So we have another meeting set up for Friday. It will be attended by the gifted teacher (the class is a mix of gifted/high achiever children who are with her all day), the gifted specialist at our school and the director of the gifted program for the school district. Apparently there is a special schedule the teacher should be following for a faster pace math class, but she has not been following as she didn't know about it and even now doesn't think the class can move at such a fast pace. We will also discuss the teacher's use of language art material that is geared at the 4th grade level (which is the class that my DD8 is in), rather than using an advanced curriculum for 4th. This leads me and my husband to believe that basically all 4th grade classes are doing very similar work so there isn't much differentiation in this gifted class from a regular 4th grade class. We are hoping for good things to come out of this meeting, but are a bit worried about alienating the teacher as she is all we have for the rest of the school year.
Our school doesn't have any staff that would be able to pull a group of children together for advanced math, reading or any other subject. I wonder though if like at kcab school, our person who works with the lower performing students could also work with the higher performing students? The teacher did suggest to me that I could come in and work "math type" puzzles with a group of children, such as sudoko, but that would just be an enrichment activity not really teaching new math concepts or moving along at a faster pace.
The gifted director seemed to feel like it was basic to give her an assessment, see where she was at, and then teach to her on that level. If only it was that simple. Fingers crossed for Friday. Any words of wisdom to help our meeting go smoother are appreciated.
Thanks!
