Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Indivual Learning plan ideas?

Sports and scholarships are strong reasons not to skip a child. But by sports I mean kids who 'live and die' to play sports. And all the kids I know like that are playing 'up' (with older kids) in my town.

I think that my son may not be ready emotionally to go off to college early. There is this thing called a gap year, where they do something interesting between high school and college, including a 'post-graduate' year at a boarding school. One of the key insights I've gotten from other moms of HG and PG kids is this: met their needs now, worry about the future in the future.

BTW - just because a child is 'borderline' for the Young Scholar Program doesn't mean that they don't need serious accomidations in their learning. The way the cure looks at the tail, there are 2 to 3 'almost' YSP kids for every single YSP kid. That's a lot of wildly, hugely gifted kids! And remember, 2/3 of YSP kids are bunched up right at the borderline, yes?

So if you child is at the borderline, then, by my math, they are within about 5 IQ points of 66% of young scholars. Cool, huh?

And since IQ tests were not developed to make these kind of fine distictions, I would basically say that you child is 'in the range' of the majority of young scholars.

where's Dottie? Have i overstepped? I'm better with imagination than numbers!

Love and More Love,
Grinity

Also, ask the school how often they do skip children...exactly...

wow! thanks for the effort in your response.

I will march onward

My DS in 3rd grade has been given a IEP this year and that has helped but I need more adjustment and I'm looking for suggestions.

The good news:
He is doing above level Math - still tweaking that situation but I feel like I know what to do here. He is also reading above grade level that's going well. He read 30 AR books for the year mostly 100% on his tests. 50 are required for the school year. Most of the incorrect answers on papers were do to checking work habits and I think he needs to work on this but has finally got that under control. Except for 4th grade Math where he needs to remember to label and show work. Below 93% is a B+ in our school. Here are his grades so far

English 94%, A-
Penmanship, 86% Satisfactory
Spelling 99% A+
Social Studies, 95% Outstanding
Science 97%, Outstanding
Phonics 100%, A+
Math 94% A-
Reading 96% A

I'm not including special like gym, I don't want to focus on them)

My concerns: 2 not so bad situations with behavior at school- I'm thinking displaced frustration feelings. He has been complaining about so much work at school. He is a very ambitious student. His teacher says he keeps busy doing his folder work. I think folder work is lots of worksheets. Most of the work is probably too easy. He is interested in learning many things so it feels like school should not be boring. I am not ready to put him a grade ahead in school. The teacher/school agree and are will to work with me. They have grade accelerated student successfully before.

With his grades and the test scores how do I know what else should be changed. Can we get him out of some work that is less meaningful? Right now he feels like he has too much work to do. But he is ambitious. I think its too many worksheets that are not meaningful. The teacher said they are not reviewing the study guides in class. They just added enrichment for reading and Math which is good but that means more work. This kid doesn't need more Home work or seat work. He has amazing reading speed and comprehension. He does not need much repetions to learn something. He needs to do the cursive writing/penmanship.

Is there a way to know by his achievement score what he should condense or eliminate? Please look back to prior posts on this thread for WJIII score if that helps. He knows his spelling words and study guides the first day he bring them home.

What else can I say to this teacher to get her to understand or meet his needs?
I'm not sure she has seen his WJIII test scores or understands their significant so I will bring it up.

RE: WWJ, Is this right? anything 100 is average scoring for that age? every 15 is a standard above average?

Achievement test scores - unfortunately - don't help much with placement.

What about you son physically moving to olderkid classrooms for one or two of his classes?

What about asking for end-of-year tests to see how he would do on this year's, next year's and 'compact' the curriculum so he doesn't get unneeded repition.

What about better 'Folder Work' - you may have to supply it yourself, or get 'Folder Work' from teachers who teach older kids?

Is an online class allowed during the school day?

How is his keyboarding going?

Could you start a 'Jr. Great Books' literature discussion group with some of the brightest kids from his grade and the grade above?

Does he have a favorite topic that he could use as an independent study project instead of realms of 'Folder Work?'

Best Wishes,
Grinity

Please be patient with this question. I am truly trying to get this. OK the achievement test doesn't help with placement but can it support his ability to not need so much repetition, his quick reading speed and amazing memorization or comprehension? The test got their attention to help him so how can I use this to his advantage? I knew very little about testing last year when I pushed for it. My idea for the testing is so they would better know what to do with him.

