My son's reading group (the highest) read the book individually and then answered some questions in their reading log. That was it, according to him....never much discussion. They read "The CHocolate Touch" and he said Teacher didn't bring up "King Midas." To me that's a no-brainer.

But what I was getting from that blog though is that this goes beyond reading groups. It's about how information is delivered in social studies, in art, in science, in language arts ... that the kid can handle more info, faster, deeper so it's not such much knowing the content in advance, but a mis-match in learning style, if you will.

I spoke w/ a teacher friend of mine and she agreed that the 4th grade curriculum at our school is very superficial. That's 4th grade!!!!

I recall a conversation w/ Teacher friend a few years ago after I had read "Mr. Popper's Penguins" with DS then 6, I think. I asked him why the author named the town Still Water. I can't recall the exact answer, something about the town was like still water, nothing much happened there and that is why the man wanted to get away....I should have written it down lol my memory is foggy, any how, she was blown away by his answer. She said he is not going to get that level of discussion at school, not even in a few years. We had a similar discussion about what other people where learning to read liberated them (Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH) again she was shocked that he came up with slaves and how learning to read helped them...drawing on info from other books we had read previously. Now I find this hard to believe this was anything but normal, ND kid type-stuff but my teacher friend insists he won't get that in school. WHen he's in school, we have the homework battle, 2 other kids to deal with (and now another kid w/ homework) so I had hoped the school was addressing critical thinking skills, making inferences, and the like, but nope. And it doesn't seem to get any better through 5th grade.

I guess the take home message I got was that the verbal ability went beyond just needing appropriate reading level, but it was pervasive in all subjects.

I think that's right. It's about information gathering and processing in all areas.

Yes, I agree, but I guess in many ways the mind can just take over in some of those areas, and "accelerate" without proper authorization. At least to some extent...

...but not if there's no material for the child to accelerate with. I think that's the point the blogger was making (and one I also happen to think is accurate!).

Dazey,

You have managed to put your finger on the exact problem that we are struggling with. <thank you, thank you, thank you>

Almost every topic that DS8 covers in school, whether it's reading, social studies, health, math, or science, seems to be watered-down to a point where it is superficial. There is just very little meat on the bones, so to speak. (Please forgive, any vegetarians out there!) His love of books and reading has taken him so deeply into most subjects that everything the school covers is shallow and empty for him. We were talking at the dinner table last night about Gandhi and DS8 chimed in that he knew all about Gandhi as a leader in India. We had a long discussion about world history, peaceful resistance, and ended with the civil rights movement here in the USA. How many years will it take until he begins to even vaguely discuss such things in school? I agree that books can set you free. But they can also make a curious reader very, very bored at school. And that boredom infiltrates history, social studies, reading (if the levels are not appropriate) and even science and math.

We are currently trying to decide on whether we want to subject accelerate him (at the school's suggestion) in science from 4th to 5th this year, and both text books look like watered-down versions covering different concepts. There seems to be very little difference between 4th and 5th grade science, except one covers weather and one focuses on biology.

How do you get a teacher to add depth and content to the material? (for any subject?)

Can anyone help to clarify what type of learning style these kind of kids need, other than the drivel about differentiation that the schools quote? How do I explain to a new teacher what DS needs for the upcoming school year? We constantly are told that the teachers can not teach anything outside of the prescribed material for fear of stepping on other teacher's toes.

From what my teacher friend says of our school, he needs an entirely different school. She says it's so watered down, the 4th-5th graders thought that slaves were either a) invited here or b) they were already here. This is not just one kid.

Mind you, this is one of the best districts that everyone flocks to with state ranking football, hockey, music, etc. So I don't know if I'm just being nit-picky, delusional, to think that I want more for my kids.

DS7's first grade was similar - everyone read the same material mostly. There was open reading time where there was a little differentiation, but that only happened a couple times a week for a short period of time.

The teacher tried to differentiate after a conference when I complained. I even gave her some book suggestions. She ignored my book suggestions and gave him a book he already read in kindergarten (which I told her). She rarely followed up and he languished all year. She "assessed" his reading level at the beginning of the year the same at the end of the year. Despite obviously progressing through many levels of reading at home.

Anyway - I tend to agree with this article. And I thought a lot of the comments from parents were very interesting!

I actually have a ton of respect for teachers that can identify when a school is not going to work for a child. Not every school will work for every kid, GT or not. Our teacher last year did suggest that to us in a round about way.

I agree. That's a big assist!

(Well, assuming, of course, that the teacher is sincere, not merely sick of being bugged about differentiation and trying to get rid of the kid...)