Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments managing switching classrooms for math

My DS7 was moved from his first grade math class into a 3rd grade math class mid-year during first grade. The move was very successful, he loved it and continued to perform well. When meeting with leadership at the school to discuss his placement next year it was decided he will enter the compacted math program that will cover all of 4th grade and half of 5th grade. We agree that this seems to be a good placement, but we were warned that the math block may not line up perfectly. Does anyone have any advice on how best to navigate any missed material? He will be the only 2nd grader in the class.

YS DS8 will be SSA in math this year also. We have had to agree to essentially switch his entire classroom placement and at times during the week have him take classes with older students (which could actually have benefits since he is also an advanced reader) to make this work. It is still an imperfect match and his schedule will be a bit of a mess.

Really, scheduling is up to the school. You really should not have to worry about that. What material are you concerned about him missing?

Thanks Loy58- I hope the SSA works out well for your son too. I understand that the scheduling is the school's responsibility, but I also want to make sure he doesn't miss art, music or P.E. (I feel those experiences are difficult for me to "make-up" at home) and he really enjoys them. Last year he missed some social studies, some writing, a little bit of reading but not the same subject every day. Any tips on communicating with teachers (his reading teacher, home room, and math) about what he is missing in each room from day to day?

Not DS, but YS DD11 missed some class time because of some advanced classes that did not quite match up time-wise in the past. How successful that arrangement was really depended on th teacher. I tried to stay out of it, as much as possible and it usually worked itself out. A couple of times I found myself biting my tongue...but it always worked out.

Your DS is a bit on the young end, so hard for him to work everything out on his own. If you think his teacher is supportive, I might reach out to him or her. Unfortunately, not all teachers are supportive of SSA and this could come out when you try to have this conversation.

Loy58- thank you. I try to back off and just let the first month or so of school happen so the teacher can get to know my DS and everyone adjust. Hopefully his homeroom teacher will support the SSA and all will go smoothly!

We've only had schedule clashes around SSAs. When a kid is missing instruction for a SSA, then there's also time when he'll be sitting through instruction that doesn't apply to him.

DS wears a watch with multiple alarms set for each time he's supposed to leave in the middle of class to go elsewhere.

For a couple of years, he would have a folder that he'd put on his desk when he was out of the room with missed work. The teacher or kid sitting next to him would put anything that was handed out when he was gone in the folder. When he's sitting through a repeat of instruction or grade level instruction in the accelerated subject, he'd pull the folder out and do what was in there.

We set priorities for the school on what we'd like to see happen when a one-off event means that schedules will change for a day. For instance, we established the approach that "DD is a 6th grader first, an accelerated student second, and DD has the right to make a decision as to where she goes without discussion with us." That means she'd attend all 6th grade functions like field trips and assemblies, and we'd expect the teachers to give her any missed assignments and time to make them up. She may also choose to skip an assembly in favor of going to her accelerated classes, and I'd be ok with that.

My dd's school manages it by requiring each class to have math at the same time each day. Math is always immediately after lunch.

My son's school has the same block of time for math across grades - in his school, it is immediately before lunch recess. Kids get moved to different math levels at different times of the year - their schedule does not change, instead, they are asked to go to a different classroom for math.

Thank you all. Unfortunately our public school has 3 lunches and students switching grades for math is extremely uncommon. While I am grateful for their willingness to accommodate DS7, I do expect some bumps along the road.

Geofizz- I like the folder idea for missed work back in his homeroom. I am already planning on making him a binder with folders/paper and a separate pencil pouch inside with pencils, glue stick, scissors, protractor, compass etc. since he will not be at his desk during math. Fortunately he is an organized little kid, but was also frustrated and stressed when the teacher would tell the kids to cut or glue and he didn't have the right supplies. Of course the teacher was happy to help him, but it made him uncomfortable feeling unprepared.

Expect bumps, mom2R&R, and maybe coach your DS on how to handle hiccups. I would also go over with him what to do if he ends up missing lunch occasionally. Our middle school was like that with 3 lunch periods. We had a standing agreement that DD could eat during the next period assuming she brought a nut-free lunch. She also knew to ask to see the nurse if she was ever refused the opportunity to eat (happened once with a sub). The nurse knows better than to deny a kid food.

Daytripper and ashley, I sent you a pm.

Can I ask about this watch, what brand and where you got it? We are looking for a watch like this but it has to be waterproof (dd has a watch that she wears all the time, even in the bath/pool. If she took it off she would forget it or lose it).

To OP. DS was acclerated for math but the school had their math schedules aligned so everyone across grades did math at the same time. Really it's not rocket science, but most schools can't seem to figure this out. In your shoes I would probably tell the teachers to send home whatever he misses that is important with a note as to what he should do (get him a planner with space to write for each subject and tell your DS to have it at every class).

Even with the math schedules align, there are bound to be classes missed now and again due to field trips, assemblies, state/county testing, etc. I think it should be fine if he misses some of the math classes because the accepted practice is to only accelerate to a level that is at least still a bit low relative to ability. Math was still really easy for DS each time after his SSA so he can focus on executive functions and writing demands (Pre-Calculus in 8th this fall and missing classes has not been a problem). I would focus on him not missing any of the fun stuff with his grade mates.

Timex Expedition, bought at Target for about $40. It has 3 alarms

Thanks!

When you have small to medium size schools you can match up math period across the school but my son's elementary school had 1100 students and not everyone can eat or do specials (art music pe) classes if math is the same all across the day. So when it came to my son's need for math acceleration, they couldn't figure out how to do it. So they offered a whole grade skip instead. Turned out great.

Ours is large as well, not quite 1100 but it's a larger school. They divided it into 3 neighborhoods so it's like 3 schools within a school, each neighborhood has every grade, and each neighborhood may be aligned with math (rather than the whole entire school--not sure) so that at least 10 classes are doing math at the same time (2-3 classes from each grade) with each class being a different level. So there is differentiation within each grade level as well, with a high, medium and low group.

Thank you everyone- his school is on the smaller side with only 2-3 classes per grade. It's similar in size to the one where I taught and was on the leadership team that made the schedule over the summer. I appreciate how difficult it is and why all the classes cannot always have math at the same time. In our district smaller schools share art/music/P.E. teachers, so all the specials may have to occur Monday-Wednesday morning etc. Because of this and other part-time resource positions, scheduling is much more complicated that I realized before trying to create a school-wide schedule. Often 3rd-5th grades may have the same math block, but since he will only be in 2nd that will not necessarily help this year.

I hate to piggyback on this thread but my DS is in somewhat of a similar situation. He was SSA'd into 5th-grade math. His first day of school was last week. Looking at his schedule we realized that 4th and 5th-grade math were not at the same time. From what I can tell it looks like he will be missing his recess (which is not great as he is also ADHD and really needs that time to get out some energy plus he loves playing sports) and he will be missing 15 minutes of his 5th-grade math every day because his 4th-grade lunch overlaps(He is also a Type 1 Diabetic). Any ideas how we can navigate this? Not to mention it appears he will be sitting through his 4th-grade math class as well.

Portia, great question! As usual, a wonderful contribution.

I see where you are going with this... plunking 5th grade math into a student's schedule is not the only adjustment to be made for a successful SSA. Wouldn't it be serendipitous to attend 5th grade recess during the 4th grade math period?!