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Posted By: sunnyday Middle school math - 08/22/18 09:37 PM
My DS11, heading into 6th grade this year, has had a talent and a passion for math since he was 6 or 7. I don't know that he's as much a prodigy as y'all's DYS students, but he's just so darned good at patterns, and logic, and numbers, and spatial thinking. As a math-minded person myself, I've done a lot of looking into and caring about methods of math education, and I've focused on developing his persistence for problem-solving above any kind of computational fluency. This has paid off, and although every year he gets overwhelmingly frustrated at some point about the excruciatingly slow pace of grade-level math, he's otherwise survived just fine without any subject acceleration, as long as we squeeze in room enough to let him do a little bit of exploring and questioning.

But now, middle school. I feel like it's time for him to find a better fit. And for the first time I'm starting to regret our very small school district, because I don't think we're going to find a good fit here no matter what.

These are our options. First, he has tested into accelerated math, which is a prealgebra course for 6th and 7th graders. He'd be placed with a teacher who's fairly hands-on and discussion-oriented. I think she's similar to his fifth grade math teacher, which worked okay for DS. She found it hard to answer his questions, but at least she didn't put him down for asking? The open-endedness could give some wiggle room for us to provide him with separate challenge work. But the sheer amount of wordiness and cut-and-paste projects and other "multi-modal" learning approaches could be torturous for my guy who sees straight to the heart of problems. I'm sure y'all know that pain. But he'd really enjoy being differentiated with only his most math-interested peers; there were some bright kids in his grade but only 1-2 per class and I don't think they worked together much.

Second, he has been offered early entry into middle school Algebra. It's a high school credit course but with math-interested 7th and 8th graders. He will be very reluctant to make such an unusual move. The class is taught by a very traditional teacher, and would put him on the path to get to calculus fairly early in high school -- and these have always been my biggest fears for him. Algorithmic algebra destroyed my math career. I was just so GOOD at following the steps as prescribed, that it cemented in me the idea that being good at math is synonymous with being good at following procedures. Turning in a neat homework page was so SATISFYING. But I crashed and burned in college math and science when being good at regurgitating stopped being the order of the day. Yet...as long as he gets math in school, he'll get that kind of algebra eventually, next year if not this. And that kind of geometry and pre-calc. And then he'll never really know that discrete math and cryptography and such are even out there...unless we make a radical change.

Which brings up...I asked about doing homeschool math and the counselor said that would work fine. I know exactly what I'd teach him (AOPS Intro to Algebra, either home-taught or online). But even if he agreed to do something so different from his peers, he'd be spoiled for school math forever. And since Algebra is a course that's required for high school graduation, I'd have to really bone up on what records to keep.

What would you do?
Posted By: ChaosMitten Re: Middle school math - 08/23/18 01:20 AM
I'd pay for Art of Problem Solving classes. Since the school is willing to accept partial homeschooling, then they might also be willing to accept the grades AoPS will issue upon request and include them on his transcript. If not, lots of kids do AoPS and then also do school math as a box-checking means to an end.

Also, Art of Problem Solving's Prealgebra is worth doing unless you're absolutely certain your son is beyond it.
Posted By: madeinuk Re: Middle school math - 08/23/18 11:19 AM
I would recommend doing the AoPS preAlgebra class alongiside the school's preAlgebra class if you cannot do the AoPS on its own.

The AoPS preAlgebra has some good problems in it that will help your DS really think outside the box and is the on the opposite end of the spectrum from the "just follow this algorithm" approach.

I would not recommend jumping into AoPS introToAlgebra without having a solid grasp of preAlgebra first.

Just my $0.02...
Posted By: mecreature Re: Middle school math - 08/23/18 03:35 PM
AoPS preAlgebra is what I would do too. It does have some great problems with good solutions along with all the videos. Alcumus is a good tool also. He might get interested in the community forum also. Its a great resource plenty of ways to learn.
Posted By: sunnyday Re: Middle school math - 08/23/18 05:51 PM
Oh, I guess I should have mentioned, we have AOPS PreA and have dabbled in it over the past year. He also adores Alcumus and has gotten to green or blue on several topics in preA, including all of the geometry section. So I thought that PreA might feel like old news to him, and that the (admittedly what I understand to be intense) review at the beginning of Intro to Alg would suffice. But I showed him the pretests and he was intimidated by the Algebra one; I showed him the PreA text and he thought that looked great as long as he can skip the stuff he's truly confident on and go at his own pace. So that might be the solution for us! Thanks for the input!
Posted By: Quantum2003 Re: Middle school math - 08/24/18 06:36 AM
I would recommend AoPS if the school will accept it; otherwise Algebra I. Unless your district is really substandard, your DS should cover more than just "algorithmic algebra" in a typical Algebra I course. Even some rudimentary coverage of algebra I will pave the way for your DS to study combinatorics and number theory on his own or through AoPS (or another source).
Posted By: Platypus101 Re: Middle school math - 08/24/18 11:31 AM
In our experience, the challenge questions in the AoPS text (second half of end-os-chapter problems) tend to offer a lot more complexity than Alcumus. Even in topics he thinks he has, you can jump to the challenge Qs and see if he's still flying through, or actually needs to stop and think. If the former, jump to Algebra; if the latter, savour the pre-Algebra for the complex problem-solving it teaches.
Posted By: sunnyday Re: Middle school math - 09/02/18 03:00 AM
I wanted to say thanks for the input!! Sorry, I was out of town for the last week. As we left for vacation, we were quite convinced that AOPS PreA at my son's pace would be a great fit, and he was committed to doing the work with me. (And enthusiastic about it in a way he has never been when I've suggested math at home in the past!) But while we were on vacation, the counselor called and told us the math teacher really wanted to speak with us. So I brought my son to the school last Thursday.

