Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy So what do you think he's doing?

DS7's public school grade teacher has actually been pretty good this year. DS7 entered the class at the end of October and the teacher (who knew about DS7) told us within the first week that she was going to have to differentiate for him and that most of his behavior issues seemed to occur when he was "bored" and not engaged in the class. She understands that DS7 is HG+ and has even been reading different books on teaching gifted kids in the regular classroom.

At the beginning of January she started to allow certain kids to pre-test out of the spelling words that they are assigned every two weeks. Two pre-tests so far and DS7 has tested out of both. This also includes all associated spelling lessons, in-class work and homework papers. During this time in class DS7 is supposed to be working on an independent project. DS7 has chosen to create his own Mad Libs. He's been doing this now since the beginning of January.

Fast forward to today and DS7 informs me that he pre-tested out of the next full unit of Math. I asked if he was getting anything harder for math and he said no. No math assignments at all until the next unit. He's not sure what he is going to do during this time since it only started Monday.

DS7 is already in the highest reading group for the class and they meeting independently for book club a few times a week.

If he's not doing any math or spelling lessons, classwork or homework assignments--then really what is he doing and learning in 2nd grade this year? I have already asked for subject acceleration to 4th or 5th grade for math but the teacher assured me that she was capable of appropriately differentiating within the classroom.

I have also been getting more bad behavior reports in the last few weeks.... DS7 even had an in school detention (his first this year) last week.

DS7 seems happy. His teacher does not seem overwhelmed (even with the behavior issues).

Should I put on my advocacy hat or wait a few more weeks? Last year I was "that parent" and had monthly meetings with his teachers and the principal. My efforts did not result in very much change at all.

Well in our same circumstance in 1st grade in the fall, my DS was reading the entire Captain Underpants series again. He'd been excused from daily language, phonics, spelling and other classwork, amounting to about 2 hours a day of "excused free reading".

I'd say since you're getting behavior problems as well, you really need to go set up a meeting and start all over again :-(

It doesn't seem out of place to check in, ask how it's going, ask if any fine-tuning is necessary.

I could be wrong, but I'd suspect that the teacher might be realizing that a child who tests out of EVERYTHING is perhaps not well placed, and that her job will be easier if she isn't having to differentiate literally all of his work. That just doesn't make much sense.

However, if she gets him and wants him in class and he's generally doing okay, I don't think I'd go all in on advocacy either. Well, unless his behavior is worrying you, of course. But you say he seems happy. That hasn't always been true, so I think I'd hesitate to push too hard. Maybe soon, but not yet. I'd be dipping a tentative toe in.

All IMHO, of course...

I would talk to he. You may start by thanking her for doing all the pretests and tell her how much you appreciate it. Then you can ask her what DS is to do instead since he doesn't really share too much information about school and you would like to know what he is currently working on

You may a few suggestions ready, such as his own spelling list, different math books, etc.

Good luck,

When kids in DS8's class test out of spelling, they keep going until they score less than 90%. DS8 is in 6th grade spelling book, but a kid in his class is in the 8th grade spelling book. I asked for them to use Caesar's English for word roots and vocabular development next year. There are 2 levels of Caesar's and then Word Within a Word, so there's plenty to do there.
In that class, kids work on math concepts as a class (recently perimeter, circumference, area, volume) once a week. The other days they work independently on ALEKS (2 days) and Accelerated Math (2 days). That way they can progress at their own rate and keep learning new concepts. I agree with LMom that you should talk to the teacher, perhaps equipped with some tools that can be used (Caesars, ALEKS, AM).