Well Guys, I really think we do have a problem. Please read carefully :-)
P/T conferences were early this year. Less than a month into the school year. I went and spoke with LA teacher. I presented Ghost's situation, opened her eyes into his test scores and asked very politely if she could supplement with something more challenging. So far her lessons look like this (according to my DS):
45 minutes of her reading aloud to the class, 5 minutes of discussion.
Few weeks ago it was listening to the book on tape instead of listening to her reading it.
She tells me that she can see Ghosts's intelligence as he is the one always leading the discussion and pushing other kids to higher limits (her own words). Then she showed me Ghost's work: four or five papers with elaborate airplane drawings accompanied by four or five writing prompts each. The airplanes are really detailed, must have taken him quite some time to draw them, there is no way he could have produced them in five minutes. The writing prompts I have to explain. In her classroom there are a few nice reproductions with one writing prompt each. She told the kids that they can take from those prompts and start writing something at their leisure. Great idea ! Ghost however has asked her if instead of starting with the given prompt he can write his own. She said yes. So underneath those airplanes you will find several different prompts invented by my son. And there it all ends. Her expectation ends at wherever the kid feels like ending.
During P/T conference she promised me that she will try to give Ghost more challenging work when appropriate. However, when he approached her about that (on his own, without any nagging from me)she told him that she believed that he is right where he should be in this class and there is no need for any additional work at his point.
I checked Utah curriculum for LA, but it is a big mumbo-jumbo, leaving lots to interpretation. I spoke with 5/6 grade LA teacher at the same school whom I know very well, asking her if this is really it. If all that is required from 7th graders is reading? She spoke to Ghost's LA teacher and the next day during LA the teacher made a comment that "some parents think that I read to much to you, but this is how you develop understanding of a written word". She read less that day however, and more time was spent discussing the text.
So far this year there was no vocabulary work whatsoever and only now are they working on their first written assignment.
And Kristen, that daily writing assignment that I called busy work is gone, they do not have to do it anymore.
I never taught English , or any other language for that matter, but I used to freelance for quite a few years and I do know how important it is to be able to write about anything and how important practice is to freeing your mind and producing something interesting. I strongly believe that in sevent grade the kids should be read to only occasionally, they should do the reading at home and precious classroom time should be devoted to discussion and grammar/writing/vocabulary development.
This am I casually approached th Principal about the mattter. If you remember I already told the P at the beginning of the school year that I am seeing some red flags there. The P has asked me if I spoke with the teacher. I said yes. then she proceeded to explain to me that in sevent grade spelling is totally gone and whatever vocabulary they will be tested on is linked to their science and social studies/history classes. She promised to look into the lesson plans, prompted by the story about Ghost drawing airplanes.
I also met the teacher briefly this am ( I teach math club in am in her classroom ) and she was visibly not very found of me. She did not say anything but was much nicer to my friend and hardly even looked at me. I do not blame her. I do think however that I am not doing any injustice to her as I started my crusade by talking to her.

At this point in the game I am very ambivalent about pursuing it further. I do not want the school to view me as a huge complainer and a mom not satisfied with anything. My daughter is accomodated to the best of her needs. I was able to work out a good plan for Ghost for his science class (he is doing combined work of 7 and 8 grade under the guidance of a regular science teacher). Next year he is going to have a separate subject called Writing, so I could not care less if all he is doing in LA will be listening to a teacher read a book. But I have a very negative feeling about this year and I just can't help it.
I am also afraid that all of this is going to have a negative effect on her treatment of my son - I do have a very bad experience in that matter from the previous school.
I would give Ghost some vocab workbooks to do at school but how can he concentrate on it when he has to concentrate on listening to what is being read in the classroom.
Please share your thoughts.
Ania