I hope you don't mind if I vent here. I'm feeling so frustrated with ds12's school for a variety of reasons which I won't go into here. This is about math.
Some background: ds's processing speed is low average. There are over 4 standard deviations between that and his VCI. He has always hated timed tests. He basically freezes up when the pressure's on.
Because of the speed factor, he's never felt confident in math despite getting As in previous years. I've been trying to teach him that fast in math doesn't necessary mean good, and conversely, slow in math doesn't mean bad.
He skipped 6th grade math because he's grade advanced (his fifth grade math teacher felt certain he could do it with no problems) and he's in a compacted 7th/8th math class. It's been a challenge so far because he's learning things at the speed of light, but he loves the challenge and the teacher.
I happened to write to the teacher to thank her for helping him to love math again and I told her how minute math back in 2nd grade had turned him off and made him lose his confidence. Five days later, she gives the class four math minutes tests to be counted toward the final grade. DS couldn't finish them so of course they lowered his grade.
On top of that, the teacher gave them all a 0 on a test because they'd been talking. (Only half the class had been talking and ds was not one of them.) So she ripped up all twenty-plus papers and gave them all fs.
I told ds I didn't care about the low minute math grades. I told him it's more important to be accurate than fast in math. It's hard for him to see that though. He said to me tonight< "It's obvious it does matter, mom. Look at the grades I got on them."
I'm so frustrated. I thought they'd be beyond the minute math by now.
Am I looking at this the wrong way? Should I expect ds to be faster? I think in 2nd grade he did minute math the whole year and never improved his speed.
Last edited by KADmom; 12/21/13 05:52 AM.
