Hello,
Last night I attended my DD5's school open house. She has just started Senior Kindergarten (we live in Ontario Canada.)

Her teacher pulled me aside and said that she had started evaluating DD's reading level in class. The evaluation started at level 6 (the expected level for children entering grade one) She had to stop the evaluation at level 12 due to time constraints. DD said all the books were too easy. I'm not familiar with guided reading levels, but I know DD reads books that are grade 2 and up at home.

The teacher then recommended a math game for DD to try and advised me to skip the grade one level because it would be very easy for her. Her teacher went so far as to say that DD is ready to go to grade one now. However, there was no mention of moving her to a grade one class.

I also had a chat with her ECE who recommended that we try to get her into French immersion next year. She said DD would probably be bored in grade one and that French Immersion would be a great choice for her as she already has very strong language skills and can read.

I'm happy to see that her teachers are cluing into the fact that she is way ahead of the expectations - I told them last year that she could read fluently but they kind of brushed it off. I'm also worried about grade one next year. From my own experience with her and hearing the reports from her teachers it looks like she's already mastered a lot of the grade one curriculum.

Has anyone had any experience with French Immersion in Ontario? I've heard that a lot of people are treating Immersion like a gifted program. We are just not sure what to do!

Thanks!

Hi there

It sounds like you are where we were a few months ago!

My DS(6) was identified as gifted during SK. He has just started grade 1 FI, and my DD is in the same school in a higher grade.

Luckily, our school board has a congregated gifted program starting in grade 1. However we opted to give the FI a try, as DS is good with languages and DD loves the program and her school. It was a tough decision, but we really wanted him to have a chance to learn a second language (and be at the same school as DD).

He has an IEP and his teachers are supposed to be providing differentiation in areas he is advanced in. It hasn't happened yet, but it's early in the year and I know they are drafting the IEP.

In my ideal world he would actually be starting grade 2 this year, but when we asked about this possiblity we got blank stares back. This is apparently not done at our school board.

So far the FI seems to be going well - he is enjoying learning French. Last night he was working with DH on adding 2-digit numbers in French, and I've already had little conversations with him in French. DH and I were discussing last night that he may pick it up too quickly and become bored. At least we have a backup plan - we can always switch him to the congregated gifted if his FI school doesn't manage to keep him engaged.

For your DD, I would keep working with the teachers on getting her books appropriate to her reading level, and math work at her level. Are there any gifted programs at your school board? It would be worth finding out so you know what the options are. Also, I believe you can ask for an IEP to be put in place even without formal testing and identification.

If there are no gifted programs available for your DD, you could give the FI a try. The School Resource teacher at my DS's school told us that it works well for many gifted kids.

If you have any questions, let me know.

Since you haven't received many answers yet, I'll tell you about our experience (although not with an immersion school). My son just turned 5...and is trilingual. Multilingualism has been a gift for us, as it is keeping his brain busy (or at least busier than it would otherwise be). He is now reading in 3 languages, and certainly beyond K level in at least two of the languages (we just started reading in the 3rd language more seriously a month or so ago - and he is quickly catching up). I am not sure how long immersion will keep your LO busy (languages come so quickly to kids this age, and probably especially to our kids), but it would likely be great for a year or two. I'd probably start with the immersion school, and move on to the gifted school once that starts to fail (which I suspect it will, unless the school is open to accomodations), and then reinforce his language skills at that pint via meetups/ Saturday classes for native speakers or summer camps etc.

One of the issues I have heard and read about with regard to foreign language immersion programs for gifted kids is that the foreign language is an additional factor holding typical kids back, but not gifted kids, who tend to be ready soon for advanced work in the foreign language as well. So unless the program is aimed at and taught to advanced-to-gifted6 kids, the mismatch between the level the class is working at and the level your kid would need to work at can be even greater in a language immersion program. On the other hand, language immersion only for the advanced to gifted cohort in combination with an advanced curriculum also for the target language tends to work very well.
Unless the FI classes are (officially or unofficially) aimed at that cohort, you may run into problems with curriculum mismatch fairly soon.

