Acceleration as a Tool in my Sixth Grade Classroom

By Sarah Kasprowicz, WATG Board
“I’m not talking about pushing. We’re only talking about giving students what they’re ready for.” 

These wise words were spoken by Dr. Susan Assouline, the Myron and Jacqueline N. Blank Endowed Chair in Gifted Education at the University of Iowa during her appearance in Jonathan Plucker’s Bright Now podcast, “Types of Acceleration.”

I teach sixth grade language arts and science in the Merton Community School District in Wisconsin. It is important for me to think in similar terms when planning for my students so they don’t get stuck in a spin-cycle of repetitive tasks that they already know how to do.  “What are they ready for?” I asked myself. I decided to ask my students. I started out with a question they’ve never heard before. “What do you want language arts to look like this year, and what is a waste of your time?”

I didn’t have to wait long for a response.  Three faces lit up and three pairs of eyebrows shot to the ceiling.Then they all started talking at once as I raced to keep up; scribbling notes as they went.  
“Worksheets and practice are a waste of my time.”
“Going over everything a bunch of times when I’ve got it.”
“I want to write more stories.”
“Waiting...always waiting.”
 
In our school district, we use local norms and data to match programming options with our students. All three of the students who responded above are in our accelerated math program, a single subject acceleration, but they also need acceleration in order to learn something new each day in language arts. Our MAP (Measure of Academic Progress) data report indicates that not only are these three students scoring the highest in sixth grade, they also compare to the top two to ten percent of our current eighth graders. 

In our district, we also use EOs (Essential Outcomes). I believe spending time working with our sixth grade EOs for reading would be a waste of their time. Our EOs are what we expect at each grade level and are based on our Teachers’ College Units of Study for Reading Workshop and Common Core Standards.  I can easily use local MAP reports to match each individual’s goals with what we expect in seventh and eighth grade, and these students have already mastered many of our sixth grade EOs. Why should I put them through the sixth grade EOs again? They don’t need it. So I don’t. Each time we have a new EO for reading, I do a quick exit slip to see what my students are ready for.  Once I verify that my trio of gifted students don’t need more work in a sixth grade EO, I meet with my them to plan. I look at what our 7th and 8th grade language arts teachers have for EOs in the same category, and then I use the MAP reports that show what each reader is ready to learn. They do not need the mini-lessons that go with the unit, so I don’t make them attend. I meet with them as a small group instead.

Here is an example of what we did for our EO for Character and EO for Theme during our first Unit of Study, Deep Study of Character.

1. Each student completed an exit slip verifying that they already exceed the EO on the grade level rubric. They all passed, so they accelerated past what I am doing with the rest of my sixth graders.
   
2. I had small group meetings with my gifted students and I taught them how to analyze author’s craft moves such as symbolism, dialogue, important actions, and the use of setting when developing a character. They also needed pointers about how to effectively quote the text since at least one of them thought that would be cheating.
   
3. I assigned a “long write” where each of the three students read a novel and submitted an analysis of how the author used their craft to develop the character.
   
4. The students complete a second exit slip verifying that they are at or above grade level for the EO Theme.
   
5. This time I assigned a common novel for the three students to read, Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan.  They met as a book club for this novel as they read, jotted and analyzed for theme. They don’t need to stop and jot all of the time, so I I had them read and discuss the whole book before they structured their next essay for theme. We had more small group meetings about symbolism and selecting the strongest evidence to support their theme.
   
6. I assigned a “long write” in which the students analyzed how the author taught the theme using symbols throughout the novel. This had a word limit of 250 words.  This stresses the students out because they can write a ton about a book, but paring it down to 250 words is more difficult. (I had noticed in their first long writes that they may be relying on their fluency with writing too much and needed help forming concise essays that are heavily planned and had a word limit.)
   
7. In between reading, analyzing and writing about their reading, the students published a magazine called The Mustang Journal.  They write pieces for the magazine and solicit work from students across the district.  My students edit the sections themselves, but I am Editor in Chief and I made them go back many times to make corrections and use journalism techniques. This was not popular either, but I had noticed that they needed help.
   
8.  Each month we publish hard copies of the magazine and leave them in the waiting rooms of local businesses as well in both school libraries, offices, and teachers’ lounges. We also send the link to teachers and parents so they can read the magazine, too.
   

If you are an educator, I encourage you to find ways to accelerate within your classroom. It’s okay for some students to do something different in your class if that’s what they need.  If you don’t think they need a lesson, you don’t have to have them attend it. It all comes back to those wise words, “We’re only talking about giving students what they’re ready for.”  

If you have questions or comments, feel free to contact me at skasprowicz@watg.org.