The teacher said everything DS wanted to hear, about challenge in the figuring-out end of things as well as just in the volume and content end of things. The teacher was adamant that he KNOWS what smart students go through in an undifferentiated elementary school, that sometimes they don't even understand yet how smart they ARE because they haven't had that chance to stretch, that he is a teacher explicitly in order to provide that challenge to students.

The teacher considers his class to be a compacted 7th-and-8th grade course, which prepares for Algebra. So it amounts to a double subject skip. I am not completely convinced that it will be enough, but DS is now quite ready to give it a try. I think it will be good for him to be a class with one math-talented 6th grader and a room full of math-interested 7th graders. And in a few weeks if it's still tedious...we can give something else a try. smile

So, wish us luck!! Especially with the small-town drama. Apparently there are a LOT of people upset because their kids didn't get into this accelerated class. Even though a special "advanced" class got created for them instead. Sigh.
Posted By: puffin Re: Middle school math - 09/02/18 09:25 AM
I hope they are correct but what is promised and what is delivered can be quite different.
Posted By: sunnyday Re: Middle school math - 01/01/20 02:15 AM
Time for an update! DS did well in the "accelerated" 7th grade class for his sixth grade year. He's now in Algebra with the same teacher and it's going fine as well. Not a challenge per se -- he has a 98% and hardly brings homework home -- but keeps him engaged enough.

But what's life in public school with a gifted kid if you don't second guess all the things? At conferences last month, the teacher remarked on how easily DS was coping with the class. He discussed what next school year will look like for him and his math progression. DS will have topped out the middle school offerings and will have to go to the high school (conveniently in the adjoining building, since it's a small district) for math in 8th grade. But the school is too small to offer tracking, so he will be in a mainstream 10th grade Geometry course and the challenge level of the coursework will drop dramatically. Geometry is required for high school graduation and therefore the class is paced for students who are struggling to pass. The current math teacher's suggestion is that for the first time in his career, he will be suggesting concurrent enrollment in both Geometry and Algebra II. He admits that, although this will provide challenge in terms of the quantity of math, it won't fix the depth or pacing issues.

I'm super worried by this and not really cool with it. My kiddo is not good with tedious homework, though he has good work ethic and will push through it. I don't want math to become a dreaded chore that taps out his executive function before he can even work on the other increased expectations of an 8th grade workload.

The teacher also mentioned that DS is the first student of his experience that he would consider to be strongly MIT/CalTech material. This is affirming but mindblowing. And it reiterates for me that what he needs is not to be hurtling toward the "endgame" of AP Calc BC in high school (or even DE Calc III at community college). He needs to be developing a true foundation for mathematical thinking that will help him launch whatever he ends up doing after high school.

So. Regardless of what we choose, we're looking at working on high school credit starting next year. What kind of options have other parents chosen in similar situations (sub-standard offerings at public school?) Stick with the school class plus enrichment...AOPS online for greater credibility when claiming credit...something else?

Advice welcomed!
Posted By: sunnyday Re: Middle school math - 01/01/20 08:46 PM
The teacher is a great guy, clearly a gifted adult himself. So much about the way his brain works reminds me of my children, but especially my son. smile

DS loved Alcumus when he used to play with it in fourth and fifth grade. He's always wanted to "dive in" and "break his brain" rather than to be taught with too much explicit detail, and he is really enjoying MOEMS. I think it would be a really good fit.

I'm just worried about negotiating with the school to be awarded high school credit. When I asked back in sixth grade if we could consider online options as an alternative to school classes, the counselor directed me to choose only from already-approved and accredited programs listed by the state. I worry it would be an uphill battle to try to get AOPS accepted.

