Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion showing what you know.....

showing what you know....can this be a problem for gifties that are bored silly? We are on week 2 of the first time in school after homeschooling for K and DS6 is bored out of his mind....to the point that he doesn't want to do any more of "this baby work" and he has started to refuse to complete the assignments and is beginning to act out. This teacher is worksheet happy and that is all they do - yesterday's work consisted of color the frog green, color the tree green.....color in one ball for the number 1, color 3 balls for the number 3.....the worksheet copied booklets for them to "practice" reading have one line of print on 3 pages such as "Hello Sam, how are you?" "We like to play". Then a whole collection of sheets that were identical each day last week of color, cut and then paste the picture that starts with a particular letter. For a super smart kid with dyspraxia, this is the equivalent of worksheet hell to him.

We have achievement test scores and completed work from last year that we have shared that very clearly shows that he is several grade levels ahead of this......He refused to go into the car this morning and said can I please just get some interesting work....so I grabbed his favorite Sudoko book and a geography workbook he likes and asked the teacher at the door if he could work on these when he got bored. She said no problem but that he needed to finish his classwork first. She then shared that his reading level is "quite spectacular" but his comprehension not as high. I was very surprised because that is usually the first thing an assessor makes a comment about - that his reading level and comprehension match and both are very high. I have yet to see him read something that he didn't fully comprehend...and then I remembered one time he was working with his speech teacher last year and he was so bored silly that he read the passage at Mach 10 (literally going through the words super fast so that he could just finish) and he had no clue what he had read because he was in such a rush to finish and move onto something more interesting....she said the following week she pulled out a much harder book to read and he was quite happy and had no issues. His teacher also shared that he sometimes made very careless errors - well I can understand that - if he is rushing to get through something that is super easy and not interesting, I can see how they can rush and make errors. But we have a load of stuff to back us up showing that he knows this stuff inside and out.
When I asked her if he could take advantage of the library's reading program (you check out a leveled book, read it and then answer comprehension questions on a computer and accumulate points) because he is all about task oriented, goal reaching programs and she said that it would be an excellent behavior reward for him to work towards - if he has had a good day then he can go to the library to check out a book and take the test the next morning. I was upset because in my mind...a reward is a sticker, extra play time, an extra board game....a reward is NOT an educational strategy to help meet the needs of a gifted reader. An educational strategy is what a child should get in order to meet his intellectual needs..it shouldn't be something he earns!
Would love to hear some opinions on the "show" your work/what you know thing when a kid is bored - thanks!

It can take a teacher sometimes 4-6weeks to get to know a kid. Often the teacher has to come around in her own time....and don't use the b word - death sentence. I agree w/ you on the library program. sigh.....

hugs.... definitely call a meeting and focus on DS's emotional state. Be sure to have written down what he says in quotes. Ask DS what he wants and states that. Don't use "I." He wants, He says, He would like.

Oh Belle, I'm so sorry to hear that that's how it went....I absolutely don't think that students should have to earn the right to learn. Yikes.

Regarding the reading comprehension: did she provide an example? How does she know he isn't understanding the text? If the problem is as you suspect, perhaps you could try something like, "I'd be curious to hear how he did with that task on a level ______ book".

I remember that when DS was in kindergarten I was rather surprised to hear his leveled reading score (it being dramatically below the level he was reading around the house). When I went in to ask the teacher about it she told me that a different teacher had given it and then she showed me the assessment. I burst out laughing.

The information in the questions he missed had been enthusiastically relayed in the car when he was telling me about the story he read--so I knew he had understood that part of the passage. The statements written down by the tester had zero to do with the question being asked. However, they WERE a classic display of DS's tendency to ignore information requests until after he has finished expounding on whatever happens to be of INTEREST to him. When I showed his teacher, she laughed as well and agreed that it was classic DS. She administered the next reading assessment and--lo and behold--he was suddenly reading at the same level in school as at home!

As for the classwork....It sounds like you may need to flat out ask the teacher to explain what parts of the classwork apply to his instructional needs. It's hard to imagine what her response could possibly be....maybe she'll realize that there IS no valid instructional goal attached to this?

This is such a tough dilemma, especially with a child who's so young.

I agree with you 100% that meeting his educational needs isn't a reward.

You might want write a letter/email (ALWAYS write because a written things can't be ignored) to schedule a meeting with the teacher. Present this reward/needs idea to her in the letter. It might help to contrast with the needs of special ed. children: do they have to have a good day before they're given work at their level, or is behavior a separate issue? Does engaging special ed. kids in the appropriate way help with behavior issues?

IMO, HG+ kids have some crucial things in common with kids who are 2+ standard deviations below the norm. In particular, both groups are so outside the normal range that the usual approaches fail almost every time. It's just that this is less obvious with the gifted kids because they score well on tests.

