Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Does your school allow subject acceleration?

I assume this is a common complaint. DS is way beyond his first grade classmates academically, and learns everything at a faster pace. Yet the school insists he do the same work the other kids in his class are doing. He learned how to tell time last year, for example, but still has to do time-telling worksheets, where he has to color in the big hand and small hand on a clock. He hates having to do this. Why are they wasting his time? I'm curious how many other schools do this. We don't want a grade skip, just a differentiated classroom. The gifted/talented class is a pull-out, and doesn't amount to much. And DS still has to go back to his regular classroom and do the 2 + 2 = 4 stuff.

So I'm curious: Does your child's school allow your DS/DD to do advanced work and skip the stuff their classmates are doing that he/she has already mastered?

my dd is in first as well. We have spent most of this year telling time and counting domino dots. She does get pull outs 3 times a week (40 minutes each) for math. We (parent volunteers)work on different things with the kids such as building things with shapes.. the kids could only make 3 cuts in the paper and had to build a rocket ship. After that they could use those shapes to build something else.. we had a doll.. a scale.. a clock and a few other. We have done probability with the kids as well... I dont recall it all . They moved the group (there are 6 kids) into 2nd grade math about 3 weeks ago.

Our public school does not allow subject acceleration because the grades don't teach the same subjects at the same time, they don't require the same number of minute of a subject for different grades, differentiation happens in the classroom, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah...

You've got a long way to go, but the closest thing we have to subject acceleration happens in middle school, where some kids will take 6th grade math, some will take take pre algebra, and some will take algebra.

DS is in our public school's HG program which is a single school for gifted kids, not a pull out program (upper 1/2% achievement and IQ to qualify) They are open to acceleration in math, but cautious about it - they seem to focus more on enrichment across subjects. This year in kindergarten they put him and several other kindergarten kids into the 1st grade math class, and now after repeat testing they are going to put him in the 3rd grade math class. It still won't be a challenge to him, but it's better than nothing. If being in math with the 3rd grade gifted class doesn't work because of maturity issues and being somewhere on the spectrum, we have made a back up plan with the teacher who will be his 1st grade teacher to have him do EPGY while the rest of the class is doing their 1st grade math. We offered to pay for the EPGY if it is needed- probably could ask them to pay for it, but am just happy that they are willing to work with us to provide our son with an appropriate curriculum.

Hi Orson,
Glad to see you again!
Here's some vocabulary to help keep things clear:

Subject Acceleration often means that the child physically gets up and walks to a different room where older children are getting instruction at the child's readiness level. So think 'Subject vs. Full Grade Acceleration.'

Curriculum compacting is when a child takes the 'end of unit' test at the beginning of the month and is excused from going over work she already knows. It is very difficult for most teachers to keep track of and requires a lot of extra work on behalf of the teacher, so even if it's promised, it may not happen.

There is a form of Subject Acceleration where the child works independently inside the physical classroom with books or online. Some kids don't mind being ignored in the corner - some can only handle it for brief periods. This leads some parents to do 'partial homeschooling' so that they can do a subject or two at home and the child is excused from all schoolwork in that area.

Sometimes the Gifted Teacher, or other Mentor type can be recruited to teach a subject inside a classroom with 'more depth' to a few of the top readiness level students.

A rule of thumb I've heard is that differentiation can work well if the child is ready to learn material that is within three grades of the classroom average, so one thing that you can do is to figure out where your son's current readiness level is, so that you know what to ask for.

If all you want is for your son not to be subjected to the '2+2' stuff, perhaps you might consider pulling him out of school and not teaching him anything for a few years. He sounds like a self directed learner, so you can assist him if you want to, but there is a case to be made for just getting him out of that situation and not worrying about how much or what he learns for a while. You might want to read up on the philosophy of Unschooling, but I'm suggesting that you take an even lower key approach than that, IF all you really want is to stop the harm from being done. When my son was in 2nd grade, I really thought that he would be more healthy locked in a closet with a TV and a gaming system while I was at work than attending his local public school where things weren't going well. We did stick it out and 3rd grade was a great year, but still! (hyperbole alert: I never did this,nor came close, nor do I recommend anyone else do this, it just represented how miserable DS looked to me at the time, and how desperate I felt.)

Stealth-schooling?

Love and More Love,
Grinity




A good book on Compacting is Susan Brownmiller's Teaching Gifted Children in a regular classroom.

We've been lucky in DD's teachers, who've allowed a lot of flexibility in the classroom. It's a little counterintuitive, perhaps, because our district is relatively small and rural, with no GT programming, no pull-out, and certainly no GT schools or magnets. But despite all this, the teachers and administrators have been remarkably flexible (especially in comparison to some horror stories I've heard on these boards).

Anyhoo, DD has had the same teacher for two years (first/second grade blend the first year, second grade the second). In first, she allowed DD to work ahead with the second graders. In second, she created all new spelling lists for her (instead of words like "that," she got words like "especially") and let her do EPGY online math while the other students were having their math lesson. She also let her bring her own books and had her do some special projects.

So I'd recommend asking at least if your son can do other activities in the classroom concurrent with but separate from his classmates. It's not the perfect solution, but it might help some . . .

(Caveat: it might have helped that DD had scores on file--KBIT and Ravens, performed by the school. Is that an option?)

jen

Our small private school teaches kids according to ability rather than age. My DS6 is in a classroom of 10 first, second and third graders. Within this class, each student is given an individualized curriculum based on pretesting at the beginning of the year. As a result, DS6 (who would be a kindergartner in our public system) is getting second and third grade math, fourth grade grammar and 5th grade spelling. In the same classroom, there are kids who have delays, so some of the third graders might still be working on first grade material. Because individualization is the norm in this place, none of the kids think anything of it. My son assumes all schools teach this way and often doesn't even realize he's getting advanced material. It's pretty great.

*falls over and faints from jealousy*

I disagree with this advice. Pull out your son if you think it is best, but don't avoid educating him. There have been many discussions on this forum of curricula parents can use on their own.

I disagree with that advice as well. I think more harm would be done with that than what his problem is now! You'll have bigger problems if you do that!