Hi everyone! This is a fairly specific question, but I'm hoping someone out there can help I teach 4th grade, and this year I'll be teaching a section of 4th grade accelerated math for the first time. I will be responsible for teaching all of the 4th grade curriculum and the first half of the 5th grade curriculum. I was wondering if anyone has ever had to teach in a situation like this and if you could provide any insight on pacing, sequencing, etc. Some of the concepts overlap between 4th and 5th grade so I'm trying to determine if I should teach the 4th grade concepts and immediately build upon them with my accelerated section, or if I should teach the 4th grade concepts and then finish the year with the 5th grade concepts. Sorry if this post is confusing. Basically, if anyone has ever taught an accelerated math section at the intermediate level, I'd love to hear any ideas, thoughts, suggestions you might have. I really appreciate it!!! Thanks!!!
Interesting situation. I think that I would extend the 4th grade concepts as they come up in the curriculum. It would be like providing enrichment for able students - only all your kids would be the able ones.
I did this last year. I took each topic (decimals, fractions, etc.) as far as the 5th grade standards went. I didn't want to have to come back to it later. We did do lots of review throughout the year so they would remember, but they learned all the fractions, for example, at the same time. Boy, it's late. I hope this makes sense!
I agree with Upsadaisy. Also, if they are accelerated, you will breeze through some of the fourth grade topics that are review with just a bit added on from what they learned in third. I would stress writing and explaining answers a lot; my high fourth graders usually hate this because they can see how to get "the answer" so easily. You could also work on more than one strategy to solve a problem.
I have done this when I had advanced. I taught as many fifth grade concepts as I could, and what I did was teach by topic (and then bring in the topics from the next grade into instruction). For example, fourth grade was all about area, so that was when I tied in volume from fifth and reviewed a little bit of third grade's perimeter concepts. I would definitely focus on the explaining answers as well-- that's a main component of Singapore Math for the gifted kids at our school, and writing in math class is one trillion percent Common-Core.