I also wonder if any other math-talented kids have made school math work for them. Maybe I'm borrowing trouble by trying to find alternatives? Maybe if he just can get through the non-rigorous stuff now, he can fill in his own gaps when he finally gets access to more-rigorous instruction at the university level? He's good with math and problem solving, but his current passions are more around circuitry and coding, so he's much less likely to explore it on his own right now, and maybe I shouldn't push it?
Posted By: sunnyday Re: Middle school math - 01/02/20 12:48 AM
Thanks for the tips! One thing I was considering was to try Counting & Probability over the summer and see how he gets on. Either online for the accountability, or just working through the books with an agreed-upon schedule to make sure that we actually make progress through it.

The flipped classroom could be a good model if we go with this. He really prefers to get his homework done during study hall or class time.
Posted By: JudAU Re: Middle school math - 02/13/20 04:53 AM
DS10 is enjoying CTY Honors Prealgebra. She had worked through a basic prealgebra and algebra book and that was probably needed to jump into it. She skipped 4th grade math, took 5th in fourth, was supposed to take a consolidated class that got her to prealgebra 6th/algebra 7th. But her teacher is so weak, they move at a snail’s pace, and top off it the prealgebra teacher next year is extremely rigorous. The teacher was constantly on Facebook and gave two pages of homework a week.

The class is very well structured and I can recommend wholeheartedly.
Posted By: Eagle Mum Re: Middle school math - 07/05/20 11:56 PM
Hi OP, I’m in a different country so I don’t know what’s available in the US but I think our experience here is still relevant even if the resources are different.

My son is now 15 and he has always been many maths grades ahead of his classmates. In primary school, the teachers pretty much let him do whatever he wanted as it was clear he had mastered all of the curriculum (in Yr 4, he achieved a near perfect score in a national competition for Yr 6 students and he subsequently achieved perfect scores for the next two years and near perfect scores in other competitions).

He decided to attend the local high school which has never had any student close to his calibre so they implemented an online system called Maths Pathways (which any student could also opt into). The program enables students to work at their own pace. It was particularly suited to him because each topic has a pre-topic test and a score of >90% obviates the need to do the exercises of that topic. In this way, DS finished four years of the maths curriculum in six months. At the time, Maths Pathways did not include the senior high curriculum content (it does now), so he switched to Maths Online to complete the Yr 11-12 content & sat his first HSC exam last year in Yr 9. He is sitting the extension exams this year. He has accomplished this sitting in his age appropriate class, doing different work on his laptop. He’s a friendly kid who is always happy to help his classmates so he’s always been popular and never had any issues (the fact that everyone else was also given the same opportunity for online learning was important as it meant that he wasn’t singled out).

The Digital Age offers unprecedented opportunities for tailored learning.

The Maths Olympiad program is highly worthwhile for high school students who are working beyond the school curriculum.
Posted By: sunnyday Re: Middle school math - 09/13/20 10:01 PM
Hi and thanks for the reply! I hadn't checked in here for a few months, sorry for missing your message.

So, since my post, of course the pandemic happened. smile Our school is starting out 100% distance learning. After some dithering I've chosen to put him in Geometry and not dual-enroll him in Algebra 2. I've also ordered the AOPS Geometry book. I'll see how this first week goes, but the Geometry syllabus and textbook do worry me a lot. The scope and sequence the teacher is choosing is NUTS to me. They're barely going to go through a chapter a month, and they're not even getting to proofs or basic geometry definitions like congruency and similarity until January. shocked They will have 3 25 minute synchronous sessions per week, and are told to expect another 2.5 hours of asynchronous assignments (which I truly doubt will take my child that much time). So maybe there will be flexibility for us to dive deeper.

It sounds like you found a great solution for your son! Another option I can consider is that the school will be using APEX learning products for some high school assessment, and the district refers to APEX curriculum in its reopening plan for fall. So there's a chance that some self-paced options could open up that would be acceptable to school leadership!

We'll just have to play it by ear and see, I guess. As one of my friends cringes every times she hears it, these are unprecedented times!
Posted By: Eagle Mum Re: Middle school math - 09/14/20 11:49 AM
A chapter a month would drive mine nuts too. Typically, DS would sit and master a topic in one session. Self paced is definitely the way to go.

Edited to add: As a student, I used to slave-ishly do all the exercises with the rest of my class, although I was learning little from completing them. In final year, a male classmate who never did any of the exercises overtook me (topped the state & got into the team for IMO). He spent his time actually learning. That’s the lesson I took away for parenting.
Posted By: SumiP Re: Middle school math - 09/19/20 08:58 AM
I have a similar scenario, DS very keen in Math, pretty much self learned through Khan academy; While in Grade 4 he was already doing Math with 8th graders. This year with Pandemic we moved him to public school (Grade 5) and also dual enrolled in a college for calculus. He is not happy doing place value and decimal addition in his school but enjoys his college as the learning pace is different.

Good point around the High school credits, I was under assumption it would be automatic, I guess the negotiations with school never stops.
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