Hello wise ones! Desperately need some advice here...Here it goes! DS12 is receiving all A's in classes ( A's in all of his subject accelerated classes as well ... science, English, and social studies ) except pre-algebra where I've just been informed by teacher that he is now at a "D" ( This is not a subject accelerated class )
I am at a loss. A few years ago gifted psychologist said he was "well within the range to handle reading-based and mathematical materials three to four grade levels above his current grade successfully, but that he needed individual tutoring to catch up to where he should be" She even recommended he try out for a talented youth mathematics program and said his visual-spatial was extremely high.
In 5th grade, DS took EXPLORE and scored a 14...Not amazing but scored in range B, where they recommend early course entry such as Algebra I in 7th grade.
Before school subject accelerated him, school psychologist administered the WIATT-III. In math solving DS had a stanine of 8...Grade equiv. 11.4, age equiv, 17:0-19:11. Math fluency was low.
The kid reads all of the "Life of Fred" books and a calculus textbook for "fun"... Loves Vi Hart but says he hates math. I admit that I have no idea if he can even do any of those calculus problems. It's on my checklist. Very busy household.
Here's the confusion...I notice his math achievement scores going down, down, down. He goes to a public school where his pre-algebra teacher is also the football coach and has already sent DS a few times to the "responsibility room" for drawing. His previous teacher didn't recommend him for pre-algebra, but I pushed for it because of what his potential was showing.
Before last test, he studied hard! He says he wants to do well. He knew all of the concepts forward and backward. We were convinced he would receive an "A" ...
This morning... E-mail from teacher saying this... " 14 out of 37 on the last test and now has a "D" in my class. His attention and behavior is still inhibiting him from being successful. I need to remind him daily to stop goofing around and have recently kicked him out of class last week. I have not seen improvement in behavior and it is obviously prohibiting him from getting the material and concepts he needs to be successful in my class. I am willing to help him, but he really needs to help himself by paying attention. If you have any suggestions, I am all ears."
DS has been sitting front and center in the class. I will ask again if he still is. He gets all of his assignments done. I know that sometimes he forgets to label or show his work, which brings down scores.
I'm feeling overwhelmed with this. All of his other classes are going great. Please, I would appreciate any input before I reply back to teacher. Thank you in advance!!!
