Sorry--I didn't mean to imply he could not benefit from any type of reading instruction! Only that I did not want him to have to sit through first-grade phonics and reading lessons, and that he is at this point so far past early-grade reading mechanics that differentiating isn't very easy in class.
Would they consider continuing to cross-grade him in language arts?
Well, I don't know. This was promised to us, as a matter of fact. But we think he has been placed with a small group (2-4, I think?) of other competent (possibly gifted) kids. He had no such cohort last year. Because of this placement I kind of doubt they will want to continue the PT acceleration, because it could create the expectation that all would be accelerated. It could be that these kids are also very good readers, but in my experience there are not many 1st graders reading at this level even among gifted kids. (I don't mean to sound snotty. My own DD was not reading this well at this age, either.)
I think his other needs can be met in the classroom without too much trouble, but in this area he is just kind of out there. Last year he did do a journal, which was great. I am happy to buy materials and the school is fine with him using those, though it might be weird if there are other kids with advanced skills. Last year I sent in some reading comp books, which I think he used some. They weren't...great, but I have not found any that are. I will look at these Thompson books.
He will also be receiving some pull-out programming, but no idea how much or what it will be yet.
We wound up having this same problem, and I want to caution you that while cross-grade instruction
should theoretically be possible (and probably the easiest thing, really, that is remotely appropriate)-- mostly this was a battle that we wound up losing.
DD did
not need reading instruction, even at the third grade level, upon entering school at 6yo. She got it anyway because it was "bundled" with the entire curriculum, and we got a lot of vague answers about why she couldn't move up in language arts-- something about each grade's curriculum being "tied" together and coherent in presentation of themes/concepts, blah-blah-blah.
Well, I understand that such a thing leads to helpful reinforcement and depth for NT (and probably even some MG) students, but it was
mind-numbing for my PGlet. We had a lot of battles royale to get her to complete assignments that were absolutely
pointless for her. She knew it, I knew it, and the teacher knew it-- but she had to do them anyway. That often burned up so much capital that she was oppositional even about those few nuggets of instruction that WOULD otherwise have been helpful.
Some of the more successful strategies that we employed (mostly appropriate at a 3rd-6th grade level):
- student-selected reading which is at a more appropriate level, at least for independent work
- learning tertiary skills for communicating understanding of literature-- powerpoint/graphical representations, etc. Discussion is the hardest piece of things there, and for that, our model (virtual school-- so one-on-one with a parent) was ideal. We could riff on the ideas presented in Little House on the Prairie and take them into territory that NO 4th grade classroom possibly would-- perspective taking, narrative voice, unreliable narration in biography/memoir, etc. It wasn't like there was a choice, after all-- DD was going there-- it was just a matter of whether or not she got coaching or guidance in the process.
- literature as ART-- poetry, drama, and the ties between literature and the other fine arts as extension activities... and those art skills needed some emphasis anyway.
- literature as history-- a big problem for DD was what to do with all of the extra time she had when doing assigned reading, since she was so FAST at it-- she often completed reading in about 2-5% of the allotted time, and we then had her extend that with author biography, historical context, similar works in the genre...
- or having her read ALL of the "choices" of reading selections... which got her up to 50-75% of the time required by peers, anyway. It also encouraged her to foster a deeper analytical approach to literature, which has served her well in secondary.
- work on fine-motor skills to fine-tune handwriting and writing skills (these were by far DD's weakest skill set)
- pre-testing and NOT offering instruction when those pretests were indicative of complete mastery (>90%)-- in a classroom setting, I think that you'd have to agree upon what the child would be doing with that block of time, though. DD spent it on sustained silent reading of her choice of reading materials.
