Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Finally a chance to talk - PT Conference

This is just a thought. When my DS was in 1st grade, his teacher kept telling me what a poor writer he was. Granted, it has never (and still isn't) his thing. Finally, at the end of the year when I insisted on a meeting to plan for 2nd grade, the teacher finally gave us some insight on the writing. "Well", she said, "If I ask him to write four sentences, that's what he writes. Everyone knows that if a child is gifted, he'll write more than what is required." Huh? She never told him she expected more. He was following her directions. Just to say that what this teacher is expecting might be different than what others expect so you might want to ask her to clarify what part of writing is not up to par. Hope that makes sense.

Sounds like a very productive meeting, otherwise.

Thank you all for your responses and encouragement. I apologize for all of the typos/omissions.

MON, after reading what you wrote about the actual requirements for the writing curriculum I believe that DS5 probably has accomplished all of those. I will be doing some further reading before our next talk.

I do volunteer in DS's class. I would say that his writing is at least on par with the higher students in his class when looking at the curriculum parameters but he is slower, messier, and only writes exactly what he is asked to.

NOW for the exciting update!!!

While waiting to pick DS up from school I happened to check my email. The following is the email sent by his principal after last nights conference. I guess you all were right about it being a successful meeting.

Ms. E,

You are correct that it was a long day for all of us and we have another long day today as well. Everyone will be eager for an extended break starting on Wednesday. We hope you enjoy your Thanksgiving.

As I stated in the conference, our team will be continuing to discuss ways to challenge DS. Ms. S asked Ms. I, one of our GT teachers to meet with DS today. They met briefly and she will follow up on Monday with him as well to establish some new homework expectations. She also gave him a learning journal, challenged him to ask questions of others about their interest, to be open to the fact that he can continue to learn from him Kindergarten classmates, and that it's okay to not know everything.

In addition she established some optional vacation goals. Our hope is that you can support us at home by encouraging him to ask questions of others, specifically about others interest and passions, and that DS can use this to begin to explore new topics or things he may not know already. Again, the vacation challenge is not required.

My thought is that since we just met yesterday that we reconnect as a team the week of December 10th. This will give our team time to talk after Thanksgiving, as well as implement next steps we determine to support DS's academic and social growth. Thank you for continuing to work with us!

Principal



DS was very excited as he told me that he had actually been given something to study, Antarctica! The GT teacher also sent Because of Winn-Dixie home for him to read. I am all of sudden filled with hope!

Take this small piece of advice with a grain of salt, because it's coming from a parent of a 2e child who is dysgraphic - but fwiw, here goes!

It sounds like it's not the *content* of his written expression that is in question, but the quality of his handwriting. This is something you should be able to argue shouldn't hold him back from accessing appropriate intellectual curriculum for LA/Social Studies/Science/whatever. If his handwriting is slow, you can ask that he be allowed to scribe, or provide verbal responses. You could start having him learn to type at home and then *if* you hear this same argument next year or the year after, you can argue that he types faster than he can use handwriting and he should be allowed to type in the classroom.

You can also measure his handwriting speed at home: give him something straightforward to either copy or write from memory like the alphabet and time how long it takes him to write it, then divide to get the # of letters per minute. You can google "letters per minute + grade level" and get ballpark ideas for what is considered a typical range. If your ds is far behind the range that is typcial for his grade, suggest that he be allowed to scribe.

I would also watch for things that might indicate possible dysgraphia - although it's usually not recognized until 2nd grade *and* I really doubt that what you are seeing is more than typical development, there is a chance that the messiness and slow writing might be related to dysgraphia, particularly since it seems to be out-of-sync with his other academic development. Look for things like reversed letters, inconsistent spelling that varies even on the same page or in the same sentence. Is there inconsistent spacing between letters/words etc? Is he using capital letters and puncutuation appropriately (after he's been taught how to use them)?

polarbear