Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy anyone convince teacher to increase reading level?

I'm curious if anyone has been successful convincing their child's teacher that their child is actually at a higher reading level than they've placed him in school. If you have been successful, how did you go about doing it?

So far, I have been unsuccessful with this and its frustrating.

I've tried pointing out what books DS is reading on his own (always FAR above the reading level they have him at) and basically get a "that's nice" kind of response. When I've politely ask if he's being challenged enough, I'm told "oh, yes, he's in the highest reading group". Just recently, I was told that the reason DS hasn't been moved up more since the beginning of the year was that "its encouraged that students spend 3-6 months at each reading level."

I was able to ask the school to have their district reading specialist come and give a better evaluation. The top reading group still wasn't high enough, but at least the teachers were aware of what was going on.

I wrote in the reading journal the actual books he was reading. Our school has been very responsive, though, and have moved him up further without any requests.

3 to 6 months on a reading level sounds awful. My five-year-old has moved up 6 levels this year (oxford reading tree), since September.

If you can't get the school to change, don't read the books. Just get books your son likes from the library.

They recently told us DS is at the highest reading level they have books in the classroom. They don't have any other physical books to give him until he moves up to the next grade. It's immersion, so I think it's reasonable they won't have as big a pool of books to choose from... I'm wondering how insulting it would be to offer to just buy the next set? They're only $100 I think.

Anyway, if it's the highest group have you checked to see if they have the right resources to even give him if he moves higher?

I would ask about when his reading level was last assessed and get some info on the type of assessment used and how he performed. It seems pretty common for kids to be held back due to "comprehension" because they aren't giving the assessor exactly what they're looking for - e.g., he could comprehend the books perfectly but need tips on how to answer the questions to score points.

Angie, I don't think it would be at all insulting to donate books to the classroom - I'm sure the teacher would appreciate it.

We could not convince the school to change the reading levels - DS was skipped to 1st grade reading group in K and he reached the highest level that they could go to. They simply said that the decoding level is different from comprehension level and that he should stay at a lower level for reading group because his comprehension is not so great. We provided books at his level and let him read them at home and wrote the book titles in the reading log provided by the school. In our case, we did not care that the school did nothing about this issue because my son was under challenged in every subject, so reading group was not really an exception.
What did happen was that we pulled our son out and took him to a school that would be a better fit for him and they tested him for admissions. Based on the testing (which included reading comprehension, writing essay, spelling etc) they skipped him 2 grades levels without any request from us. He is doing fine and is challenged now at this level. So, just keep doing what your son needs at home while you try to figure out how to handle lack of challenge at school.

Well - I never did, but my son did!

He really, really wanted to check out a book in the library above his reading level, but was told "no." I had no luck shifting them. Then one day, DS (then 7) picked up the book and asked the librarian if he could read him a chapter. They went in the office, and came out with the book checked out to DS. Very soon after, the classroom teacher tumbled, too, and he is now on the "no level restrictions" list.

An important thing here, I think, was that I was absolutely uninvolved. Where this initiative came from in my son, I have no idea. But I do think if your child can advocate for herself, that might make a difference.

FWIW - I'm not saying she should have to. She shouldn't at this age. But if she can, it might work.

Sue

Thanks Andes!

I don't want to hijack this thread -- but hopefully it's okay if I ask a follow up question...

As for the library, I've been wondering how that works wrt reading levels. For "media" special the kids get to check out a book a week. They encourage the kids to get books from a special section, DS reads it during the library time and has zero interest in it for a week and then swaps it for another.

Until recently when I suggested to him that they might have Boxcar Children books in the library and he could ask for one. He asked the librarian to help him find one and she was really positive about helping him find a specific book he wanted in the library -- I'm sure he was bubbling with excitement. So he got to check it out.

The next week of course he wanted another Boxcar Children book. She let him check one out but she sent him back to get another shorter book too. I'm thinking at this point she thinks we're reading the Boxcar Children books to him and she wanted him to have one at his reading level he could read too.

I'm inclined to do nothing about this as it seems to be working out well for DS. He kind of ignores the shorter book but he's been tearing through the chapter book he brings home in a few days and actually looking forward to his media special.

I'm curious though if there are usually limits/rules on what the kids check out? I don't want to ask them because I don't want to change the status quo!

I don't know what most schools do, but the librarian for the lower and middle school at our son's private school told us she will let kids take home any reading level they want (high or low) if the book interests them. She will block for content however, so a young child would need parental permission to check out Hunger Games, for instance.

No. Their rules are more important than the children.

We actually had an awesome teacher for ds in first grade. He was between her highest group and the next highest group in a combined 1/2 classroom. There were no 1st graders in either of those groups. She placed him in the higher group stretching him a bit. By Thanksgiving break he had not only caught up to the kids in this group but left them in the dust. He started kinder barely reading (a late reader by GT standards) , started 1st at a F&P "M" and finished 1st at F&P "U". His MAP scores showed HUGE jumps.

If you have a teacher who "gets" gifted kids... they will follow the lead of the child.

To be fair at ds6's new school the teacher is happy to put him into the top group- I just don't think he can manage the output requirements.

Historically, I have focused my advocacy efforts on math, and figured that reading challenge would be addressed by leisure reading outside of school. (But this is for our socially adaptable child.) We did have one teacher who spontaneously advanced reading level by about two grades, though, and created a group just for our DC (and, I think, possibly one other child).

Does the school have higher grades? My K'er's teacher borrows books from another classroom for DS. He gets very old versions, sometimes interestingly decorated by previous students, but he still loves the stories. This seems like a very minor, easy-to-overcome problem.

Ours weren't allowed to borrow books from higher classes.

Why does it feel like that sums up the problems in education? Not being allowed to walk to a nearby classroom to get a book that would actually be useful for a child.

In K and 1 DS was given books at his level by his two great teachers. He was a reading group of one. It was the school librarian who was an issue--the teacher and I had to intervene, because she would only let him check out picture books (DS was reading Harry Potter in K).

The situation is quite different now that he's in a gifted magnet (they are all reading at about the same level, which is a few grades above but not where DS can read) but it's all right with me because he gets the benefits of being actually taught.

I did not need to advocate to the teachers, but I think they were unusually cool.

Apparently, those teachers are few and far between. I haven't encountered one yet.

How did you get them to agree to do this? Last year, in 1st grade, I asked about the reading specialist and was told that oh, no, your child doesn't need this - its for kids that are falling behind. UGH.

I think it really depends on your district. My DS was assessed by reading specialist and his classroom teacher when he was in K, because I told the teacher that he could read at higher level. I did not ask him to be assessed. I think it was just their process of making sure that he would be reading at an appropriate level. Sure enough they were able to give him higher level books to read. Also he was assigned a higher reading level in RezKids. Although at that level it was still easy for him, I was OK with it because they wanted to make sure that he comprehended well before moving on to next levels.

Don't give up hope! They're out there. DS's teachers were teaching mostly poor children in a Title 1 school, but one in particular was a newer teacher with a special interest in giftedness. She was delighted to have DS and really worked hard to help him.