Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Skipping K in a dual immersion school

We are enrolling DS5 in a dual immersion spanish-English school in the fall. He scored near DYS on the wppsi and 99.9th percentile on the wiat with 1st grade norms. He's working at an early 3rd grade level in math and reading. The Iowa Acceleration scales say he is a strong candidate for whole grade acceleration into 1st.

The school wants to split his day -- 1st grade in English, K in Spanish. Maybe we should accept this arrangement but my gut says that he should be just a regular 1st grader without the split. True he knows little spanish but is extremely verbal, and the school often accepts 1st graders who know no spanish.

Any insights or suggestions for advocacy?

Thanks,
UlH

What's the advantage of being I first grade all day? I would look at the question from that perspective.

My eldest went to a dual immersion school. The kindergarten focused more on learning to count and basics, whereas the first grade was much more academic. Personally, I would look at the Spanish curriculum in both grades and try to aim for the one he'd benefit from the most.

How do they split their time in each grade? At my son's school, kindergarten was only 20% English, in order to spend as much time on the new language as possible. The split in grade 1 was 40% English and 60% the other language. If this school is similar, they may be trying to provide as much Spanish immersion as possible while realizing that he'll be fine moving to grade 2 English and hoping that he'll catch up in Spanish.

Also, what's the plan for year 2? Are they planning on putting him in grade 2 all day?

The school is split 50-50 Spanish/English and many subjects (e.g. Math) are taught in both.

Advantage of being in 1st grade all day? More academic, simpler, might make it logistically easier to implement the other accommodations we think he'll need.

Here's another complication: we will be on leave the second half of the school year and DS will probably go to a regular English language 1st grade for that time. This makes planning for year 2 in the dual immersion setting difficult.

I don't have any experience with immersion schools but I would think about your DS's personality; is he a mature 5 year old? Do you think he would be bored in Kinder when the class is doing not so academic fun activities.
DD6 didn't learn a thing in Kinder but she also never complained and loved the fun aspect of it. However, because she was not challenged and is very verbal, she drove the teachers nuts sometimes with her shenanigans. She also has excellent processing speed so she always finished her work lightening fast and then found it hard to wait for others to catch up. But, she still missed the fun parts of Kinder during the time she was pulled to the 2nd grade class for reading. Because of this, I'm glad she had the experience of kindergarten, the fun activites and classroom behavior type learning.

After I shared her test results with the school (she is a DYS), she started going into 1st grade after her kinder class ended for the day. Aside from the writing pratice, it was still not an appropriate placement. The 2nd grade teacher also informed us that she should be in a higher reading group. My point is even if your DS is 1st all day, you may find that he needs additional subject acceleration in math and reading (with accomodations in writing requirements) very quickly. I think the key is how flexible your school will be with that notion and whether they will be continously assessing his capabilites throughout the school year.
I was unable to advocate for a grade skip for her next year (district very anti-skip) but I am going to do some serious advocating during the school year to ensure her pullouts and growth are being monitored to make adjustments during the school year. Luckily we did not have any problems with DD having to go to all these different classrooms.

Update: the school appears to be concerned about DS's maturity level which they deem to be "age-appropriate in his social, emotional, and attention development."

We agree with this assessment but he is also curious, loves being with older kids, and has good focus when he gets into something. So our feeling that is, in totality, he will be within the normal range of "emotional/social maturity" that you might see in any 1st grade classroom. Perhaps on the lower end, but still within the acceptable range.

Has anyone accelerated a kid of "average maturity"? Any tips for advocacy?

I did. He is a bit uneven with his maturity. As long as he is happy (fed, good sleep, exercise, and mentally stimulated), he can come across as supper mature. He is well behaved and a leader.

But when stressed, mine can whine to world class level but that bit of immaturity is usually saved for home (generally when hunger, tiredness, not enough exercise and boredom are felt at the end of a long day).

After the skip, he did cry with the teacher after school one time when we stopped to talk to her about a writing assignment that he was having problems with...but it didn't work with her and he actually listened to her advice went home and finished the assignment in an hour so that he could go to a birthday party the next day.

I also believe that many kids will rise to the expectations needed at the next level. Really it is only one grade level up...how different is a 5 year old to a 6 year old (especially when like you mention there is a range)? This argument might have merit if you were talking 5 jumping in with 10 year olds.

Hi! This doesn't exactly answer your question, but our 99.9 son loved his kindergarten year at his immersion program—the games were fun, they did a lot of art, learning the sounds etc. was new to him, and the teacher was so much more playful. Once things turned academic in 1st grade, he got frustrated/bored, hated going to school, and because of the language piece the teacher found it difficult to differentiate. No idea what your son should do, but just wanted to say that being in a kindergarten classroom may have its perks . Who doesn't like to play?

I've mentioned elsewhere that we skipped our #1 into 1st. The early childhood director, who did the screening, felt that academically it was a strong skip, but that emotionally, #1 was immature, overly-active, and impulsive. We pointed out that all of the behaviors being identified as immaturity would only be amplified by insufficient academic challenge. By September, she had changed her mind, and allowed the skip, which has generally been held to have been a success, except that the school's experience scared them off from allowing #2 to make the same skip. (Probably has nothing to do with the incident of #1 biting a poor unsuspecting classmate--for no obvious reason!)

You know your child best. Some potential young first graders would have been made more unhappy by boredom than by lack of play, while others would be more frustrated by too much seat work.