Well, I did it. I met with the Superintendent!

Hmmm,

From what I understand, gifted children with ADHD need to be in gifted programs with accommodations.

I came across a board for parents of profoundly gifted children and I remember reading a thread that discussed the phonics issue. It seems that many gifted children can actually learned to read totally by whole-word. Eventually, this catches up with most of them and they need to be taught phonics and word parts. That web site is: http://disc.server.com/Indices/9457.html
The kids at this site are so smart that they need to be home-schooled often but I find some useful info. on the site.

I found another site that might be of interest to you: http://parentcenter.com/bbs/18927/
This is another gifted board.

There is also someone with the username “socks” that you might find on the member list for ldonline. She fought for accommodations to keep her child in Gifted classes.

One good thing is that now you have an explanation for your son about the ridiculous oral presentation grading.

I’m sorry what happened with the teacher but the situation was begging for attention from an assertive parent. Somehow, I think that your comments will bring at least a little change in the system.

Terry

P.S. I have a child that acts more ADHD when she is forced to work below her abilities so I’m hoping that she is challenged at school. She’s only 8 and the kids are not identified as gift for another year but her teachers have noticed that she needs special teaching at times and she is included in all the enrichment programs that they have available at this age. It’s amazing how she can pass for non-ADHD when she is taught at her own level.

Lost parent, what does ISD stand for? It sounds like you did a great job with the superintendent. I’m having some battles right now with my daughter’s school regarding 504 accommodations and my cousin (who works in the district) told me I should go straight to the superintendent if I don’t get the answers I want. That’s not such an easy thing to do so I understand you being nervous! I’m an employee and it makes me nervous to think about it! So, good for you! More parents should speak up to the people who can actually make changes! Let us know if you do see some changes. I have the feeling that even if you don’t see the change that next year’s students will. It sounds like the teacher does care and took to heart the whole issue. This can’t be a bad thing. If it upset her that much I’m sure she has thought it out.

I think Terry has good advice as always. However, I think in your case it may depend on the classes themselves. Is there anybody you know who can fill you in on them? Anybody who knows any teachers? Can you visit the classroom? if you feel your son is feeling stressed or anxious because of added pressure you may want to reconsider those gifted classes. The other thing is that if they are going to be very rigid and he will continue to be penalized that’s another factor you don’t want. You don’t want him giving up and feeling bad about himself. Honestly, if you feel it’s going to be a negative situation I would put him in the general level and find another way to offer him enrichment out of the school or in extracurricular activities. Then again, if you find the gifted program to be a warm, nurturing environment with a teacher who will encourage him then it could be worth it.

Lost,
I have to agree with JenM. Even though the best thing for your child might be to be in the Gifted classes with accommodations, you might not be able to get that in reality. I don’t think that most districts pay much attention to Gifted kids with ADHD. You do have to take a peak into the future and see what your options are. There may be a teacher in General ed. that is proficient at dealing with gifted kids with ADHD. There may be a better teacher in the Gifted program also. You have a real dilemma and it would be great if the school can partner with you to solve the problem. How much accommodation does he require should be considered.

Keep in mind that schools are often not even required to provide a Gifted education, not to mention a Gifted/ADHD education (depending on the State.) I think that it is sad that many Gifted kids end up in trouble in many different ways because their needs are not met. That is precisely why so many of them are home-schooled Nationwide.

Jen, I’m really glad that you answered this post.
Terry

I agree with both of you. Thanks for the great posts!

JenM - Sorry! ISD stands for Independent School District.

TerryB, I didn’t know that this was a common problem. You described the exact reading issue they found. It has caught up with him. I wonder what would have happened if we hadn’t had him tested so early? What if I wasn’t such a anxious parent?

Since he is borderline gifted (some tests have him off the chart, some right below their cut-off line) we have never pushed the gifted issue. Though this school district does provide gifted classes, I’m not really sure what they provide other than added pressure on the child. Seems they are on the same subjects/curriculum, just more advanced reading books.

I hear the 3rd grade gifted teacher is VERY rigid and that really concerns me. Once we get his phonics/reading up to par, we can have him retested and they will reinsert him into the gifted program if we think it is more beneficial.

The facility that tested him stated that he also has an issue with comprehension (mainly due to the phonics issue) and also, from a type of laziness/speed issue. Seems he gets bored reading the story and just glances at the main words. Then he makes up an answer that he thinks should have happened. This can provide for some “funny” adventures that are not quite on target with what really happened. Great points for imagination. We really have to work on the “slowing down and reading each word” issue. I think we can handle that at home without resorting to the $720 a month tutoring that was recommended.

