I was upset because in my mind...a reward is a sticker, extra play time, an extra board game....a reward is NOT an educational strategy to help meet the needs of a gifted reader. An educational strategy is what a child should get in order to meet his intellectual needs..it shouldn't be something he earns!
Would love to hear some opinions on the "show" your work/what you know thing when a kid is bored - thanks!
This is such a tough dilemma, especially with a child who's so young.
I agree with you 100% that meeting his educational needs isn't a reward.
You might want write a letter/email (ALWAYS write because a written things can't be ignored) to schedule a meeting with the teacher. Present this reward/needs idea to her in the letter. It might help to contrast with the needs of special ed. children: do they have to have a good day before they're given work at their level, or is behavior a separate issue? Does engaging special ed. kids in the appropriate way help with behavior issues?
IMO, HG+ kids have some crucial things in common with kids who are 2+ standard deviations below the norm. In particular, both groups are so outside the normal range that the usual approaches fail almost every time. It's just that this is less obvious with the gifted kids because they score well on tests.
Someone else pointed out that it takes time for the teacher to get to know each child, which is true. Yet it's important to not let a situation fester, lest the behavior problems get worse. This idea can also go into a letter ("He doesn't want to go to school and I'm very concerned about him. I wanted to try to get your ideas on how his needs can be addressed...."). Working with the teacher as a team, if this approach can work out, will get better results.
I think its hard for someone with no experience of HG+ learners to understand how quickly they learn. From the teacher's perspective, your claims of his abilities might seem ludicrous if she's never seen another child like him. So you might want to come up with a strategy for helping her understand him.
Just my 2c; hope this helps.
Val
