Preparing for Teacher Conference

[VisionaryMom]

We have a teacher conference with DS's teacher on Thursday. I need to be prepared. He needs accommodation in both language arts and math, though math is a bigger concern for us (both because they're not actually doing math, but counting, and his frustration is with math). From a brief conversation and an email, she is not going to be amenable to anything that requires extra work from her. So far, the biggest suggestion was that he "teach the other students so that we can know that he understands." Um, no, we're not even going there. What should we do/bring/say to make it seem polite but firm? Our state does have gifted IEPs, and our school has a gifted coordinator. They don't officially test until 3rd grade (DS is in 1st), but they will provide accommodations before then. The "requested policy" is that we speak with his teacher, the school gifted coordinator, principal, and district gifted coordinator in that order, so we are trying to follow the suggested protocol.

[FarmerBeth]

Try to bring any evaluation results for IQ and examples of any math or language arts work, as well as examples of related stuff from home (like the books that he's reading or games involving math/patterning that he plays, such as cards, chess, jigsaw puzzles, models, etc, or whether he counts his own change)

[VisionaryMom]

I have some math work, though math is a little harder to provide work than language arts because I don't really have him do worksheets at home. He does play chess and do lots of tangrams, Sudoku, etc. Her comment before was that "sometimes children appear to understand something because they get the right answer, but they don't *really* understand the concepts." Maybe, but that's entirely untrue with DS. (She made that comment before school started, so it wasn't an evaluation of my child in particular.) I don't know how to prove what he understands conceptually. We don't have the money right now for private IQ testing. We're looking at somewhere around $1500, and my husband lost his job in May. We did have some preliminary testing done when DS was 4 that I could bring. I also gave this school his standardized test scores from last year, which put him in the 99th percentile in achievement for kindergarten both in language & math.

He brought home spelling words this week: on, it, go, me, to, said, the, and, in. Seriously!?! First grade? What's sad is that this school system is supposed to be really great; it's one of the reasons we moved here. His teacher said in an email to me that she hasn't had time to "properly evaluate" the students. Well, he's been in school 3 weeks. That's hitting 10% of the school year. How long do we need to figure out that recognizing numbers to 10 just isn't the right place for him!

When I looked at curriculum standards this morning, he knows probably 80% of the 3rd grade list, as in he could take an exam on that info now and pass. He's well advanced from that conceptually. We talked about negative numbers, adding fractions, area/volume, etc. this summer, but I don't have written work. Perhaps I can have him do the written work tonight. I'm just not feeling optimistic, but I'm trying to be. :) His K teacher said that we should talk about grade-skipping this year. The jury's still out for me on that, but subject acceleration in math seems the very least that they should do.

[ollyoxenfree]

Aside from thinking that she doesn't want extra work, do you know the teacher's views on giftedness and accommodations and your son's abilities? Some people don't think giftedness exists (eg. "they all even out by 3rd grade") or that accommodations are not necessary for most or all. It would help if you have an idea where you are starting with this teacher. You could ask her general questions about how she has worked with advanced students in previous years, what she does with them, what kind of methods have been successful, etc.  

Establishing his academic abilities is only the first part of your meeting. You'll also have to consider his personality, work habits, maturity level etc. in order to find the most appropriate accommodations for him.  Do you know what kind of accommodations would suit him? Is he an independent worker? Does he prefer hands-on, exploratory projects and experiments or is he happy to plow through workbooks and readers at his desk? Is he mature enough to consider a subject acceleration to spend some class time in a higher grade? Those are the kinds of considerations (or objections) that the school is likely to raise with you.

[VisionaryMom]

The vibe I got reminded me of how some of my teachers growing up made me feel. They simply do not care for gifted students. The mom in front us said that her son was a bit behind in reading, and Teacher said, "oh, let me show you this information I have about helping students get caught up. We do lots of work that will help remedial students. Have you met our new interventionist?" When we said that DS is ahead, she started in on how students who are ahead can just "do math in a corner and be okay." Yes, she said that. It was a very bizarre feeling to have her fawning over the other family but act like we were lepers.  So, like I said, I'm trying very hard to remain positive, but I'm not holding my breath.
 

Originally Posted by ollyoxenfree 
Establishing his academic abilities is only the first part of your meeting. You'll also have to consider his personality, work habits, maturity level etc. in order to find the most appropriate accommodations for him.  Do you know what kind of accommodations would suit him? Is he an independent worker? Does he prefer hands-on, exploratory projects and experiments or is he happy to plow through workbooks and readers at his desk? Is he mature enough to consider a subject acceleration to spend some class time in a higher grade? Those are the kinds of considerations (or objections) that the school is likely to raise with you.

He actually works really well independently. The biggest area of weakness that I see is his handwriting. He gets tired of writing pretty quickly, and I can see it becoming a problem as we move forward. He asked if he could just do math on a computer, which is one possibility. He loves to explore geometric concepts with experiments or projects, but he also really likes word problems that he can just read and answer. 

His maturity level I think is pretty good. He's developed a lot in the past year in terms of emotional maturity. My biggest concern on the non-academic side would be that I really, really think a Gr 3 placement is best for him. He has some health problems from a birth injury. There's nothing physically "different" about him, but he's very, very small - as in, most of the kids in my 4YO's preschool class are his size or larger. Red-shirting is really common here, so in effect, he would be a tiny, tiny 6YO in a class with normal-sized 9YOs. I'm not sure if he would get the "what's that little kid doing in here" stare/whisper/joke or not (and frankly whether he would even notice if he did). 

