Differentiation in math

[Anonymous]

What, if anything, is your child's teacher doing for differentiation in math? My second grader has started asking for harder stuff (and DC isn't a kid that normally asks to be challenged). I know Common Core spends a long time on a given topic, but I thought I'd see more algebraic thinking and problem solving to balance it out. I'm not seeing much, if any, of that coming home. Just trying to find out what I can do.

[Anonymous]

Well, it was a few years back, but when my son was in second grade, he was given slightly more challenging stuff. The teacher was already aware that he needed it when we met at parent teacher conferences, and was on it. Have you spoken with the teacher yet?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, it was a few years back, but when my son was in second grade, he was given slightly more challenging stuff. The teacher was already aware that he needed it when we met at parent teacher conferences, and was on it. Have you spoken with the teacher yet?

OP here. I've spoken to the teacher already but mostly about reading and it's not really going anywhere because she has her hands so full with everyone else. It's mostly that her homework is almost all busy work. Everything except the math takes a long time (lots and lots of writing). I'd like to add in more problem solving myself (I have Singapore's CWP), but I'm finding so little time available after everything else gets done and I really believe in getting outside play time in too. Just wondering what gets done in 2nd grade math. I was expected more algebraic thinking given all the CC examples I've seen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, it was a few years back, but when my son was in second grade, he was given slightly more challenging stuff. The teacher was already aware that he needed it when we met at parent teacher conferences, and was on it. Have you spoken with the teacher yet?

OP here. I've spoken to the teacher already but mostly about reading and it's not really going anywhere because she has her hands so full with everyone else. It's mostly that her homework is almost all busy work. Everything except the math takes a long time (lots and lots of writing). I'd like to add in more problem solving myself (I have Singapore's CWP), but I'm finding so little time available after everything else gets done and I really believe in getting outside play time in too. Just wondering what gets done in 2nd grade math. I was expected more algebraic thinking given all the CC examples I've seen.

I don't think CC changes the fact that teachers by and large teach to the middle and the strugglers if a class is large. They teach to the middle because they catch the largest group of kids that way and they focus on strugglers because those kids need the help. And in a large class teaching to those kids is going to kill off the in class time. We saw this in my DD's class - 29 kids and the couple of kids who were really strong at math just didn't get anything different from the worksheets everyone else got. For them it was busy work, for the rest of the class it maybe was necessary repetition. At any rate, give class sizes in PGCPS, at least at our neighborhood school, and our uber-crappy luck in the lottery, we made a change for 3rd grade. During 2nd the teacher was really happy to let DD to bring in some fun math books that she liked like Balance Benders and Mind Benders to mess around with when she finished stuff. So the supplement was happening during what was dead class time for her otherwise so we weren't trying to cram in something at home in addition to the "homework" worksheets that came in huge quantities. 2nd grade was really the breaking point for our child too as she just really started to lose enthusiasm for schoolwork.

Maybe talk to the teacher and ask about options. DD's teacher was really happy to let DD substitute some "projects" for the busywork homework. She didn't need the 8 billion worksheets and repetitive journal sentences so her teacher was really kind about letting her propose topics to work on, she just needed something to grade as homework. I would guess that might vary from teacher to teacher, but talking to them is always worth a try.