Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy successful science advocacy ideas?

Hi
Going to talk to the school about my DYS DS and science. He could work further ahead in all his subjects but science is his passion. He is in 1st grade, but in an accelerated gifted school, so doing second and some third grade work and they get science a few times a week. He will have the same science teacher for several years. Obviously do not want to alienate the science teacher. Will start the conversation with his regular teacher not the science teacher.

Has anyone had success with differentiation? WHat did you ask for, what did you get. I think DS could do the science of middle school - but he has an IEP and gets OT so note taking, and even lab work might be an issue.

Any hope here? Ideas, thoughts are welcome. Thanks!

DeHe

I think it is a great idea to meet with the regular teacher as a stepping stone to meeting with the science teacher (it is awesome that your school has a science teacher!). Tell her/him what you posted here, that science is his passion and that he is able and eager to go beyond the current curriculum. I would try to steer the conversation to have a collaborative tone - ask both for recommendations on how to support his interests at home AND in school.

(FWIW, our kids are now in middle school, and we've been able to nurture their interests in science despite minimal help from their schools. (Wordsearches as a science instructional tool in 6th grade? Really?) We provided books (our kids loved "Horrible Science" books - they were reread many times), a steady stream of science related news articles relevant to their interests, science activities at home, science museums, science camps, etc.)

Do you have any reason to believe that the science teacher would be against differentiation? I know that when my DD was in elementary, it was her science teacher who saw her "giftedness" and gave her different types of questions to answer when doing work, or expected more out of her answers than she did from other students in class, and she was in a gifted magnet program. Even with this, we are in the lucky position of both DH and I are science teachers by trade, so we can easily fulfill her never ending list of questions about things.
Since I know most people aren't in our position, I would suggest trying to find a local college student or high school student to act as a mentor if the teacher is unwilling or unable to differentiate.
However, to start with, you could always ask for extension questions from the current topic/lab activity for him to do at home, or to complete in class if he finishes the work given.Often times the extension questions are given in the teacher's editions of the books so it wouldn't be too difficult for the teacher to put something together for him. Since your school has a specific person teaching science rather than the regular classroom teacher, I would hope that this person is actually a science teacher and as such would have a bunch of these sorts of things hanging around their closets waiting to be used. (I know I have tons of them)
Good luck!

Thanks amylou and Kerry. This is my first time doing advocacy for differentiation and I am nervous because its not clear what the science teacher thinks. I think the whole class should be doing a lot more, and I want to bring that up but that's elsewhere and will likely take longer because that is curriculum argument. In terms of DS, what they do is so basic and he is so crazy far ahead that I'm just unsure. They make things and do incredibly basic experiments - science kit type things, so I'm not sure what they would do for him. But what DS explicitly says when it comes up which is not often, is that everything's predictable he wants to learn something new. But he also refuses to advocate for himself correctly seeing that he doesn't want to tell the science teahcer he thinks he know more than him, LOL I just don't know whats possible.i wold love it if he could go to the middle school, and the other science teachers.i just feel like the science teacher is an elementary teacher not a science teacher if that makes sense. The things that concern me are:

Offending the teachers
Giving him more not deeper or new work

I did think his main teacher would be the place to start but I am not even sure how much she has shown him. His K teacher started out wondering if he belonged there and by the end wrote his rec for DYS. So I am not sure the current teacher "sees" all of him. Then again she is a gifted vet and fabulous. So maybe she does. Fingers crossed!

DeHe

I totally share your anxiety about advocacy. A couple of thought based on my experiences:

1) How you approach the teachers can make a difference. My bet is that if you raise the topic from the perspective of your son's passion for science, they will be supportive, not offended. I imagine that even in a gifted school, there is a big range of abilities and interests and the level they are teaching science at may well be a good match for the average student in that class. I suggest meeting with the main teacher and science teacher together if possible. If you tell them that your son loves science and has been asking for more, I don't think they can take offense at that. I would work in this way first to get them on board with the notion of differentiation (although I might avoid being the one to introduce that word) and then once they're on board, stay in the loop on deciding what that differentiation will look like.

2) You could even ask for a follow up meeting after they've had a chance to think about differentiation options. I think it is a good advocacy strategy to give the teachers some space to brainstorm solutions - they will likely appreciate having their expertise acknowledged in this way. If you disagree with any of their proposed differentiation strategies, you may be able to object without offending by talking about what would work best for your son. You know your son better than they do, so while something (for example, extra inane worksheets) might work well for some students, you can say that it may not be the best match for his _____(fill in the blank -- "learning style," "disposition," etc.). Keep the discussion focussed on what will feed his love of science - if you know inane worksheets (or whatever) will not serve that purpose for him, I think it won't be hard to make the case tactfully. Share with the teachers what activities get him excited about science, and give some examples. The examples could give them ideas about not only types of learning experiences, but also the level he is ready to learn at.

3) Here's an example from our own recent experience advocating at our fall parent-teacher conference. I was deeply concerned about offending a particular (7th grade language arts) teacher, and it was tricky because I needed said teacher to nominate dd for a special program (let's call it Class X) - we want dd in Class X in order to get dd out of said teacher's class. (Class X is a highly selective class with only ~1% of kids in our urban district invited to participate. It is not advertised to parents and parent nominations are not accepted.) Our dd was present at the conference, and we primed her to repeat to the teacher just a few comments she had earlier made to us about wishing for greater depth in the class. The teacher was receptive and responded by describing plans for her class later in the school year, with the emphasis on opportunities for differentiation for dd. Later on, I very casually mentioned that a teacher in a program last summer had suggested that dd enroll in Class X, and then asked if she could tell us more about Class X and tell us whether she thought dd would be a good candidate. Her reply: she thinks dd would be a great candidate and she would be happy to nominate her. Moreover, she said she couldn't believe she hadn't thought of dd in an earlier round of nominations as she is such an obvious good match. I have a feeling that if we had taken anything other than a friendly/collaborative approach, this particular teacher's hackles would have gone up and we would have not had the outcome we wanted.

Best of luck and keep us posted!