My son's teacher has done some things to try and address the kids that are more advanced in her class. She has clustered the kids advanced in reading and math. That was how I was dealt with as a kid, but I also know that if he's anything like me, then he's top dog in these groups and they still aren't a challenge. (Fun Fact: I remember as a 5th grader getting advanced spelling tests that I still aced. My favorite word that year was 'daguerreotype'.)
My fear is that her expectations don't match my son because he doesn't fall within her definition of what gifted means to her. She has said many times that highly gifted kids don't fit in. He does well socially and has many friends. He loves to make people laugh and that's how he connects to people. He just doesn't fit the stereotype.
He is afraid of being different, so he uses his abilities in ways that aren't academic to fit in. His friends like Chima so he becomes an expert overnight on Chima - even noticing the first letter of the characters' names match the first letter of the tribe they belong to. We call him a "chameleon" because he will try to fit in by becoming like whatever he is around. If he's around 10 year olds who like Magic and Risk, he will play those games. If the kids don't like superheroes anymore, than he doesn't either. It's not unusual, but a great social skill to have. It can also mean that he will only preform as well as he thinks is acceptable in his social circle. I think he is starting to hold himself back to not stick out as much.
His teacher also frequently sets him up to fail. I'd like to think it's unintentional, but I'm not so sure. Things like testing him to see if he knew multiplication by asking him a question with double digit multiplication after he answered her initial question of 3 x 5 correctly. She gave him advanced math worksheets without any instruction, graded them and then didn't help him understand his mistakes when he got the answer wrong. It's no wonder that he doesn't want to do advanced math worksheets anymore.
My favorite is giving him a timed test of 30 addition problems in one minute. He got 22 problems completed before the time ran out. I tested him separately to see if he could even write the numbers 1-30 in one minute because he has a hard time with writing. He only got to 27.
Another recent version of this was a story problem that added 3 double digit numbers. He was supposed to take the numbers form the problem and write them in the open space next to the problem to show his work. He's never been taught to do this. He added them in his head and was 10 away from the correct answer which is pretty impressive considering he'd just missed the carryover. In the open space, he wrote his own word problem using the same scenario and different numbers. He still added it wrong. The only thing on his paper was a checkmark. No explanation, not even the right answer to compare to.
She often calls on him to define new vocabulary words nobody else will know. His go-to answer is "I don't know" because he doesn't like to be put on the spot. We see this all the time at home, but she takes it at face-value. He is a different kid at school because he will do things at home that he won't demonstrate at school. His teacher said he couldn't count quarters, and yet he helped count the $80 in his piggy bank 6 months ago.
It's frustrating to see this. It's frustrating to have a kid that acts differently in school because his confidence is shaken. He is expected to know things that he's never been taught and is put on the spot to fail in front of his class on a regular basis. He's starting to dislike school because it's boring and isn't challenging. I'm not really sure what to do. We are taking him out of his after school programs to tutor him and get him piano lessons to get him into playing music.
Development: (I only put his info in because it's fun to look back.) It's amazing how after 2 weeks out of school, when he's focused and open to learning, he'll get anything I throw at him. He learned how to do crossword puzzles, mad libs and 2-3 step story problems that include a mix of addition / subtraction / multiplication / division over the last week. He's reading fluently with comprehension R-S books with Lexile levels of 720-950 that are for 5th graders and has been for months. I also discovered he is better at subtraction and division than at addition or multiplication. Oddly enough, he needs to work the most on addition. He likes to spell words rather than say them sometimes. I think that's hilarious. It's odd that if you ask him to write the same word down, he'd likely misspell it. There seems to be a disconnect between what he thinks and writing it down. I know he gets very frustrated with his fingers not writing fast enough to keep up with his mind.