It depends.

I grew up out west in a city where it was rare to do FI. In that case the kids that went there weren't the kids that were struggling in school so in a way it acted as an unofficial bright/gifted magnet school. Kids that struggled in FI left or didn't try it to begin with.

I now live in a very bilingual city where FI is VERY popular so it doesn't quite the same effect. Some kids do opt out but we still have ~2/3rds of kids in FI.

My kids are grade 3 and grade 1. My oldest is gifted/LD and HATES french. He is very math/science oriented and I don't think languages come easy for him (maybe related to the LD stuff??). My youngest is untested and absolutely adores French. She is picking it up very easily and at least there is something for her to learn at school. For DS I would pick congregated gifted over FI in a heart beat but for DD (if she is gifted) it might get us by for a couple years but she does still complain about the repetition and that things are too easy. So much depends on the kid, the teacher and classmates. Our experience with differentiation in a classroom is that it hasn't happened despite what they keep promising.

Thanks for your responses!

You've definitely given me a different angle to consider here: Once DD becomes comfortable with expressing herself in French we will still have to deal with the possibility of the general curriculum being too easy. I am keen on giving her exposure to a second language though and am considering enrolling her for the first couple of years as many of you suggested.

Our board has a three tiered system of Gifted Education: Differentiation, In school Enhanced Placement, and Enhanced Placement Classes. Chay, I understand where you are coming from in terms of the promises of differentiation. Her teacher is a fantastic person and I can see her trying to differentiate. However,I feel that most of these attempts at differentiation involve me after schooling - which, for the record, I don't have a problem doing.

I know she's got her hands full with a class of almost 30 kids but it would be nice if DD could learn something during the school day - she doesn't go there just so I can have a break. I don't understand why, if they recognize that she's ahead, that they don't just provide her with the correct material - just like if she was experiencing a delay in an area (which she does have a lag with fine motor) they would provide appropriate practice/work to help with the delay. Okay vent over I'm sure you all understand.

Thanks again. I'll be looking into getting her an IEP and into enrolling into Immersion.

Good luck! Let us know how it goes.

Strong agree with all the above. For most kids that young, they're sponges for immersion, whether gifted, LD, both or neither. (But for some in all categories, it just doesn't work, and it's not obvious why.)

EFI is not a gifted program, and is supposed to be equally as accessible to all as the regular program. So at best, EFI is a temporary diversion if gifted programming is not available, but it's not a substitute. Speaking from our (Ottawa) experience, by grade 2, you will still have the same challenges in the classroom with depth, pace, and peers. Our school/ board has a death-before-acceleration philosophy, and differentiation is pretty rare, though we've had some amazing teachers.

I'm a huge fan of early second language learning, so if your DD is happy in her school and with her peers, go for it. But if she's having a hard time fitting in and seems to really need a congregated setting, an EFI program isn't going to fill that need.

Hope this helps! Good luck.

Learning another language is great but it doesn't make grade 1 maths more interesting. It also will mean she can't read realling interesting books at school for a while. It will distract for a while though unless languages are difficult for him in which case it may just annoy.

We ended up pulling out of a French immersion program because once our son learned the language (in K) the curriculum was too easy for him. And since they hired teachers whose greatest asset was that they spoke French, we felt they couldn't really implement an accelerated math curriculum (whereas somebody who was primarily a math teacher probably could have). They seed to feel French was enough enrichment, which was definitely not true. Now he is in a school for eg kids and loving it. I think it depends on how gifted your child is (ours had a gifted program for mg kids) and what the school offers, but a language alone doesn't seem to come close to challenging these kids.

Thank you for that perspective. DH is very concerned that she will not get the appropriate level science/math instruction in Immersion. We only ever hear the good side about immersion from her teachers so this helps to balance out the info we are getting.

Can2K I've sent you a PM.