Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Recommended Resources School Based Literacy Instruction/Advanced Readers

Hi,
I'm hoping that someone out there might actually be pleased with the instruction their advanced reader is recieving in elementary school. I'm looking for programming examples that are being used in the elementary classroom with students who test at a highschool reading level.
Thanks so much!
Taminy

DS5's teacher is simply encouraging him to read widely, and I think that's entirely appropriate, so yes, I'm happy. Sometimes she gives him particular books to read, sometimes she suggests things, sometimes she just lets him loose in the library. (Whether DS5 would test at highschool reading level would probably depend on the test. At any rate, he happily reads science writing aimed at adults, so I imagine he's the kind of child you're thinking of: it's always been obvious that there was no need for anybody to try to teach him to read!)

His writing, OTOH, is more or less normally developing and the instruction he's getting on that side is the same as for his classmates, which again is appropriate. (Very little connection between the teaching of reading and of writing at this age, of course: they did get to take in a favourite book in order to write something about it once, but otherwise the two are pretty separate, which suits DS well right now.)

Spelling: he gets short lists of words to learn, mostly comprising the words he mis-spelt in his written work, and he evidently takes part in some phonics activities, but I don't know much about what they do.

Does that help? I wasn't very sure what you were getting at - surely nobody attempts to teach children to read if they're that far ahead? Yet high reading achievement doesn't necessarily go together with high writing achievement, particularly in the early years where motor skills can be limiting.

Thanks for your reply. I actually do think that students who are gifted readers still need instruction (although I must say your DS sounds another leap above my DD who is 9 years old, and not an enthusiastic non-fiction reader ). I tend to think that the reading skills that students learn in late middle school and throughout high school can/should be taught in school when students have exceeded the elementary standards. However, I am not currently seeing that happen. So, what I'm wondering is if all of our gifted readers are left to just independently read during school, or if there are resources for vocabulary study or advanced literacy instruction that are being used successfully and satisfyingly in other classrooms. I would love to have some examples of good resources to share during my next discussion of dd's needs.

We're working on this too, so I've did some research last fall. The best thing I've found to pass on to classroom teachers is The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller, which encourages teachers to move away from a worksheet/book report approach to reading and towards more "authentic" and engaged reading that encourages individual interests/abilities. Other accommodations that we've sought include: letting my daughter bring her own books (from home or the public library) to read at school during individual reading time; developing more challenging individual writing assignments related to books, so that she moves beyond plot summary; developing reading "clusters" with other advanced readers (drawing on Winebrenner's Teaching Gifted Kids in the Regular Classroom). We didn't have as much success as I'd hoped, I must admit. I also find this blog, by a mom of HG/PG highly verbal girls, to be a big help--this links to one of her posts on advanced readers and how they tend to be ignored http://themorechild.com/2008/08/13/tamara-heres-my-scream/.

This program caught my interest. Sounds like a better match for a gifted reader than the Accelerated Reader program:

http://www.greatbooks.org/programs-for-all-ages/junior.html


P.S. Here's more specifics about the program and gifted:
http://www.greatbooks.org/fileadmin/pdf/PR-91_gifted_piece.pdf

Thanks for the suggestions. Our district actually is not a basal reader/worksheet kind of district, so that isn't the issue. There are a lot of great books around and there is a lot of time for independent reading, but that's part of the problem. It seems like it's almost ALL independent reading for my kiddo. She loves this on some levels...she is a voracious reader. On the other hand, she is ready to dig in deeper as well as to do some vocabulary study (spelling has always been a waste of time for her. If she's seen it and heard it, she can spell it). I feel strongly that she should be learning new skills in her classroom, and when it comes to reading, I'm just not seeing it. Also, while every year I'm told she is with other "strong" readers, from my dd's perspective she has been without peers who really want to dive into books. When she does "book groups" in class, the books are sometimes too easy (no new vocabulary) and the pacing is way too slow. She finishes the book in a day or two while everyone else takes a week or two. That pretty much silences her during discussions. If she follows the reading schedule, she gets bored/frustrated because the story is too fragmented. I suspect that she is probably significantly more advanced than the others who are being identified as peers, but obviously I don't have access to the peer data (fwiw anyway), so, I'm just continuing to try and advocate for her and to look for solutions to share.

Inky: The Junior Great Books is something I've looked at as well. Do you know of anyone who actually has experience with it? I'm wondering if it's as good as it sounds and whether it's already leveled with gifted readers in mind, or whether a gifted reader would have to start up several levels.

Westcoastmom: I'm wondering if you would be willing to share what you see as the biggest discrepancy between what you had hoped for and what has actually occurred? I wonder if we are experiencing breakdowns in the same places....

Thanks for all of the suggestions
Taminy

Taminy,
A friend of mine has used Great Books and loves it. She is trying to get it started at DD's elementary school for next year, but her work schedule has changed, so we don't know if it will work. I don't know a lot of details about it, but my friend has 4 gts and her older two really got into it.

My DD6 also spend way too much time on independent reading this past year even though she was grouped with other "strong" readers. There was only 1 girl in her class anywhere near her, so the teacher finally let them pick a more advanced book and read it together and then they acted out the book while she read the story to the class. The girls loved it and the teacher was very impressed with how well they did. I just wish they got to do more of that sort of thing.

My son was in a great books program as a 1st grader with kids that were reading at least 1 year beyond grade level. They used the program a year or 2 ahead of their own grade level. I was really impressed and that program was the bright spot in his first grade experience. One of the parents of a GT child went through training to lead a group.

We're homeschooling now, but I've considered using great books at home as well. It depends on the reading level of the group, but I'd definitely looking at bumping up the grade level.

I don't have any first hand experience with it yet. It's used in the gifted school here that begins in 3rd grade. Glad to hear positive feedback on it!

Taminy,
In response to your question...what we were stuck with was a classroom situation where the teacher selected books for each child and strongly resisted letting kids choose any of their own reading materials. We kept asking for chapter books for DD7 and she kept being handed picture books, which frustrated her no end. Any free reading choice would have been a HUGE improvement!

Is there any possibility of "subject-level acceleration" into a higher grade class for language arts/reading? That would have the obvious advantage of more advanced peers to talk to about books.

Another possibility--but a time consuming one for you--is to ask if you could design some "parallel" reading and writing assignments with the teacher's input. Teachers' stores have some good resources for novel study, for example, that you could draw on, and that include more vocabulary and language study.