Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment how does observed IQ correlate to age/grade?

I have done this--more often than probably desirable, considering they are my colleagues! Actually, I have toned it down over the years, to reduce the numbers of parent eyeballs that also glaze over, and also because my more important objective is to have everyone present understand the results well enough to provide appropriate instructional settings and supports to the student.

22B,

In pre-school, when we first got data showing that DS was gifted but hyper-sensitive, I thought "great, now I'll have something for these excellent teachers. Surely it will feel rewarding to them to use this data to help him blossom." Not so much. The general response was - if he's this smart he ought to be able to figure out how to work within our system. Ummm - he's 3 years old?

When we got to our highly regarded public elementary, we thought - Ah now we'll get somewhere. This school has professionals on staff who are particularly trained to understand this stuff. Surely they've been down this path before. The seasoned, educated response - over and over in multiples variations: (a) You should talk to him about this. (b) Have you tried sticker charts?

Brilliant!! I would never have thought of either of those ideas. Wow - I've never read a single parenting book AT ALL. I thought I should just give him candy, turn on the TV and talk to my sis on the phone about my troubles while he tears up the living room.

Oh wait - actually we talk to him every day about how to work things out in school. We abandoned sticker charts years ago because they do not work. Did you read the "information sheet" I provided where I already explained that? Where I described what helps and what makes things worse? No you didn't bother, did you. And you're not going to now, are you? And you don't want to hear about the painstaking work we've done to try to make his life better AND YOURS. You just want to keep banging him on the head, and lopping off parts, until he fits into the box you want him in.

I don't think these are bad folks. Heck, my Mom is a retired public school teacher. I can recognize that there are people in these systems who could apply skills, who seem to want to care, who would appear to find it rewarding to help. But ... something ... just saps it all away. And the meetings seem worse than useless no matter how much I try to apply honey, not vinegar.

Sigh. But I'm going to keep trying!
Sue

Well, Suevv, I think that it's easily explained by:


This poster about "meetings."

I've noted the phenomenon to be particularly potent in corporate and/or volunteer settings, but it also applies to academic ones.




Also-- what aeh says. If communication is ultimately the goal, then it's not about being right. Well, it is-- but only insofar as it damages your ability to communicate (by breaking trust/credibility).

In totally unrelated news, but mentioning this here since I know how popular the nostalgic "Choose Your Own Adventure" series are around here (and hey-- I loved them, too!!)--

Despair, Inc. has published the first in the series of Lose Your Own Adventure titles. LOVE that.

OK - I just laughed out loud. I'm actually going to sneak in early in the morning and plaster these in our conference rooms at work. Hilarious. Sad. True.

So did I!

Argh - you guys are killing me! We are even now reading through the CYOA - Underwater Explorer. (When I'm not looking DS cheats, plotting his way backwards from the sections/endings he wants to get to). The JFK thing is side-splitting!

Sue

You're welcome. We have not had good luck with public schools, and only a little with the private Montessori. At least they would let him work ahead of his age. In kindergarten in MA, supposedly a very good school district, the teacher called on a Saturday to see how DS was enjoying school. So...I asked him and he reported he was bored, so I told her. She said, "Impossible! He doesn't even know the letter sounds yet!" I turned to DS, tactful as ever, and asked him. He said he did, and I dutifully reported back (she was waiting on the phone during this) that he did know all his letter sounds. Also, did it really matter since he was then reading Harry Potter (the first one)? That was probably not the best tack.

We had a meeting, during which the teacher informed me that the Reading Specialist said he was unable to read. Since I had objective evidence that he could in fact read and they had not told me they would be sending him to anyone for testing, I asked DS about it. He was overcome with the combination of the injustice at having to leave mid-activity (and at the end of the day) to talk to a teacher he never met and did not know in order to demonstrate that he could do something he'd been doing for two years already. So...he banged his head on the desk instead of reading.

Hello, Montessori school! Things were okay there although there was some bullying by the sixth-graders which was unanticipated.

For second grade, we were in Silicon Valley; surely a place where they will cherish intellectual genius. The principal was offended that I had the audacity to question her teacher's differentiation tactics which consisted of having him tutor other students in math and giving him a 4th grade reader. When I asked for him to be considered for acceleration and provided them a copy of the IAS, they refused to even consider using it and subjected him to a battery of tests designed to make him fail.

I know I sound dramatic with reference to the tests but they did things like copy the teacher's copy of the math test for him to use as the test. The top problem took up two-thirds of the page, then there was a tiny second problem, and then the teacher directions. DS did not even notice the second problem and they never even questioned WHY he didn't answer them. They just assumed he couldn't. This from a teacher who miscalculated the basic percentage of right answers on his English test, erroneously giving him a grade of 85% instead of the 96% he actually answered correctly.

They tested him with the DRA and because he did not specifically state, "This is a biography of Mahatma Gandhi". they did not give him the point. His words were something to the effect of Mahatma Gandhi using hunger strikes to change the behavior of his country.

In addition to this, the principal noted that she approached a group of kids whom DS was leading through a game and inquired as to what they were doing. DS told her. She then told me that he was not LETTING anyone else answer; he didn't prevent anyone from answering but he WAS the leader du jour so he answered when she addressed the group at large.

He was seen carrying a smaller boy (my son is easily the biggest kid in his classroom and stands a head taller than most of the kids) on the playground and promptly chastised. No one could explain WHY he was carrying the boy. When I questioned him, Sean had fallen and hit his head; he was in quite a bit of pain so DS was taking him to the office. At that point, I did what the playground monitor SHOULD have done and explained to him that we don't move hurt people because it could hurt them more but that he did the right thing trying to help. These things, and his handwriting, are what prevented my son from being accelerated a grade so he wasted a year of his life being bored to tears and stomachaches.

But you know...I'm not bitter. ;-)

"They tested him with the DRA and because he did not specifically state, "This is a biography of Mahatma Gandhi". they did not give him the point. His words were something to the effect of Mahatma Gandhi using hunger strikes to change the behavior of his country."

This is nauseating. DRA is a sin. I sometimes sit next to DS when he does the deathless RazKids reading and tests on line. I can't tell you how many times the questions are nonsense, have nothing to do with comprehension, and/or have no correct answers. This makes DS pound on the table with rage. I honestly think he is feeling the same disillusion we are all experiencing.

I feel like such a liar for having told him school would be this awesome place where he would get to learn and explore and blah blah blah. Nowadays, I just tell him that will all happen once he gets to college. Fingers crossed it's true ....