Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Need your advice/thoughts on Priorities

We are in the midst of setting up an acceleration for DS6 next year and while we all agree that acceleration is needed, we're running into several snags regarding scheduling and it looks like we need to figure out what our priorities are. I would love any thoughts or advice that you could give me.

Background: DS6 skipped K and it has become obvious to everyone (the principal, the GT coordinator, his current teacher, the 2nd grade teacher, the 3rd grade teacher) that he needs subject acceleration in math. DS also reads at a 4th grade level, but we (his parents) felt we could handle that at home because it would just be easier to accommodate a single-subject acceleration. While our DD8 has been very successful with a full grade acceleration, for a couple reasons we'd prefer not to go that route in the near future (he's a boy, his speech articulation is still immature). However, we talked generally about the need to tweak the schedule a bit so that the acceleration works (perhaps have him do specials or another subject like science in 3rd grade, for example) and we are good with that since we've seen it work and feel confident that DS could handle any 3rd grade work save writing.

Anyway, the problem is that from our years of experience in the school we have a second grade teacher and a third grade teacher who we would very much like DS to have. But, the schedule is almost unmesh-able. This primarily because the school is trying very hard to schedule subjects at the same time across the grade so that they can do ability grouping (a good thing) and have brought in specialists during these times whose schedules can't be changed. And, unfortunately, while 3rd grade has math in the mornings, 2nd grade has math in the afternoons. The best that the principal has been able to come up with so far is for DS to go to one 2nd grade teacher first thing in the morning, then to 3rd grade for math, then to another 2nd grade teacher after that. His current teacher and the 2nd grade teacher we want don't think this is a good idea and are trying to come up with another option. [BTW: DS is very outgoing and makes friends easily and might possibly be fine with switching teachers, although it might be important at this age to feel like he belongs to one particular class. Thoughts?]

The other consideration is 2nd grade teacher placement in general. We have not had great experiences with two of the four 2nd grade teachers (A and B) and have felt strongly that we don't want those teachers again. Of those, A's schedule would work best. Our problem with her was that she really singled out DD in front of her class last year as different and had her doing things like grading the other kids' math. The other teacher whose schedule works best (C) I don't know much. But we really love this other teacher (D) and we (and his current teacher) really feel like his personality and teaching style would work best for DS .

In the meantime, the principal has asked DH and me to decide what our priorities are. If you had to choose between a second grade teacher that you love versus one you don't like, a third grade teacher that you love, subject acceleration, grade acceleration, or moving between several teachers during the day, how would you prioritize the importance of these different things? Would you be willing to give one up to get the other? The only thing we're sure of is he needs to be accelerated in math.

Thanks for reading. I'm not sure if my questions are too specific and situation dependent to get help with, but you all are very wise and I'm hoping you might have some thoughts about what's important and what we can do without.

At first, reading this, I thought wow...too much moving around if you do the class switching option. BUT, it would be on a set schedule and easy to get used to so that sounds like it might be the best deal.

You said he only needs acceleration in math, but he reads 4th grade, so it sounds like he needs acceleration there, too. When you say "writing" do you mean handwriting or do you mean composing papers? (I personally think handwriting shouldn't be an issue).

I'm biased in regards to immature speech also...unless your DS is really sensitive about it, I would say ignore that issue.

By the way, I am no expert...but I am putting myself in your shoes WISHING I had this option! I'm hoping for the best at a new school, but I would LOVE a full grade acceleration and DS is not getting it this year.

I vote for full grade acceleration...it sounds like your DS needs it ALL!! Nan

Thanks, Nan. To answer some of your questions:

By writing I mean composing rather than handwriting. His handwriting is actually pretty good and he has no problems with writing. He actually likes it enough that whenever he creates things (paper pretend calculators, ATM machines, etc.) he usually encorporates writing into it. He's actually a pretty good speller, too. The problem is that he has rarely written more than two sentences at a time. The concern would be that he would be required to write page-length papers every so often. He could learn to do it, but it might require prodding. Then again, with the huge range of abilities in any given class here, there would certainly be others in the same boat.

By speech problems I only mean articulation. He is not sensitive at all to it, but it is the one thing that makes him seem younger than a 3rd grader. In his 1st grade there are several kids who receive speech services and don't articulate as well as DS (who doesn't receive services but was evaluated by a SP who thought we should try to work on it some at home). He can prounouce virtually all the sounds, but tends to speak "lazily." The plan is to work on this over the summer so that he goes from being able to pronounce words correctly to actually pronouncing words correctly.

BTW: I just got clarification that selection of the third grade teacher isn't an issue. They all have virtually the same schedule. So, at least that part doesn't need to be figured out. A full-grade skip would be easier, but his current teacher thinks he wouldn't be as mature as the 3rd graders would be (and she's right, although he does often play with kids that age and older) and is worried by the writing piece. So, I think that may be off the table this year.

I would say that avoiding teachers you don't like is a high priority, maybe the highest. Having a teacher that will cause problems can sabotage the whole project.

That said, I have to say from experience that the subject acceleration with classroom changing will be highly dependent upon what he will miss while he's off in the other class. We had a problem with that this year with DS7 in 2nd grade and going to 3rd for reading and 5th for math. Eventually the system broke down when he got more and more upset at missing "specials" such as PE, music, art, while he was off at math or reading. The last month of school, we just left off the math move so that he could go to specials and not worry about it. Fortunately he's far enough ahead of even the 5th grade curriculum that he didn't really need it anyway.

I haven't any experience with having two different second-grade classes, but that seems like it might give one a feeling of not belonging anywhere in particular.

Becoming a proficient writer is very important. I would suggest that he works on that. In a few years, this becomes more important than reading. Reading will progress if he likes to read, but writing is more difficult.

I'd go with the full skip because one teacher also means one set of kids. The 3 classroom scenario would make me worried that he would never "fit in."

If you did the skip could he get pulled out to get help with his speech and/or writing with support staff? Like the kids who get "remedial" support. Then he could work one on one with someone who could work around his schedule more and help him catch up to his intellectual peers.