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Hi y'all,

The two most frustrating things about the school year that's just wrapping up for DS7 have been his teacher's feeling that he "just needs to try harder" with writing (I've now got a dysgraphia diagnosis in hand, some ammunition for an IEP) and the total disconnect between the math he's given at school and the math he's capable of.

From an email from his teacher:

"Our math workshop block is differentiated throughout center time- meaning Yourkid can make it as challenging as he wants. Many of the activities are open-ended where he is encouraged to use his own numbers in the problems to make them as advanced as he would like."

I guess this is why he wrote 100,000,000+100,000,000=200,000,000 on a doubles worksheet?

"Yourkid also has access to an extension journal full of math logic and problem solving activities, provided my Mrs. Giftedspecialist, should he complete his center early. However, we are finding that Yourkid is not getting to his journal and is playing in his centers and not completely the initial part of the assignment. Perhaps you could also talk with him at home and encourage him to complete the center to the best of his ability (especially if he finds it easier) and then he can go on to the math journal and more challenging problems."

Most of the "more challenging problems" are from Read It! Draw It! Solve It! and involve drawing pictures of animals, and sometimes WRITING STORIES. (see: dysgraphic)

"I know that math has been on the easier side for him this year, but these are the stepping stones to next year. The math curriculum next year will use the same terminology, tools, and strategies. However, with the new Common Core curriculum that we are moving towards he will be responsible for having to describe his thinking more in depth and talk about the strategies he used, as opposed to simply providing the answer. I have talked with Yourkid about that this year and I think he understands that this is his next step in the learning process- and it is a hard one. :-)"

The weekly homework packets this year have included some Sunshine Math most weeks, and he finds that fun, at least...

The gifted coordinator tells me that "Students can compact out of the math curriculum on a topic by topic bases. I have worked very closely with the K-1 teachers to provide the materials to compact. I think the second grade teachers do a great job with this."

I am not holding my breath. /rant

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What do you think about letting him work in ALEKS this summer, if he's interested, to improve the chances of subject acceleration? I know there's not enough information to answer that question, but what would you do?

Mo

Depends. Would subject acceleration be done based on teacher recommendation or on a math assessment?

I hope you bring in good expertise to help with that project; dysgraphia seems like one of the hardest things to get school staff on board and working with. The (false) appearance of "not trying hard" is difficult for teachers to cope with.


From everything I have learned this year, the Common Core is indeed very wordy. Not only in the Everyday Math way, but wanting kids to use lots of explanations, sometimes three explanations for every process. (To me it looks like overkill.) Your DS may well be frustrated with it.

Because of that, my inclination (after raising my writing-challenged 2E) would be to remediate writing and drawing some limited amount of time every day (15 min? whatever he would tolerate), to bring up the weak points that will be bothersome under the Common Core, but also to offer some kind of math as a carrot if he really finds it fun.

Going as fast as he likes can eventually cause some planning issues: my DS worked so far ahead that there is no class where he fits well, and because we want him in a class, it's kind of unfortunate. Still, for my DS, math brings joy and a feeling of success; ultimately, it became a part of school that was enjoyable, which is really important. If you can keep the love for it alive, that's a tremendous good.

DeeDee

So your DS is just finishing 1st, is that right? I'd read the above quotation as being code for "I know the 1st grade teachers are rubbish at compacting and I've tried to get them to do it, honest. The 2nd grade teachers, on the other hand, actually do it." In which case, your DS may have a better time next year. I hope so.

But I too have a DS who can do maths at a far higher level if he doesn't have to write full explanations than if he does, and I dread to think what would happen if he had to write the whole time (as it is, he has a balance between challenging answer-only problems and "show your working" types). He is fortunate in having a much better teacher than it sounds as though your DS has had, but it's still a problem. The thing is that it really is important to be able to write an explanation - they aren't making that bit up, even if sometimes the materials seem to be asking for ridiculous things in training for that. FWIW, I find that my DS is much more tolerant of writing if it's in the context of a pretty hard maths problem; it's as though that makes it worthwhile. So I'd encourage considering making work harder rather than easier if he struggles with the writing.


I agree with Dee Dee about the disadvantage and I doubt, from the sound of your school, that it would help you with getting subject acceleration. What I'd do is to use problem-solving materials that don't involve learning a lot of new material but instead involve applying it in tricky situations. Not clear exactly what level your DS is at, but you might try
Challenge Your Pupils, going on to the UKMT Junior Maths Challenge for example.

Remediating writing is also a good idea, but TBH I wouldn't do it in the context of maths, over the holiday - I'd get maths out from under the writing burden for a little while, to renew his enthusiasm for it.

Hi ColinsMum, just a quick reply for the moment--he can explain his problem-solving, it's just writing it down. Until we have accomodations in place that would allow an oral response, or something along those lines, asking him to write a story about a bird, cat, dog and fish that he's drawn is pretty much pointless, ykwim? Pages from the Venn Perplexors books would be a more humane alternative, I think.

I'm guessing that he could complete thru 4th grade ALEKS easily this summer, but it's not something I would push. Just thinking about offering the opportunity.

Mo

Hi DeeDee,

Thank you for your reply! I guess I wasn't very clear. I'm actually more frustrated about the math thing than he is--he'd rather be doing more challenging math, but math is still his favorite part of the day. That and PE

He can explain his work well, but being required to write it at this point means that his output doesn't reflect his knowledge well.

Whatever time we spend on dysgraphia this summer is probably going to be learning how to type.

NO need to apologize. Thank you.

They keep using that word. I do not think it means what they thinks it means.

HAHAHA exactly!

DD's 2nd grade math is pretty basic and then they come up with this problem solving sheet:

Stella has 5 coins
Joan has 10 coins.
Stella has 2 times as much money as Joan
There are only 4 quarters.


What amount of money does Stella have?
What amount of money does Joan have?
What demonination of coins does each have?

I thought for her class this was far beyond what they have been doing. It also follows the weirdness of her Everyday math where they introduced divison by asking 26 divided by 5.

Then later on, with no multiplication tables, they do Multiplication and Division fact triangles. I am so glad I used CTY for math.

Ren
What demoninations of coins