Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy (Sigh) Should I say something?

So I know that DS is the only one at white in his reading class (regular class). I assume therefore he must be the only one at DRA instructional level 34 (since you have to be at least that to be on white). So, I have been curious about how he is being instructed in his reading "group." Today he tells me he is reading and being instructed on "Ready Freddy - Don't Sit On my Lunch" in his reading group. I groan. He says, "I asked them what level it is and they said it is a 30-32." "Hmmm." I say. I look it up - it is level 28-30. They lied to him (of course, they always do). But, more importantly, he is to be instructed at level 34 and they are instructing him at level 28-30. SIGH. DO they get anything right ever? Should I say something? I feel like I should but I already said "no" to OT in math class. Then, I had to email about a teacher who refused to give DS his accommodations. They haven't even responded to those issues and now this. {SIGH} What should I do, wise people?

OK, I'm not terribly wise, but fwiw I'd let this one go. BUT - I'm the parent who let all the reading instruction go and never worried about it. I'm guessing if he's the only child "on white" level in his class, that means the kids he's reading Ready Freddy with are most likely the other more advanced readers in his class if they are at 28-30. I know it's frustrating to think he could be reading higher level books, but if he's enjoying what he's reading, just go with it. Our ds was never given any accelerated instruction in reading but he managed to stay way above grade level anyway, and reading comprehension and vocabulary were things that just seemed to "happen" without any help. OTOH, if you feel like your isn't making those huge leaps in progress from what you see at home and if you feel like he's stagnating re reading at school, then press on and be sure they instruct him at his level.

JMO, but I think that sometimes we have to pick the battles we fight, and with our 2e kiddos, it's probably more important at this age and grade to be fighting to ensure that the school is giving your child appropriate accommodations and remediation for his disability. If you can do that and get accelerated instruction in reading, that's great.. but if you have to choose which battles to pick, I'd let the reading go.

I can't remember which grade your ds is in (first or second?)... but fwiw by 3rd grade here, our schools were dropping leveled reading groups all together. There was still testing to make sure children were progressing on track but there were no longer restrictions on which books children were allowed to choose from for free reading, and the entire class was reading the same book together, integrated with social studies. The smaller reading groups that existed in kindergarten and first grade when kids were learning to read were gone by 3rd grade. Soooo.. it's possible that if you expend a lot of energy at this point on the level/group fight... you are fighting for something that isn't going to exist after this school year anyway. But the need for accommodations etc is something that your ds will need throughout his school years.

Best wishes,

polarbear

Thanks Polarbear! I am relieved by your advice that I can let this one go IMy first thought was to let it go but then I thought I may be doing DS a disservice or something. Anyway thanks!

I wonder if those levels are really scientific at all? In terms of the book content. The age gap looks to be about 4 to 6 months. You have so many battles, may e that one is worth shrugging off unless it becomes a predominant pattern.

He had to take like three tests to prove he was at least at that level... so I guess there is some science behind them? I don't know for sure! But for all their testing to make sure they have him at the right level, they are still not instructing him at the proper level!

I was thinking more about the text evaluations themselves. When I was around twelve, I helped my dad rewrite government manuals to a lower grade level. It was all about words per sentence and syllables per word averages. I'm wondering that DRA isn't something similar rather than something deeper getting into comprehension. But I do think a kid should get the right material.

Well the DRA test requires giving summarizations, comprehension questions and some inference type questions. Then they gave him something called a Qualitative Reading Inventory and I got to see the passages and the questions. It involved sight word leveling first. Then it had a pretty involved comprehension piece at each level, each of which had concept questions, comprehension questions and inference questions and also involved him giving a summary for each passage. That one was all about comprehension. It seemed very involved to me. He passed the fourth grade comprehension level and the fifth grade sight word level. There were no words per sentence and syllables per word averages but they did make note if he didn't get a word in a passage correct.

But no worries I am relieved that the advice is to let it go. I will just make sure we do higher level work at home. I ordered reading detective and that seems to interest and challenge him so we can do that. He is not the most fluent of readers in my opinion ( he sounds fluent but he misses words, inserts words, etc; although there was no evidence of this in his testing - he must be able to really do it right when he wants to) so maybe it's not so bad he is at the lower level at school anyway...

FWIW, I took a similar approach with our DD to PB.

I read some silly school reports telling us stuff that we knew to be untrue, e.g. she could not write a story with a beginning, a middle and an end or didn't have mastery of addition/subtraction. This when she had already written elaborate stories at home and was confident with exponents and simple pre-algebra.

At the end of the day, I decided that it was important that I knew what my DD was capable of and not necessarily the teacher. I could see that fighting this would be futile and put us in a confrontational situation with the school but have little to no upside. A true Pyrrhic victory.

Ultimately, elementary kids spend so little time at school that what happens there is somewhat irrelevant particularly when they are so far ahead of their peers. Eventually, we came to terms with the fact that no school will ever 'teach' our child in the way that other NT children are taught simply because kids like ours learn so darn fast.

We are very lucky, though, in that once we had our DD tested (over a year ago now) and the teachers saw the results they were supportive of a skip. Looking back, I am not sure that her teachers would have been so positive about DD's skip had we riled them up unnecessarily.

YMMV

Now maybe my son is an anomaly but his reading program begins each lesson with a whole group lesson (story) that is on grade level....everyone on, below, above, limited English speaker or not...reads that story, works through it as a large group. Then they have small groups where they are grouped a bit by levels (really not specific levels...just on, at, below level and ELL) for a story related to the first one. The thing is there aren't readers for his outlier reading level. His class is fourth grade and the above level second story group he is in is probably 5th grade, his reading level in October was 7th grade. They just tested him again and he got 9th grade (not grade equivalency, but his independent reading level...his instructional level is even higher). So just with his independent reading being his choice and getting classroom instruction below his level he increased 2 grade levels in 4 months. Either it is okay to get instruction below level with additional reading that he selects at a higher, challenging level or my kid is just a freak who is going to grow no matter what.

But unless he went to the middle school next door for reading there really isn't a way for them accommodate him with the classroom materials. I am also thinking of my 9th grade lit text book. He is 9 and he isn't interested in Silas mariner, Romeo and Juliet, and 70 % of the other stories at a 9 th grade level. So as long as he is happy, I am happy.