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Tag: GEP

  • 7 Tips For Transition From Mainstream Education To Gifted Education Programme (GEP)

    Character from book project and 3D book review

    Every Primary (Grade) Three student in Singapore is given a chance to sit for a screening test to test for giftedness in English, Mathematics, and General Ability (traditional IQ questions). Up to 10% students get through the first round, and then only the top 1% to 1.5% make it to the Gifted Education Programme (GEP). Apart from developing the students’ intellectual capacity and higher level thinking, it aims to provide future leaders for the small country.

    There are parents who simply want their children to get into the gifted stream, so they fork out money to send their children for training, so that the children could get into GEP. Unfortunately, their children may feel very stressed when they realise they are unable to cope with the rigours of the curriculum. Since being gifted usually means being in the top 2%, there will be some children who will not be selected. Perhaps they are asynchronous in different areas – some might be extremely strong in mathematics and science, the latter being not tested, but do not read sufficiently to have an extremely large vocabulary to qualify for the programme. Others might have topped their cohorts consistently, but they are just extremely bright, not gifted. Nevertheless, since the GEP students are selected for their English, Mathematics and General Ability, almost all should be able to cope with the curriculum.

    El managed to get into the programme, along with two other classmates. The gifted programme curriculum is definitely more challenging and interesting than the mainstream curriculum. The students get to learn about ancient civilisations, such as the Mayan number system in Mathematics. They write short stories, fractured fairy tales (the teacher was pleasantly surprised that he wrote a poem in Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes style) and book reviews. The poems offered are quite interesting too. They do literature, which is usually reserved for secondary school (grades 7 – 10) students and the book is A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park. They also could find articles on any interesting ideas that are not taught in the curriculum, things such as the hottest place on earth, the coldest matter invented, and orchids are tricksters.

    It is definitely tough for both parents and students to make the transition from mainstream education to the gifted programme. El’s number one challenge he faces is the sheer amount of homework. Even in the third school term right now, there are still a lot of things to be concerned about. Here are some things that could help with being better prepared for GEP.

    Tip 1: Connect with other parents

    I managed to find on a local forum other parents whose children were going to the same school, so we formed a group and met up prior to reporting to the school. We wanted to let the children know a few other friends first before going to school.

    The school also helped each class to start a parents’ WhatsApp group, and since I already had a few numbers, I was one of the class reps. One of the form teachers knew my job, and she expressed surprise that I was ‘free’ to manage the group. It did not take too much time actually, since most people just knew what to do, such as collating phone numbers and names of parents and children. The two groups I was in allowed me to quickly know the school culture, and we provided information on all sorts of things, such as when and where to get the books and supplies, when to request for school bus services and also academic matters. Issues cropped up along the way, and parents surfaced them, hoping to find answers.

    Tip 2: Connect with teachers and other educators

    The teachers formed Class Dojo groups, and the teachers posted updates and pictures regularly especially in the beginning. Parents could easily message them and seek clarification. There were a few school events, so we could meet up with the teachers to have informal and formal chats. There were also a few meetings with the school principal and department heads about the programme. There was also a talk by a parent (who is an educator too) whose child graduated from the programme. She said that it was fine if we could not answer the questions in our children’s homework since they are the ones who are gifted, not us.

    Tip 3: Manage homework well

    Homework used to be a short piece of assignment. Now, there are major projects, reports and assignments. Help your child to learn to cope with deadlines. There are many occasions when El has to do his work late into the night. Many of the assignments require the use of the computer and printer. This means running to the nearby shopping mall to pick up ink cartridges because the printer ran out of ink. There were also multiple drafts required for them to improve their work. El used to be resistant to doing new drafts. I had to coax him and tell him what to do with the teachers’ detailed comments. There were a few occasions when his name was highlighted for non-submission on his teachers’ blogs, so I had to ensure he was completing and submitting his work. There were days when I had to sit near him, just to check that he was doing his assignments, and not secretly going to other webpages, such as checking out Harry Potter trivia (his latest interest), or working on a Scratch project (which is part of his programme). He has to learn Chinese spelling as well on a regular basis, and there are long paragraphs to memorise. That takes time too.

    Tip 4: Organise things well

    There is so much filing to be done since they do not use textbooks. They were told to get an accordion file and label various subjects with In and Out compartments. Their files are constantly checked and rechecked. Worksheets are numbered. This is a good idea as it ensures the students complete their assignments.

    We actually bought two cupboards and placed them in the living room. El had one and Gar (who just started primary school) had another. Each subject had its own shelf, and their bags were at the bottom shelves. We could leave the house easily in the morning. They would pack their bags the night before, but there were days when they forgot to pack the reading material in the right language, and had to rush to find one.

