Hello!
I am completely new to this forum and came across it while looking for additional resources and guidance.
My DS1, age 5 1/2, attends full-time public kindergarten. Since early own, he has shown that he has a great memory, learned upper and lower case alphabet very early (I know he was spelling out his name with capital and lower case letters before age 2), and became an early reader. He has been reading very well since age 4, and at my best guess, currently reads at the 2nd grade level or so. He has a very photographic memory. He went through a phase when he was 3 when he liked to spell everything backwards, his ABC's, his name, etc. He loves non-fiction material, reading about dinosaurs, space, ocean creatures, etc.
So fast forward to Fall 2010, when he is enrolled in FT public kindergarten in a very highly regarded school (good test scores). His kindergarten class has been working on learning their ABC's, learning their shapes, patterning, sorting, etc. I am concerned about whether he is being challenged and am trying to figure out what questions to ask.
I had a parent-teacher conference in November, and didn't come away with a satisfactory understanding as to how he was doing or whether they were making any accommodations to keep him challenged. His teacher showed me that they did an AIMS-web test, testing "Letter Naming Fluency" and that he had tested above their "target box." She definitely didn't make it sound like it was a big deal at all. At that point, I found out that the k-kids are assigned to reading groups, and that he was in the reading group of a different teacher.
I contacted that teacher, and inquired about whether there was any testing that she had where we could test his current reading level, both to see where he's at, and to follow his progress. She responded last week that she wasn't aware of anything for kindergarteners, she would "ask around," and I haven't heard back.
So I thought the best way for me to perhaps get the understanding of curriculum that I was seeking was to inquire about scheduling a visit during the class day to observe some of the sessions like Math and Language Arts. His kindergarten teacher responded that they do not like to have visitors as it is too disruptive. She said from time to time, there are special projects where she is looking for parent volunteers, and when one comes up, she will "let me know!" So I'm getting just a little frustrated here. I didn't want to go to the room to watch them work on a craft project, I want to understand their curriculum....want to make sure that my son is being challenged and that they have accurately identified his skills. He brings home books that they are reading along the lines of "My tree. This tree is big. This tree is brown."
I live in downstate IL (not Chicago area), and am struggling to find out what kind of resources are available. I really feel like the school is blowing me off. Since he is my oldest, I don't feel like I know the right questions to ask or how to ensure his needs are being met. Any thoughts or guidance would be appreciated!!!
