Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Not working as well as planned (long)(updated)

We had our plan for DS8 all worked out at the end of last year: going into 4th grade, he was to have math with the middle school 6th grade GT class first thing in the morning and then come back to his regular classes.

Well, of course, the middle school changed their schedule before school started, and now that class is 4th hour -- at the same time that his class has lunch and recess! We had a last-minute meeting the day before school started, and hammered out a plan: he would take that class anyway, then get lunch during the last ten minutes of 5th graders' lunch in the cafeteria, and they would walk him back over to eat in either the office or the classroom. He liked the idea of having more time to eat, as he has always complained of the lack of time there. Recess was a sticking point, but it was a work in progress to be determined as we went. He liked this idea yesterday.

Today, not so much. We weren't going to start the math class till Monday, to give him time in the bonding activities of his new class -- well, he got lunch and recess today and decided he didn't want to give it up.

He went to the counselor's office and told her that he had a plan -- he would go to math every other day, and lunch/recess on the other days.

So today we're still trying to figure it all out. The other option is that there is a 7th grade math class first thing in the morning, but it is a teacher who is new to the district, so an unknown quantity. The other teacher is the GT coordinator and has met him and is excited to have him -- the new one, no idea where she might fall. And the 7th grade class is just a regular class, where the 6th one is GT or at least advanced and may be using both 6th and 7th grade materials. So even though he has had most of 7th grade math (or at least the level beyond 6th on ALEKS, which is actually labeled MS Math 1, I believe -- anybody know the correlations?), the 6th grade class is theoretically kids who think a bit closer to the way he does, where the 7th grade class is a grab-bag.

I've floated an option of letting him have lunch/recess on Wednesdays and math the rest of the week, although I don't know if it's either possible or advisable.

Arrrgh! Why did they have to screw up our plan?

That is so frustrating....I would stick with the GT Math, even if he wants to try every other day for a few weeks. If the class is good, he may be willing to give up lunch and recess. If the class is sort of good, every other day may be plenty. I figure if he's willing to give it a try every other day, why not?

Golly - too bad that they moved it - so frustrating...but if the teacher sees that he really needs it and 'gets' him, she'll push harder for him next year, right?

Keep the long term goals in mind.

And he may have all sorts of feelings about being with older kids, being actually learning for the first time...trick is to keep him 'in the game' for a while so reality can overshadow those feelings.

Good luck,
Grinity

Nautigal, this has always been the sticking point for us with subject acceleration. Something always scotches the schedule. Our current plan is astonishingly complex... it will be miraculous if it works... but it could. So we're doing it, because DS will finally have appropriate math in an actual class. But it took moving heaven and earth.

I hope your DS can try the class with the enthusiastic GT teacher; if it's good enough, maybe it's good enough to have recess for? Where will he be when his regular class gets math-- can he go to recess with another class then, and would he consider doing so?

Good luck,
DeeDee

I posted a similar question about scheduling for my 6yo DS earlier this year and got a great response from another mom who's been through some very creative scheduling. The child had to miss reading in his home grade to take math two grades up, so then went to a different class in his home grade for reading, and then back to his own class. So he basically was in three different classes throughout the day.

If your school is like ours though, all the classes in the same grade have lunch and recess at the same time and that probably wouldn't work. I can't imagine my DS having to miss that little bit of social and active time with his classmates during the day, especially since this year, his best friends are all in other classes and that's the main time he sees them.

It sounds like your main options, if you want to preserve some social/active time for him, are to take 6th grade GT math every other day - which may be possible if he already knows most of the 7th grade math curriculum as you said - or to take the 7th grade math class. Your instincts probably have a lot to say about which of those options is the best (sounds like they're already indicating 6th grade GT math). I think Grinity's advice is good because it allows your DS input.

We haven't gotten our own math schedule figured out yet for the year, so I may be posting for similar advice in a week or two.