[ollyoxenfree]

Originally Posted by VisionaryMom 

When we said that DS is ahead, she started in on how students who are ahead can just "do math in a corner and be okay." Yes, she said that. It was a very bizarre feeling to have her fawning over the other family but act like we were lepers.  So, like I said, I'm trying very hard to remain positive, but I'm not holding my breath.
 

Yikes. Not encouraging at all. I'd think about setting up some time frames or a flexible plan by the end of the meeting, just so there is a guide in place. If she makes a few promises, like she'll find some resources for him or get him working on projects or contact the gifted resource person for some input or help, then if nothing happens in 2 or 3 weeks or a month (whatever you agree is reasonable), you've got something to discuss again. It will also be helpful if you need to go up the food chain for more help at the school. 

It's great that you are staying positive. Best wishes with the meeting and going forward. 

[AllisonR]

Originally Posted by VisionaryMom 

When I looked at curriculum standards this morning, he knows probably 80% of the 3rd grade list, as in he could take an exam on that info now and pass. He's well advanced from that conceptually. We talked about negative numbers, adding fractions, area/volume, etc. this summer, but I don't have written work. Perhaps I can have him do the written work tonight. I'm just not feeling optimistic, but I'm trying to be. :) His K teacher said that we should talk about grade-skipping this year. The jury's still out for me on that, but subject acceleration in math seems the very least that they should do.

From the vibe you are sending about this teacher, I think you will need to show written work for sure. You can discusss negative numbers or fractions all you want, but she can easily deny or refute this if she does not believe - for whatever reason. But written samples would be much more concrete. And a much faster way to get her on the same page with you (or maybe the same chapter would be good enough), so you can move on to deciding what to do. What is the plan.  And I totally agree with ollyoxenfree - get her to agree to a few specifics, within a specific time frame. Then if these specifics are not done, you can quickly move up the food chain. Good luck, I hope it is a productive meeting, and some changes are made for your DS - sooner, rather than later. 

Originally Posted by ollyoxenfree 

Yikes. Not encouraging at all. I'd think about setting up some time frames or a flexible plan by the end of the meeting, just so there is a guide in place. If she makes a few promises, like she'll find some resources for him or get him working on projects or contact the gifted resource person for some input or help, then if nothing happens in 2 or 3 weeks or a month (whatever you agree is reasonable), you've got something to discuss again. It will also be helpful if you need to go up the food chain for more help at the school. 

It's great that you are staying positive. Best wishes with the meeting and going forward. 

[VisionaryMom]

Well, we went in this morning, and the school secretary said, "oh, she's not here today." OMG! So...we don't know anything more now than we knew yesterday. We did run into the classroom aide and talked to her for a few minutes. She said that she thinks the common thing that she's seen has been just to give more challenging work to students who are significantly ahead. At least that's a positive sign. 

We're going to take the next week or so to have DS do some work at home. He has a subscription to IXL.com, and we can print his progress charts there. So, at least we will get some time to put together a more compelling argument.

[FarmerBeth]

Good that you're looking on the bright side!  Keep at it  and good luck!

[domesticidyll]

In some ways, it's maybe better if she's willing for you to research and send in materials than wanting herself to be in control of providing the work. At least you can find things that are interesting and challenging without being busywork. Short-term, can you find material you could send in to replace his math work that might be more interesting, while you work to get a longer-term plan in place? Singapore has a workbook per grade level of challenging word problems, for instance. And there are so many great mathy resources out there. Not a long-term strategy, but to make your little guy happier in the meantime. 

Singapore math online has printable placement tests that might work as proof. I suspect that something correlated to standards might be more useful in this situation than IQ results. I'm not familiar with IXL, but something where you can go through and say, "The first grade standard for place value is this, but he is doing such and such. The standard for multiplying is this, but he is doing such and such," might be useful.

Good luck,

Heather

[VisionaryMom]

Originally Posted by domesticidyll 

In some ways, it's maybe better if she's willing for you to research and send in materials than wanting herself to be in control of providing the work. At least you can find things that are interesting and challenging without being busywork. Short-term, can you find material you could send in to replace his math work that might be more interesting, while you work to get a longer-term plan in place? Singapore has a workbook per grade level of challenging word problems, for instance. And there are so many great mathy resources out there. Not a long-term strategy, but to make your little guy happier in the meantime. 

Singapore math online has printable placement tests that might work as proof. I suspect that something correlated to standards might be more useful in this situation than IQ results. I'm not familiar with IXL, but something where you can go through and say, "The first grade standard for place value is this, but he is doing such and such. The standard for multiplying is this, but he is doing such and such," might be useful.

Good luck,

Heather

I was thinking of Singapore this weekend. When we were homeschooling briefly at the beginning of kindergarten, he was doing Singapore's second grade curriculum. I feel confident that if we ordered the 3rd grade book, he could complete that work on his own. I know that she's going to bring up mastery in multiplication/division facts. Though I disagree that he needs to drill on them, that's at least better than what he's doing.

IXL is an interesting site. It's geared to your location, so there are 120 or so "curriculum standards" for 1st grade math. Your child takes a test (26 questions if all are answered correctly) to show proficiency in that particular skill. The child earns little rewards (graphics) to go on a game board for meeting certain benchmarks.