Well, it went about as well as I could have hoped. I went in and pulled out the IEP and a notebook, wrote the date and her name at the top of the page. She was pretty defensive to see me pull out the IEP, and I brushed it off as "Oh yes, of course, but parts of this document are so complicated for me that I have to have it right in front of me to have a conversation about it." It was then quite useful to have out in front of me so that I could show her DD's present levels of performance (spelling at syllable juncture stage, see that? Oh yes, of course, so substituting spelling words with one syllable, short vowel words isn't useful. Yes, I know that's where she is in Wilson. How will simpler spelling words support her learning and support her in meeting these goals?)
She showed me DD's notebook where they'd had 20 minutes to free write. DD wrote one sentence. So we discussed anxiety, prewriting, goals, deadlines, expectations. "You know, her summer tutor found that DD would produce quite a bit of free writing if she said that she needed to write 10 lines in the next 20 minutes."
I think the closest to multi-sensory instruction DD's going to get is to use graphic organizers. Sigh. I've asked that writing on the Neo not be an option until after DD is comfortable with it.
The low expectations are going to be a continual problem. Thankfully, the LA teacher does not have low expectations. I brought up a few times the writing expectations of gifted 6th grade LA. She waved it off as an unreasonable expectation, at the same time noting the DD's giftedness is highly unusual. From there I was able to help be a bit more productive in brainstorming with her how to get to where DD needs to be.
She had no background on why her IEP spells out that the team (led by her) will collect data on DD's "social and emotional needs." I outlined the bullying. I was clear: It starts in November. It gets REALLY BAD in January and February. DD has internalized that it's just the way it is because she's different (gifted). Of course when put that way, she was appropriately appalled.
We'll see. She's committed to me to send an email update by next Friday on how implementing the brainstormed ideas appear to be working.
I just sent an email thanking for all her time and outlining the strategies.
