Hi All,
Well, we are having a meeting with the Principal, the VP, the Accelerated Content teacher, and the gifted coordinator on Tuesday. We had a meeting with this same group right before Christmas break regarding DS9(3rd grade) placement. At that time we had just received his Wisc and Wiat scores, but did not have the full written report(which we now have). At that time we were able to get him moved into a gifted cluster class and admitted into the FOCUS class on Friday's.
Fast forward 3 months and we are preparing for another meeting due to DS's extreme boredom and dread of the school day. The school just tested him on the end of year 4th grade math and reading curriculum and he will be enrolled in the Accelerated Math and Reading pull-outs, which are for 50 minutes in each subject daily. We are pleased about this, but are concerned that instead of learning at an accelerated rate he will just be learning in greater detail the same 4th grade curriculum he has already mastered. I mean he is already reading at a 9th grade level!
DH and I are leaning towards letting him start 4th grade and see how it goes for a few weeks with the AC Math/Reading, FOCUS, and gifted cluster class. We would also like to ask for some other accomodations to help him get through the rest of the day at school.
The team seems resistant to whole grade acceleration(although they have IAS in place and it has been done in our district), but I know DS needs more than what he's getting right now. I want to be able to go to the meeting and have a list of things we want to have in place for next year. I feel like we need to give their programs a shot before really pushing for the grade skip.
Someone on this forum said their DC had different spelling words, which sounds wonderful. Does anyone have any other ideas for differentiation or accomodations that have worked in public schools?
Thanks for any ideas and advice. I always get nervous before these meetings...they look at me like I'm crazy!
