I guess I was thinking that with her Woodcock Johnson writing score at 99.9% Plus the CMT score of perfect...not only on her narrative promt, but with her editing and revising portion, plus her DIBLES score at like 179...throughout 2nd and 3rd grade when goal was 50-90 wpm. Plus her DRP score of 79 when goal was 40? or 45? I would have a leg to stand on.
The CMT is just one more test that shows her abilities and it's a test they care about.
Is this an good social/emotional topic to share?
DD has been trying to get the teacher to see her as bright as year last year. She would reduce fractions or produce more anwers that were always correct, but marked wrong because the directions didn't say to expand on your answer.
This would make her sad and frustrated.
She had to re-read many many books that she had read in second grade, in class at her old school, which was discouraging because she feels like she is not making progress.
The feels like no matter how hard she works or how well she does, she will not be allowed to advance.
Toward the end of last year, she began showing her frustration and a little rebelion by doing her assignments as a mirror image.
She was frustrated in group lessons because everyone wanted to be in her group so they could sit back and let her do all the work and expect her to represent the group perfectly. When she didn't, (even in soccer in gym class) they would 'yell' at her.
Toward the end of the year she started to get anwers wrong in Math because she stopped reading the directions. This lead the teachers to believe that she was having trouble with the concepts, which led her into a deeper feeling of frustration and relion.
She feels like no matter how she does in school, she will not be able to move on and has begun to stop bothering to do well.
Her grades don't matter to her because she doesn't work for them.
A child will protect a LEGO creation from their friends. They will put it on a shelf...because they made it. They worked hard on it. It is a piece of them. They will leave a store bought toy on the floor to be stepped on.
This is the same for DD with her work. She doesn't have to work hard on her work and doesn't care what happens to it.
She has begun going to the bathroom all the time. This is something she does when she is nervous. She does it after she goes to bed and only on school nights.
She was given advanced homework in Math last year and this worked very well. She was also given it in class several times only it wasn't taught to her. So she hid the reference book in fear that it would be taken away if she didn't already know how to do it. She taught herself and got the paper right. This was an assignment she cared about and checked her grade.
She hasn't made any close friends and seems to tune out among kids her age. She used to be a leader. She had close friends a year older in her class at her old school and she was a kind, interested and creative leader.
She is shutting down and I think some work at her level in Reading and maybe Math would go miles to show her that the school is on her side and that the school likes when she goes beyond what is expected of her. I think that she would feel validated as a thinker and her spark might re-ignite!
Please GC, pull my daughter out of 4th grade LA so she can advance at her readiness level and feel good about herself and her learning style again!
Maybe I should email that to her...I am better and emails than in person because I get frustrated and off topic.
I wonder if I should be pushing for further testing instead...I guess if they need it they will let me know. I already asked for testing. They said no last year. But it's another year, another school...(Middle School..yes...4th grade is Middle School here.)
Thanks for letting me draft my thoughts here. Please feel free to tell me to stop posting!
It helps so much for me to just write it down...and doing it here is so nice cause I might get some nice advice too!
Chelsea
Mother to DD9, and DD6.
