Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Question about 1st grade writing

I had a not so good meeting with dd's teacher a few weeks ago and during the meeting she told me she didn't think my dd was very creative. An example she gave was that for writing assignments my dd will also use the same characters in the assignment and tailor them to what the teacher is asking for in the assignment.

I was talking to my sister who has a masters in English and is a high school English teacher (granted she doesn't work with little kids) and she said she thinks dd's conforming her characters to the assignment shows creativity.

I'm curious to hear what others think.

I think creativity is subjective, and therefor there are no right or wrong answers. Based on this, your daughter's teacher may have not communicated her point in the most effective way.

Maybe what she could have said was "I'd like to see her expand on her creativity a bit more" or something similar. To say she's not very creative, however, is the same as someone saying "red is the best colour." There is no "best colour" ...one's person's favourite may not be liked as well by someone else. Subjective

What was the teacher hoping for the students to do? Create new characters? Maybe this is an issue of the teacher's directions being unclear or poorly matched to the output she is seeking. As a follow on, did your daughter interpret the instructions in a reasonable way?

Personally, I think it shows ingenuity for a child to take an existing framework (i.e. the characters) and make it her own. Isn't that called "innovation" for adults?

Do you feel that the teacher's opinion on this one assignment is being used to label your daughter more broadly without basis?

This might be way off but I was just reading yesterday in Tony Attwood's Guide to Aspergers that for girls with Aspergers this is a very common red flag.

I'm not sure if you have any other concerns?

It might be something unrelated but reading that I had to reply.

I want to make sure I understand what you said the teacher said - I think you meant your dd "always" uses the same characters, not "also" uses the same characters - if that's not what you meant, ignore my reply FWIW, my dd also used to focus on specific characters (repeatedly) when she wrote stories, and no one would ever pin her as "non-creative" or "not imaginative" - she's clearly both, she simply liked this one specific character she'd dreamed up. I can think of quite a few little girls I've known who've focused on themes or specific animals etc when they were writing in early elementary - so that in and of itself isn't something i'd worry about.

I'm guessing there is more to the idea that your dd isn't creative than simply this one area, only because you said it was a "not so good meeting", and I can't imagine anyone could draw the "she's not so creative" conclusion from only one type of behavior such as this... so jmo, I wouldn't focus too much on this one issue. OTOH, if the teacher has a farther reaching concern re creativity, I'd think it through and consider what she has to say.

Best wishes,

polarbear

eta - I have a tough time remembering what people post from time to time, so out of curiousity I looked back at your other recent post a few weeks ago about the teacher meeting, and I'm guessing this is what this question comes from. I think in that post you were concerned that the teacher didn't think your dd was gifted - is it possible the context that the issue of creativity came up in reference to whether or not she considers your dd to be gifted? Our school district uses that as a data point in their gifted matrix. It sounds like your dd probably has a wealth of gifts that she's not really showing in this particular class... so if that's what the question stems from, I really wouldn't worry about it! Unless this teacher is not giving her a referral for the gifted program? Sorry for all the questions! I hope that's not what's up...

My second grade son will fit brownies into every single spelling sentence he has to write. It takes a bunch of creativity to write a sentence using random words and make it be about brownies.

Some people might see that as not being very creative. I think it depends on your perspective and how much you like brownies.

@Polarbear

You understood correctly, she always uses the same 2 characters... as though she is making a series of books. This was the only example the teacher gave me when she told me she thought my dd wasn't very creative or an out of the box thinker. Personally, I think when it comes to creativity my dd can be rather creative when it comes to story telling, plays, imaginative play, etc. She loves to write plays and gets very involved with what I would consider directing tasks, down to the nitty gritty such as the way a phrase is said or somebody's expression. She is also an avid daydreamer and often times is in her own little world.

I don't think of her as an out of the box thinker so in regards to that I may agree with the teacher. She is pretty black and white with her thinking and very rigid when it comes to rules and the way things should be. I.e. when she had a friend over she wanted to play Jenga with her and the friend wanted to use the blocks to build instead of play the Jenga game the way it was intended. My dd got very upset about that.

I'm not too concerned anymore about what this teacher thinks about my dd. This is only her second year teaching (was formerly a reading recovery teacher) and I don't think she has enough experience to be a good judge of whether a child is truly gifted or not. I see my dd's gifts at home, she has high capabilities in math, a stellar memory, a desire to write plays in her free time, is above grade level in reading etc... I have come to the conclusion that this entire year has been a flop and has not created a positive learning environment for my dd. The teacher even has said so herself on multiple occasions that 'she doesn't get my dd', that she can't get her to participate in class, can't get her to engage, that dd won't speak up and shows her no emotion. So if anything I think this teacher has been toxic to my dd and her ability to feel comfortable around this teacher who sees everything in such a linear fashion.

Oh, and dd has already been accepted into the full time gifted program for next year so what this teacher thinks of dd makes no difference. I was just curious if others agreed with my sister in regards to whether or not how my dd writes is considered creative.

And one more thing, I posted awhile back about how dd was fixated on a particular play she was writing. She would write and rewrite this play over a span of 5 months. So she tends to get an idea in her head and sticks with it when it comes to her writing.

I haven't seen all her writings but the teacher did say she does the assignment as instructed, just that she uses the same 2 characters


This is exactly how my sister described it.


I think this is one part of it. She also mentioned that she doesn't think she is an out of the box thinker. To sum it up she doesn't see my dd as gifted as the other kids who qualified for the G&T class in her class (3 other kids). So basically she is trying to determine my dd's giftedness by how she performs in class in relations to these 3 other students. Despite the fact that she tells me she can't engage my dd, my dd doesn't talk or share with her, dd doesn't share her emotions in class, doesn't participate, and that she (the teacher) just doesn't get my dd.

It's interesting that you bring this up. Since she was a toddler I have had my concerns about Aspergers but then she seemed to improve. She still has quirks and things I see that concern me but since finding out she was highly gifted I just attributed these quirks to her being highly gifted.

I was actually just about to post about her trouble with friends. She has friends but doesn't seem to need them or play with them the way they would like to play. I try to schedule playdates and she actually would prefer to not have playdates with her classmates. However, she enjoys playing with her older sister so it's not like she doesn't play or interact with kids at all. I just find she prefers to play with kids that she can boss around or control the play where she often directs them step by step what they should do, where they should stand, what they should say, etc.... or teach them.

Don't see anything wrong with using the same characters but in a different storyline. Pretty pathetic statement by the teacher,and I am sure what she meant is what others have said. That she would like to see her expand a bit.OK. Fair enough. But it seems to me gifted kids tend to "get stuck" on a certain subject for a period of time before moving on to something different.

Ds5 is in K and the teacher talked to us about trying to get him to write fiction. He has no interest at the moment and all he wants to do is write non fiction pieces about whatever he is studying at the moment. Fine with me.