So my kid with dysgraphia is just a wee bit forgetful, spacey, disorganized ... ok. He's a LOT spacey and disorganized. He transitioned out of all of his special ed pullouts for OT, reading and spelling and spends 100% of the day in regular ed for the first time since 1st grade. And he's doing great - got his first report card with all "meets standards" for the first time as well.
Except for science. His 5th grade class switches to another teacher for science, and this teacher does not like my son - and it's quite mutual. She yells a lot, is punitive, and should have retired ten years ago. She assigned a powerpoint project which half the class did not do correctly, and so she failed that half for the entire 9 weeks. My opinion is that when half the class fails it is an indication of a failure to teach on the part of the educator, not the class. My kid, in particular, was singled out for failing to bring note cards for the presentation and leaving out one part of the presentation. I let him do it independently, because I think it is more important for him to learn to use the tools, follow the guidelines and stand on his own two feet than get a perfect score on any one project.
So, personally, I didn't really care that she failed him.
Today he came home with additional work that was assigned to him - workbook work - because he forgot to do a summary over the holiday of two science movies he watched the day before Thanksgiving vacation. Seven kids forgot they had to do a summary during vacation, and she made all of them do different work during class and take extra work home.
Here's my problem. She told the kids that didn't do the powerpoint project correctly that they would not get the privilege of doing projects again until they could prove they could be responsible, and that they would have to do textbook worksheets instead. I fail to see how preventing these students from doing another project is going to help them get better and doing the task they failed to do correctly. She also told my son that for every time he forgot something, he would not be allowed to do the classwork the other students are doing and would have to do worksheets instead.
Now I have no problem penalizing my son for being forgetful. But I have a serious problem with preventing him from doing regular classwork so that he is at a disadvantage.
I have a conference with the teacher either tomorrow or Friday, and I'm wondering for those of you with kids with exceptionalities - would you fight for all the kids who are in this boat and question the policy in general or play the disability card and pull out the IEP that says my son shall be given projects over worksheets whenever possible?
