Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment processing speed question - what if high?

Very useful, thanks!

What about a 2nd full skip? or some subject accelerations? It's asking an awful lot of a teacher to teach your child a seperate curricula while teaching a regular classroom full of other kids. Some teachers do it very very well, and love doing it - perhaps you can ask the principal to work with you in hand picking next year's teacher?

Best Wishes,
Grinity

Thanks, Grinity. A second grade skip won't work in that she needs to go up 2-3 grades in language arts, not just one more. Plus, she has made friends in her current grade, I'm not sure how to handle that. It is preventing me from asking for a second skip.

I do work during the day, so I can't quite figure out if I should even ask for her to attend electives and for me to homeschool subjects.

Does it seem reasonable to ask that she do just language arts at home with me, and go to the library for that part of the day? She could suffer through the other subjects with just the one grade skip maybe, and then do language arts via online classes and me? We have a weird school schedule and subject acceleration to a different language arts class will be too difficult.

I haven't stopped feeling sick since meeting with the school psychologist, this is really difficult.

I wouldn't necessarily rule out the grade skip until you talk to the school. My DS is skipped to 2nd but in a GT cluster with a group of kids reading at 6th grade level. So he does 2nd grade specials, 3rd grade math and 6th grade LA, all in the same class. This worked well by the school simply clustering the kids together who needed higher levels of academics.

Some schools let kids to EPGY in the classroom on a computer with headphones so they can work on different material than the rest of the class. Could something like that work? It wouldn't require the teacher to design & teach a separate curriculum, just to give her a computer to work and be available occassionally to trouble shoot or answer questions.

Good thought on the "operating grade level" and thanks for the thoughts above that, too, you all.

Yes, I was basing it on the WJ achievement and also on some experience in dealing with her. THe WJ achievement, for example, had her doing independent 4th grade work in language arts. But, at home, she took the 5th grade benchmark test and passed. So, that told me that in 4 or 5 months (start of next school year), fifth grade reading work might be her level. So, either they need to assess her or I need to at home (we do EPGY math at home, so I have that, too, to help evaluate).

Question: how do I assess science and social studies? Is that really based on IQ and reading?

In my experience, a lot is based on what they've been exposed to. I can tell you that for homeschoolers taking annual standardized achievement tests like the CAT (California) or the ITBS (Iowa), social studies is often lower than anything else because the kids studied other things--the Norse or the Greeks, say--rather than what's on the test.

For example, there was a question my son had once about a crossing guard. Well, he's a homeschooler in a suburban area where school kids ride buses. He's never seen a crossing guard, nor had the subject of crossing guards come up in conversation. He missed that one and several others along the same lines.

I'd imagine the same sort of thing would happen with an unprepped kid being tested on the school's curriculum unless she just happened to have stumbled across those particular bits of info in her life.

Science seems easier for them to pick up through experience and independent reading. (I'll admit that DS8 is a very science-minded kid, though, so that may be my own bias. But then again, I don't know very many social-studies-minded kids. History, yes; crossing guards, no!)

I'd recommend finding out what curriculum they use for social studies and science. If it's possible to get some assessment tool for that specific curriculum, that would be ideal. I doubt it's possible, but it would be where I'd start. I don't think assessment tools will be very helpful if they're designed for other curricula. The info just tends to be too specific.

Even if the second skip doesn't completely solve her problems, it will help, and with a teacher who is creative and interested, it will be a lot more possible for useful enrichment to take place.

She has friends in her current grade. I'll bet she would also have friends in her new grade. She might even have more friends. If you leave her where she is - and she really hates to wait for the other kids - she might start hating her current friends if they make her wait one to many times. Better to enjoy them afterschool on playdates than have to 'bear them' in the classroom.

You will still probably have to do 'more' but 'less more' is better.

love and more love,
Grinity

Kriston and Grinity,
You've given me a lot to think about - thank you.
Less more is definitely better than more more!