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Yippee!

I'm hoping that it's working out in math and science at least. I guess the school doesn't see supporting above level Language Arts as part of it's mission.
Well that depends on what you mean by 'barely moved' do you mean that there is 1 months worth of grown in months, 6 months worth, or 'only' 10 months worth. Due to our OverExcitabilities, lack of Reference, and Outer Directed Perfectionism, some Gifted Parents get all freaked out if there is 'only' 10 months of growth in 10 months. So I'm just checking...even if it's 6 months of growth, given that they isn't any instruction at his readiness level, I wouldn't be upset about the lack of growth. I would still be upset at the wasted time and lack of instruction, but that's a different question, isn't it?


this is an interesting question, and this topic, which carries a lot of emotional baggage for me as a gifted ex-child and as a mother of a gifted child, has been well discussed here in this thread.

For example, I made a consious decision in late high school to use the smallest and simplested words whenever possible because I decided that what I really wanted was to communicate, even though I loved my natural vocabulary, which was chock full of long and interesting and subtle words, I trained myself to really put communication first. I remember when I was just starting to post here, catching myself wanting to use a long word, reflexively substituting a short word, and then telling myself that here, I can post as naturally as possible. I actually had hand sweat while breaking that old habit. Karmically, my husband sort of drifted into the same practice. Guess who doesn't have a terrific vocabulary? DS! Guess what I mean by 'not terrific'? At age 12 he was stumped by more than half of the SAT practice words. LOL - do you think that I'm setting the bar a bit high? Even for a PG boy who is strongest in Vocab? What was it that I said about OEs, lack of reference, and perfectionism affecting our perspective a few paragraphs ago?

So yeah, getting the 4th grade vocab list (and 5th and 6th also, while you are at it) and making those words part of your daily life or part of your afterschooling is good from my perspective. I would encourage you to 'dress it up' and use the vocabulary to learn about something that she is actually interested in, whatever that may be. I'm great at this (as that's how I got through my dull school days) but I know it isn't so easy for other people, so post here what she is intersted and I'll give you 11 ideas, one or two of which might be useful.

But, back to:

I think that it takes 'being a writer' to ultimatly stimulate reading growth. When my son(age 12) and I listen to audio books together, we'll excitedly call out 'amazing word choice' and 'killer opening hook' and'smooth transition sentence' and 'just 5 more minutes - I can't stop now!' DS only knows about word choice and hooks because that's what they taught him in language arts about how to write!

Of course, at age 6 he was a reluctant writer, hated to add details, and the biggest thing that could get him to the stage where he could learn to write was learning to type. I was also a reluctant writer in elementary school, and when I was 12 my mom sent me to summer school at our local high school and I learned to type on a Manual Typewrite. Talk about radicle acceleration. I felt very uncomfortable at first, but I had to be strong, I was escorting 9 year old brother! It was difficult, but it took. I still remember the freedom and excitement of finally being able to get my thoughts down as quickly as they came to me. OK, not really as quickly, but close enough. I can type faster than I can talk.

I'm quite sure that my son's fast typing at age 10 was part of what impressed his private school enough to allow them to gradeskip him. And with the ton of homework they poured on him, the typing really helped, especially since he was too young to stay up till midnight like the other kids in his grade.

Is 5 too young to learn to touch type? Probably to young to succed, but I would still add it to the Afterschooling list. There are lots of programs that teach kids how to touchtype properly. Even if she only learns the homekeys this summer, and can only type 'dad has sad gas. a lad had a sad fad. jass had a gaff laff.' by the end of the summer, that would be amazing.

You can also work on writing by videocaming her telling a story, then typing bits onto paper and having her move the parts around and add to them. Or just sit together at the keyboard and type while she talks. You can post them here, and we will applaud. She can make pictures, or take digital photos. Anyway, I'm a big beliver in reading and writing informing each other.

I also love the books '6+1 Writing Traits' which claims to be teaching writing, but in my mind are teaching those upper level reading skills that are rarely taught to elementary school students.

I can't get into a reading program that asks one to identify the good guy and the bad guy. I mean, is that really a difficult job? If a child can't do it for a book, can they do it for a cartoon? Once the questions become 'Is the good guy completely good?' 'Do you like the good guy?' 'Is the bad guy completely bad?' 'How do you feel about the bad guy?' 'What does the writer do to lead you to feel these ways?' then i start to see the benifit. Even more, I particularly like to compare two books on these questions, perhaps both by the same writer or on the same topic. Isn't it fasinating the Lois Lowrey uses the idea of memories being transfered from one character to another in both 'The Giver' and 'Gossamer.' That's got to be a personal metaphore for how she views her role as a writer, no?

So, for me, the only real question in life is 'how can one person actually understand another person's mind?' so when it comes to reading, after one can decode a fair number of words, the interesting question is 'how can reading this book help me understand the writer's mind?' - 'What do the writer's choices say about the way her mind experiences living?'



While I totally love your 'experimental' approach to this frustration, I wonder if you'd be better off saying to the 4th grade teacher: 'I have this vauge feeling that DD needs a bigger challenge in reading next year. Can you help me with the specifics? What reading skills to you measure to judge if a student needs more challenging work?'

Ah, the direct approach!

Love and More Love,
Grinity