Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional IEP for Gifted & Math Acceleration Apps/Programs?

So the kiddo's IEP to finally transition him into Gifted next year for 8th grade is scheduled for Monday. I'm dreading the battle I know is coming of push back that gifted is for elite kids who can do all the work, so we can't have accommodations and still have it be gifted.

I don't think we'll have issues asking for gifted placement for most of his academic classes, because the science, language arts, and social studies teachers have all emailed me to tell me they have requested that they attend the IEP to make sure he is put into gifted for those areas next year. They are very aware that he needs challenged and is capable, and they all understand the challenges they've had dealing with him in a regular ed class this year.

Where the push is going to come is in math. They are very reasonably concerned that he cannot keep up with the advanced content since he hasn't been introduced to many of the algebraic and beginning trig concepts because he's been stuck in regular math until now. And they're right. But he wants to learn and wants to do harder concepts despite the calculation portions still being a challenge.

To that end, do any of you have recommendations for either online or iPad/iPhone apps that he could use this summer to get caught up on the concepts? He has asked if we can negotiate that he be tentatively placed in gifted with the understanding that he is responsible for catching up over the summer. We had a long talk about what he was committing to and whether he really wanted to spend part of his summer working on a class, and he said he wanted to and is committed to whatever it takes to get the opportunity to do more advanced work.

I'd like to look over some options this weekend so I can go in prepared with a few suggestions beyond asking for the material the gifted class is using for 6th and 7th - which I do plan to do as well.

Thanks in advance!

Khan Academy is a great place to start. With their learning web of what math leads to what math, videos, and quizzes it is a nice package. It presents fairly well on the iPad, but you watch the videos through their app and have to find the matching quizzes on the website.

The DragonBox app is a nice way to rapidly ramp up alegraic manipulation skills.

Downloading math apps has been an obsession in our house the last couple of months.

Does he have a preferred mode of learning? (does he like videos with people, videos with equations, hands on practice, reading and practice, etc.)

Lisa, math is so quantitative that I think I'd look for an option that is specifically tied to whatever curriculum he's missed out on. What grade is he going into, and what level of math is gifted vs what he's had? Is he going into 7th, and if so, are the gifted track kids in pre-algebra, algebra or farther along? What level of math was your ds in this year? I'm asking because that might make a difference in how I answer the question

Two options I'd consider (and I'm sure there are many others - I just like these options simply because they are quantifiably verifiable - you can take the record of what your ds has done as proof he's mastered the missing subject work):

Aleks - there are courses all the way up through Calculus offered, you pay one price per month and your child can work his way through the courses at his own pace. You (the parent) can set up quizzes etc to have a record of the types of work he's done, and the program will keep a record of what he's mastered that's tied back specifically to your (each) state's math curriculum standards. If your ds has missed a specific topic of instruction in one of the classes leading up to pre-algebra for instance, he should be able to go into Aleks (online), sign up for 6th grade math, he'll most likely fly through the initial assessment in all the topics he's been exposed to, miss the ones he hasn't seen, then be able to work through just that part of 6th grade math to complete it in Aleks... and then he can be moved up to the next level of math and so on and so on.

The other option I'd consider is summer school for the missing math. The potential downside to that is making sure he gets what he's missing and he's not forced to repeat too much of what he already has had.

And another possible option, if you have a very specific and relatively short list of topics he's missed, is tutoring through a private tutor who would focus on the specific topics.

Good luck with your IEP meeting!!!

polarbear

ps - I know this isn't a data point you can use for your advocacy at school, but we used Aleks to keep our ds caught up to his level in math at home when he was being held back at school, and he was able to easily fit right into a 2-year school-skip in math when the opportunity opened up for him in middle school. So don't let the school staff try to talk you out of sending your ds into the program he needs to be in!

I would also recommend looking at AOPS. They have online prealgebra 1 & 2 classes starting May/June. Check the topics and see if they will fill the gaps your DS might have. My DS is taking prealgebra 1 right now and it is a well-taught class with assigned homework and enrichment problems (alcumus) offered as well as access to teaching videos on various topics. AOPS offers a good balance of instruction and problem sets that push the in class concepts further.

I second AOPS. DS is taking their PreAlgebra 1 class and finding it challenging. You can play around in Alcumus for free so try it out to get the feel of the program. You have a setting in Alcumus to follow a textbook like PreAlgebra so it gives problems in that range. Its adaptive so after a questions it settles into your DCs level.

Thanks so much. I will check out Aops and Aleks - both sound interesting. Someone else also recommended Dragonbox to my husband, so it's nice to see it mentioned here as well.

My dearly beloved despises Khan Academy - doesn't like the way the concepts are taught at all.

And since math and I parted ways for anything beyond making change and making projections and budgets for my business, I'm really not a good judge of the quality of a program.

Since my husband has many of the same LD's and a minor in math (he's an EE), I think we're going to ask for the school's 7th grade gifted curriculum to do over the summer so when he starts 8th grade next year, we know he is caught up. But I also want to look at the online/app options to supplement.

Thanks again - this forum is an amazing wealth of support and information.

For what it's worth, our school district had offered ALEKS as an alternative math curriculum for a very mathy child (friends of ours), and one of the local private (Friends) schools is now using ALEKS for their middle school math curriculum.

IEP is completed, and the kiddo is officially in gifted social studies and language arts with some accommodations on organization, spelling, written work and testing left in place - score one for walking in with knowledge of the law allowing kids to still have LD accommodations in a gifted classroom setting.

For math, we're keeping in him the regular class with the agreement that he will be tutored over the summer by my husband using the 7th grade gifted math curriculum. At the end of the summer, my son will have the option of either choosing to stay in regular math or asking to retest to acceptance into the harder class. We're all happy with this arrangement.

Funny aside - the social studies teacher actually requested a sub for his class so he could attend the IEP and make sure my kiddo got into the gifted class. He said it was a much better fit for my son and that it wasn't fair to the regular ed teachers to have a child who couldn't think inside of a box constantly disrupting the class and derailing the lesson with off-the-path conclusions that were a much better fit for the gifted classroom.

Thanks for the all the advice and suggestions - we'll be looking into the online/app options to supplement this summer!

I'm so glad it's all come together. It is always wonderful to hear about a teacher who totally gets it. We had a similar remark from a teacher recently: "We need to get him in the right place, because if he keeps trying to teach the other first graders division, their poor little heads are going to explode."

That is awesome, Zen.

The Sp Ed Chair thought I was going to take offense, but I laughed, because the teacher is so right. It is so hard on teachers who have 32 kids with one of them gifted and totally not marching to the right beat. So it isn't just about it not being a right fit for our children - it's also about it making things harder on everyone else in the class.