I would like him to test out or pretest. What subject would I ask for? (think baby steps) Should I ask what she thinks is the most boring or take up the most time? I think she thinks students need to spend a year learning so they don't miss something. My son's ability is a new situation for her. I don't think she will say to me he doesn't seem to need X because she doesn't see it. She thinks he is doing great - look at all his good grades. I'm not saying she is not willing. I think I need to try to get her to understand his need and ability. I then need a solution that is not time consuming for her.

I would be open to him going up a grade or two for a class but I bet it's a scheduling issue and I think that situation would work better as a plan for next year.

He is doing spelling city.com for his spelling words at home. This makes his spelling studying meaningful with typing 15 words. He has not been motivated very much with the typing other than this.

He knows Spelling words the first day. I tell him not to study after the first day, just review the night before the test. I don't want him to do above level spelling or vocabulary. He already is getting challenged with vocabulary with his reading. He has said if he says certain things to his peers they don't get it so he's adjusting his conversation vocabulary. I just don't want to push this right now. He has not been motivated very much with the typing other than this.

I want to make more progress and need a plan.

I would think that a talk with a principal or other long time administrator is in order. Ask them, "what have you done in the past with children like my son?" or "have you had children with this ability before and what did they do?". I know my kid's school was adamant about not skipping grades, and yet some kids did. Some successfully, some did not have a good fit a grade up. Each kid reacts differently to this. The school rejected any idea of doing grade up math, or going to the grade up classroom for math time. And yet some kids in the school did that, too. Generally very successfully. Their parents were persistent until it happened.

You are probably right that you need to make this no more work for the teacher, which means YOU probably need to do it. If you want it, you must be polite but persistent, and helpful. Be sure to ask that if your kid is doing advanced work (but does not skip a grade), ask what will happen when he's in the last grade at that school. will they get advanced work to him? Will he have to be transported to the other school to do the advanced work?

When possible, pass along the things your son has said about school - frame it as "he says the worksheets are boring, he says he already knows how to do all this" as opposed to "I see that my son is bored, I see that he knows this already".

Our school says they never had anyone like this before. I am very willing to supply activites or workbooks. They just need to know it is ok to skip some work or do something different. So it's test out or pretest. I just don't know where to start. What would impact his day and make it better. Where would they be most confortable making a change.

I talked with his teacher. She will not let him skip any more work as she says it's all essential. I suggested he skip his 3rd grade Math page and just do the pretest a week ahead. She feels he needs to do his 3rd grade Math pages so he learns everything. I don' understand why the pretest would not take care of this? I realize this is a new concept for her.

He really does not have a problem doing this math page it only takes 5 minutes. I was looking to get him out of some less challenging work so he could use his time better. He did have some work checking issues on this math page but I think he has overcome that on his 3rd grade math. He still has some work checking issues on his 4th grade math.

He is the first one done with his work and has time to read. She said he has a way to go with managing his time, sometimes getting out reading before the other stuff is done. She is also working on getting him to always look at her when she is speaking. It looks like for right now I have to just chill out and try to help him prove he is ready for more challenges by meeting the 3rd grader work habits and behavior expectations.

I think all the worksheets may be more repetition than he needs. The teacher looks at it this way - we all need to get our boring laundry done but despite that we can take feel good about finishing those many loads. I see this point but let's try to have balance here. I explained he is not the average student and learns things more quickly. I don't think their system shows this. Most kids might need 7 repetions and he needs 1 or 2. Everyone is just taught the same material whether they know it or not. She said hopefully he will develop some empathy for the other kids. I guess this is why so many home school but we can't do that.

Here is a child who loves to learn and is excited about it at home. Why is he bored with science when it's a passion of his? Will this situation take away his passion for learning? Is what I do at home enough?

He is much better than last year. He is not hypoglycemic after school any more from all the stress. How do we know when it's just necessary venting or needs a change? I just want his day to feel meaningful. The teacher said he is doing very well, she is expecting all As. We both agree social is going great this year. She does not see a problem here. I think I'm at my note/phone call limit for a while. There will be an IEP meeting in Nov.

Anyone have a suggestion for finding peace with this.

Does your state have GIEP laws? I'm sorry if I'm missing something from previous statements in the post. If you have a GIEP, generally you can request a meeting to occur. You can drive the meeting, and you can refuse the accomodations they are offering if you feel they are not enough.

Pretests are usually reasonable IEP accomodations for Gifted children. The teacher cannot refuse to do something on the IEP. So, once it's in there, you can enforce it. Make sure the IEP also contains some kind of activity he can do while other kids are learning the topic at hand.