Ok, I got detailed information from my bro. This is directly from the letter the teacher gave him after the meeting. Yes, it was an "ambush". My bro and SIL had no idea what the meeting was about. Oh and to add, he is at a new school this year and was doing better at his last school academically. (not sure why).
"background:
oldest of 3, new baby at home (mom says he's been this way before baby),{(excels at) puzzles, sorting and blocks, bright}, mid-Oct birthday 6yrs, can get rough in tag games, likes to dig in sand, parallel play, takes long time to do homework
Strengths:
Academically capable, bright, helpful, likes to please, grasps new concepts, math and reading a strength, 2.7 STAR (basically reading at 7th month of second grade but in May of '07 he was reading at 2nd month of 2nd Grade) , enjoys reading, can focus well on activities he chooses/likes
Areas of concern:
Repetitive tasks are a struggle, believed to be developmentally very young, penmenship can be difficult (hard to read at times), difficulty completing work - especially writing but excels in math, slow to start on work/easily distracted, not an independent worker, can meet standard but not expectations.
Modifications in place:
redirection, reduced work (modified), reminders, prompts, extra time
For homework(HW) issues they recommend that limiting 15 minutes a day for HW and what is not finished is annotated on the HW that he ran out of time and turn in HW as is."
From my brother:
They also recommended he repeat first grade so he will be at the head of his class to give him more confidence. They wanted us to stress that repeating will be a positive thing.
Some confusing stuff. We do not agree with it on many levels. Typical California school system response to a child that does not either fit their standard mold or is not falling completely behind.
What we do know is his reading level has slowed with this new school. His hand writing was more than ledgible before he graduated kindergarten last year and he had issues with getting distracted in kindergarten and by the end of the year, he had improved greatly.
