Argghh! (That should set the mood sufficiently.)
My son came home with his progress report for the halfway point for this grading period in his 6th grade classes, and after setting in place what we thought were good steps for him to be responsible for his own work now that he's in mid school, it is clear they are not working. He has 2 D-'s and 2 F's ... all for missing work. His dysgraphia-induced dreamy state of mind at school is making it extremely difficult to create some successes in this area.
Our steps we set in place already:
1. The entire student body carries with them a planner with room to write assignments each day for each class, so he keeps this with him at all times.
2. At the beginning of each class period, he takes out his planner and writes down the homework assignments written on the board. He does this faithfully.
3. He checks the planner during snack when he gets home to determine what work he finished in class and what needs to be done.
4. He completes all unfinished classwork, homework assignments and works on projects right after snack and before playing.
And with this plan in place, he has 7 zeros in social studies, 13 zeros in Science and 5 in Math.
He has no zeros is Literature, because the teacher adds any additional assignments to the board that may be added during class and verbally reminds my son to add them to his planner. He has an A in the class that should be his hardest (since it includes spelling tests, reading tests, etc.). Likewise Band and Computer classes are A's, because they are predictable.
Here are where I see the problems and where I am hoping you all have suggestions for remedies:
1. If the teacher mentions things during the passage of class time that is considered homework or if, for example, a take-home test is given out during class, because this is not on the board, my son does not register that this is homework. He is genuinely surprised when he finds out he should have brought it home and finished it, because it wasn't on the board.
2. He completes work, puts it in his binder in his backpack and promptly forgets about it. When it is collected the next day, his is not in the pile, either because he forgets that he did it or he's off in his own world when the teacher asks for it.
3. He will avoid at almost all costs approaching the teacher to ask what assignments are missing or to advocate for more time for an assignment that he finds particularly challenging, either due to the large amount of writing for the assignment or some other task that makes it harder to process.
This leaves me with a kid who is perceived by these two particular teachers as lazy and careless. The remarks in their online grade book make it clear they think he's faking it when he says he forgot about an assignment, doesn't have his assignment, etc. One note said: He "forgot". AGAIN.
I really don't want to get in the middle of the process and be the nag every day - because that will set up the pattern that he will learn to depend on me instead of learning processes that give him independent success. By the same token, the hands-off approach has obviously failed big time.
Any suggestions from those of you in the trenches who've been down this road before? Anything you can add is greatly appreciated.