To clarify:

If he goes to the 6th grade math class during his class' lunch and recess, then he comes back with his lunch and eats in the classroom (or office, he likes to hang with the principal and counselor) while his class is doing spelling, which he doesn't need anyway. Then his class does math, and during that time they have a notion to rotate him among a list of half a dozen options that he needs, such as his "social stories", Read and Respond exercises for his reading comprehension which he struggles with, a writing journal and/or writing the class article each week for the newsletter that goes home, a program they got him last year called Reading Detectives, and something else I forget. Those are all things that they have generally pulled him out for anyway, so that's a good time to do them. Also, they are talking about having him pick a "buddy" to go outside with for some individual recess, as there is no class recess at that point of the day. His 4th grade class will have a recess at 2:30 every afternoon, so he will at least have that.

He will know a lot of the kids in the 6th GT math class, because he went to 5th grade for math last year at the start of the year and occasionally dropped in the rest of the year as well. He may also know some or more of the kids in the 7th grade math class, as he went to 5th grade math two years ago for most of the year. So there should be a reasonable knowledge of him among whichever class, and he gets along fine (better) with the older kids. The only problem we had last year was that some of them thought it was funny trying to get him to ask out a pretty girl in the class. That might get worse in middle school. Urgh.

I just don't know about the 6th grade class, even if it is advanced kids -- it will be fine, I think, for him learning to work within a class and have homework every day and all that, which is what he really needs, but it could be a boring curriculum for him. I think he would be comfortable with the 7th grade curriculum, but that would be problematic if those kids needed more repetition and got him bogged down waiting for them. He told me last night that he was worried about school starting because "everything is so slow, they just keep doing the same things over and over and it's so boring." We're working on understanding that the higher the class level, the more material they have to cover, so they have less and less time to keep working on the same things repeatedly. I hope that is true, anyway, and his 4th grade teacher says they have a lot to get through this year. They do have three cool field trips this fall -- 4th grade goes to Mesa Verde National Park (Anasazi Indian ruins), Crow Canyon Archaeological Park (more Indian Ruins and get to dig in the dirt, overnight trip), and the Anasazi Heritage Center (more Indian ruins, LOL). So they're doing a lot of local history, might keep him busy.

Seriously, if the pace is way too slow, and he already has a good grasp of most of the material, perhaps math class every other day with instructions from the teacher to work ahead to cover the next day's assignments really would work for him, and give him the best of both worlds. Then, hopefully, he'd only have to listen to the explanations of things he already knows once, and he could still do his pullouts during math and spelling time, etc. on the days he doesn't go to math class, or he could use the lower grade's math time to work in the library or in the office on his next day's math assignments for the higher class. The only drawback I can really see is that only being there half the time would draw attention to the fact that he wasn't being treated like a regular member of the class.

I don't have any advice, but I just wanted to comment on how cute is is that he advocated the every other day on his own. Part of the reason I love being on these forums is getting a little glimpse into the older gifties. (older than my DS I mean)

Would the 7th grade math teacher be willing to sit down with you and walk you through the curriculum and the speed that they go through it? That would give you a better idea of whether it would be too much repetition for him or not. Would he be happier with a little more repetition on more challenging material, or a faster and more in depth pace on material he already knows? It was really informative for me to walk through portions of the math curriculum last year with the teacher who would be teaching it to my DS.

Well, the school came up with a solution today!

He's going to have his own math class. There is a paraprofessional who worked with him a bit last year on his ALEKS, and apparently she has been a 7th grade math teacher in another local district. She is going to take him when his class is having math, and teach him at his own level. They will do a placement test to see just where he is in their curriculum and go from there. The class has math from 1:00 to 2:00 and math lab from 2:00 to 2:30, and she will take him from 1:30 to 2:30, so he will have that first half hour to work on his other stuff and then his math overlaps so he won't miss a thing! And it's flexible, so that if the class is doing something that would be good for him in math lab, he can go to that.

Yay!

I suspect it will get more exciting next year, figuring out what to do, since he will likely finish 8th grade math this year with this plan. Hopefully she's around next year!

Woohoo! This is AWESOME!