Do You Think Your Kid Is Smart than Your Teacher Thinks He/she Is?

Meet with the principal or guidance counselor. Also, work with her at home. My niece is in 4th grade and has always been gifted. She qualified for the gifted program, but she would have to be bussed to another school (she lives in an affluent area where they bus the "gifted" kids to the poorer area to help boost test scores, etc.). My brother and SIL said NO WAY to the other school, so she's in a regular class. They give her lots of stuff to do at home.

Learning doesn't have to stop at school. Why don't you do some challenging reading and math with her at home? Maybe by doing this she will really stand out at school and the teacher will consider moving her up. I remember when I was in 6th grade, I felt that they teacher mis-placed me in reading level, I worked really hard, she noticed and moved me into the higher group. I think it will also help your daughter later in life when we are given an unfairness that she can rise above it.

No I don't.
My daughter is gifted her teachers know that. She doesn't necessarily show that all the time, and that's why she doesn't always get work that challenges her. If she doesn't show it then they can't move her forward. She's got to prove her smarts.

and WOW 34 kids, that's a handful for any teacher. That'd be two classes in our school.

Your school should assess reading more than once. You should fight to get that changed. Our school does it 4 x a year and uses Aimsweb. The kids are then broken down within the classrooms into about 5 or 6 groups. The teacher then works independently with each group at their specific level. These are fluid groups-you can move up at any time. However with 34 kids in a class that might be really hard. That is a huge ratio...I can hardly believe that a school would keep classes that large. Our tops ration allowed is 22 kids.

So start out with the principal-tell her your concerns about the assessment. IF you get nowhere there talk to your superintendent. Request a meeting if you can. This is how things change-you cannot sit back and complain without doing something. So many people will whine to me about this or that and all I can tell them is to talk to the principal or call the district. Involvement is key. Unfortunately so many people don't want to cause waves. And if you can you should talk to other parents and see how they feel about this. Power in numbers.

Your child is in 3rd grade. She is just now to the point where any "gifted services" could begin, and most are best offered first in 4 grade, because children who learn the basics quickly may not continue to learn quickly once they have to use higher order thinking, and the focus changes from learning to read and write to writing and reading to learn. In other words, the whole class may flip flop, and those children who were the quickest learners early, may not continue to be so, and some who were slow to learn to read and write become the most succeful. It iall evens out about the beging of the 4th grade year.

You sound frustrated that your daughter may have been one of the children who learned very quickly, and her teachers are suspecting that she may not continue to be in that grouping, which is one of the reasons why giftedness should not be identifed too early, as it leads to enourmous disabpointment for parents and students.

If you are sure that this is not what is happening, then you should probably invest in a Neuropsychological evaluation for your daughter so that you will know for certain how she processes information and how much academic information she has mangaged to learn in standard expression (meaning compared to her exact age, not the grade level standards of cuiriculum based evaluation data) It is not cheap, but you will know for sure if your expectation is too high for you daughter, or if you need to advocate for her to have more enrichment. You need real data to do this, and frankly, the data you do have is not going to get you what you are asking for.

M.

you dont really explain how you know your daughter is reading two grade levels ahead, what assessment have you given her to be sure she can understand and discuss a story at the fifth grade leve? Make sure you have proof to show the teacher because she probably has a school mandated assessment. Do you know what type of testing the teacher did to determine what reading level she is in. The poor school has 34 kids in a class!!! that's horrible!! Out of 34 the teacher is probably being told 15 are reading at a higher level than they tested in school, that is because parents don't always look past decoding skills. The state tests will require students in third grade and above to write about fiction, not to answer simple recall questions but to discuss the authors intent,to identify a turning point in the story or the most important event, to understand implied facts, to make connections with their own lives or with other literature and write about them. They will also have to read and understand nonfiction readings at the same level. Try to find out exactly what is holding your daughter back in reading so you can work on that and she can show the teacher her abilities on the next assessment.
I'm not sure what you're trying to say about math, she got the answers wrong, you say she didn't understand the math but you disagree with the results? I'm sorry your daughter isnt learning at school, I hope you can work with her at home, give her music lessons, take her to museums etc. so she can continue to learn

Based upon what you wrote it does sound as if she is not in the appropriate reading or spelling level but is at the correct math level. You stated she doesn't understand the math when she took the TAG math test.

My daughter is 7 and in the 1st grade. She tests well above in reading, spelling, math and science however she can only move as fast as her advanced groups are going. For instance, if the group is on unit 34 in reading and she's beyond that she cannot move any quicker through the reading group.

I do think that it is hard for teachers to accommodate all students various abilities. I know it is not fair but that is what happens when sending them to free public school. If you can you should see if there is a charter or magnet school near you to possibly enroll your child. Montessori is also a great education program but be sure to do your research. If I could afford it I would've sent my own daughter to such a school but sadly most "gifted" schools will not accept a child without prior IQ and SAT type testing. Best of luck to you.

