Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Teaching to academic level...

demonstrates if child follows directions.............

litmus test for rampant willfullness/blind obedience........

gauges ability to focus on repetitive nonsensical tasks.........

Can you tell if I was one of *those* "gifted" children?

thank you for posting this question. It baffles me as well. Maybe I am biased from my son being in Montessori, but there seems to be a million ways to encourage fine motor, pencil grip, etc.

AND what is wrong with just plain not being interested in coloring? At 4/5/6 yrs old?

Amazing!!! Amazing how many stories I've heard of children having to suffer because they don't color "correctly"

I think coloring is TV for teachers: a babysitter to keep the kids quiet and occupied so she can prep the next thing or deal with a problem or whatever.

Just a thought...

Could be, but then why insist on staying in the lines...?

oh wait. now I remember. conforming is essential!

Any teachers (or former teachers) want to chime in on this one? Please forgive the sarcastic tone. I am genuinely curious.

Yes, I think it is a conformity thing, too.

And maybe just laziness: once you have assigned coloring, what can you possibly critique? Color choice? Use of vertical or horizontal lines? Um, no.

The ONLY thing is "Did you stay in the lines or not." So that's what they talk about.

Plus it's something that allows them to say that a child needs their class, that they matter. That and social development are easy targets, since so many HG+ kids couldn't care less about coloring and don't fit in with agemates.

I will say that I think there is an real concern about coordination and fine motor skills. But I honestly don't think that's all it's about. If it is, then they need to think a bit more creatively about how to get kids to use those skills.

This makes me think she's going to give you data that supports her position that he's not gifted. This happened to me and I was given my daughter's scores and "gifted" scores. When I pointed out later the assessments had been misinterpreted and my daughter's scores were clearly in the gifted range, I was told the assessment was only for guiding instruction and not for determining placement in gifted programs.

Do you know if MAP was one of the assessments your son took? If you are given percentiles using these scores (link below), you need to know that they are wrong. After much pushing on my part and having DH attend a meeting with me, the school personnel confirmed it with the testing company. It looks like other school districts are using this too since I found this on a different district's web site. I think I have to write a letter to NWEA.

http://www.bismarck.k12.nd.us/uploads%5Cresources%5C2530%5Cmap_pri_fall_percentiles.pdf

http://www.bismarck.k12.nd.us/uploads/resources/2531/map_pri_spring_percentiles.pdf

Chiming in a little late here -- this thread should be stickied with the title, "Advocacy 101"!

I'm thinking that whatever assessment they gave him probably supports her position that he's not that smart, and possibly not even gifted. Obviously we know that's bollocks as DYS doesn't fly willy-nilly with their admissions policy.

However, *she* doesn't know that, and whatever assessment they gave him might have caught him on a bad day. When my ds-then-5 took his first-ever computer assessment (and yes, it was the MAP), he did fine but not great -- 76th percentile, I think. We were told that, regardless of his private 99.9th IQ and WIAT scores, he needed to be 4 RIT points higher in order to join the gifted first grade math class. So, sorry, no differentiation.

When he took the MAP again a month and a half later with the rest of his class, his score jumped to the 99th percentile, numerically better than the average autumn third grader ... and they conveniently "forgot" to mention that to us. We didn't find out until the school year was almost over. Amazing. That was the final straw that told us that the school just wasn't interested in working with him, and why we pulled him for private gifted.

I honestly wouldn't bother with standard deviation discussion, although I do like the "If I had a child with an IQ of 50 instead of 150 we wouldn't have waited to have this discussion." The standard deviations/private testing don't seem to mean much to many schools. If they have his private test results in hand -- not to mention spending every day with him for the past 6 months! -- and they're still trying to tell you he's "not that bright" ... well, they're not going to suddenly get it.

Have you talked to your DYS person for ideas or help? Isn't that what they do -- advocacy assistance?

Above level testing -- if he took the MAP as an assessment, you can simply norm his score against the curve for older students. I also agree that giving him an end-of-year assessment for, say, second or third grade might be an eye-opener for them. I think that's a great idea and wish I'd done it!

Good luck. I really hope you're able to convert her.

I was thinking the same thing. I just told my DH that there was a thread we needed to read about so we can learn "How To Not Piss Off The Teacher."

Good luck crisc. I have gotten in trouble with emails before myself (winding up in the big boss's office over a misinterpreted email...) Lots of good advice from others here!

Yeah, this is the first topic I ever added to my Watch List. I don't want to lose it, since I suspect I'll really need it one of these days...

I am so glad I can give everyone a lesson on how to piss off a teacher. It's also ironic that I taught a nursing informatics class on Tuesday night to LPN students and one of my topics was proper netiquette. HA!

Maybe I should just write a book...