    Tip 5: Manage time properly

    With so many assignments that span days, weeks or months, they need to be at the top of their game. Work no longer takes just minutes. They take hours. Parents have to help the child plan a timetable, so that they will not miss deadlines. El is tired from the many enrichment courses organised by his school (computing, debate, competitions, fieldtrips and performances) and after-school club activities. He had trouble coping with work and had no time for other pursuits such piano. It is only recently after he managed to clear his backlog of homework that he could get back to practising piano. Initially, he was upset at having no time at all, but I think he is getting used to the rigour. He has to cope with the Chinese spelling too. He wanted to quit everything and not do anything, but he would just end up playing games on iPad instead of using it meaningfully. We managed to talk it out.

    Time is needed for the students to read! They have over 50 books on a booklist. I went to the National Library Board to search for books on the list. Since I love reading and I can speed read, I read some books together with him, so that I could discuss the stories with him. Some of the more interesting books include Frindle by Andrew Clements and Clockwork by Philip Pullman. El likes reading, so he managed to read quite number on the list. It is fine to stop reading if he dislikes the books, and there are some books that he is not so keen on.

    Tip 6: Manage stress

    The stress gets to both the children and the parents. It was really tough for the children as many of them cruised through the lower primary levels, scoring fantastic grades without putting in much effort. Suddenly, they have to actually use their brains. It is tough for children. There are people who think GEP kills interest and creativity in children, but I think El actually got to express his creativity more. He came up with a 3D book review and a snakes and ladders game based on a Chinese book he had to read. There was a lot of tension in the beginning. Parents should not do their children’s homework or projects, but just guide them closely. There were times when I felt it would be faster if I just took over, but I made him learn how to do it, such as learning how to make the background of a picture disappear using PowerPoint. It is futile getting so stressed over their children’s work if the child is not ready. Helicopter parenting is not encouraged as mollycoddling will not help them to grow, but free range parenting is not suitable especially in the transition period. I am glad to see him doing his work almost totally on his own especially in this term. He has come a long way.

    Tip 7: Work on the weaknesses

    El is weak in Chinese. According to another parent, the best compositions written by the students were of 3 – 4 grades higher. When we met the teachers, they said that his Chinese results were mediocre compared to his classmates. My mother is guiding him almost daily, but because we do not watch Chinese shows, there is little input. Television is actually good. We pick up important language skills. However, we do not watch television programmes anymore. The children like to watch YouTube videos on Minecraft and Roblox, so they really have very little exposure to Mandarin. I hope he could only do better. He actually searched for the book online, and copied it into google translator!

    Since there are next to zero assessment books available for GEP, it is hard to do more practices. When the teacher gave past-year exam papers to them to practise, he did very badly initially. They have to score a minimum of 70% in order to pass. I scanned the papers, covered up the answers, and printed out the worksheets for him to do the questions again. Time management for Mathematics is very important, as some of his classmates could not finish and did badly. I found some relevant questions and let him practise a few days before the examinations. For students who are not used to getting poor marks, this is a scary wakeup call. Some might be demotivated, so parents must make sure they are emotionally stable. Especially with the rise in suicide rates in children aged 10-19 according to recent statistics released in Singapore, it is important to teach our children to have emotional strength, grit and perseverance.

    Overall, I think El has benefitted greatly from the programme. He is definitely being challenged in many areas and he enjoys the lessons greatly. He is getting accustomed to the rigour. His school emphasises character building, and I hope he will grow up to be a gentleman.

    This post is part of a blog hop by Hoagies’ Gifted Education Page in August 2019 about Transitions. Check out other blogs too.

  • Gifted Testing In Singapore From A Parent’s Perspective

    Gifted Testing In Singapore From A Parent’s Perspective

    It was Christmas Eve. My five-year-old was going for an intelligence assessment. I had driven for half an hour to an old estate in the south of Singapore and I crossed a run-down looking overhead bridge and reached the place. When we entered the centre, the owner came to say hi but El was quiet. She commented he was shy, and I wondered how true that was. El was then led to a small room with a psychologist, who is experienced with gifted children. I was seated in the corridor with a questionnaire to fill in. I had selected this late morning time slot so that El would be wide awake.

    I had not expected to be asked questions about El’s birth stats, and his milestones. With two children, I just wanted them to meet their milestones. I had forgotten exactly when. When did he start sitting up? When did he start crawling? I tried to figure out some of the information. I remembered that El started talking around 2 years old. He started walking after turning one, but I could not be sure which month it was.

    I was quizzed on his behaviour in class and interaction. I suddenly realised that El had problems paying attention in class. Even in art classes which he had asked for, he did not focus. I was also quizzed on his skills in language and mathematics. Actually, I did not really know because I did not spend much time with him on Mathematics. I only knew he could do complicated addition and subtraction, but still get seven plus seven wrong.

    While reading his school reports, I was shocked to see how little his teachers had stretched him. In nursery, the teacher wrote he could count from 1 – 50. In K1, his teacher wrote that he could count from 1 – 20. Did his ability to count to 50 or more disappear suddenly? No, it was more of how much the teacher knew how what he knew.

    gifted testing narrow

    I could not remember the exact time El was in there. I could not finish by the time he was done. It was the psychologist’s turn to talk to me. He mentioned that El warmed up very quickly. He remarked that El was intelligent and went through the questionnaire with me. I shared with him some of his behaviour and my concerns.

