Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Advocacy help question

Someone said they would give me their child's papers for the rest of the year for Science and Social Studies. I was thinking I could use these to antisipate what is to come for DS for next year in 4th. I certainly would not give him these to study with.

Is this a good idea? Could this help with advocacy? Would the school be upset knowing I have these papers? Is there anything wrong with this?

I know our school district has posted rubrics online for each grade. You might check to see if you can access the school's. It would give a clearer picture on everything and then avoid any ethical question.

Why are you wanting to know what to anticipate for next year?

The only time I've worried about it has been in math where I have asked the teacher for the scope & sequence for the rest of the year in the past. The reason I did so was primarily b/c I was concerned that dd wasn't learning anything and wanted to know if they had any intent of teaching anything for the rest of the year that she didn't already know.

I think that I'd go more that route: ask the teacher for the scope & sequence or rubric for next year or look online like the pp mentioned.

I do imagine that it could be viewed as cheating or an effort to prep the child such that he appears more capable if the school knew that you had copies of another child's work from the year up. It could make you appear to be one of "those parents" which would likely be detrimental to your ds since he might then appear to be less able and just hothoused.

Every year the school has told me it's more challenging next year. DS has known much of the information he is being taught. I'm thinking I better not borrow the papers. I would not want to harm my advocacy efforts in any way or cause a problem for the person giving me the papers. I would of kept this all quiet but I don't want to risk it.

Our school does not have the cirriculm on line so that's not an option.

Absolutely. I don't in any way believe that gifted kids should know everything without any instruction. I do also know that a lot of the kids with gifted identifications at dd#2's school got into school programs after doing a lot of outside prep -- Kumon, Sylvan, private tutors, parents purchasing study guides or the actual CogAT online, etc. If the school becomes aware of that, I do imagine that it could be viewed as "cheating" as I said.

I don't think this is what the OP is attempting to do. I am just leary b/c of the fine line that could make the school misinterpret intentions.

eta: maybe taking a look at some of the online typical courses of study info would be of help? Could you just ask the school for the scope & sequence for next year like I did in math a year or two back?

I do not see a problem with going to the State Educational Website and printing out the Scope & Sequence for the grade level your son is in and the one your son is going into. This is what our DD's teachers did to verify that she needed to grade skip all 2nd grade material.

I am planning a meeting after EXPLORE results with the 1st prority to get his Math better. Maybe I can work the Science and Social Studies into the conversation. I wonder if I showed DS the scope and sequence if he will be able to tell if he knows most of the information.

cricket2- I will look at the online reference. thank you.

This is another thread entirely... I have been wondering a lot, though, about how this affects the haves vs. the have-nots. Our local elementary, too, starts pulling out kids who are achieving above avg in around 1st grade with a note that your child has not been formally ided as gifted, but is getting enrichment right now. The GT enrichment consists of a lot of the types of stuff one encounters on ability tests -- analogies, critical thinking games and worksheets, etc. Would not those kids then have an advantage when it gets to testing for GT id a few years later?

As of late, I've seen a board game in one of those educational games catalogues that has block designs that look nearly identical to what you do on the WISC. I've also managed somehow to get on the email listserv of a company that sells critical thinking workbooks and which sent out a rather disconcerting ad for workbooks that purport to have actual test questions from the WPPSI -- to prep for K admission in competitive places like NY that use a variant of the WPPSI called the ERB.

I couldn't bring myself to prep a kid like that for a test b/c it seems unethical and b/c I can't believe that it is in the child's best interests to appear more able than he is. However, I do wonder what it does to the entire reliability and validity of these tests.

I'd absolutely agree with this. Dd#1 said that she didn't learn any science at all until middle school when they started doing actual science labs in a separate classroom with Bunson burners, chemicals, dissections... We did sign her up for some extracurricular science programs outside of school prior to then, though, in which she learned something.

I would suggest asking your school for the scope and sequence, or depending on your state for the GLCE's. With it being a private school things can vary, a lot. They should have to provide it without question. Just be prepared that they are broad statements that are hard to actually measure and as mentioned earlier, most are repetitive from one year to the next. I think it is most beneficial, if you plan on keeping him in private or even public school, to advocate for science when it becomes and issue with math, as already mentioned. Until then you aren't going to get much variation.

My DD sat down last year and decided she wanted to complete fourth, fifth and sixth grade science, it really wasn't that hard. This year her plan is to finish up middle school science so she can move on to "real" science next year. When you start looking at Algebra 1 then it makes sense to look at science.

History, I doubt that unless he is a history buff that advocating there is worthwhile. Otherwise you are back to whole grade acceleration to address math, science, and social studies.