I'm sorry but that teacher has no right at ALL to publicly humiliate your son like that! I am seething on his behalf!!
Seriously. See, for this teacher, asking for a challenge and to actually learn something is "argumentative" "oppositional" poor behavior, etc. These are some the "behaviors" that she sees as a problem, that she considers argumentative and oppositional. She felt the same way when DS wanted to read more challenging books. That was also a big fight. I plan to document with an email but I did call and say very calmly and actually sadly that all DS his desire for challenge and to learn offensive and felt compelled to shame him in front of the entire class for his asking to actually learn.
He was asking to please learn something, for something challenging - isn't that suppose to be what a teacher wants to see in a student?
Is there anyway that you can just ignore the DRA stuff and send his own books with him to read anyway? IOW instead of fighting for every step, just go around the obstacle - surely when they see his choice of reading material they will start to understand or at least question.
I would be willing to do this (and I do send in books - big battle that was too) but DS gets upset and angry and starts acting out, causing more problems, when he doesn't see himself making progress in the levels. He literally said and, I quote, "It's not fair that everyone else gets to learn and move ahead and I don't. If I really failed the test maybe it's because they just aren't teaching me and that's why I get bored. It's just not fair!" And he has point. And, an additional concern, is how far should he fall (how long should he stagnate) before I step in and say something and find out why and what can be done? If he really failed, I feel like I would be a bad mother if I just let him regress and not see why and try to help, ykim? I mean, if he is really failing then he isn't learning and that just isn't acceptable to wait until he is below grade level to see why.
