Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Middle School Middle School Courses

Just wondering what courses are offered at your school (or home) for Middle School. We are in a small town that is two hours from a small city that has very little to offer. We moved from a city with great magnet schools with wonderful offerings - not your basic math, science, and English.

Math - My daughter will be in seventh next year. Luckily, they had prealgebra this year, which will place her in Algebra I (HS credit). I just want this to be thorough and not the watered down Algebra that many get. No worries. I am a math teacher and will ensure that.

Science - I worry more about the teachers than the courses and I do hear great things about the seventh grade science teacher. They do not teach science here (or they just read it occasionally ) until seventh. Fortunately, she had a strong curriculum until 5th mid-year. This is integrated science and a group of us is trying to get an honor's class going. I hear wonderful things about the eighth grade teacher also. She will major in science so I just want to get her back on track and continue loving science and I believe she will reach her goal here.

Art and Music - I will sacrifice other courses for the great art and music teachers. I cannot teach art to her. Her band director also teaches choir and Jazz ensemble.

History - I found a local school district that teaches Colorado History online. We may have to work this way due to the Art and Music issues. This is a new subject to her, but we have been traveling around the state and visiting historical sites.

English/Reading - I have never heard anything about this and would be willing to supplement this as online. She is way ahead of her class and I doubt they will have an honor's class anyway. We will either work it in or not. At this age and in this town, she is so far ahead that she writes and reads better than most of the community college students. There are very few books here that are in her lexile range.

Computer ed Tech - She will probably have to take this seventh grade course to satisfy the requirements for Colorado. I teach this course (and math) in another town so I can supplement where needed.

Languages - She is enrolled in Latin 1A from Texas Tech. This is one that I really wanted for her since she wants to major in science. Most students in magnet schools are taking this and blowing away their SAT and ACT scores (verbal). English courses will spend one week on this (if that) and higher schools will spend at least one/half year on it (at the very least). If we like the course, she will start Latin 1B at mid-semester. This also has a Roman history focus.

Of course, this still puts her way behind since most students will take up to Differential Equations in math (not offered even at the college here) and will take so many different types of science. She has no peers in English/Reading. There are so many other language/law and humanities courses that she is missing.

What did I miss?

Colleges understand that not all schools offer the same courses. Your dd will be evaluated based upon whether she took the most challenging courses AVAILABLE to her. If she can't take Diff Eq. in high school, I don't think that will be a big blow to her record, as long as she demonstrates that she has taken the toughest high school math in her school. She can also supplement with online, summer, or college courses according to her interests and abilities.

Latin is helpful, but I wouldn't say that every kid who takes it will ace the reading/writing portions of the SAT. If that were the case, it would probably be mandatory in all high schools!

If your dd doesn't have a sport, I would encourage her to develop a favorite in this area. It could be a team sport or something individual, like running.

Looks like a nice solid plan!

I agree about Latin not being necessary. Any foreign language will help with the SAT. I had a little French and a good handle on German, and I kicked behind on the SAT. So did many of my peers who did not take any Latin.

That's purely anecdotal evidence there, of course, but I really do think Lorel is right on that point!

Some suggestions:

Typing. Make her take a typing class to get her WPM > 60.

Math. Find a math curriculum that will take her >= Calculus and DFFEQ. Use this to supplement what she gets in school. If she spends 3 hours a week on this during the school year and then works at it 6 hours a week in summer, she will do very well. If she likes proofs in geometery, then branch out to logic, analysis, and number theory.

Computers. A basic programming class in C followed by a class in numerical methods. Find a community college for this. This will teach her how to use applied math. Knowing how to build algorithms, test them, then write them is key.

English: Find a reading group at your local bookstore that gets together weekly to discuss a book. This is great fun for a young kid.

A technical hobby of some sort would be good. I'm sure she'll come up with something. My DW did Ham radios and RC airplanes when she was in HS.

Latin is good and so is Greek. The history you learn is just as good as the language exposure.

They will teach keyboarding in seventh and some work in eighth per CO requirements. I teach Computer Ed Tech in another school. She will have chances in high school for a little of this and I can supplement this also. Not worried about computers at all.

She is ahead in math anyway and I will probably have to get her in a summer program at some point -probably high school. My husband and I are both math people (and computer people) so she probably gets more of this than she needs. I am very careful that she gets a very full math curriculum - nothing sped up or washed out (which is what most get). She is highly gifted in math. Even at the community college here, math only goes to Calc II.

Get ready for this - the local bookstore is two hours away. However, I am thinking about getting a summer reading program like this in the area for the very few kids who read this high. There is nobody else in her school that does.

We will look at more technical hobbies. Before we moved here, she attended robot camp and all kinds of things. She has always been a little engineer - taking everything apart and putting it back together. This is a really good idea.

I'd like to advance out of the core subjects and have her learn other things that she won't get here. I am less worried about her advancing faster, but about her not getting other cool things that many gifties get.

Here is the info for where my daughter was supposed to attend school. Just look at the electives. The students are so ahead that they don't take the normal courses (they place out).

http://www.kealing.org/joomla158/in...&view=article&id=7&Itemid=13

Wow! That looks like an awesome school. I too suffer from school envy, being 3 hrs from a city (though we have a book store!). I think Austin's suggestions were great--my son plays golf and misses so much school at tournaments. This helps make slow school more interesting (i.e. never attending in the spring).

My talk with the MS counselor went well. If there is any way possible, they will bend to give my daughter all her electives and she can take courses online if scheduling does not agree. We are looking at Colorado History or English online. The science and math teachers appear to be wonderful. The counselor said that she would work with me to give her what is needed.

I know that advancing her here is not really the issue; the high school classes are full of barely achieving students as well - just tougher. This is just a super low school district.

Here is a major reason she is taking basic Latin. Her vocabulary has advanced to a state where she is really into dissecting it. I find lists of prefixes and suffixes and roots - she is collecting them. I get constant questions about the "country of origin". I was also interested in this at her age and began studying the pronunciations of other languages just to break this code. I had an interested spelling coach and no internet.

Although, she is very high in her language arts skills, she attacks it in a mathematical way. Math and science are her true loves. This is basically code breaking.

I have always thought that English should have courses in basic pronunciations of other languages. I am amazed by intelligent people pronouncing the "z" in Mozart as a "z" and not a "ts" as in German. Many schools have a Foreign Language Exploration around sixth grade and cover some of this. And with music and art being dropped from many curriculums, this is getting so much worse.

Wow! To think a school like that exists is amazing, coming from my neck of the woods. Thanks for the link. After exploring it I wrote down some of the books that they are using to explore the scientific methods that were stretched and bent to create the fictional story. I may try some of that this summer with my science loving DD9. You never know where you may find ideas.

Our other Middle School magnet school in Austin is a "Law and Humanities" magnet. I have quite a few friends with their kids here and it is fantastic also. These are great courses also. That is why I believe that students can learn so many different things vs just the basic ladder of learning.

http://www.austinschools.org/campus/fulmore/Magnet/magnetindex.html