They are going to do higher level thinking activities with her and a couple other kids in the class. Take ideas they are already doing and just give more project based activities. It is mostly going to come in the form of learning centers.
I wonder if they're going to try to use Susan Winebrenner's methods. If so, you might want to check out her book, "Teaching Gifted Kids in the Regular Classroom."
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_s...ing+gifted+kids+in+the+regular+classroom That is what our relatively small parochial school has implemented in DS9's classroom in response to our request for differentiation for him. This year has been his best ever, but he also happens to have a fabulous teacher this year. If the Winebrenner methods are implemented well, I believe it
can be enough for a gifted child, even a HG/PG one, but there are a lot of things to be concerned about with this approach. We're in the midst of this experience, so I'll share my current thoughts, in case you might find them useful.
I see several potential problems with this type of in-class differentiation.
1) Will it be
enough for your DD? That's really the question, although I can almost guarantee that it will not be what your DD is capable of learning. For DS, it has been enough for us to see some progress, but he still has a lot of the same problems with challenge that we saw previously. Certainly, it's better, but the jury is still out as to whether it's
enough (in lots of ways IYKWIM).
2) If the school goes this route and you stick around, I suggest you set up a meeting about halfway through each school year to discuss the following year's plan. This type of differentiation is very teacher-centric, and you'll want to understand what next year's teacher is going to do early enough to change course if needed.
3) How far apart is your DD from the other kids who will be included in her differentiation group? If there are miles of difference, she'll still be having the same issues, just in a slightly different setting. This is where we got lucky (in addition to this year's teacher) in that DS has one good friend in class who is close to his LOG.
4) For which areas of study will these "higher level thinking activities" be offered? In our school, while we are pleased that they're making progress, the diffentiation is really only for Math, Spelling and Language Arts, which is unfortunate.
That's what I came up with for now. Feel free to PM me if you have specific questions. If you think that this method is similar to what the school is proposing, let me know and I'll try to think of our other concerns about this and post them.
Sending good thoughts your way!
