Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion How to differentiate with Common Core?

Hi, I'm a mom to a highly gifted second grader who has lost the love to learn, at least in school. His math has not progressed in two years! The work is still all review - basic addition - and he's craving more. I am working with the school to try to get him what he needs, but the process is so slow (I requested an I&RS last year, which at least got him attention). What is out there that can replace the Pearson worksheets but still go along with the Common Core curriculum? Anything? I'm desperately seeking some way for the teacher to differentiate. Thanks so much!

A key thing to realize is that the Common Core is a set of standards rather than a curriculum. If you want to see how they are presented: http://www.corestandards.org/Math/

So the material they've bought into is one company's attempt to cover the standards with a curriculum. But still at the bare minimum, the easy free path is subject acceleration by giving him progressively more advanced material within the current curriculum. That could be within class or having him attend a higher level math class (one question being whether he his a self-learner or needs instruction.)

If you are looking for parallel enriched work, then have a look at The Art of Problem Solving as they have material that gets deeper into problem solving and thinking. Other people talk positively about Singapore Math, which I'm not familiar with.

There are some angles you can pursue with additional activities like logic puzzles and games but my feeling is that at this level it makes the most sense to just finish mastering basic arithmetic i.e. move on to multiplication/division etc. There's a lot more opportunity for enrichment after that's completed. This can be done via many routes and I don't think you have to worry about paying attention to standards while doing so.

Not entirely true. There's Common Core the state standards, and there's a nonprofit company that, quite stupidly IMO, called itself Common Core and developed CCSS-aligned curriculum. So it's not an either-or, but it can be quite frustrating.

Even their URLs are designed to obfuscate/irritate:

Common Core State Standards: http://www.corestandards.org/

Common Core Curriculum: http://commoncore.org/

My DD's school system has Eureka Math, by Common Core the company, and it has been ridiculed by parents in public meetings.

When my son was 7, I had a number of fruitless discussions with his teachers about allowing him to advance in mathematics. They made some promises about "differentiation" but never followed through on them. I brought them a completed fourth grade math workbook and a half-completed fifth-grade math book, and they really didn't even look at them. Given what you wrote, I suspect your son's teachers aren't going out of their way to help him?

Here's the thing. Many elementary ed.-level teachers in the US just don't understand math. Given this fact, they're heavily dependent on what the book says as a way of assessing your child's knowledge. So say the school's first grade math book shows 3 methods of doing addition (say, counting things that you combined, jumping forward on a grid or a number line, and a rule-in-rule-out algorithm).*

Now say that your child gets the Common Core "addition means combining things" idea intuitively. If the teacher doesn't honestly understand that those 3 EM methods are just different ways of showing this one concept, she might decide that your son's understanding of addition is incomplete. She might especially feel that way if he starts getting frustrated with rule-in-rule-out. To the HG+ kid, it's lame. To the teacher, it's critically important because the book said so. The book was written by experts!

My best advice to you is to 1) teach him yourself at home or 2) hire a tutor. I've been teaching math to my kids for several years, and it's been very effective. One of my kids also goes to the local Mathnasium, and they're also wonderful.

NOTES:

1. If you go the tutoring route and have a Mathnasium in your area, check it out carefully. Will they let a child work on material for older kids? Policies differ between locations.

2. DO NOT USE KUMON. They're about getting 100% of problems correct in <[insert number of minutes]. If you get one wrong or don't get one done in the allotted time, you don't advance.



*All from 1st grade Everyday Mathematics/EM.

So true Val, I couldn't have written this better.

The "Common Core"* math sheets make ME hate them. My son's third grade math sheets have him draw a picture, solve the problem using numbers, AND write an explanation of the problem and solution for EACH problem. Since we are not artistic and also enjoy handwriting difficulties, you can imagine our delight with these worksheets. /sarcasm


*Although many curriculums have absconded with the "Common Core" name, it is actually a set of standards and NOT a curriculum. It is much the same as ISO9000 is a set of standards, and your company's instructions are how you conform to those standards.

Of course there isn't really such a thing as a single "Common Core math sheet". The content can vary quite a bit from publisher to publisher. At least for me, its more interesting to know which one you're frustrated by.

Dreambox.com is a website that is common-core aligned and enjoyable for kids. It will progress the child along based on mastery of the material. I highly recommend it for elementary age kids.

Whether or not the CCSS is a standard or a curricula overhaul is irrelevant. The PARCC test is prescriptive. If schools are teaching to the test, they are going to require students learn a particular method (i.e the "box" method for multiplication) to comply with the test.