Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Does acceleration solve the problem?

I'm meeting with DS's school next week about next year, both in terms of his special needs and his advanced abilities. I'm the most concerned about math. Right now he has a teacher who is giving him worksheets that the "suggested learning objectives" show from computerized testing, which is above-level. She does sit down with him and teach him the concepts one-on-one so he can do the worksheets, but I don't know how much time is actually spent on this. So he is in first grade, but most of what he has worked on has been 3rd-5th grade material. The current teacher thinks the next teacher should just continue on with this method. My concern is that he probably gets about 5 min. of instruction each day and then he's on his own. They are not doing any "curriculum" it is just random stuff. One day it might be (-5)-(-27) and the next day it might be convert 428 inches to yards. Then a few days later he might bring home graphs or something about probability.
This is WAY better than what the last teacher did (she did nothing), and he is clearly learning, but it is not ideal. She thinks he would benefit either from this method, or subject acceleration (going to a higher grade for math, then coming back), but I don't think the district would allow any more than 1 grade. If he went to third grade math next fall instead of second, he would probably still know 90 percent of the concepts. I'm sure there are things he could brush up on, but the pace would be way too slow.

I don't know if anyone will ask my opinion, but if they do, or if I have the opportunity to present an alternative, what would it be? He should stay in second grade and work independently or one-on-one with the teacher for some concepts, but go to the next higher grade for others? Is there anything that would actually work? I know probably nothing is ideal but if there is a better solution than what we are doing now, or subject accelerating, what would it be? I am not sure if the district would actually allow the teacher to teach the curriculum from an advanced grade. Right now the teacher can just say she's "enriching" or whatever.

They are not doing any "curriculum" it is just random stuff.

Welllllllll-- to be fair, this IS what some math curriculum actually resembles these days.

No comment on the "what would be better" since I don't really have a useful suggestion. Obviously, working at the pace that feels right for him is the ideal, and I'm not sure how you would come up with a pragmatic solution for that.

You have a point there. Maybe what he is doing really is best, and we'll just deal with the fact that the actual instruction doesn't amount to much. I could suggest Khan Academy...it would be better than 5 min. of rushed instruction I guess.

I think you definitely want to structure the topics more. Even if he continues on worksheets they presumably could be sequenced rationally. Have you tried comprehensively tracking the topics over time to make sure your impression is correct or alternatively just asking the teacher how she is choosing them?

Also Khan academy can be just as random topic-wise. Imposing some hard ordering on its units definitely improves the experience not that I personally would want that to be the primary instructional
mechanism.

This has always been a point of cencern for me - because "random" introduction of topics and working on them for a week or two would result in gaps in knowledge even though he is learning a lot at school time. This is one of the reasons that I prefer grade skipping to "differentiation".
When my DS was in an class where he got differentiation, he got no instruction at all - just worksheets. So, I taught him the concepts ahead of time using Singapore Math and Beast academy and also sent in a work packet from home. Will this approach work in your school setting?

Our DS' school gave him the end-of-year tests for 3rd grade (he was in second grade at the time) and then 4th grade math. When he passed the 3rd grade test (80 some percent), but not the 4th grade (50/60 percent), they moved him into the 4th grade class for math only. It worked out quite well. It took some schedule adjustment but both teachers were more than willing to make it work (and so, it did. lol). Would that approach work? It isn't all that uncommon where we are, I know or have heard of other children who are accelerated for one or two subjects.

Not sure. I think the problem that the current teacher is facing is huge gaps that he came in with in January. So he could do division word problems, but he didn't know how to measure with a paper clip. He must have missed the paper clip lesson last year in kindergarten when he fractured his skull.
She says she is "closing the gaps" but if it turns out he's fairly even now after the closing of the gaps, then I don't see why he couldn't do something like Singapore math, maybe a fourth grade level, with the teacher doing what she can to teach the concepts, maybe a little Khan Academy at school, and whatever I can do at home. I don't want to offend the current teacher though by saying that I don't think what is happening now is completely working (she has been trying so hard). We are actually putting him in a different district school so he and DD can be in the same school next year, so I am going to first meet with the current school, and then we will all meet with the new school so a plan is already in place before he starts.

I think if I really wanted subject acceleration, his current teacher would defend that position, but I think DS needs to go two grades up to be sufficiently challenged, and the district would never do two grades at a time. So the question is whether he is better staying where is is and given higher work than he would get being officially accelerated. He would get higher level work but there would be little in terms of instruction. I don't know what's better.

Can you ask if there is a way to use "pretesting" material as a method of achieving some compacting of the next grade's material? I understand that most of the time, the logic behind not "skipping" isn't entirely valid with HG+ kiddos, but those kids are rare for administrators, so they tend to view acceleration requests with a skeptical eye toward "gaps" rather than learning opportunities for the child.

KWIM? Maybe a short-term independent study with some collaboration with the teacher in the higher grade?

Could you plan to do next year with a compacted 2y curriculum?

Susan Assouline, in Developing Math Talent, recommends this method.