[Oz-gifted] Update on L

[Ellen Hrebeniuk]

You might remember that the school counsellor was considering how to 
assess my five-year-old son L last term, with a view to a possible 
Year skip.  Neither I nor the staff was particularly happy with the 
idea of moving him up a year or two, for various reasons.

One difficulty was that L is now 5 years and 7 months, and WSPPI-III 
is only valid for children up to age 6.  Both the counsellor and I 
thought that he was too close to the age limit, and thus might hit 
the test ceiling.  The documentation seems to indicate that *only* 
year advancement requires the comprehensive formal testing, not less 
extreme forms of acceleration.

I put forward the following tentative proposal, based on my knowledge 
of his strengths:

* Put L into Year 1 next year.
* Send him to whichever Year is appropriate for English -- preferably 
the top class, if they are streamed, so that he sees excellence 
modelled (the entire school takes English first thing in the morning)
* Some kind of RPL and curriculum compacting in Maths.
* Evaluation by all interested parties at end Term 1, by which time 
he would be 6+, and old enough for WISC (if still required).

However, everyone still seems to be interested in assessing his IQ 
now, to see what they are dealing with.  The counsellor spoke to some 
Experts, who say that L "should not" ceiling the WSPPI-III.  We are 
both a little skeptical about this!  However -- the counsellor raised 
the issue of ceilings before I did, so I know she understands the 
issues.  The plan is to test him on the WSPPI-III this week to give 
us an indication of what is going on; ie, ammo for planning his 
education next year.

Happily, another K teacher has found a little boy (B) in her class 
who is reading at a similar level and getting bored (L listens to 
what the Year 2s are learning, or chats).  L and B will be working 
together on literacy and other work a couple of hours a week from now 
on, and will be put into the same class next year.  I'm very pleased 
with these efforts.
-- 
Ellen Hrebeniuk
Sydney, Australia

Being a librarian is how you change the world.
Nancy Pearl