Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Exposure to new concepts

I have been wondering about the disconnect between my daughter's IQ and a particular achievement test our school administered. DD has done exceptionally well on other achievement, IQ measures, etc, except the one test the school uses to evaluate for single subject acceleration. My thought was how is she supposed to know advanced math concepts unless she has been exposed to them, even with high innate intelligence? DD is in 3rd grade, and she just has to show that she knows math past 4th grade to get SSA. We only found out that she is HG (WISC-IV) about a month ago, and I know that she wasn't receiving advanced work in class, only some work at home, and those concepts she aced on the test.
My plan is to have her work on ALEKS every day after school on 4th grade work. Then she will have the 4th grade skills under her belt for the next go round of the school test for SSA. She only needs exposure a time or so and "gets it". I know that she's capable of even more because she's shown that with more advanced math.
This is kid driven by the way - DD has been moaning and complaining about school for a long time. She asked the other day if she could just go to a "special room" at school where she could have "more challenging work". I told her that if she wished to get harder work, she needed to show that she knew the easy stuff. Does my plan to use ALEKS sound like a good idea without me being a total hot housing mom?
She will be taking the WJ 3 (or 4 if it gets out soon enough) per the principal's instruction also.

Sounds like a fine plan to me. ALEKS is limited for long-term use, but for your purpose, probably just what you want.

I am of the opinion that if the school is not teaching it and my DS is ready and excited to learn it, I will do what I can within reason at home.
Again, my opinion, but hothousing is "pushing" kids beyond what they are interested in, and in some cases ready for, to meet your own agenda--and taking away their time to be a kid in the process.
By teaching ahead, you're trying to help your daughter get the acceleration that she needs to meet her potential and be happy and challenged at school. Not hothousing.

What Portia said.

A parent may wish to "offer" resources rather than "plan... to have her work... everyday after school".

You might also consider picking up some math and math-related books from the library. Living Math is a good place to start (see the "Reader Lists" section).

Other books she might find interesting (but not necessarily accessible from the library) are Beast Academy and Life of Fred.

You should also check to make sure that the ALEKS 4th grade curriculum matches the school's (or at least what the school uses to test for acceleration).

I just wanted to say thank you for these hothousing definitions - honestly, best I've read to date. I, (and I'm sure, many moms) worry about the fine line, but Portia & cammon, you have made it clear and simple and beautiful. So thank you for that

To OP, I agree with above...if your DC is into it, go for it. Best of luck

Indigo - love it! The concept "offer" vs. planning or forcing.

The number devil is a fun book. The cat in numberland may be too easy but she might like it.

greenlotus, our ds is really strong in math and likes it, but was held back in math during early elementary due to his dysgraphia, and he was extremely frustrated by it. We let him work in Aleks at home, and we were ultimately able to use the work he did in Aleks to support our advocacy to subject accelerate him in math. One really nice thing about Aleks (for advocacy) is the report that shows what your student has mastered vs your specific state's grade-level math curriculum standards (it has this report for all 50 US states).

We let our ds work in it when he wanted to rather than make him work in it a certain amount of time every day, but how you handle after-schooling is really child dependent. You might also find that Aleks goes fast, especially if your dd is high ability in math. Our ds went through the elementary grade levels quickly, but he had the concepts mastered. The key with Aleks is it doesn't give a lot of repetition if a student doesn't need it, which worked well for our ds.

Best wishes,

polarbear

I totally agree about every day life exposure. In addition, Grandma is an AIG teacher so every Sat. the girls do science, math and other fun activities. Grandma almost had a fit when she learned that our DD might not get accelerated because she didn't do well on a state created achievement test. Grandma was furious that the Cogat and Iowa were not taken into consideration.
By the way, DD loves Khan, but I am having to "play the system" to get DD what she wants - more challenging classes. I can't set up Khan to teach just 4th grade Common Core. ALEKS supposedly is set up that way.