Andrea also notices her daughter's ability at home, "She can pick up anything
real easy…I have a certain way of doing Goldilocks and The Three
Bears…And
I told it to her many many many times and if I miss something she'll say
'Mom you missed this…you missed that.'" In her explanation, Andrea
offered a comparison of her children: "I'll read to them. And I'll pronounce
a word the wrong way…Oh she will get mad at me
[and be the one to say] 'Mom, that's not the way it sounds!'" Andrea also recognizes
that this more precocious child is interested in learning:
One thing with [her] though is that they are starting to learn how to write
this year and she wanted me to teach her how to do her name…Well, we
were at it for two hours until she got it right! She is very stubborn like
that…She's like my
grandmother that died last year. She's like her…stubborn and very independent!
Clearly, Andrea recognizes that this child has ability that her other children
do not have and she holds high aspirations for her, "Hopefully [this daughter]
will go to college. She would be the only one that would be really capable
[and] become a doctor."
My classroom observations lend support to Andrea's belief that her daughter
is bright and very capable. She appears to catch on quickly when new material
is introduced.
It becomes evident in one interaction that Julie knows that her son is
bright, but feels others have trouble seeing past his attention deficit disorder.
She says:
…when he was three, maybe 3½ at [the childhood development
centre for low-income families] he read the map like you know…Like
the teacher was stunned
…They couldn't believe it. They were amazed like a 3½ year old reading
and remembering. He looked at it twice and remembered the map.
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