When does GDS start math differentiation?

[Anonymous]

I know they start reading groups in 1st grade. When does math differentiation start? GDS parents in the know, please respond!

[Anonymous]

Formal differentiation begins in 7th (with lots of opportunities for acceleration or deceleration thereafter).

I think that extracurricular supplementation (Number Crunchers, Math Olympiad) begins in 4th.

In PreK/K (but it's been years), it seemed very go-at-your-own pace. (They were using Marcy Cook math tiles when my DC was in PreK/K -- don't know if that's still true.)

And, all along the way, there has been small group work with individual attention and assignments pitched to a variety of different levels.

[Anonymous]

There's also Math Club, beginning in 1st, for those children who are interested in the subject.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There's also Math Club, beginning in 1st, for those children who are interested in the subject.

That's neat that it starts so early.

[Anonymous]

And Morning Math before school (for PreK-5th) on Tuesdays, where parents can drop in and play math-related games with kids (or kids can come solo).

We loved that when DC was little.

[Anonymous]

8:33, please say more on the Math Club? What is it? How does it work?

[Anonymous]

Besides the morning math and club, plus the Continental Math League problems in later elementary grades, there is some differentiation in class (but not broken up into different classes until 7th) as early as 3rd grade. For the 1 in a million type math superstars (and GDS has had two "lifers" in that category recently, and now a third one coming through) they were quite flexible, one student was taking courses up through BC calc at the high school beginning in 5th or 6th grade I believe. Having had kids at GDS and another similar school, GDS had more flexibility for sure, but for real huge choices in school for acceleration big public schools like TJ or Blair will always be able to offer more. That said, for your more typical excellent math student but not 1 in a million kid, there is plenty of math to challenge them going on at GDS. Once in high school there are many different tracks, and it is nice since pretty easy to move from track to track and have more than one way to get to BC calc in 11th grade or in 12th, less rigid than some other schools where on one track or another beginning in 7th and seems to be very hard to change upwards, less hard to move back.

[Anonymous]

In fairness, at least one of those two was not a lifer -- came from Norwood. And the other had a private math tutor from Blair. OTOH, if you have a 1 in a million kid, you expect to supplement rather than rely solely on school to meet those needs and the question becomes, as 10:50 suggests, does the school make that easy or difficult.

I'm torn re the typical excellent math student. My DC didn't get turned on by math until it was differentiated. I can't say DC was bored per se -- just didn't see what was interesting/fun about math (except CMLs and Math Olympiad).

Would DC have gone in a different direction had acceleration happened earlier? I don't know. It might still have been the case that DC found other subjects more compelling. When I was a kid, math was the most reliable haven for a smart kid. So there was where I went until I ran out of course in HS and found other interests. GDS has a lot more alternatives from the earliest ages.

All this said, I think that there are a number of parents of kids who aren't math superstars but who are somewhere between that and your typical excellent math student (great phrase BTW), who find GDS frustrating.

[Anonymous]

Both my kids were in that category (the typical excellent math student) and whether the year was frustrating or not completely due to the math teacher, and most were quite good at keeping them engaged, maybe they were lucky, both only had one bad year and that teacher is now gone from the school. But the lack of rigidity in MS and US was appreciated, compared to hearing about the more rigid approach and lack of any chance to accelerate for the truly one in a million kids at other local similarly highly academic private schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:8:33, please say more on the Math Club? What is it? How does it work?

In the LS, Math Club (aka Morning Math) meets before school once a week (Tuesdays?) and I believe (I may be wrong according to one PP?) starts with 1st grade. Anyone who is interested can come to school early to work on math puzzles, games, and other math-oriented fun activities according to their ability and desire.

[Anonymous]

12:04, thanks. My DC goes to Morning Math and was now worried DC was missing out on another opportunity. Still don't know how DC came to love math so much given the parents....

[Anonymous]

Morning Math has always claimed to be from 1st-5th grade, but, in practice, there have routinely been PreK and K'ers there, especially with parents. As a parent, I've happily played games with the PreK and K kids (whose parents couldn't stay in some cases), and they can be as good or better at many of the games as an older kid. There's a range of activities that involve different types of skills (e.g. abstract strategy, spatial relationships, deduction), many of which aren't dependent on grade or age level. Most games aren't that dependent on math facts per se.

(Both 12:04 and 12:25 undoubtedly know this -- just wanted to elaborate for people who are looking at the school and wondering what we're talking about and/or for people at the school who didn't realize they could bring their PreK or K student).

[Anonymous]

Morning Math starts at 7:30. We already struggle to get to school by the time it opens at 8. For those whose kids do Morning Math, do you feel its worthwhile to push for the early arrival? My kid is very interested in math so I am curious about this. Perhaps I am not getting something but it seems that we can (and do) play math games at home. Is Morning Math instructional? If not, are there teachers who put the kids into appropriate groups, and provide a platform for pushing their learning forward? What are the kids getting out of it? Thanks in advance!

[Anonymous]

No grouping/instruction/pushing forward in Morning Math.

We could/did play lots of games (math and otherwise) at home with DC. I think what was nice about Morning Math for DC was meeting kids in other grades/classrooms who shared DCs interests in games and math. And, of course, there were some different games and manipulatives than what we had at home. (Although this more often led to requests from DC to bring stuff in from home than to buy stuff encountered at Morning Math, LOL!).

[Anonymous]

9th grade