My daughter's teacher says she is smart, but not learning?

Question

My daughter is in kindergarden and I recently had a conference with her teacher who says she is not learning what she needs to and will probably be held back because of it.

The thing is, my daughter does everything at home...

She knows the subject matter, but doesn't do it in school.

Any ideas on how to get her to show the teacher what she does at home, and how to get her to do it at school regularly?

Thank you all!

Answer 1

You might take into consideration that this could be a behavioral issue.  Your daughter may be chatting and playing during class and not interested in giving her best effort.  The teacher cannot give her more challenging work until she can show what she knows just like the other students.  Giving her some incentive at home with a sticker chart is a good idea, if she really is capable of the work.

Answer 2

That seems weird.

You could tell her she will have to stay in Kindergarten if she doesn't show the teacher how smart she is.

Give her a reward!

Talk to the school district, maybe the poor girl is bored and needs to skip ahead!

You could have her evaluated.

There is no reason to keep a smart child behind and hinder them anymore!

Answer 3

I think your daughter needs to be challenged a little more because she might be getting bored in class because shes not interresed in what she learning now and probally knew the stuff already. I was like this in kindergerten too and they challenged me more by slowly trying to move me up into the next grade level. Another reason might be because she might not be used to having so many people around her and  having different people give her orders.

Answer 4

go into the classroom and figure out what the problem is.  is she not doing the work because she's talking to a friend? because she's trying to get attention? because she's feeling separation anxiety and is crying in the corner? because the teacher is screaming at her? because she can't hear the directions (classrooms can be much noisier than home ... consider hearing problems or attention problems triggered by all the activity in the classroom).  is it something else? ask the teacher what she thinks the trouble is.  also ask your daughter what she thinks the trouble is.  if you're really positive she can do the work (and only then -- don't set her up for failure if there's some real reason why she can't do it at school), institute a sticker chart or something and give her a sticker every day the teacher and you agree she did her best work at school, and work up to a reward for some number of stickers.

will she do the work when you visit the classroom? is it just when she's feeling comfortable? then maybe a visit will be enough to show the teacher what she can do.  

one of my kids had a form of social anxiety disorder where she couldn't speak at school.  she's since outgrown it.  but kids with that disorder are often quite bright and it's frustrating because the teachers can't evaluate them on any kind of oral work because they can't talk at school.  some parents of kids with that disorder videotape their kids doing presentations at home and bring it in to the teacher so the teacher can see what they could do outside of school and evaluate them on what they know, not just what they were able to do in the classroom.  perhaps you could  consider something similar.

Answer 5

My daughter is kind of like this (we homeschool) she won't tell anyone what she knows, and when we have to go for testing, etc., people think I am crazy for saing that she is reading this book or that, when at testing she won't tell them the letters on the page!

Some children don't like feeling singled out and perhaps she is uncomfortable with talking in class.  Does she like school?  Does she like her teacher?  Is she challenged?  Shy?  Bored?  If you ask your daughter what is going on, just matter of fact without mentioning that she may be held back, you may just get some insights as to what she is thinking.

As far as what to do about her showing mastery of the subject matter, can you compile a portfolio of sorts of work samples?  A hidden videotape might work too.  If your daughter knows the material and is held back, she is very likely to have more challenges next year and this should be addressed asap to figure out what is going on.  Can you collect work samples and have another conference with the teachers and principal?  

I know how frustrating this is, I hope that you are able to learn what is behind your daughter's challenge in school.

Answer 6

She is smart

but she isn't learning anything new I think is what she is saying

Answer 7

Sounds like maybe she's bored.  I would challenge the teacher to challenge your child.