Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments it's april .. can we speed up 6th grade math?

My son's guidance counselor suggested my son be given the end of year 6th grade assessment test just to see where he is at. Then if he does well, how about placing him in 7th grade math for 4th qtr. At least they're trying to accommodate. But I see a problem because my son would be completely skipping instruction for most of 7th grade math so I don't think he would do as well. What he needs is to be taught the math but FAST. he will learn it super quick but i don't think this means he should totally skip it. Am I right? I don't know what other idea to suggest. We are in April and I have been asking for giving him more advanced work but teacher has no time to teach it and grade it. I need ideas to salvage remaining 3 MONTHS of grade 6 math.

Dreading June when they do NOTHING anyway. My son will be miserable squared :-(

What is 7th grade math at your school? He might not be missing much.

My son basically skipped 4th grade math, and then essentially 'skipped' pre-calculus by testing straight into Algebra after 6th grade. This is a normal track for the highest math achievers in my district. The U.S. math curriculum is set up to be spiral and the same subjects are revisited each year at a greater and greater depth. This can be very frustrating to a gifted young math student.

Yes it's so frustrating for him. He despises it. He is already set to be placed in a combined 7th & 8th grade advanced math class next year. Its called accelerated grade 7. But the next 3 months now are tortuous. I want him challenged and given new material. It sounds odd to just plop him into the end of regular grade 7. Do you think since its is spiral, that he might succeed in the last quarter of regular grade 7, right now?

What if he did skip to 7th grade math and at the same time skip to the end of chapter one in the seventh grade book and do the end of chapter review page and ask for the teacher to grade it ( my son is a teacher assistant so the teacher could have some kid grade it or it isn't that hard for the teacher to use the answer key and grade one paper). Continue doing this chapter by chapter stopping only to review sections or lessons where he has a gap.

Depends on the curriculum, but quite likely yes he could succeed in the 7th grade class now. And what does he have to lose? What grade is his in now? Also how much school is left of the year?

If he is a fast learner and already advanced, then any missing material he can pick-up in the context of the course. If he has to scramble and lead some of his own learning, that's great news as it is a skillset he likely hasn't had much of a chance to develop in school?

Good idea... I could present this to DS's guidance counselor. But would the 7th grade teacher be receptive to taking a moment to grading his review pages? Additional work for him/her. Accommodating a child's special needs, and no co-teacher like available for the other end of the spectrum. (gasp)

I agree, it's a good skillset that he will need when he takes accelerated 7th grade math next year. I want him to develop the skill to stretch and reach out.

I'm sure he will rise to the challenge, but I am also concerned with social. He is in 6th grade, 10 years old because he skipped 2nd grade. If he goes into 7th grade math class now, he might be sitting with 13 or 14 year olds. Is there any advice to ensure he copes well? Or am I worried about nothing? The kids at that age are probably into girl/boy stuff and I don't want this to be uncomfortable for him, and affect his concentration in class.

I agree with what has been said already--that he might not miss much depending on what is in the 7th grade math. I would look at the 7th grade math textbook and see what your son would miss if he skips and go from there.

Socially it might be very tricky at this age. My DS13 had a very bad experience in our public middle school even though he didn't skip grades and for math, his acceleration was done with a few other kids so at least in the classroom there are a few kids roughly his age. My son also goes to some classes outside of school where classmates are mostly high school juniors and seniors. He doesn't really make friends with them but those kids are older and more mature so there isn't any problem either. Middle school is a tricky time though.

Does anyone have success stories of a gifted child being given next year's work, while remaining with his current classmates that are closer to his age? He is 10 years old. I want to suggest something that his teachers will be able to accommodate. Although there are only 3 months left in the school year, I don't want the math time period to be wasted and leave him with a negative feeling toward the subject.