Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Asking for differentiation

LNEsMom, have you considered requesting subject acceleration for math to another grade, instead of differentiation within his 2nd grade classroom? Provided the school is open to it and schedules work out, this can be an easier approach for the teacher because she doesn't have to differentiate, she can just send him off to another classroom, and it can be a better solution for your DS because he's learning a curriculum that ideally addresses his current math skills.

Regarding how to approach the teacher, I'd recommend providing your observations of your DS's math skills, and compare them to the 2nd grade math curriculum and to the 3rd or 4th grade math curriculum. If your DS is ahead of grade level, your comparison will clearly show that. The result is that you avoid criticizing the teacher's teaching style, and instead focus on the appropriate grade level curriculum.

The next step is to request that a math assessment or the end of year proficiency test for 2nd (or 3rd) grade math be administered to him. That way, the school will have their own objective assessment. If he has any gaps, ideally the school can work with him or you can hire a tutor for a brief period to close the gaps, and he could then move on to the grade he should really be in for math. It's not always this easy depending on the school, but it's the ideal in my mind.

Last year, we approached DS's K teacher early in the year with a list of DS's math skills, and compared those to our school district's 2nd and 3rd grade math curriculum. He was clearly working two years ahead, and we framed our request stating that we wanted him to be able to work at the level he was capable of. It wasn't a reflection on his teacher in any way - it was an objective comparison of his skills to the curriculum. The GT teacher did a math assessment, and it showed that he needed acceleration, and his teacher moved him up to 1st grade for math. We're working through scheduling issues and more placement issues again this year in 1st grade (trying to get another grade acceleration for math), and I'm fighting for the scenario I presented earlier in my post.

I personally am not a huge fan of going into more depth in math at the current grade level. If my DS understands 3rd grade math concepts, why does he need to go into more depth on 1st grade math concepts?

Also, I think that you had asked in an earlier post whether you should get him tested through outside testing (I may be mixing you up with someone else). I think most parents on this forum advocate not testing unless there's some real need to. I didn't find this forum till 9 months after we tested our DS, and I'm still glad we did it. It helped me feel confident advocating for his needs, and I've been able to reference it in appropriate situations with teachers to help back up my observations/requests, even though our district doesn't accept outside testing. We also did outside math achievement testing at the end of last year, which has made me more confident in pushing for additional assessment and acceleration this year. It is expensive, but has been worth it for us. Excuse the tome, I hope it's of some help!