Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Elementary School Tell me about subject acceleration

Thanks geofizz!! That is so interesting. You've given me a lot to think about.

The good thing about our situation is that my son has a full time shadow with him at the moment (one that we fund). So it will be good in terms of having someone consistent with him and helping him with the transition.

He is ready to have support faded but I'd like to keep them until he is well and truly settled and showing he can handle this arrangement independently. There is no rush to fade etc.

My DS7 did early entrance into kindergarten. He is now in second grade and accelerated an additional year in language arts, joining the advanced 3rd grade reading class. Its has been working really well this year. Sometimes a one-year acceleration might not be enough though. This is the case in math for us. They offered to accelerate him but him working at almost highschool math it just wouldn't have made a difference to accelerate a year or two. Make sure the acceleration they are offering will be enough. They make it sound good when they were open to subject acceleration, but it still might not be enough. My son is working independently in math with EPGY.

At this point scheduling is not a problem since all lower school language arts classes are at the same time. The principal has talk to me about the transition from lower school to middle school though. He might have to do the fifth grade regular class when he's in the fourth and then join his class for the fifth grade advanced class when he is in 5th. We will deal with this when we get to it. But it sounded like the scheduling will be nearly impossible for him to still be in 5th grade and doing the middle school 6th grade reading class.

I have similar questions. Our school is considering creating an accelerated math class starting in 3rd grade, but even after a lot of advocacy, I'm uncertain about whether it will actually happen for the coming year. So I have a meeting set up with the principal for next week and I am thinking of requesting that my twins go to a higher grade for math class every day. The problem is that I've been told that each grade has math class at a different time - the schedules are not aligned (currently). For those of you who have been in this situation, what did your child do when back in his/her regular classroom during the time slot for the base grade math class? I would like to have some suggestions in place. I hate to have them miss something else in their regular class but after three years of watching them learn next to nothing in math at school, we are desperate.

If you have a choice, I'd opt for the accelerated program rather than moving up one grade for the SSA. Our kids have been through SSA for several different subjects, and while it helped with providing a higher level of personal challenge, it was also frustrating because they were in a mix of abilities of students therefore they still had to deal with relatively slow pace of instruction, lots of repetitive teaching/homework, and being frustrated with the level of questions asked by other students in class. If your school ultimately puts together an accelerated program, presumably the pace and overall level of classroom discussion etc would be at a higher level than a gen ed classroom.

Best wishes,

polarbear

Thanks, polarbear. I totally agree. I would much rather have the option of an accelerated class, but I don't know yet whether that option will be available.