The following is from the narrative portion of a KTEA-III given to my eighth grader:
As he was shown the blank page, in which he was asked to summarize the story that he had just worked through, he began to whimper and rock back and forth on his chair. Because the examiner had developed a strong rapport with student, she suggested that they take a break, as it was historically recognized that student struggles with open-ended writing tasks. When the examiner reframed the assignment, asking that student write five sentences describing the story, student began to yell, stating that the problem is that he can come up with ideas in his head and say them aloud but he cannot transfer them to the page. When student was then given specific parameters about what to include in the story (one introduction sentence, three details, one concluding sentence) and the examiner offered to scribe for student, he, after a bit of audible moaning, started telling the examiner what to write. He produced a piece according to the expectations. It contained an adequate introduction and conclusion. Two of the detail sentences were taken directly from the story, while the other one spoke about what feasibly may have occurred but was not specifically mentioned.
I guess it's good that the examiner got him to produce something, but I'm pretty skeptical of his 87th percentile score on Written Expression after reading this. In particular, is it appropriate to provide the specific parameters he was given? How about scribing for him, given that he does not have a writing disability?
If the school is going to deny writing services on this basis (I don't know if they are - the meeting is tomorrow), I'm not sure how he is supposed to manage if the psychologist is not planning to follow him around and jolly him through every assignment in every class. (The described behavior is totally in line with what we see at home around homework.) Any suggestions?
