I am curious to hear what you guys think of this situation.

My DS is in first grade. They have a weekly book journal where they read a book and then write a summary and draw a picture. His teacher gives him books that are far below his reading level, but appropriate for first graders. At home, he reads books like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Diary of a Wimpy Kid by himself. This has been an ongoing issue, but we've been quiet about it because my son really needs to work on his handwriting. The quality of books has always been poor quality and at best a 3rd grade level. Today, however, was the last straw when I saw what she had given him to read - Thomas the Train! I couldn't believe it and my son was super upset about it. It's almost insulting when we are reading "George's Cosmic Scavenger Hunt" by Lucy and Stephen Hawking and she gives him something his 3yo sister would enjoy. It might be ok for some 6yo's, but not this one.

I want to completely rebelling from this silliness by asking her to not even bother giving him a book. He can just write a journal based on what he is already reading. I am not sure there is a graceful way to handle this. This situation just makes me so upset that she can't even pick an appropriate book for him to read. Have any of you been in a similar situation? What did/would you do

The very first thing I would do is talk to him about it. Is he insulted, or are you? What does he think his teacher would do if he asked to change the assignment? Would he like to talk to her, or would he like you to?

If he doesn't like the books he's getting, I might treat that as an opportunity for learning self-advocacy. "Teacher, I wrote the book summary you asked me to, but the book was really boring. Can I do this one next week?"

I assume Thomas the Train is Thomas the Tank Engine ? (sometimes books that sound the same as ours aren't - eg Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone confused me for a while because it is not called that here and the words aren't to my mind interchangeable.

Diversion over. If they are then it might be OK if it were one of the originals though still maybe not to his taste. Unless tge teacher is unapproachable it would not be rude or rebellious to just ask if he could bring in a book from home.

There is, of course, much more to this story. We've been back and forth with this teacher a few times. First, he tried to talk to her, then we stepped in to try and make sure he has books to read that are appropriate for him. We began the year with him taking in his own books, but she refused to let him read anything from home. She is not unapproachable, but won't accommodate him being more than one grade level ahead. There's nothing on file about what grade level he is actually at except his reading class which is he just finished the 2nd grade reading books. It's beyond frustrating to be ignored.

The book journal is a weekly homework assignment that he has to complete at home. I am just done with trying be polite about it. DS lit up when I told him he could write about the book we are reading. "You mean I can write about Dark Matter and Mars instead of talking trains?"

Puffin, this is Thomas the Tank, one in the same. My son never liked the show, but we had a couple books when he was 2-3. He associates it with being a toddler, so it was upsetting to him to be a first grader reading a "baby book".

I am only insulted by the fact that his teacher insists on him doing busy work that is well below what he is capable of doing and knows this is the case. It defeats the purpose of school being a place to learn. We've tried to be cordial about it and work with her. When do you say enough is enough?

I don't imagine my 6 year old would be that impressed either. I just suspect that the Rev. A (can't remember the full name) originals may, unlike all the modern imitations, actually at what the consider above grade level as far as language complexity (like A A Milne vs Disney versions of Pooh etc. Not for subject matter though. Tell him summer is coming and he should have a new teacher next year? We just started our year here and it is so nice not to have to deal with the teacher he had last year.

We had a situation like this with last teacher (except the problem is math--she was giving him 5+2 math when he is already capable of long division). At the beginning of the year, with the principal present, she agreed to give him harder math, including harder math homework. It just never happened. The more I asked (nicely) about it, the more stubborn she became until she wouldn't talk about it at all. She did not give any differentiated work in class or even enrich the first grade math.
I ended up pulling DS out of the school, which was an option for us due to open enrollment. I wasn't going to deal with a teacher who wouldn't even communicate with me.
New teacher--totally different, said yesterday "He WILL NOT be bored in math from now on." LOL. She saw his achievement scores (since she has a master's in special ed she actually understands the Woodcock Johnson) and gave him harder math on day 1.
So just so you know what can happen. If she won't comply, then what? Are you Ok with still sending him there? It's sad that parents have to even consider what they will do if teacher ignores reasonable requests or becomes passive-aggressive.

We had this very problem last year in k. I finally told the teacher that he was refusing to "read" the baby books. She then agreed to whatever I saw fit and let me send in books. He also had taken the Star test to get an AR level which put him 3-4 grade by November.

If she not not willing to help (as you've said you and your ds have tried), you need help from someone else- maybe the principal.

I'll be honest, even the principal didn't want to listen until we had outside testing results. My other comment is that experience with that teacher really hurt his self- esteem. It can be very detrimental to a young child to deal with, especially because they don't have the skills to deal with it.

Tell your ds you are working to help the situation. He needs to know you are trying. It's just a fine balance between support your child and not disrespecting the teacher (atleast in front of your dc).

Good luck! Keep us posted!

Yes, I have been in a similar situation. Last year when DS was 6 and in first grade, we had almost the same situation in math and reading. His teacher was very nice when I spoke with her. She would accommodate him once after each request, and then never again. The same thing happened even after we had DS tested and we brought his test scores and evaluation to school. Bottom line - she, and the school just didn't care about meeting his needs.