    He asked why I had wanted El to take the test. This is Singapore, where acceleration is near to impossible in mainstream schools, except for exceptionally gifted (EG) children, and gifted children are only identified at the age of 9. I guess I wanted to know whether he was gifted and how gifted he was, if he were. He told me that El was gifted, but the exact score would be revealed after he had crunched the numbers.

    On our way home, El was busy eating a slice of pizza which I had bought earlier, and I asked him what was tested. He said he had forgotten them, but could describe a silly picture in detail to me. He mentioned they also used blocks, after I repeatedly asked him.

    I had originally decided against testing. It is not cheap, and there is nothing much one could do with the results. I found a place for IQ assessment after googling. When I had checked out MOE’s website, there was something on acceleration for exceptionally gifted children. It would require testing either with the Stanford Binet V or WISC IV for MOE to recognise him. Was he in that range? While I could check off a number of criteria listed by on that page, there were other criteria that were not that strong.

    One factor that had influenced my decision was the choice of school. The Ministry of Education (Singapore) had mentioned that EG students could find their own school. I had read the EG criteria over and over again, and felt that many of them applied to El. Could he be somewhat near that range in terms of intellectual capacity? I felt that there was a need to find out.

    If there was a possibility that El could get into the Gifted Education Programme (GEP) at 10 years old, wouldn’t it be good if he could go into a school that was offering the programme right from the start at 7? There would be less disruption in terms of change. There is such a school that is not too far away from my place, a school I would like my children to get into, but it is near to impossible due to its popularity and a large number of alumni who get priority over other children. I like that school because it has a strong bilingualism environment, something I strongly believe in. If the mainstream school route does not work out, then I would have to seriously consider homeschooling.

    Another factor was El told me he did not enjoy kindergarten as it was boring. He said he learnt more at home than in school. The thought of him learning sight words such as ‘a’, ‘the’, ‘on’, ‘I’, ‘he’ and other simple words for another year had quite an effect on me. He had already known how to read and spell multi-syllabic words. He told me he would like to have something more challenging. As a mother, I should do something about it.

    However, despite that, I was still procrastinating on testing El due to a heavy workload. It was a stroke of luck when I managed to speak to a friend with a child in somewhat similar shoes. She told me about how the gifted branch at MOE could provide advice.

    MENSA would be another avenue for El to meet intellectual peers. To get into MENSA junior, they would require an IQ assessment, since they only carry out testing for 14 years and above. She provided me information on various psychologists. One of them was one whom I had contacted earlier, so I thought out of courtesy and convenience I would continue with that option.

    With these in mind, El took the assessment. A few weeks after that, I had received his report. While I was wistfully hopeful that he could be EG so that he could have acceleration, realistically I thought he was just gifted. I was shocked by his results nevertheless. He is not EG, but the scores (based on norms from US children) are still pretty high, far higher than what I had expected. His intellectual capacity is currently similar to that of a 9-year-old. This boy would probably cruise through primary school in most subjects and not be challenged at all, except for Chinese Language. Then he would be in for a rude shock when he reaches a higher level, and has not acquired the right study skills to cope with a more demanding curriculum. When that happens, it would be too late.

    I was a little hesitant to let El take the Stanford Binet 5 test because the WISC IV is the one that is really great for verbal kids. However, since he is born late in the year, getting him to do the WISC IV (which only tests children 6 years and above) would be too late in terms of school enrolment. The SB5 test components include Fluid Reasoning, Knowledge, Quantitative Reasoning, Visual-Spatial Processing, and Working Memory in both Verbal and Non-verbal domains. However, his non-verbal scores turned out to be slightly higher than his verbal scores. I wonder whether the WISC IV score would be slightly different, since the verbal component is greater. The psychologist mentioned that El was very visual, and this was evident from his description of the silly pictures in his test. Perhaps this explains why El is always coming up with very specific names for dinosaur pictures and toys when he sees the toys or books. I see T-Rex, he sees muttaburrasaurus (two very different types of dinosaurs, one carnivorous and the other herbivorous).

    Now that I have El’s test results, does that change anything? He is still the same child. I did not reveal the purpose of the test to him. Perhaps not much in terms of academics, since he would not be able to accelerate. I would do what most kiasu Singaporean parents (Tiger Moms, anyone?) would do – afterschooling. He could do additional work at home or at enrichment centres to stretch him.

    At the very least, at least El’s father and I are on the same page. Even after the testing, when the psychologist mentioned that El was gifted before the release of the IQ report, my husband was worried that he would turn out not to be gifted after calculation. Now, he does not deny that El is gifted and that we should handle him accordingly. We also gained some parenting tips and advice from the psychologist, who suggested that El should pick up violin, which would do a fidgety boy good.

    I think it is time to walk the talk, and do more to be an advocate for my child. Perhaps my child’s current teachers would finally not think I am a deluded parent who thinks her child is gifted.

    This blog is part of Hoagies’ Gifted Education Page Blog Hop on Testing.

    testing



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