would you be upset about this?

[Anonymous]

DD is in 3rd grade in public so all virtual. The teacher is spending time now helping kids individually (via zoom) with reading. Asking DD how her session went this week, she said it was fine and "too easy." I know from report cards she's been tagged at U level. I know we read together 5/6th grade level book which she needs some help with but she's definitely above 3rd. She said the teacher only had a R book to give her - the highest level she has. So I'm thinking, basically, she's never going to really get to "improve" in reading at school anyway since she'll never get a V/W book to read with teacher. I don't know how I feel about this. Happy that she's so advanced and of course if I have time, I'll continue to read with her but in so far as having her "learn" at school in reading - that's just not going to happen in this situation is it? Is it worth doing something about at all? I'm just unsure how the teacher can really rectify since we're all virtual so she's not going to get the right level book for her anytime soon..

Is this grounds for TAG I can make? I'd love to get her in but she doesn't test well so unsure whether she'd be invited via testing.

[Anonymous]

Sorry - I meant P level. ^^

[Anonymous]

Why not talk with the teacher? Wouldn't that be the obvious solution instead of basing your assumptions of what your 3rd grader us telling you?

FWiw, there's more to reading levels than just reading the book- comprehension, extrapolating, making predictions about what will happen next, describing characters, words/context, etc.
Maybe your 3rd grader hasn't quite mastered it as well as she us making you believe.

[Anonymous]

I am not familiar with TAG, but I just wanted to point out that this is a problem many advanced kids face, and that at some point you can't expect schools to cater to a certain degree of advancement. Both my children are strong readers: they read things like The Lord of the Rings in elementary school and one day a teacher told me my son's reading level was on par with the end of high school (not maturity wise, obviously). His 5th grade teacher created a vocabulary group for him and other precocious kids and they learned completely obscure words just for fun, but that was a one time teacher-driven activity. Teachers have to support kids with dyslexia and reading delays, and that's fine with me.

Have fun with reading at home. If the teacher can tell you her Lexile level, you can figure out what books she could try on the Lexile website (or try to figure out her Lexile range on your own based on what she's reading now).

[Anonymous]

Reading two grades above is wonderful, but it is not grounds for a gifted program. I think you are confusing academically advanced with gifted. A student can be academically advanced in one or more areas, but not need gifted services. A simple solution would be to email the teacher and ask if your daughter can read library books on her level during the reading time. Brainstorm with the teacher an alternative assignment.

[Anonymous]

I would talk to the teacher. She could have been doing a reading assessment and that is the only book they have for the reading assessment. From my experience it seems like they only test up to a certain level for reading assessments.

I know my kid is in small groups and his group was given a chapter book to read and discuss. He also has extension work (optional) that involves reading a chapter book and answering questions/doing work.

[Anonymous]

You can just request your child be tested for gifted, I think.

[Anonymous]

No. Just give her appropriate books to read at home. If it were math, it would be a different story. (My daughter IQ tested extremely high in Language Arts and didn’t get “services” till 4th, but it’s APS so it’s still essentially nothing in the way of differentiated teaching)

[Anonymous]

You should talk to the teacher. In regards to TAG if you are talking about TAG in ACPS, it won't be around much longer. So you might as well get used to trying to negotiate with teachers to get your kid challenging material.

I heard last night that the ES upper grades science curriculum is being revamped because learning about cells is "too hard". So between the curriculum being made easier and easier and TAG obviously going away in the next few years, if your daughter needs a challenging environment, you won't find it in public school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You should talk to the teacher. In regards to TAG if you are talking about TAG in ACPS, it won't be around much longer. So you might as well get used to trying to negotiate with teachers to get your kid challenging material.

I heard last night that the ES upper grades science curriculum is being revamped because learning about cells is "too hard". So between the curriculum being made easier and easier and TAG obviously going away in the next few years, if your daughter needs a challenging environment, you won't find it in public school.

Are you serious? Kids in 3rd are capable of learning about cells. That's awful and I'm sorry.

[Anonymous]

I would ask the teacher if I can purchase books at the U level, one copy for the teacher and one for my kid. I don’t understand why the correct level books would be inaccessible almost one year into virtual learning, but would do what I can to equip my kid and the teacher as much as possible.

[Anonymous]

OP here - thanks all!

