Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Should I be concerned?

I had a conference with DS' teacher today. I'm a little confused since she never reported any difficulties to me. I see her almost every day at pickup time, and she sends home a weekly report which has always been a-okay.

She says DS has a short attention span (~20 mins) and tunes her out sometimes when she's teaching. When he's spacing out he fails to get his books out and move on to the next activity, so he is also disorganized. She says his writing is messy and she has been working with him one-on-one to fill in "holes" in his language arts such as the difference between long and short vowels. She says that DS is frustrated by these sessions and tells her that he "gets it" and wants to go back to his seat and work. He is rushed with his written work and forgets capitals and end punctuation. Still, he has an S in writing.

On the other hand, she says that DS has an S+ in reading, has all 100% on his AR quizzes at level 2.4-2.8 (she is planning to let him go up a level now), has an S+ in math and is on track to finish 2nd grade math by January. She will then allow him (and a few other kids in the class) to go on to third grade math, but they will have to use a textbook from several years ago because the third grade teachers don't want her to teach them from the current 3rd grade textbook. DS also has an S+ in science. She also told me that she likes having DS in class because he seems very excited about school, for example, when she introduced a new social studies unit he was very enthusiastic and engaged. (I'm thinking the key word here is "new"...)

She warned me not to push him ahead beyond his ability to function.

Anyway, I'm just not sure what to make of it all.

Hmmm...What's your gut sense of it?

It doesn't sound bad to me except for the nitpickiness of the writing stuff. Though then again, I'm not sure she's quite getting him either.

Not much help, am I? Sorry...

Do you think maybe she's expecting more out of him than the other kids since he's been moved up? It sounds to me that the behaviors she thinks are concerns would otherwise be normal in his grade? Although I don't really know. Just that he's still getting an S but there are the concerns...

I guess I might have to ask her what she means by not pushing him ahead of his ability to function. Does she mean his handwriting would not be good enough to do more advanced things?

sorry, i'm not much help either.

I guess my gut feeling is that if this stuff were actually a major issue, she would have brought it up sooner.

It reminds me of the stuff his K teacher said--i.e. yes, he can do academic work, but he lacks social and gross motor skills. Oddly, the 2nd grade teacher didn't complain about his social or gross motor skills at all. It's like they have to find something to ding him on. Sigh.

She said that when she was talking about organizational skills. The example she gave was that he was spacing out when she was explaining how to know when to add or subtract when doing story problems and he failed to get his book out when it was time to move on.

DS has a good intuitive grasp of how to do story problems. I know he needs to learn to listen enough to catch instructions and things that are new. But, I think he has gotten into the habit of tuning out because so much of what she says is repetition for him.

DS8's psych said that once DS gets to the point where he's missing out on assignments, missing directions b/c he's tunning out, then that's the time for academic intervention. However, emotionally DS was beyond the breaking point I think but b/c he was performing very well, the psych thought to leave things as they are, hoping that a 1hr/week pullout in 3rd grade would be enough of a carrot to help him get through the week. But he did say what I mentioned above about spacing out. A friend of mind also reported her son was having the same issue - ie teacher complained of missing assignments, not moving on, b/c he was tuning out.

Well, according to his report card, he is turning in all his work on time, and apparently getting good grades on it--except for his writing being messy.

My gut (based on your gut...) is that this is the truth. I think it's hard for a teacher to say "All is well," especially when the child is already ahead. And writing is the easy thing to ding. So they ding that, even if it's the first you've heard of it and he's getting an S. If it's not an S+, then he gets the ding.

But I freely admit that I'm talking out of my hat here!

He is just tuning her out. It's ok, and like you said they need to find something to improve. I wouldn't worry about it.

Thanks, Kriston and LMom. I guess I didn't think there was a problem before, and he's on track and getting mostly S+, so what am I worried about, eh?

I just wish that I felt like the school was supportive. Instead, I feel like DS always has to prove himself. I don't want it to be like that. He's allowed to not be good at everything.