Someone else pointed out that it takes time for the teacher to get to know each child, which is true. Yet it's important to not let a situation fester, lest the behavior problems get worse. This idea can also go into a letter ("He doesn't want to go to school and I'm very concerned about him. I wanted to try to get your ideas on how his needs can be addressed...."). Working with the teacher as a team, if this approach can work out, will get better results.

I think its hard for someone with no experience of HG+ learners to understand how quickly they learn. From the teacher's perspective, your claims of his abilities might seem ludicrous if she's never seen another child like him. So you might want to come up with a strategy for helping her understand him.

Just my 2c; hope this helps.

Val

Well - it looks like the time has come to pull DS6 out after 8 days of trying public school again....We had a 1.5 hour IEP meeting yesterday with 8 people in the room only to learn that the IEPs have changed (no idea if county or Fl state thing) and they no longer have to put specific steps/accomodations on the IEP - the wording can be very generic (which my advocate and I think is a total cop out because now there is nothing in black or white stating specifically what these kids need) - they just write a generic goal and that is all that is required....we went round and round in circles showing test scores and studies stating that he needs to be allowed to work on his level because he is bored out of his mind. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that if a 6 year old is bored, there is a high chance he is going to start acting out.....The argument that he won't be accelerated up until he shows he can do the "easy" work and behave BUT he won't behave and do the easy work because it's too easy for him and he is refusing to do it. If he was older, I could explain better to him that he needs to "play the game" and give them what they want so that you can get what you need but that is a tall order to try to explain to a 6 year old...yes, he is bright, but I don't want to put the weight of the world on this little guy either. We spoke to him last night and he was hysterical stating he hated school but really wanted to make it work but that everything is too easy and boring and that it makes him mad to have to sit there and do things he already has done before and it doesn't seem fair (these are his words) that the other kids get to all learn new things so why can't he....which I understand...no one wants to be made to sit at a desk for hours and be forced to do stuff you have already mastered over and over again.
So today the dreaded phone call came this morning.....he refused to complete a math worksheet (color the right number of objects) and got really frustrated and mad and kicked out from his desk...the teacher said she had no idea if it was on purpose or by accident because she was standing there but she got kicked. He has NEVER kicked an adult and I was really upset about the whole thing. He is bored silly, has nothing to do all day and then is told he can't do anything else unless he finishes his work...so he was removed from the classroom...the principal said he didn't want to send him home because that would be giving him what he wants so he is placing him in a time out room for an hour and he will be made to complete the work he refused to do in the classroom. We just about begged the teacher yesterday to PLEASE find something of some difficulty for him to do in the classroom just to see if she noticed a difference in his behavior and she said she couldn't do that because she needed to complete her review with all the students and that he would need to do the same thing as everyone else. WHY??????? I am just so upset right now. I don't mind going back to homeschooling, he just so badly wanted this to work out - thanks for everyone being SO helpful and understanding.

Belle - I am so sorry that your school is not understanding. Sending e-hugs. This teacher obviously doesn't get it. The accelerated work should not be a carrot or prize for good behavior; your child should be entitled to learn like everyone else.

If someone had other behavioral issues, unrelated to being gifted and not getting appropriate work, would they make that child show behavior before they implemented any workarounds or made adjustments?

I am sorry that I don't have any great advice for you, but I'm angry with you. And I send you e-hugs.

Belle, I'm sorry to hear.

Sorry to hear this. I think it's very common for advanced kids to misbehave because they are so frustrated of being bored. My DS9 had a very good K (they were put in different reading and math groups right from the beginning and there was also a lot of free time), a somewhat OK 1st grade (teacher gave him enrichment stuff after he asked over and over), a terrible 2nd grade (no ability grouping and the teacher asked for everyone's full attention), a somewhat OK 3rd grade ( a bit of ability grouping and DS was allowed to just read on his own sometimes). So my first point is to try to find out how you can put your kid into a classroom or a school with teachers who are willing to be flexible.

My second point is that this is part of life that advanced kids have to know how to deal with. As my DS's music teacher puts it: he will not find many kids who are like him, he needs to know how to work with all kinds of people. We have been trying and things get better. DS knew from very early on that kids have different strengths and weaknesses and teachers need to spend a lot of time to help those who are struggling. He doesn't like this but he understands, especially after he made so many friends at school and he can feel for those kids who are struggling.

My third point is that we can teach our kids to get resourceful and make changes. For example my DS has talked to his teachers many times since 1st grade about what he wanted to learn and how he thought the teachers could help. It sometimes works.

For little kids in K it's tough. They don't know how to deal with teachers and school, and the shock of an unfit classroom really raises emotions. Just hang in there, many parents have gone through this, with time we all figure out some ways to improve.

Is there anyone at the school who "gets it"? maybe one of the eight besides you and the advocate?

It sounds like you have tried working with the teacher and maybe it is time to go over her head. (FYI, I have no direct experience at this so this could be terrible advice)

It seems though, if you are ready to leave and homeschool again, that this might be something to try first...

So sorry, Belle! At least you know you can give him a loving, supportive, stimulating environment at home (if it does come down to that again).