Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy question about questions to ask

Hello. I am planning to send an email & a request for a meeting with our public school principal (our DD starts 1st grade next year - she is easily reading/comprehending at a 5th grade level & had a pretty good handle on adding/subtracting multiple digits & understands the concept of multiplication). Our school (like so many) is understand budget constraints & has no gifted or advanced programs & gifted IEPs are not required by the state.

What are the types of things that a school/teacher can offer that don't necessarily involve much, if any, funds & what are good questions to ask in general?

Thanks so much!

Here's an article to start with:
http://www.davidsongifted.org/db/Articles_id_10363.aspx

Are you interested in having your daughter spend part or all of her day with kids who are learning at her level?

Is your DD in kindy right now? if so, how are things going? Are they doing anything that works?

A good question to ask is to show some of your daughter's work, in her own handwriting, perhaps a 'book report' type of thing on a 5th grade level book (or above) and some math, and ask the principal what has worked in the past for kids who have this sort of gap between what they are ready to learn and what kids their same age are ready to learn.

I guess I would ask you to 'journal' what you would acutally want to happen - in your wildest dreams - for your daughter.

Best Wishes,
Grinity

Thanks for responding. My DD goes to 1/2 day Kindergarten (2.5 hours) - it is very play based & often includes recess. She is loving it (the interaction with other kids) so far. The school she attends only goes through grade 2 so I doubt any type of subject acceleration would help especially since the grade above her is unusually big.

I'm not really sure what I am looking for for her. I think I am pretty realistic in understanding the limits of our public schools. Basically I don't want her to be totally bored (I don't oject to a little boredom!) and I want her to develop a good work ethic & some nice skills in terms of analysis and organization.

Based on some of my reading, I plan on asking about whether the school "clusters" gifted kids in the hopes that she might find someone at her level - I've heard rumors that there is at least one boy. And I plan on asking about differentiation, if it happens & if particular teachers are more reliable about it. My DD happens to be pretty independent so I will ask about math packets (not sure what a proper term would be) that can be self-paced.

I guess I'm just looking for any ideas that an in-class teacher could do, if she had the time, energy, will - I've read something about "extension"? projects and something about "curriculum compacting"? but haven't yet found a source that describes all those kinds of things.

Every school is different. Our school radically accelerated my DS6 to 4th grade w/virtual math on-line. This from a district in a state that has no requirement to even identify until a child is in 3rd grade and no requirement to do anything for those identified.

I would talk to the principal and see what his/her overall take is on GT kids. Is the school willing to subject accelerate or use grade skips? Will they let you work with the teacher to put together something that works for your child? You never know until you ask. The most improtant part is your willingness to ask, our push, or prod if necessary. Definition of Advocate on here is "pushy parent" LOL!