This year, DS is 7 and in second grade. Last year, we were able to make some progress at school and were able to get some accommodation. He was accelerated 3 years ahead in math. For some reason, at the start of this school year, the principal did not want to continue with DS's acceleration. So, before school started we had a meeting. She said that DS would be in an enrichment group in his grade, and that he would be able to work 3 years ahead with this group. After a few weeks of school passed, I found out that DS was receiving NO accelerated work. He was supposed to be in 5th grade math, but they had him doing 2nd grade enrichment math (which included throwing paper airplanes and measuring with a yard stick had far they had flown). I was livid when I found out! The principal and teacher had been lying to us. So began our "rebellion" (although we are not rebelling at all - we are simply meeting our son's educational needs). When I found out that DS was not being accelerated in math I simply told the teacher and principal that DS is to no longer do any math work that his teacher assigns. I began sending in math work from home. The school was quiet and let him work on it at school.

Also, it was at this point that we started to partially homeschool DS. It just seemed like a waste of time to go back and forth battling with the school over every subject. Ultimately, DS was put back in 5th grade math. We homeschool all other academic subjects. The plan for us is to continue this arrangement for one and half more years. Then DS will attend a local private school.

I have to say, though, that I still encounter a lot of hostility from the teachers and principal at DS's school. There is a lot of passive aggressive behavior on the part of the school. Our particular school has a real dislike for gifted kids. It appears to be a cultural thing among the staff, led by the principal. It's not easy for me sometimes when dealing with staff. The staff continues to make all sorts of sideways comments like, "Does DS get a chance to be a kid at home or does everything have to be challenging for him there too?" (The funny thing is that the 5th grade math class is not THAT challenging for DS. But they see us as tiger parents and not much, apparently, is going to change their view of us. Even when DS reportedly skips upstairs to his accelerated math class because he is THAT excited to be learning something at his level.) But DS really likes the current arrangement, he is happy and thriving so we will continue like this.

Presuming you are in the public school district, I think you should contact the GATE coordinator for your school and work with them to work with the teacher.

Yes, I have been in a similar situation. And I am not the one to cause a fuss my son always is... He is not easy going and certainly would balk at Thomas the Train. He has always hated Thomas and Thomas books so this would have been especially problematic. It has been a problem for us since kindergarten. However, it has always been the 'independent reading' time. Anyway, I tell the school I am sending in books for him. I spend so much time and money finding books at approx. his level (according to the school) that are also his interest level and satisfy his craving for challenge. Last year - teacher was easy-going and flexible and it wasn't much of a problem. This year the teacher is more into teaching "obedience" rather than "reading" and kicked up a fuss. I finally put my foot down and just told them I'm sending in books and the\y need to just deal with it. They (teacher AND principal!) kept arguing with me and I just kept saying over and over "I am sending in books and DS is not to be punished for that." I explain that it's not costing the school anything, it's not only no using school resources but contributing and clearly what I do works because my son's reading scores are the highest in his class and continue to go up. I had to repeat this ad nauseam at the last meeting. Their only argument that had any teeth was that they feel uncomfortable because other kids will not be able to read those books but we told them we would absolutely make them available to others and/or donate the books... however, the fact that no one else is on DS reading level and therefore not permitted to read the books DS is reading anyway whether school-provided or parent-provided makes their point moot anyway. That's what I am doing. The school hates me but they hated before this anyway. Really it makes no sense. Anyway, that's what I did. Good luck. It wasn't easy!

REBEL! This is ridiculous. lol. My son who is currently in Kindergarten (this is not my gifted kid...but he is bright) reads 2 years above grade level. THANKFULLY, they use the "AR" program at school...so when I said he needed harder books the teacher was willing to let him try a second grade level and let him stay there once he passed a few AR tests. So far he has taken about 10 and gotten 100 every time...so we are good. He can certainly choose to read easier books when he would like to, but he does not want to and I am glad he has a supportive teacher. BUT....if that had not been the case, I would have gone to the principal and district if need be. One of the jobs of a teacher is to provide rigorous instruction and practice. a book a year or two below where a student is...not rigorous.

Has he ever been giving a reading assessment like DRA or taken the online assessment in AR or STAR?

I like your original proposal. Since this is an assignment your DS is doing at home, you can let him do it on the books he's reading at home. Then just sit back and wait until the teacher decides to complain.


This is where my strategy of pruning bad arguments by refocusing on the school's mission comes in very handy: "My child does not come to school to make other children feel comfortable. My child comes here to learn."

Personally, I would just have him read what he wants and do the report on that, and send it in as if that were what he had been assigned. We did that with math worksheets when DS was in 2nd grade -- only a couple of weeks of that, and the teacher told us that she wasn't expecting him to do those worksheets that he brought home, it was just habit to give one to every kid.

We had this same issue, but with homework assignments. It was a hot mess at our house every night. I finally email the teacher and explained that homework was taking 2 damn hours every night because of the book selection, and could he just use whatever book he was already reading? Thankfully she had no issue with it!