Did they break out the reading test and show the areas she scored lower on? My oldest son could read rather large words at a young age. However, he didn't always comprehend them. How is her reading comprehension? How is her reading fluency?

How is her writing? It's not just how nice she writes and how well she spells her words, but more about punctuation, ideas, voice, word choice, organization, etc....

As for the math, I'm inclined to think she's at the proper level.

Also, think about your daughter. Does she enjoy being able to NOT stress about her homework? How would she feel if she did receive specialized materials? Would she not like the teasing from other kids? Would she feel more pressure to be perfect (that can lead to stress and depression, my sister went through it and it was very sad to watch). And what if she starts getting the higher material and doesn't do so well? It won't be as easy to drop her down and her confidence could be shattered.

There's more than just a test score and a personal opinion at stake here.

I'm not judging, I'm just trying to point out as many of the different scenarios at play here. Sit back and really think it over. Try to take yourself out of the picture (again, not judging, we've all been there as parents; we want to talk up our child's accomplishments when that may not be what our children want).

If you really think she needs a different instruction level, sit down with your daughter and (without inserting any of your ideas, because kids pick up on that and want to do or say what will make mom or dad happy) ask her how she feels about school.

Then start researching the next steps, but again, if you fight for it you may get it and you want to make sure you aren't pushing your daughter into something that could become highly stressful for her.

Does your park district or library have any supplemental classes that she could enroll in? 34 kids is TOTALLY overwhelming for almost any teacher to deal with. I can't imagine it! The largest class I ever taught was 25, at a private school.

It was difficult to read what you wrote due to spelling errors. If I am correct, you are concerned that your child is not being placed high enough for your standards. Be glad that your child is not one of the children who are struggling on a daily basis. There are positive solutions that can be done that would involve less arguing with the teacher and school. After school she can learn on her own. If she is very smart, the option to learn extra things at home would boost her confidence and allow her to learn things that she is interested in. Encouraging learning outside of school also builds the foundation for loving education later in life.

I have one child who constantly struggles and one that is always ahead of the class. My head of the class kid learns from the time she gets up until she goes to bed. She chooses what to learn about and enjoys every second of it. My struggling child has a great deal of difficulty with most subjects due to teaching methods that are used. He is encouraged to learn at home as well despite his difficulties. He enjoys learning even though he is slower than the rest of his class and has difficulty understanding some things. He is very smart but has given up in school because of the teaching methods that are used. Teaching methods concern me more than levels. All children learn differently and multi-sensory teaching methods should be used so that all children have a chance to learn. If taught wrong, some children will never reach the levels that they should be in.

Contact the principal and see about a meeting with whomever they need to have present for this type of meeting. See what they can do to help challenge her while not being too hard for her at the same time. With 34 kids it is probably going to be a struggle.

We had similar issues in kindergarden. Teacher told me that everyone must work at the same level and she didn't think my daughter was advanced enough for it to matter. She was reading full Dr Suess books and teacher was teaching 3 letter words. For this reason, and others, we decided to pull her out of school and do Washington Virtual Academy instead. I HIGHLY recommend the online public schools they have in each state. They are work at your own pace. My daughter advanced 2 years worth in the first year. This is our 3rd year doing this, and she is now a 3rd grader doing 4th grade work. They are more advanced that the public school to start with too. If you have 4-5 hours a day you can spend doing this with her, you should! Free, easy, parent controlled, and according to my dd, lots more fun!

Yes, I feel it's hard for teacher to want to make the effort. My daughter's teacher emphasized that my daughter was just an average student at her conference to her dad & myself a lot. I do work books during the summer & other school breaks & my daughter likes to read a lot. She also reads books much higher than her grade level. Even though she is in the highest reading & math classes I feel she is board by her homework & school bores her.

A couple of us have kids in third grade who easily get all A's and E's. Obviously they are not challenged at school. The class size is maxed at 20, so they don't have that excuse.

They FINALLY started dividing them up by ability this year. It is better for her to be with the other kids at her level and they say next year they won't do review for 6 or 12 weeks like they do other years. Still, she and a few kids are still bored. We do enrichment at home. I wish the school better met her academic needs, but they just don't. I used to teach. Teachers today have to get the kids to pass that test which I am sure like my child, your daughter could have passed at the beginning of the year without any instruction. They also focus on helping the students who are struggling and have no one at home to help them.

I checked out the GT program and it is more geared towards other styles of learning. She would hate all those open-ended projects and the kids who still have daily behavior issues(dual gifted? adhd+gt). At this point, it is too late to get her into GT and the private schools are not as academically challenging.

Let us know what solution you find. You are a good parent to be involved and care about your child's education so much.

This is why my kids went to private school in 5th -7th grade. And it is why I paid for a private Jr. High for my eldest daughter and sent her to private school in second grade.
I went to talk to their teachers. Those who went to Bible College were the dumbest and worst teachers. I feel they should be banned from teaching public school. Sometimes my children had a good teacher or I knew of a good teacher and asked for her/him.
I'm not rich but I am well educated and I sacrificed a great deal for my children. It was worth it.