Her classroom looks like a nook straight out of a children’s section of a library. Her shelves are lined with a thoughtfully curated collection of books, selected in hopes of inspiring awe and wonder in her students. With titles such as Engineering in Plain Sight, Where the Sidewalk Ends, and The Lord of the Rings, she aims to introduce students to different genres and expand their interests — all while fostering their imaginations. “Elementary school is a magical time in life,” she explains. “This is the time to foster creativity, passion, imagination, and yes, critical thinking, but in a low-stakes environment.”

Ms. Perley, who just finished her fourth year as the Advanced Learning Teacher at Timothy, works with approximately 80 advanced math and reading students in third through sixth grade. Students are assigned to her small groups through Timothy’s MTSS, or Multi-Tiered System of Support, which provides every elementary student with small group instruction and individualized attention, no matter whether they need academic support, enrichment, or extension. 

Part of the beauty of MTSS is the small group size. So she never has more than 12 students at a time, which allows plenty of one-on-one interactions. They always work at least one grade level above, often two and occasionally three. So, three times a week, they come to Ms. Perley’s classroom for enrichment. 

Core Instruction and Advanced Curriculum

All MTSS groups are fluid, which means students can move in and out of groups, all through data-driven decisions, so they receive individually-customized instruction at exactly the level they need. Core instruction complements MTSS, and vice versa. Each provides a solid foundation in essential skills and concepts. While the content may vary between reading and math, the core instruction ensures that all students, regardless of their placement in MTSS groups, receive instruction in key skills.

For both reading and math, Ms. Perley utilizes curriculum from publishers like Kendall Hunt and renowned programs like the Vanderbilt Center for Talented Youth. While these materials form the backbone of instruction, she also draws upon her own expertise to create individually-customized content that aligns with the research on gifted pedagogy.

Ms. Perley’s goal is not to simply accelerate students through grade-level concepts, but to also develop their inductive and deductive reasoning skills and help them apply concepts in new and original ways. Her curricula routinely span one to three grade levels above the standard, introducing students to advanced topics in a manner that ensures their sustained engagement and challenge. 

Advanced Reading 

Most advanced readers have mastered speed reading. While this may be a useful skill, Ms. Perley wants to push students beyond simply reading quickly and recalling rote facts. Her goal: to teach all students, even her youngest, to think critically. “Sometimes I cover activities or introduce my students to concepts, such as archetypes and Aristotle's rhetorical appeals that they ordinarily wouldn’t get until high school,” she says. “Of course, it’s all age appropriate. But my students are challenged to grow in their critical thinking, and this is a skill that will take them through middle school, high school, and beyond.” 

Keeping advanced elementary school students engaged takes creativity and ingenuity, as her youngest students are only nine years old and the oldest are twelve. Hands-on activities are key to keeping students engaged. 

One of her favorite activities is creating a sociogram. Imagine a map, with the main character of a book at its center. As students read, they are challenged to create a symbol for each major character, and then to identify their connection with the main character, updating it as they progress through the novel. This activity allows students to readily identify archetypes and foils and to see how character conflicts influence the theme. 

She also carefully chooses novels that will not only capture her students’ imaginations, but will help them think critically. Her 5th grade students read A Wrinkle in Time and the Newberry Award winner 21 Balloons.

“I choose complex texts,” she explains. “I like novels that help students think critically or that include features that have complexity. These could be flashbacks, figurative language, or use of metaphors. So that way they have to grapple with those aspects as well.”

She also works hard to broaden a student’s perspective. Some of her kids prefer fiction or historical fiction, so she actively tries to introduce them to different genres. And sometimes it’s the older students who recommend books to the younger ones. 

“I want to move kids away from just being fast readers,” she says. "I also want to move kids away from thinking that it's all about having the right answer. They need to support those answers by going back to the text and using critical thinking skills.” 

My students are challenged to grow in their critical thinking, and this is a skill that will take them through middle school, high school, and beyond.”

The Beauty of Math

Most people don’t see math as beautiful. It’s simply a problem to be solved — one plus one equals two, right? Well, not so fast. 

“So many kids get stuck with just computation,” she explained. “But I want them to see the beauty of math and how it’s used to explain the world.” 

Scattered throughout her classroom are what appear to be board games. But in reality, they are manipulative systems that introduce kids to algebraic concepts at an early age. By incorporating exploratory activities and hands-on learning experiences, Ms. Perley fosters critical thinking skills and a deeper understanding of mathematical principles. This deductive approach to math instruction not only enriches core curriculum but also cultivates flexible and innovative thinkers.

“I try to do a lot that's either hands-on or visual,” she explains. “Because I really want students to understand that math is visual. I don’t want to introduce a formula for the sake of working out the problem. Through an exploration they work out what the formula means and how it is derived, so they understand why.” 

In fifth grade, students delved into a unit exploring the Pythagorean theorem. They examined Euclid's proposition and visualized the theorem using right triangles with squares on each side. Through hands-on exploration with centimeter grid paper, they solidified their understanding. Additionally, they conducted a proof by rearrangement, a visual demonstration that illuminated the theorem's concept. 

“Despite the misconception that elementary students cannot grasp proofs,” Ms. Perley says, “there are certain visual proofs that elementary students can understand and successfully showcase the theorem's fundamental principle: a squared plus b squared equals c squared.”

Memorizing a formula and just getting the correct answer on a piece of paper is not the goal in Ms. Perley’s classroom. “The goal is never just a correct answer on your paper. It's really about being able to think about math critically and to develop logical and spatial reasoning.” 

Joy Perley’s passion for teaching is about so much more than making students into accelerated readers or math whizzes — it’s about cultivating young minds. “Timothy’s curriculum helps create much more flexible, out of the box thinkers.” 

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Sidebar:
Noah VanderZee can’t choose a favorite book. The sixth grader, who is already reading at a ninth grade level, devours books. “I usually read for an hour or more a day,” he says. “I can’t pick just one.”

Noah was placed in Ms. Perley’s MTSS reading group, where he’s challenged to read and explore different genres of books like Johnny Tremain. “I enjoyed reading Johnny Tremain,” Noah admits. “But it was just a lot different from the genre I usually read.”

But that’s exactly Ms. Perley’s point—she wants her students to read and explore a vast array of books because it helps develop critical thinking skills, something that will serve them well in any subject.

While Noah loves to read, math is his favorite subject. There’s just something about figuring out mathematical equations—kind of like a puzzle. He’s part of a small group of sixth graders that go to the middle school for seventh-grade accelerated math.

“It's really fun to be in the middle school,” Noah says. “Our math teacher, Mr. Ridder, does challenge me in math.”

For now, math is the frontrunner as his favorite subject, but science is a close second. In fact, he thinks he might want to be a wildlife biologist when he grows up. “My teacher, Miss Buhman, tells us how God designed and created the world,” he says. “God designed every single detail down to the function of each cell. I think that’s pretty amazing.”

He’s already looking forward to taking advanced science classes in middle school. But Noah readily admits that there’s so much more to Timothy than just his challenging classes. “I love everything—my friends, my teachers, my classes,” he says. “It feels like I really belong here and really should be here.”