Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Elementary School How do you teach your gifted child to self extend?

Our teacher is on board with providing my twin DD's with extension work but at times she doesn't have the time to focus on them. For example, this week the Kindy kids had to write an animal report after visiting the zoo. It was a simple activity--> a box for a picture to draw your animal and the remainder of the page was blank allowing the child space to write about the animal. The average child drew their animal and then wrote maybe two sentences (often with assistance to spell or prompt ideas from the two classroom teachers). Our girls drew their animal and wrote maybe four sentences (using more sophisticated language, spelling and grammar). They got no assistance other than the teacher prompted them to "write one more sentence"--> which they both dutifully did. They brought their report home to me and were beaming with excitement to show me their report. At home that night, I told them I love their report so much that I'd love it if they could write another one for me on a different animanl they saw at the zoo. I produced the same piece of paper and then pretended to be very busy doing the dishes etc and offered no assistance. One girl wrote all about whales (there was no whale at the zoo)in very small text using up every square inch of the paper and proably 10 sentences in total and stating things like it being a carnivore, mammal etc. The other girl wrote about an animal she saw and when she ran out of space asked for more paper and continued on. Meanwhile, I just busily did the dishes and offered no assistance and wasn't asked to either.

The difference in school work versus home work is huge. I just don't get it. Why do they underperform at school? How can I get the teacher to realise that despite their two reports being the best two in the class they were still grossly underperforming? Does it even matter that they underperform, when both thoroughly enjoyed the task and "did well"? Should I be teaching them to self extend and if so how? (I refrained from sayig "wow this report is miles better than what you did in class" but boy did I want to)

Thanks for reading this far

Sounds like you already are teaching them about extending themselves. Would it be good to have them practice it more and then ask them gently why the difference? They probably don't even realise they are doing it.

D15 has always been like that. In school, she does pretty much what she needs to. I think she would feel like she is showing off if she did too much... and she goes to a pretty academically oriented, private college prep school. But she still wants to blend in as best she can.

THINK at Davidson was a great experience for her this last summer, she could accelerate as fast as she was capable of going. She loved it. Sort of like being out on the open road, I guess I notice this fall that she is more ready to extend. For example, she is planning to ask her science teacher to help her register for a science olympiad test, and plans to study on her own for it. I don't think she would have done that last year.