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Program Advocacy: R. Ingram

1. The document discusses two articles about advocating for gifted students. The first article provides parents with tips for advocating for their gifted child at school, such as gathering data, communicating with teachers, and determining the child's needs. The second article discusses the importance of parental involvement to prevent harm to gifted students when schools cannot fully meet their needs. It notes that lack of engagement from parents can negatively impact gifted students. 2. Both articles emphasize the critical role of parents as advocates for gifted children's academic needs. When schools cannot provide optimal services, active parental involvement is needed to ensure gifted students continue progressing appropriately. The document reflects on how teachers can better support both students and parents to advocate effectively for gifted learn

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68 views2 pages

Program Advocacy: R. Ingram

1. The document discusses two articles about advocating for gifted students. The first article provides parents with tips for advocating for their gifted child at school, such as gathering data, communicating with teachers, and determining the child's needs. The second article discusses the importance of parental involvement to prevent harm to gifted students when schools cannot fully meet their needs. It notes that lack of engagement from parents can negatively impact gifted students. 2. Both articles emphasize the critical role of parents as advocates for gifted children's academic needs. When schools cannot provide optimal services, active parental involvement is needed to ensure gifted students continue progressing appropriately. The document reflects on how teachers can better support both students and parents to advocate effectively for gifted learn

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Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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R.

Ingram

Program Advocacy

1. Shoplik, A. (2015). Tips for Parents: Advocacy – Working With Your Child’s School.
http://www.davidsongifted.org/search-database/entry/a10558

The parent(s) of a gifted child serve as their number one advocate and this article is so
significant because it provides parents with tips on how to advocate for their child within
their school setting to ensure they get the services they need. As a parent, you can’t just
expect a school to immediately, or even at all depending on the environment and available
resources, provide your child with the necessary curriculum adjustment required for their
unique, advanced ability. Thus, the tips provided to parents within the article include 1)
obtaining objective data and gather other information, 2) continuously interacting with school
personnel (especially the teachers of the gifted learner), 3) deciding what’s reasonable to ask
the school to do, 4) joining a parent group, and most importantly, 5) and determining the
needs of the gifted learner. If a parent doesn’t know what their child needs academically,
gifted or not, then how can you truly advocate for them? For example, if your student comes
home every day and tells you that they don’t like school because the content is boring and
you observe them breezing through the homework that is assigned on a daily basis in 30
minutes, then that level of rigor does not fit their need. Instead of ignoring it which often
results in gifted underachievers, understand that grade acceleration may be an option for you
to look into for your child. As a teacher, I am also an advocate for providing the student with
their academic needs, so I can work with the parent as an ally for their child’s education by
being aware of the services the school offers and continuously obtaining data that supports
and highlights the gifted ability of the learner. However, the article did trigger an idea, “Are
there any mistakes a parent, and teacher in support, make while advocating that undermines
our ability to ensure that the gifted learner receives the appropriate services?

2. McIntyre, T. (2004). ‘Harm’ and the Gifted Student.


https://www.hoagiesgifted.org/harm.htm

Gifted education is not a “one size fits all” model and this article is significant not only
because it addresses that ideal, but because it discusses the need of parent involvement when
it comes to the gifted learner. When inadequate services are provided to a gifted learner, it
negatively affects the development of the gifted learner. Understandably so, some school just
don’t have the resources to provide the student with services that match their academic need;
however, a “things could be better, but they are not all that bad” isn’t a mindset that helps the
gifted learner either because it makes the parent passive (lack of engagement and advocacy),
places all the responsibility in the school/district, and ultimately makes the student suffer the
most as they “go through school by drifting, rather than moving purposefully.” Yet, the
article deems this as a “steady as she drifts approach” and states that this is completely
preventable with direct parental involvement. Additionally, the article states that the tone of
the involvement of a parent can be determined based on the initial encounter that their child
is first identified as gifted: DIGS (District Identified Gifted Student) where the active role
belongs to the school/district versus FIGS (Family Identified Gifted Student) where the
active role belongs to the parent(s). Moreover, the ‘harm’ comes from the student being left
in a long-term situation that doesn’t match their needs and the most important perspective to
ensure this is prevented is the gifted learner’s perspective. In order to reduce the onset of
‘harm’, I can be a more vocal advocate for the gifted learner by providing both the student
and the parent with data that shows the negative impact of not speaking up/being engaged.
However, that statement does trigger another idea, “If a parent continues to not be involved
in the gifted learning process of their student, even after being continuously reached out to,
how can we play even more of a supportive role as a school to ensure the gifted learner gets
the services they need in order to move purposefully through school?”

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