I’m going to check out those sites TerryB. I think I need to print out some information for the school since they hadn’t really heard of such an issue.(?)

THANKS YOU TWO!

As you’re researching, I might suggest you make an appointment and go and see the gifted class he’d be in next year. See what you think - see what they’re doing in there. You have the right to do that.

Good luck with your research and decision.

The business of just remembering the homework for the day — I have never anywhere heard of this before any time in the modern era. Of course the kids should be writing it down! Why in Heaven’s name do we teach them how to write if we don’t think the skill can be used for something??
The big thing in a lot of schools now is the “agenda”, a big date book with room to write every day’s assignments, as well as often resource sheets, space for parent comments, school calendar, etc. As a person with organizational issues of my own I cringe at being asked to organize one of these myself, but properly used it can be a benefit to all concerned. The teacher usually stops a few minutes before the end of a class, or at the end of the school day, and tells everyone to take the agenda out of the pack and write the assignments in it. This is only common sense. Back in the dark ages we were suposed to provide our own notebooks, but same system.
Some teachers, myself included, put homework assignments in a special box on the blackboard, same place every day, and remind students to look at it and copy it.

Inventing his own phonics — welcome to the wonderful world of “whole language”. In this, as well as in a lot of math programs, students are supposed to reinvent the wheel, or at least re-invent two thousand years of human progress. A bit much of a load to put on a school kid, even a gifted one.
The “whole-language” people will tell you how absolutely *wonderful* it is that he is inventing systems for himself (and so what if the systems are grossly inefficient and often dead wrong — when he fails in two or three years down the road, he’s no longer their problem and they deny any responsibility.)

Skipping words as he reads — welcome again to the wonderfiul world of “whole-language” as well as a bunch of myths (totally disproven, but who cares?) about “speed reading”. These folks are firmly of the opinion that as long as you get the general gist of the story — or even if you make up your own thing from the pictures, as long as you enjoy it — then you are “reading” and that it’s a good and creative thing. See any book or website about these topics if you don’t believe they go that far. Or see the great debate redux on this bulletin board under “Multisensory Reading”.

As a tutor, I work as the horrible old meanie (or worse words) who won’t let this kind of stuff go by.
I make kids read aloud. They hate it; they tell me they read so much better silently. HA! What goes on may be silent, but it ain’t reading. If you question them you get the off-the-wall answers or the shoulder shrugs and I dunno. I tell them they are going to read aloud until they’re getting it right.
I don’t accept skipped words; I point my pen and go ahem and make them go back. If they try to rush over me I make them go back and redo the sentence until they get it right.
I don’t accept wrong words, *especially* not the “miscues” that the WL folks think are so wonderful, like Daddy for Father. If you can’t say Father correctly now, what are you going to do with fatherhood and fatherland and godfather later? And especially not random mixes of a-the and of-for-from. Yes it *does* make a difference; if you can’t tell for and from apart today, how in Heaven’s name are you going to tell perfect and prefect and causal and casual apart (just for two examples of thousands) next time?
[the causal - casual mixup was made by my daughter’s Grade 8 English teacher, who even though she knew it made no sense could not get it correct — we were not impressed; daughter knew a lot more about language than she did].

To correct this kind of reading habit, or non-reading habit, you really do need the one-to-one tutoring. He can scrape by in class work for a long time; the real trouble usually shows up in middle school where the work is more detailed and the errors more glaringly obvious. Reading any which way also makes a real mess of math. Best to do something now and not wait until things spiral downwards.
$720 a month seems high; I see kids twice a week for $30 an hour for about $120 to $150 a month. More often might produce somewhat faster results, but you can’t do more than an hour a day because intensive work is fatiguing. Look around for private tutors. You can get a reasonable price, but don’t just go for the cheapest, who are usually worth what you pay for them. Also don’t expect much from commercial centers which depend too much on worksheets and are not really one-to-one.

There are a lot of variables in choosing the gifted class or not. The thing is, the regular class is often *not* easier. There is just as much stuff to do, often more stuff, huge mounds of papers that absolutely have to be filled in. Just that the papers are at a less challenging intellectual level so you get boredom on top of overwork. And you get yelled at for being smart but not getting all the stuff done. Sometimes, if you have any luck at all, the gifted class is more open to alternative learning styles. of course all of this depends on the personalities of the teachers and the school district’s rules, but don’t think you are necessarily helping him by not taking the gifted class.

