Happy November!
We just had our first parent-teacher conference of the year, and am feeling pretty good about how things are working out in second grade, and I feel like sharing....
DD's teacher has impressed me with her willingness to tailor DD's homework to her level while still connecting it to concepts the class is covering. For example, they just started a geometry unit, so she gave DD a list of spelling words with Greek or Latin number prefixes (monotone, biceps, triangle, quadrilateral, quintessential, etc). She doesn't have a lot of time to differentiate instruction for DD during the day (DD's teacher said that 14 of the 22 kids in her class are identified as ESL students), but meets with her at the end of the day to review homework assignments as needed, and has been asking for and responding to feedback from me. DD has a weekly reading group with 2 other kids who are fairly close to her level. The teacher said she is running out of books for that group though, but said she plans to consult with the group about what to order for their reading bin.
Normally they don't do "advanced work" until fourth grade here, based on testing in third grade, but DD's school will be starting a couple of pull-out classes for second graders this month. The science teacher will be running an advanced math group, and the librarian will be running an advanced writers' group. They plan to meet weekly with 3 kids from each second grade room, so 6 kids combined. This is the first time her school has tried this for that age group. They planned for this when setting the class schedules, so pull-out math will be during regular math time, and the same with the writing.
Afterschool: DD is enjoying Math Circle and Irish dance. She has a dance competition next month. Violin lessons started last month, but they still haven't found the right-sized instrument for DD yet. I knew DD was young for the program (normally for grades 3-5), but it didn't occur to me that she could be too small for the instruments! The instructor brought a 3/4 violin the first week, then a 1/2 size the next week, and plans to bring a 1/4 size tomorrow....
So (big sigh of relief), second grade is going pretty well so far! Much better than first grade, which was such a disappointment for DD. I think it really paid to meet with the principal last spring to discuss options for second grade.
We just had our first parent-teacher conference of the year, and am feeling pretty good about how things are working out in second grade, and I feel like sharing....
DD's teacher has impressed me with her willingness to tailor DD's homework to her level while still connecting it to concepts the class is covering. For example, they just started a geometry unit, so she gave DD a list of spelling words with Greek or Latin number prefixes (monotone, biceps, triangle, quadrilateral, quintessential, etc). She doesn't have a lot of time to differentiate instruction for DD during the day (DD's teacher said that 14 of the 22 kids in her class are identified as ESL students), but meets with her at the end of the day to review homework assignments as needed, and has been asking for and responding to feedback from me. DD has a weekly reading group with 2 other kids who are fairly close to her level. The teacher said she is running out of books for that group though, but said she plans to consult with the group about what to order for their reading bin.
Normally they don't do "advanced work" until fourth grade here, based on testing in third grade, but DD's school will be starting a couple of pull-out classes for second graders this month. The science teacher will be running an advanced math group, and the librarian will be running an advanced writers' group. They plan to meet weekly with 3 kids from each second grade room, so 6 kids combined. This is the first time her school has tried this for that age group. They planned for this when setting the class schedules, so pull-out math will be during regular math time, and the same with the writing.
Afterschool: DD is enjoying Math Circle and Irish dance. She has a dance competition next month. Violin lessons started last month, but they still haven't found the right-sized instrument for DD yet. I knew DD was young for the program (normally for grades 3-5), but it didn't occur to me that she could be too small for the instruments! The instructor brought a 3/4 violin the first week, then a 1/2 size the next week, and plans to bring a 1/4 size tomorrow....
So (big sigh of relief), second grade is going pretty well so far! Much better than first grade, which was such a disappointment for DD. I think it really paid to meet with the principal last spring to discuss options for second grade.