I know that most parents here have pushed for whole-grade or at least subject-level acceleration.
"Pushed" may have a negative connotation. Some might say that parents here have "advocated for..."
"Used their greatest advocacy efforts on?" LOL. I'm just saying that I see acceleration being the most common course of action mentioned in these forums. I'm primarily looking for options OTHER than that.
But if pull-outs and differentiated work are part of the plan, what does that look like?
You might want to re-read the Buzzwords thread.
A pull-out just means the child leaves the regular classroom. It says nothing about what is occurring, or the aptness or value of what your child is experiencing, during that time span.
Differentiated work (
differentiated task demands) can mean
more difficult and time-consuming homework (often regarded as a negative). Unfortunately, it does not necessarily mean
teaching appropriately challenging advanced curriculum in the child's zone of proximal development (ZPD), which would be a positive.
Right, but here I am speaking of BEST PRACTICES. Ways to differentiate instruction or put the student in a different environment, in a beneficial manner as opposed to the sneaky wordsmithing of evil, adversarial teachers and administrators.
Can I ask for online coursework?
For online courses,
Art of Problem Solving (AoPS) may be of interest for math. Students might also attend a math class with pupils in a higher grade level (which is often more cost effective).
Sorry, my question was whether other public elementary school parents have successfully integrated online coursework into their child's day. And yes, I know that single-subject acceleration is something that a lot of people on this forum advocate for.
And I know what my resources are should I choose to pursue them. (We have the AOPS curriculum for 5th grade and for Prealgebra, and would love to try their online school...IF the school can replace math with it, not pile it on top.)
Project-based learning in lieu of homework?
Think in terms of: What does the child know? What is the child ready to learn next? What are the child's interests?
Yes, exactly. And there are many explorations we could undertake, but her tolerance for "school" is burnt out by the time she does her busywork homework. In the early grades I took it on myself to excuse my children from homework and to use the time better. My children are now too focused on their own grades and performance to be willing to do this, so my hope was that some other parent would report that forgoing homework was a reasonable accommodation they'd asked for and received; or my concern was that some other parent would report that forgoing homework was the most resisted accommodation they'd requested.
Talk with your child, and be sure you are on the same page before beginning
advocacy. It may also be time to work with your child to develop positive skills for
self-advocacy.
Absolutely both my children are a central part of the conversation, from choosing to test to deciding which accommodations to pursue. To be completely honest my DD wants to try whole-grade acceleration. She's requested that we spend the summer brushing up on fifth grade subjects to ensure she won't experience gaps, then wants to enroll in sixth grade in the fall. But I'm not convinced that her motivation is sound (she likes getting attention for being the youngest in the room, and it's a psychological crutch for her not to have to worry about perfection because she has the excuse of being young.) And I'm not convinced she's socially/emotionally ready for the jump to middle school at 10.
Are there any well-researched resources that indicate what the known best practices are for this scenario?
This current thread may also be of interest:
District gifted program designI did just see that thread and will be diving into its links, thanks!!
