Mabelen
09-29-2009, 10:28 PM
My 8th grader has just started attending public school. She has been tested as gifted, especially in the Language Arts area. This is the kid that was reading fluently in both English and Spanish by the age of 4 without having had any instruction.
Soon after the beginning of the school year she started complaining her Language Arts class was too easy, and that her teacher gave very easy work with very generous deadlines, and made it look as if it was a big thing. For example, they have this online grammar program, which I believe is a good program, but for instance they were required to do the first 9 lessons in unit 1 in 3 days, my daughter did 19 lessons in class on the first day getting all 95% to 100% scores! We just relocated and prior to our move she was in an independent school where she always felt challenged. We waited for school to start in earnest thinking the pace would pick up, but it did not.
I had a conference with her teacher and had no satisfactory answers - this from a teacher who claims to have certification in gifted education! I already spoke with the counsellor and they will not change her to a different teacher who I know is giving more challenging work, so I have two choices, #1 Talk to the Principal (I don't know if this will do any good though) or #2 Forget about #1 and do it myself at home. I am more inclined to doing #2 but I need a good solid program because neither my dh nor I are native English speakers.
Another gripe I have is that she is having to take the California English Language Development Test (supposedly for students with a home language other than English for whom there is no previous testing) even though she has lived in English speaking countries all her life and has been schooled in English from Pre-K to 8th grade. Her reading lexile is that of an advanced 10th-12th grade level, and both her Maps Reading and Language Arts scores are above those of the average 8th grade Gifted Spring Norm scores (and this testing was just done in her school in the last month)! I just think this is a total waste of time, I know it won't hurt, but why bother when there is so much evidence that she is proficient in English!
I want her to be stretched and to be well prepared for English Honors in High School. I am worried she won't be if she is coasting all this year. Does anybody have any advice? What areas should I focus on, any ideas?
Soon after the beginning of the school year she started complaining her Language Arts class was too easy, and that her teacher gave very easy work with very generous deadlines, and made it look as if it was a big thing. For example, they have this online grammar program, which I believe is a good program, but for instance they were required to do the first 9 lessons in unit 1 in 3 days, my daughter did 19 lessons in class on the first day getting all 95% to 100% scores! We just relocated and prior to our move she was in an independent school where she always felt challenged. We waited for school to start in earnest thinking the pace would pick up, but it did not.
I had a conference with her teacher and had no satisfactory answers - this from a teacher who claims to have certification in gifted education! I already spoke with the counsellor and they will not change her to a different teacher who I know is giving more challenging work, so I have two choices, #1 Talk to the Principal (I don't know if this will do any good though) or #2 Forget about #1 and do it myself at home. I am more inclined to doing #2 but I need a good solid program because neither my dh nor I are native English speakers.
Another gripe I have is that she is having to take the California English Language Development Test (supposedly for students with a home language other than English for whom there is no previous testing) even though she has lived in English speaking countries all her life and has been schooled in English from Pre-K to 8th grade. Her reading lexile is that of an advanced 10th-12th grade level, and both her Maps Reading and Language Arts scores are above those of the average 8th grade Gifted Spring Norm scores (and this testing was just done in her school in the last month)! I just think this is a total waste of time, I know it won't hurt, but why bother when there is so much evidence that she is proficient in English!
I want her to be stretched and to be well prepared for English Honors in High School. I am worried she won't be if she is coasting all this year. Does anybody have any advice? What areas should I focus on, any ideas?