DS7's 3rd grade teacher wants to have a meeting with my husband and I in the next week or two. She wants me to bring written goals for DS7 that we can discuss to make sure we are on the same page.

If a teacher asked you this what would you write???

Hmm. Good question.

I suppose I'd start off with something like "We'd like to work with you to find the most appropriate learning environment for my son."

You might want to provide some basic information about skills he's mastered, what he's doing outside of school, and where he needs work. You could also suggest that the teacher give him a couple end-of-year tests in things he's mastered. You might want to make suggestions here; stick to stuff (initially) that you know he'll do well in ("What do you think about starting with...?")

I say this because teachers probably hear from some or many parents that their kids can skip stuff, when the kids really can't. If you let your son prove --- through her measures --- that he's ready for something more advanced, she'll probably be more inclined to believe you if you come back and say, "And what about...?"

Then have a talk or two with your son about the importance of taking the tests seriously.

Before this school year started, my son's school hired a new math teacher. I told him (gently but matter-of-factly) that she'd probably give him a placement exam on Day 1, and that he needed to prove to her that he could do the stuff she was going to test him on. I explained why the test was important ("You don't want to repeat what you already know."). He surpassed my expectations and really impressed her.

I chatted (even more gently) with my then-four-year-old when they tested her to skip K and part of first, and it worked then too.

HTH,

Val

We wrote that our hope for DS7 this year is for him to be stretched a little more, and start taking more responsibility for himself and his education. This was regarding the under-achieving we saw at his last school. And we also wrote about how he gets fed up easily with drilling things he already knows, and hope that he retains his curiosity and love of learning through being challenged. Blah blah blah.

Best of luck... those meetings can be a bit nerve-wracking...

I think kcab was an excellent starting point. I am keeping those for myself.

I found, as we started grade 1 this year, that placement test is necessary. DD surpassed my expectations. A parent, unless a teacher themselves, really doesn't have the guideline of the curriculum and they should let the teacher know that. Give the teacher her realm of expertise. But where your child should work within the framework should be based on what he/she can handle and a placement test is necessary. Even with reading comprehension. A child can read well but how much are they comprehending. DD likes to do everything fast and when she reads aloud (because she so wants to read to herself) we notice that she will skip over words, treating them as sight words and getting them wrong. Sometimes she goes back, but she loses some of the point in her desire to read quickly.

Her VS giftedness plays itself out that math is way ahead but her spelling is poor. Her oral skills are strong. She is picking up Mandarin and Spanish easily but writing out words is not as strong. So placement testing gives a clear cut way of sorting out what your child needs.

Ren

In my opinion a goal is never complete unless you have some way to measure it. For example, we do family goals each year. Yes, I'm a goal freak! And we put things like by the end of 2011 we will go away on a weeks vacation with the family or by March of 2011 we will get a new flat screen tv.

So for your gifted student maybe by the end of the 2010-2011 school year DS7 will complete all grade requirements for math and reading at level 3. Additionally DS7 will complete at least 25% of grade 4 requirements in math and reading as documented by the teacher. We would like to measure success using CRT and NRT testing with a baseline test and growth of at least 15 months in each subject which is the average for gifted students.

It all depends on what you want and what is appropriate for your child. It also depends on the acutal mandates and laws of your area. I think I saw you were in England which means you are already one year ahead of our area so advancing to the next grades subjects may not be important for you. For us it is of the upmost importance so we can stay competitive with world education.

Good luck and keep us updated

oops. Now I see New England. I'm in a state at the bottom of the list so you are probably still on average a year ahead of us

These are all great suggestions. I would start with "I want DS to be happy in school." In addition to being true, it also touches the goal of most schools that kids' social needs are met. For us, DS6 is happy when he is appropriately challenged.

When we had our meeting when school started, we also stated that we didn't want DS to repeat things that he already did last year. (He switched schools, along with a grade jump, but last year he completed most of 2nd grade math.) To help with this, the school is pretesting DS on each unit and he only stays in the classroom for the parts he needs work on, and the rest of the time he's with the gifted coordinator.)

Because of the grade skip, another one of our goals was to make sure the teachers recognize that he is age-level in some areas (handwriting), but that shouldn't hold him back from things he's ready for (more complex language arts discussions).

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I think I was thinking of writing some of the same things mentioned and not try to get into the details of the curriculum/instructional method.

I really just want DS7 to be happy.
Learning new things usually makes him happy.
Why is that so hard?