Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Elementary School Planning for a year of math in 1 semester?

I've asked DD9's principal to change her informal math accommodation (which the 5th grade teacher unilaterally decided would be Ken-Ken and math palindromes) to "get a 6th grade math book and spend her class time prepping for the test to skip 6th grade math, so it can be behind her in May."

The principal was not nearly as enthusiastic as I'd have liked, but didn't say no, either. (She actually said she'd need to get an OK from someone higher up the food chain.)

I've already agreed to:
- using whatever text the district wants us to, which may mean an older version.
- having to test out of each upcoming 5th grade unit with an 85% or better, or being stuck working through that unit.*
- giving them a week if the district already has whatever book they decide she'll use, or two weeks if they don't have a book, to get things going.

Her math teacher (who specifically agreed before school started that DD would be challenged) has previously ignored my polite suggestions, preferring instead her own woefully inadequate accommodations. I think DD will be best served if I write up what I want as a starting point, and accept modifications thereto, rather than leaving it to the school to come up with a plan.

Now I just need to figure out what I want.
- I'd go with "pretest on each unit, and only work problems from units she doesn't already know," as a starter. This will increase the odds of covering a year of material in half a year.
- Fewer problems on each topic, but a faster pace, so she'd have a similar number of problems as the other fifth graders. This will increase the odds of covering a year of material in half a year.
- Class grades are based entirely on worksheets / homework from the text, so no issue of which test to take. (DD's 5th grade grades would be based on the pre-tests, per the principal, not on 6th grade work.)
- I'm indifferent as to whether the teacher grades / corrects the 6th grade work, or makes any effort to teach DD the material, but it may be impolite to make it clear that what I'd like is an indifferent babysitter plus self-study. (DD will not do parent-imposed homework from a textbook, and will not self-impose homework from a textbook, but will gleefully do an assignment from a textbook while the teacher is telling everyone else how to do it.)

What else should I be asking for? I'd rather ask for the moon and not get it, than find myself with less than what DD needs, but I don't want to ask for stuff just to have a longer list, you know?

* I'll be buying a book to keep at home, to ensure that the pre-test is successful. I have heard too many stories of kids who did not test out of a unit for lack of 5 minutes of review of concepts and vocabulary before the test, resulting in them spending 10+ classroom hours of review of concepts and vocabulary.

I think your plan sounds like a really good one. I've done similar things in the past when we needed a solution that was pretty obviously NEVER going to occur to anyone at school.

Basically, you have to come up with a plan that you think will work, make sure that it's the path of least resistance for the school, and make them think that they've got more input into it educationally than you do. All at the same time. (Let's just say that I can hum a few bars along with you. )

To make it sell a bit better, you might clarify how this WON'T make more work for any of the (overburdened) classroom teachers or administrators...

As in, WHO does the instruction if she misses a pretest? (I know that you want to do what you can to prevent that outcome in the first place, but I'd include that contingency plan just to make it more complete and cooperative-seeming.)

I'd probably make it clear that "self-study" is more or less what you're thinking there, and that YOU will take on any additional "at home" instruction that the teacher recommends, or some such platitudinous statement. That way you aren't saying that the teacher is useless, or that you think you can do a better job (even if that may in fact be true), but you're also not even remotely "making more work" for him/her, either.

It's a narrow bandpass, that.

On your last point, that is, the fact that you don't care whether the teacher really interacts with your DD re: the non-normative material she covers; I'd make that one sound more sympathetic. Whether you believe it or not is more or less immaterial, because I've found that a teacher's level of cooperative spirit rises exponentially in direct proportion to how "busy/overworked" a parent suggests that the teacher is. Frame that one as "understanding" that you're already asking for SOOOO MUCH extra for your child... and that you really don't want to add even more to the "workload" (implying that it must be crushing), so here's your idea... is that still too much work for the teacher to manage?

Is this helping?

A 5th grade pretest? 5th grade math teacher, since she'd be teaching the 5th graders that same material at that same time anyhow. (The pre-tests aren't front-loaded - as the 5th grade class moves to a new unit, DD would test on that unit.)

A 6th grade pretest? The math textbook, I assume. Which really means "me at home." In my ideal world, I'd have a 6th grade book at home, too (which I get the impression that the school would really rather me not have, but what they don't know won't hurt me), and DD and I would look over each unit in advance, and decide whether she felt the need to practice it, and then either pass the pre-test or not, accordingly.

Yes, that does help, thank you! It's so hard to switch between being That Mom (to get the ball rolling) and Sane and Reasonable Parent (to get the plan implemented).

LOL! Thanks HowlerKarma, that gave me a good chuckle!