Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Elementary School K 2011-2012

I GIVE UP ! I am so angry right now. I just spoke with the principal.. they will not be moving ds to first grade math. Now they will be doing in class differentiation. I feel as though I have been totally deceived. I would have made different school choices for ds (he was offered a spot at the Chinese immersion school but no acceleration).

Here is the email he sent me today..

Mrs. D.,

After speaking with Mrs. H., who oversees our Gifted Education program, and Mr. V., who oversees our math and science department, they have both recommended differentiation within the classroom. Ds has not been in school for two full weeks yet so we are getting to know him and what his true abilities are in math. Most importantly, we want to see him work in the classroom applying math concepts, not just being able to do math computation. Mrs. P will have a much better feel for this once she works with him more in class. There are many important aspects to the kindergarten classroom and many concepts and skills re interwoven through their day, both academics and social/emotional learning. We will certainly work with you to meet the needs of EJ here in school. Please trust that Ms. P will be doing what is best for EJ based on his daily work and performance in the classroom setting.

If you would like to contact Mrs. H. or Mr. V., I have included them on the email. As always, feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns that you have.

Argh, that must be so annoying given that you carefully considered two choices and the offer of math acceleration was a factor in your decision! I think if it were me I'd be going in with both a smile and a sting - saying that of course you understand the importance of applying maths and of the various K skills, but that the principal will remember having agreed on [date] that [child] would be accelerated to 1st for maths and that this was a major factor in your decision to send him there. I'd copy to the other recipients of this email, so that they all knew the principal explicitly offered this - he may be feeling that he shouldn't have done, and wriggling.

I'd try to leave open, though, the possibility that there really *is* a better option for him than subject acceleration. It may be that the principal said yes because you were keen on it, but that the principal knows less about what will work in the school than these other people do and they may actually have better ideas. My angle: I was quite keen* for my mathy DS to go to a higher class for maths to start with, but in the end I'm glad I let them convince me that it wasn't sensible. In the early years classrooms here, at least, they don't have a fixed timetable that would make it practical to go out for one lesson and come back for something else - he'd perpetually have been coming back in the middle of something. (They have a timetable, but as it's all one teacher, it gets honoured in the breach.) I think that was a major reason why my DS's school weren't keen on the idea, but the effect of the differentiation he got (at school and supported at home) was that within months he was a lot more than one year ahead anyway, which made the whole thing moot. I think subject acceleration would have just left him bored slightly further on, and not solved the problem at all.

*ah, actually, we have archives to keep us honest :-) - seems my feelings at the time were a bit more complicated than that!

This is pretty much what the Montessori school told us. Mr W needed to be more diligent in doing his 10 piece puzzles. (Which he could do at 9 months. ) LOL.

Does the immersion school still have an open slot?

immersion does not.. its a public school in our district. Once we made the decision the spot was given to someone else.

So DS finished his first week of his gifted K. Ive been a wreck with the new logistics but he seems happy that it finally started - for him wondering what will happen is anxiety ridden, actually experiencing is interesting. Which means the days before are a bit stressful but the day of no problem! He seems to like the teachers, the classroom and the building. Only downer, seems the first thing they did involved writing - I think it bummed him out to not lead with his strength - and seems like he avoided doing it because he didn't think it would be good or he needed help spelling. OTOH its good because this is where he is and this was obviously some form of assessment, but OTOH, i suspect he knows he could do better and didn't show that.

For me, seeing the other kids and DS interactions with them was awesome - these are his peeps -as someone said elsewhere today! i know they won't all be friends and he will still have issues but 1 week in, the vibe is so night and day from pre-k its very heartening. Of course, might feel a bit different when i see what they have him reading. I really hope they meet him where he is - today that hope still lives!!

DeHe

Just a vent: we had open house at my DD5's K last night and the only books they have out are "baby books" (big words, few words per page). So far this year they are doing activities like counting to 3 and letters. I guess I knew this would happen, but come on, things that she was doing at one are being done at five? The teacher does try to use my DD5 (has her come up and help with things, but even those things are way too simple for her) and said she asks her harder questions, but who knows what she considers hard. So far my DD5 is happy, and her behavior has been great, and has made a new friend, but they have squeezed crafts, recess, and a relaxed snack time out of their 2.5 hr day and there is a huge class that will be primarily doing academics so we will see if she continues to love it. I think they have been assessing them here and there so maybe things will start to shift by the end of this month but the assessment is even low (letter sounds, identifying letters and other things that even my three year old would find too easy). I wish we had gifted K options somewhere...

These are all things to celebrate and enjoy! Yippee! 2.5 hours is a great amont of time to have school. Now that your daughter is at school, you have more of an opportunity to go and observe a 1st and 2nd grade class. Go watch and see what next year might look like. I predict that she is academically about 3rd grade. Please go and observe and prove me wrong. That will give you enough of an understanding to communicate with the classroom teacher. Which you need to do because...
This usually leads to teachers heaving a sigh of relief and stopping the assesment at the low level because the belief that real kids who have real academic needs at a much higher level just isn't out there. Now - while her behavior is good, is the time to act. First by observing the other grade rooms, and then by setting up a sit down meeting with the kindy teacher and very politely and very insistantly find out if the materials exist to assess your child up to the 4th grade level if needed.

Schools don't really care about IQ and achievement tests because they don't line up 1-1 with the kind of outcomes they are used to caring about - their own assesments and behavior goals.

Some school have a learning specialist who has all the grade materials availible to her for testing, some schools give each teacher the whole kit, some schools the teachers borrow the materials from a teacher of older kids.

One would think that one could show the achievement testing and tell the teacher - hey, get the ball rolling, get the kit for older grades ready when you sit down and don't make my kid go through the whole thing. But that almost never works. Aim for the more achievable goal of finding out how things are done at the school and getting the teacher to commit to going to the next step if your daugher ceiling out on the material on hand.


I promise that those other kids are normal, but it's instructive to wonder - if this is how I feel about those other kids, what must my daughter be thinking? My son was able to articulate that he felt frustration and despair. I didn't (really) think that 5 year olds could possibly feel those things so things had to get a lot worse before they got better at my house. I can be stubborn!

Love and More Love,
Grinity

ds came home with homework yesterday that I wish my dd7 had come home with . I was excited to finally see some differentiation happening for him. His homework was a math worksheet... double digit adding and subtracting with carrying and borrowing! This is a good sign.

MAP testing is this week for him. He tested very strong in the spring against the then kindergarteners (91st percentile math and 79th percentile reading). I am hoping to convince the principal we need the GERT teacher's assistance even though gifted services don't begin until 2nd grade.

Good luck on the MAP testing. Be sure he knows what all the common math symbols look like so he can show all he knows. And let him know that the longer the test goes on, that means the better he is doing so 'finishing last' is the goal.

I'm hoping the results get him all the accomidations he needs!
Grinity

that is awesome for your son, but I am envious since my DD5 came home with worksheets that involve counting to three and circling letters A one week and B the next and she is able to do fractions, starting to multiply, and can read and write at a high level with good handwriting. On top of all that, she is behaving like an angel in class so she is really suprising us all. Maybe it is bad that she is being so good. The teachers have their hands full with some behavior problems and learning disabilities in the class that is twice the size it was last year so do you think they will worry about the child who is helping out and behaving and well beyond the end of year goals? She can be ignored :-( They did have her read for the class, but they picked a super simple book. I am trying to remain positive and not hound them. They met with our tester, saw test results that included achievement above the 99th in both math and reading, but here she is tracing the number three and counting. They keep saying they will start to differentiate them, but so far, I don't see it.