I will talk to teacher since parent-teacher conf up soon. Yes, this is in fact ACPS. DD is actually quite strong in reading comprehension so when I say she's at 5th grade reading I really mean it (given that my other kid is actually in 5th grade so I have a reference point). I just don't have the time to read daily with her. My belief is she jumped levels because she had such an amazing 2nd grade year with a teacher who really taught her - kid can learn. So my concern is if she doesn't get it at school, she won't continue. Which isn't horrible since she's so far ahead but just wondering if letting it go is doing the best by her - she could go as far as she's set up to. At a certain point though, does it really matter because reading, I agree is really not something that suffers if you read up/down a level - it's just a love of books ultimately. But I do think the comprehension part tied to reading is important and the 2 should go hand-hand. So if she is reading below her level, she's not getting that opportunity to develop the more important aspect of comprehension.

So TAG is going away for ACPS - I had heard about it but was thinking it would take more than a couple years to go - timing it until she leaves elementary. My problem with public is that they teach to the lowest denominator. What about opportunities to learn for advanced kids?

She's probably at late 3rd grade/early 4th grade math as she's memorized the multiplication tables to 10 and understands the concept of division. I'm just not paying as much attention to her math LOL

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You should talk to the teacher. In regards to TAG if you are talking about TAG in ACPS, it won't be around much longer. So you might as well get used to trying to negotiate with teachers to get your kid challenging material.

I heard last night that the ES upper grades science curriculum is being revamped because learning about cells is "too hard". So between the curriculum being made easier and easier and TAG obviously going away in the next few years, if your daughter needs a challenging environment, you won't find it in public school.

Are you serious? Kids in 3rd are capable of learning about cells. That's awful and I'm sorry.

It's actually the fifth grade curriculum that they are removing it from. So now it feels even worse! Sad that ACPS' version of equity isn't about lifting students up. It's about pushing everyone down. I really thought things couldn't get worse after the last superintendent. I was so wrong!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Reading two grades above is wonderful, but it is not grounds for a gifted program. I think you are confusing academically advanced with gifted. A student can be academically advanced in one or more areas, but not need gifted services. A simple solution would be to email the teacher and ask if your daughter can read library books on her level during the reading time. Brainstorm with the teacher an alternative assignment.

Agreed! My daughter is academically advanced in math (can do it all in her head without paper) but did not score high enough for the gifted testing all around (although was off the charts for math of course). Some parents push their kids into gifted (literally lobby for them to enter TAG). Talk with the teacher first about appropriate books - at that age it gets a little tricky to ensure the content is age appropriate (e.g. not too mature) to match the childs advanced reading level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here - thanks all!

I will talk to teacher since parent-teacher conf up soon. Yes, this is in fact ACPS. DD is actually quite strong in reading comprehension so when I say she's at 5th grade reading I really mean it (given that my other kid is actually in 5th grade so I have a reference point). I just don't have the time to read daily with her. My belief is she jumped levels because she had such an amazing 2nd grade year with a teacher who really taught her - kid can learn. So my concern is if she doesn't get it at school, she won't continue. Which isn't horrible since she's so far ahead but just wondering if letting it go is doing the best by her - she could go as far as she's set up to. At a certain point though, does it really matter because reading, I agree is really not something that suffers if you read up/down a level - it's just a love of books ultimately. But I do think the comprehension part tied to reading is important and the 2 should go hand-hand. So if she is reading below her level, she's not getting that opportunity to develop the more important aspect of comprehension.

So TAG is going away for ACPS - I had heard about it but was thinking it would take more than a couple years to go - timing it until she leaves elementary. My problem with public is that they teach to the lowest denominator. What about opportunities to learn for advanced kids?

She's probably at late 3rd grade/early 4th grade math as she's memorized the multiplication tables to 10 and understands the concept of division. I'm just not paying as much attention to her math LOL

Please accept that education begins at home. I never read to my kids during the school year - I made time to read my favorite childhood books to them as a treat during vacations. They still remember my "storytelling abilities" years later (it's exhausting BTW - reading aloud, at a slower cadence than talking, with increased expression/modulation and doing different voices, is really an art form). The rest of the time, since we're all bookworms, I curated their home reading list, and really pushed the classics. Modern books are packed with present-tense simple grammatical structures that are action-oriented, in a bid to compete for the reader's attention in our screen-dominant world. Classics teach much stronger reading comprehension and delayed gratification: they often have long descriptive passages that need to be slogged through by impatient kids, and contain vocabulary that are considered "advanced" by today's abysmally low standards. So I really pushed for classics. Of course a lot of classic tales for kids express class, gender and possibly race concepts that need to be discussed, but I view it as a great opportunity to introduce historical facts.