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Please be careful about differentiation being 'on top of' or after he completes the regular coursework. This can be the same as no differentiation; my ds is allowed to work on an extension packet after he finishes his regular work in math, however the regular/boring/repetitve stuff is just a mental roadblock and he rarely if ever gets to the math that would be of greater interest. It is very enervating for him.

In reading, a child is rarely asked to read Johnny's book first and then move on to their assigned harder book. The kids are just moved to a higher reading level book (thankfully), and a different reading group/discussion group is created. I am not sure why I have NEVER seen this done in math. Anyone seen this?

Two reasons I can see:

1. In math they are worried about "gaps." In reading less so.

2. Each new math technique requires direct instruction.

#2 has been the issue for us. DS had 2 years of in-class "differentiation." In the first year, he got most of a year of instruction (dedicated teacher). In the second year, he got less than a third of a year of instruction (they didn't care as much).

DeeDee

I turned in the paperwork yesterday for the early entrance (skip of kinder) to first grade. Now we wait for a testing date . The kinder teacher said the test given to her class is teaken over a 4 day period. I will expect the same. I don't see EJ taking hours worth of this type of testing in one shot. For the record my first grader took the MAP over 3 days.

The wait has begun