up the accomodations if you can avoid it!

My son was pulled out for reading and it didn't bother him at all. He enjoyed it and didn't find it disruptive. There were several kids in his class which were missing for parts of the day for English instruction, OT, speech, LDs, etc so it was no big deal. And all the kids were very helpful in telling the kids what they missed in class.

I agree with Dazy in that kids being pulled out is just the norm for kids these days. I think something like 3/4 of DS's class was getting pulled out for something when he was in K. I don't think it has the stigma it used to.

I was full grade skipped into 2nd and then pulled out to go up to 3rd for reading. This cooincided with math in my 2nd grade class. I was never sure whether I was supposed to do the math or not, which caused me great stress. Also, through some weird thing I cannot figure out, I ended up doing the same book in the 3rd grade as I had just finished. All in all, I ended up working through the same texts (A Pig Can Jig and A Fox Can Trot, if I remember correctly) 3 times in a 2 year period. Clearly, the school had orgnizational issues and the result, for me, was that being pulled out caused me stress and didn't actually give me any more challenging work to do.

So do make sure the pulling-out is well-planned and meaningful. Maybe you could ask the reading coach to remember what was stressful for her and then think of other ways to avoid the stress. Having reading be at the same time in both classes, for example.

My mom tells the story of the time my K class left the room, so I came back to an empty classroom--a trailer, even, outside of the regular school buiding--by myself. I apparently cried about it because I didn't know what to do, and she second-guessed her choice to have me accelerated.

I don't remember this happening, but I do remember very clearly enjoying my reading class and my time with the older kids. Obviously it wasn't the trauma she thought it was, though it was obviously a stress on me at the time.

That's my way of agreeing with acs: good planning makes all the difference to a kid.

If someone had come to my class to tell me where to go that day, I'm sure the change of plans wouldn't have bothered me a bit. But confusion is hard on kids that age. They need to know what's going on. So anticipating those wrinkles and smoothing them out as much as possible is really a smart move.

True, Dottie. And not really that big a deal all-in-all. Though it probably would have completely destroyed some kids. Again, you have to know your kid and follow your instincts.

I just wish someone had said, "If you have any problems, just go back to the 2nd grade class, or failing that, you can always, ALWAYS go to the principal's office." Those sorts of "just-in-case" tidbits can be really important for helping a 5yo know what to do!

Yep, no one told me I didn't have to do second grade math, so I ran to my desk after 3rd grade reading, whipped out my notebook and started copying problems madly. But the teacher would usually be erasing them while I was writing them down. I was so anxious. I think it wasn't until late October that people realized that no one had told me that I was excused from math.

Of course, it never occured to me to ask. Giving kids permission to ask questions about their schedule is huge!