I'm back after a long hiatus.
My 8th grader cannot participate in his school's language arts curriculum for a number of bizarre reasons. DS is verbally gifted, with dyslexia, dysgraphia, and an on-again, off-again dx of social pragmatic communication disorder.
For 8th grade language arts, the district is trying to set him up with an online writing course + in person tutor (90 min/week). The plan appears to be that he do the course and work from Writing Matters as a supplement. The writing course they have suggested looks less-than-ideal (e.g., the writing course final exam is an exam of 75 multiple choice questions).
DS can construct a sentence and paragraph at a reasonable level comparable to a typical 8th grader, but struggles with perspective taking for his reader, analysis, and proof reading. However, he is now at a developmental stage where I know that given lots of incremental instruction and rehearsal, he will make rapid progress - his executive functioning is finally clicking into place, and we're seeing a huge jump in maturity (finally!). It really feels as though the right approach next semester will break through many of his remaining barriers in writing.
Our last round of IEP testing showed his spelling and sentence construction have barely budged relative to peers in the last 4 years of IEP services, while he continues to extend the gap relative to peers in vocabulary and reading comprehension (difference in scores now 3-4 sigma).
Any feedback on Writing Matters?
Any suggestions for a 1-semester course (probably needs to be accredited) that includes a lot of writing rehearsal and would be appropriate for this kid? The district seems fixated on it being high school credit. I don't see the need, personally.
Last edited by geofizz; 11/20/18 09:10 AM.