As usual, your remarks are right on the money. That’s exactly what we will have to do. I just can’t imagine having to pay $720 a month - $150 to $200 seems more in line.

I’m excited at the thought of a tutor for several reasons: 1) he’ll get one-on-one attention, 2) He works harder for non-relatives, 3) he’ll gain an advantage he didn’t have this last year and 4) developing his confidence and self-esteem.

Now, I just have to find one that is in our area.

I am researching the gifted teacher. So far I’m a little worried about her attitude toward some of the students. She seems to believe that truly gifted children make top grades and work the hardest. Has she met many gifted children? If that were true, why did Einstein and Edison have problems in school?

Anyway, its late and as usual, I’m postponing sleep. Seems there is always too much to learn and so little time.

Thanks again Victoria. It is so reassuring to hear this type of feedback from teachers/tutors/mentors. I feel less like a “nightmare” parent and more like an “advocate” for my child.

Thanks again to all of you!

Lost parent, you are an advocate for your child! Going to see the superintendant definitely proved that!

I agree with Victoria about writing assignments down. Both of my kids were given agendas (1st and 6th grades) and we give them to our students at the high school. It’s a problem for my very disorganized 6th grader but that’s because the school expects her to use it more independently. At the lower levels it should not be a problem. The kids are typically given time to write in their assignments. At night after she does her homework we sign it. We also use it frequently to communicate with the teacher as she checks it every day also. I think it’s important (especially at lower levels and with adhd children) that it’s written down somewhere so we as parents know what needs to be done. Just FYI and something to think about—I’ve seen it written into 504 plans that the teacher will give a written copy of homework or other assignments to the student or provide them with a list they can copy!

Lost,

I tried to find the thread on the gifted site for you about this whole-word issue and gifted children but I couldn’t for the life of me find it. I started another thread for you on that board and hopefully something interesting will come up. I have always thought that whole-word reading is strange but that thread made me decide to slow down my 4 year old who was learning to read whole-word. She now knows phonics and I have some peace of mind that she won’t hit the wall later and have to re-learn to read in the way that I consider more effective (phonically combined with some whole word.) What Victoria says makes a whole lot of sense and I know many veteran teachers that had to teach phonetics on the sly when the school’s administrators were shoving whole-word down their throats. Some words have to be memorized because they can’t be sounded out naturally so whole-word isn’t totally useless.

Anyway, I didn’t want you to go on a wild goose chase for a thread that I can not even find again. The web site again is:
http://disc.server.com/Indices/9457.html
You don’t need to register to post.

Terry

Lost,
As I’ve said before, our school district doesn’t recognize gifted/ld. They think if you are gifted you can’t possibly be LD!! Bunch of morons!!!!That’s why we have no choice but to homeschool. Jan

Lost,

I found the thread about reading.
site: http://disc.server.com/Indices/9457.html

Go to the thread posted March 15th by Becky titled: “Another reading question.”

Keep in mind that these are the parents of profoundly gifted children which I think is 160+ IQ. It is a nice debate at any rate.

Terry

Jan,

Check out this map revealing Gifted Programs across the country. Very sad.

http://www.geniusdenied.com/StatePolicy.aspx

Yep! That’s Alabama!! Michael’s gifted teacher in 2nd grade had NO education for the job. She was pulled from 4th grade classroom. That is from her own mouth!! She didn’t have a clue.I really felt bad for her. Thanks for the URL. Jan

Of course one could always hope that teachers with degrees and certificates would be moderately literate and able to read up and inform themselves about gifted programming …

Victoria, I wasn’t saying anything bad about his teacher, but that is one of the few things it states in the state policy, that gifted teachers are required to have ed. in that area. Of course there is NO money allocated for gifted ed. here. It’s really just a farce. His teacher was great to have taken on this job since she was thrown into it at the last minute. She did her best but she didn’t understand gifted/ld. All the gifted kids were in this class from 1st to 5th grade. I’m sure it was a daunting task. Jan

Lost,

Congrats on facing down the Powers That Be… I’ve been away from the board, so I didn’t have the chance to tell you that.

I know from experience it is a daunting task, and you are one smart, tough lady!

Cathryn — good to see you back — I was going to ask you how you are doing.
Good luck to both in dealing with entrenched bureaucracies. Remember that a fair number of people — not all, but enough to be a problem — are in there to perpetuate their own comfortable lifestyle and not to help the kids. Be reasonable and practical in your demands, but don’t be afraid to pressure them to do their jobs.