We had this issue in 1st...in fact, after reading your post I looked at your location to see if you might be talking about the same teacher. We're not, which means there is more than one. Sigh.

Ours was in-class work, and when I talked to her she claimed that DS was not reading for comprehension, but only decoding so she wanted him to go down a couple of reading levels to make sure he could comprehend. Problem was, it was so simplistic he was getting frustrated with the questions because they were so obvious that he was having "but that couldn't possibly be the answer, it's too obvious" problem and getting stuck. And he found a couple of the books to be embarrassing.

We went back and forth on it for a while, with the teacher insisting I was overestimating his abilities, until finally I realized he wasn't being graded on any of it that it was actually the "enrichment, providing depth and complexity" that is promised in the TAG program. HA! (that is not the humorous "ha", but rather a disgusted one).

We rebelled and I told him not to worry about it anymore. That I knew it was frustrating and that as long as he was keeping up with reading at home, it was fine.

Obviously, there were more issues with this teacher. This was really only the tip of the iceberg. Thankfully, the administration was both willing and able to help us out, so we ended up having an OK year in the end.

I like your idea of having him review the books he's reading at home. I think that sends a powerful and, hopefully, constructive message.

At the end of the day, I think the real issue lies with assigning the kids a specific book. Why can't these teachers let them choose a book? Would the sky fall on their heads? I guess they don't want to risk having to read something new in order to grade the work...

Seriously. It's is so weird.

This has been our M.O. on pretty much every open-ended, "student determined" assignment-- right from the start.

So this is how my DD wound up discussing Langston Hughes' poetry in 3rd grade... even though it was (technically) a selection for middle school GT, reading middle and high school books in 6th grade for reports... doing research at the local university library for a 10th grade world history research project, etc. etc.


We just pretend like we "misunderstood" the directions. Whoopsie. Stupid us.

This is exactly what DS had to do last year in second grade. Each week they were given a book to read and had to do a one page worksheet on it. Except the books they started with were *below* 2nd grade reading level!

We eventually struck a deal with the teacher that he could read other, more reading-level-appropriate books, instead. We chose stories from D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths; they were relatively short, interesting to DS (who was currently immersed in Percy Jackson), and at a much higher reading level.

Of course, DS still didn't want to do the assignment, but at that point it didn't matter.

We rebelled and homeschool now.

Seriously, though, I would ask the teacher if your DS can write his journal on something else. I think the point of the exercise when they're this young is to learn to write a summary of a book, not necessarily the books themselves.

To be fair, imagine you're a teacher with 30 students, each of whom might be reading something you may never had read before. How would you know if they are doing a good job in writing a summary? I think (most) teachers love reading new books, but I can see how the logistics of obtaining the books and reading them *each week* might be difficult.

But a parent of a child you are trying to accommodate might be willing to "grade" the summary for the teacher.

This is one con for differentiation and why sending a child to a higher grade is easier on teachers.

Wish me luck! We shall see what transpires! I also scheduled a parent/teacher conference with her to discuss homework in general. She probably will hate me after this, but I'm the only one that is going to advocate for him. It's my parental duty and right to ask that he complete to the best of his ability and not to the best of what is available through the class.

My son's class is 22, so I totally understand she is doing the best she can. I do a weekly Jr First LEGO League with four energetic 6 year olds. It is hard to work the middle between the kids that can't read/write well yet and the kids that can read/write. They are all kindergarteners except my son who is in first grade. It is easy to forget to challenge the kids that can for fear of alienating the ones that can't.

The time from ages 5-7 where kids are so all over the map. I truly believe age grouping does a disservice to many children who are capable of so much more than their age implies. This also is a disservice to the teachers when they can't must cater to the lowest group. I mean are there groups that complain that teachers are moving too fast? I'd like to find one!

Very good points! I will absolutely grade the work if that is what I need to do for this to be successful. She never truly grades his work. It is more for completion. At best, he gets a star and some small edits marks for capitalization or punctuation.

I usually have him proofread and correct before he hands it in, so it won't be that much different. If I need to write a more in-depth summary so she can check for comprehension, I'm down for that too.

Just an update on this in case anyone is interested. The "rebellion" worked! My son did his longest book journal entry to date. I wrote the teacher a note to accompany his journal when he turned it in on Friday. She returned the journal the following Monday with a note back saying we can use our own books. Yay!

Since then, we had a parent teacher conference. She also agreed to let us determine the homework he is doing instead of what she sends home. I agreed to grade it for her. My son was grinning from ear to ear that he could turn in more challenging homework. Since then, we've been turning in crossword puzzles and 3rd grade math worksheets. We've been learning about the Titanic with the Kids Discover magazine and using the worksheets you can download to accompany them. No more adding dominos or counting coins like they have done all year long. Who knew that just controlling the homework aspect would be such a relief! It is about 2 hours of work every week, so I'm happy to spend that time helping him learn.

Her attitude was so different from our last conference. I'm happy it was different. I guess she just needed more time to spend around him. There wasn't any doubt about his giftedness this time. Whew! I feel way better about the last 10 weeks of school!

Congratulations!

Yay! That's great

So happy to hear!

Good for you!!!!!