My youngest kid will be going into middle school (yii, middle school already!) next year. His teachers have recommended separating him out of the general population and into the honors program, which he has to apply to, and they have said they will write letters in support of this course of action. Their reasoning is that otherwise he will sink to the lowest common denominator, which I believe is a good assessment.
The middle school, however, tells me that the honors program is for highly motivated kids, and has a lot of homework, and in addition to what they require from the current teachers they interview the kid to see if he really wants to do the work. Well, if they interview this kid he will probably be completely honest and say his parents want him to do the work, but he doesn’t want to particularly.
Now, the middle school also has a gifted/talented program, and that sounds like something he would be interested in. His older brothers were in g/t programs in middle school & high school, not that it helped them but the teaching is, in fact, more interesting. (And I don’t understand why they don’t use these creative teaching methods for everybody, if they work.) The way to get into the g/t program is a test that they give everybody at the beginning of middle school.
I am assuming that the test selects the smartest kids and along with them, those kids who are good at taking tests. Now my kid is smart, but no smarter than the next kid, but he is absolutely terrible at taking tests because he gets very anxious. He is also not terribly motivated. What he wants is to go to the local school of the arts and become a comic-book artist, and that’s not happening. (Well, at any rate he’s not going to the school of the arts because the academics are extremely, extremely weak. I’m really not trying to suppress him.)
My question is, what can I do to help him get more relaxed about taking tests? Anybody have any suggestions?
I don’t get what you’re saying - is your son not gifted, but you want him in the gifted program? It doesn’t really matter IMHO. If he gets in he gets in, and if he doesn’t it’ll be for the best anyway. Being in a class full of people smarter than you sucks. Not to mention how little bearing this will have on the rest of his life.
But it would probably help to tell him that it doesn’t matter, and that there will be questions he can’t answer because the test is DESIGNED that way. Not because he forgot something.
No, he’s the kind who, when he doesn’t know he’s being tested, does very well. I have told him it doesn’t matter.
I don’t know what they mean by gifted anyway. I’ve known most of his classmates since kindergarten and they are all very, very bright kids. My understanding is, if he gets in with the general population he will be able to slack off, and so he will. But he won’t volunteer for a program that promises extra work. I am trying to sneak him into a program where he’ll get the most out of his education. Sort of without his consent. The last time he had to take a standardized test (the Iowa test, which is actually for the benefit of the teachers and not the students) he actually got sick and I had to go get him–and he never gets sick. Well, rarely.
You’re probably right. Believe me, I spent the majority of my education as the dumbest person in the class (because unlike my kid, I overperform on tests), and in the grand scheme of things it doesn’t matter much.
Does this g/t program have an arts component? Can you sell it to him on that basis? Can you sell him to the program based on his artistic talents? That’s where I think you may find some common ground.
Or, maybe you can offer him an art-related “carrot” based on maintaining certain grades. Make the GPA he needs higher in the regular program and cut him a point or so of slack in the g/t program.
On a strictly practical note, 2 really basic test taking strategies (that you probably already know, since you test well) are to answer the questions you know first, then go back to the tough ones, and to treat multiple choice questions as a series of true/false. If he is willing to practice those, it MIGHT reduce his anxiety. If he’s really just stressed b/c he doesn’t want to do what you want him to do, though, I see little hope for his anxiety to go down.
I suggest the other option. Get him to ace the interview.
If he’s smart, then part of that will mean not working because he doesn’t have to. Trust me, getting 90% on tests when you haven’t studied means you don’t really have any motivation for studying.
Talk to you son.
Ask him if he gets bored at school, ask him if he wants to learn more things, different things or in a different way. Ask him if he would be willing to work hard if he got more for it. Talk to him about what being in the honours programme would mean and what he could do if he was in it. Focus on the cool, interesting part, and get him excited and enthusiastic.
If he answers in a way that will make him appear smart and motivated and really excited about the programme but currently bored, unchallenged and apathetic in his classroom, you may be onto a winner.
I think you should tell him about the test. He should at least know what he’s getting himself into, and besides, it’s pretty hard to trick a kid into taking a TEST (“Here, write your name in block letters. Fill in the bubbles like this. No, this is just for fun, honest.”)
If you can get your hands on something similar to the test papers they use and show it to him that might reassure him, or at least prepare him a little. I’m not saying dig out the past 10 papers and drill the kid, just let him know what it’s all about.
Oooooor, you could just sign him up without telling him, drop him off at school and say “Good luck, kiddo! Sink or swim!”
