My son is in 5th grade about to go to middle school. We had a transition 504 meeting last week. His 504 has only been in effect since January. The middle school suprised us at our 504 meeting last week and said for him to remain in gifted classes he cannot have his math or writing assignments shortened. The problem is our middle school has only two levels - GT and regular. The regular classes have some real behavior problems and can be WAY easier. He doesn’t have any trouble with his current class content - just he needs to write less and work 3 out of 4 math problems. For instance, my son read the same book this year in 5th grade that the regular seventh grade class reads.
Anyway, we are having a new 504 meeting and possibly are going to file a grievance. He can do the work, but his slow processing speed makes him stress out. He was depressed and anxious before we got the 504 which allows for reduced output. Now they want to take it away, which means we put a kid with an IQ in the 130’s in a regular class, or have him struggle and probably get depressed again in Gifted. Everything I read shows he needs the higher level thinking to feel good about learning and increase his attention. Any suggestions out there?
Hi Karen
I would educate yourself on both the rights of a gifted student in you state (they vary widely) and the 504.
You might find some lingo in there that you can throw around a meetings that will make their ears perk up.
Funny, when I started quoting the requirements regarding least restrictive environment and sat with pages of documents from the wrights law website on my lap, they gave me everything I requested.
Re: shortened writing/math for gifted LD kids?
I agree with the idea of checking out the program. In our area, the high math stream starts at 7th grade -either pre-algebra or reg. 7th grade math. If your child is going on to honors programs or AP classes in high school, you have to be on the pre-algebra bus in 7th grade! On the other hand, the honors English isn’t much more than more work and my child would rather be busy with drama than more English homework. The students can switch English streams but not math streams.
However, if the programs there are what you want for your child then go for it. They should accomodate. Reduced output is doable if your child can ‘get’ the content with less practice. Most eacher would prefer 2 tightly written paragraphs than 4 badly written paragraphs anyway.
For example, do you feel your child can do well on the tests with more time? That’s an easy accomodation. Some how being able to ace tests seems to have a lot to do with gifted programs here.
If I hear the word ‘fair’ one more time - I’ll scream. As in,” its not fair for the other kids that your child has to do less. ” Let’em walk a mile in my kid’s shoes and then we’ll talk about fair. sorry for the outburst - it was just there ready to come out. =)
Re: shortened writing/math for gifted LD kids?
The idea of reduced work raises mixed feelings in me. On the one hand, as a student, I didn’t do a lot of the busy work myself, and if the student can demonstrate understanding and mastery of the material, fine.
On the other hand, if the teacher is assigning real work and not busy work, no it can’t be reduced without losing the content. There is a lot of meta-education going on in those advanced assignments and students can miss out on the underlying message which is often the most important part; for example in math, the logic of problem-solving is the real message, and the numbers and diagrams are just the mode of presentation — so if you turn everything into multiple-choice to reduce the written workload, you can short-circuit the entire subject of the class.
It’s a fine line to draw. Every teacher who has worked for some time in public schools can tell you horror stories of kids who have entered their classes feeling entitled to have everything run their way — and they are justifiably afraid that this is another one.
Some advice that I am not particularly good at myself, but I can see that it would be a good idea: try to work in partnership with the teacher, trying to find out how to best get the work mastered, not putting yourselves in the postition of demanding all the rewards for none of the effort. And listen carefully to the teacher; when the teacher says something can’t be left out because it is important, discuss honeslty what is so important about it. Once the teacher has a little *calm* time to talk things out, maybe the reasoning behind the assignment will be more clearly articulated and you will realize what is so important to learn, and maybe the teacher wil say no it isn’t all so important after all and something else can replace it.
Re: shortened writing/math for gifted LD kids?
I’d get the kiddo in the class first. Its’ where he belongs. I wouldn’t sign anything that said “I agree that he won’t have any accommodations there” — but they’re probably not silly enough to even ask for anything in writing becauswe that’s clearly in violation of his rights not to be discriminated against because of his disability.
Have you met/talked with the teacher? If it’s a bad fit then you want to figure out how you’re going to manage that… it’s always possible that the teacher is educable but it could also be that you may have to have a kiddo that gets A’s on the tests and not on the report card… how does he do on standardized tests?
Re: shortened writing/math for gifted LD kids?
My son is gifted/LD (IQ spread of verbal 132 - performance 112) , LDs in written expression and visual processing, main talent is mathematical. He qualified for TAG education based on his IQ testing. I pulled him from TAG classes in 5th grade. It was just too much work, and the teachers don’t accomodate, nor did they have to in our state. (Gifted education isn’t state mandated) If you’re in the US, it will depend on how your state legislates gifted education whether you can get accomodations in those classes. Our school had 4 levels for each of the core courses…remedial, regular, honors and accelerated. My son took regular classes for everything except honors math. TAG kids were placed in accelerated classes, and had extra pullouts for assorted activities during the school year. It’s a real tough call what do do in these cases. In our case, we opted to provide enrichment activities ourself, and not have it at the school level. I realize I’ve provided no answers, only more questions. We’re playing the same game you are…it’s not easy! However, my son is on grade level now, and getting Bs while taking just 2 honors classes. Next year (junior) he’ll also take two honors classes, one which requires massive amounts of writing (AP US history). I hope he can cope..but he chose it himself.
Good luck to you,
Kay
My older two boys were in g/t programming. They are not LD like my youngest
I wanted to mention that, for them, gifted services became accelerated classes at the 7/8 level and there IS a difference
The gifted pullout program they were in through 6th grade was based on IQ scores, not achievement. The focus was encouraging creativity and expanding upon their learning. Enrichment, not acceleration. Yes, they read books at a more advanced level but it was usually part of a unit theme; not all their units involved a book
In 7th grade, they took the top 25-30 language arts scores and put them in an advanced class. The top 50-60 math students went into accelerated math classes. This was a lot more kids than the 3-5% that were in g/t programming before and it was not, acc/to my boys, the same at all(they LOVED their g/t pullout-as teens this is STILL their favorite school topic to discuss)
Math was about the same and in high school, the situation really got weird IMO. The advanced classes were always on the same page of the math book as the regular class but they received more homework-whoppee-just what fast learners need-more busy work
This was where we lived 3 yrs ago in IN. I think the school district we are in here in IL gets the concept a little better but, across the board, I think as kids age, achievement becomes more important to where the schools put kids than innate ability.
IOW the parent of a kid with a nice solidly high average IQ of 117 who can complete the work exactly as given with grades as good as your childs may be seen as a stronger contender for a coveted slot
I cant say for sure-dont know your district-but I would get a clearer idea of gifted services in these upper grades. This may be more a gifted issue than a 504 issue, if that makes sense.
He may actually fair better OUT of that track if its going to be more homework and not a whole lot else