Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments terrified they will hold him back

Has the school suggested that he might be held back?

Everything polar bear said (quelle surprise!). You actually have the perfect experimental set up: the current problems are clear, so there's a good opportunity to some specific before/ after. The teacher doesn't think accommodations are needed because that's not the problem? Well, let's test that theory. Pick one or two specific common problem situations and state, very explicitly, what accommodations will be used to address them for the next week or two. And prove/ document that the accommodations were *actually provided*. Then look for a difference.

Now obviously, a kid who's been struggling with LDs in a hostile environment isn't going to miraculously perform the moment some accommodations kick in. But if you pick your situations carefully, you will almost certainly be able to see some real differences. Ideally, work with your much-more-supportive administration to get an *external* person for a week providing the accommodations - say, scribing those "show your work" assignments that have proven so difficult.

I'm pretty sure a scribe/ EA for an hour a day would show some pretty notable differences in what your son is producing during those time periods. You'll never get this teacher on your side, but you may be able to reduce the hostility to accommodations for the rest of the school year.

Mahagogo, they haven't stated anything. I have access to a site where the grades are supposed to be uploaded asap so us as parents can review them. Well this teacher isn't exactly the best at keeping things up to date so it's really hard to tell what he is missing or what needs to be redone. The way it was explained, as soon as the child is done with a paper, it is then graded and the grade written down like on an excel spreadsheet. The paper is then sent home with the kid so the parents can see it and the grade is input at a much later date. Some things that are graded such as discussions and non paper work obviously don't get sent home. Friday, the teacher was still inputting scores that were calculated beginning of February. Some of the scores are incredibly low with notations such as "needs to go in to more depth" or "didn't show work" on his math sheets.

To be honest part of the issue is us. We see a document in his paper, glance at it and then toss it (if you could only see the amount of "spam" these kids bring home these days that the teachers pass out for like different clubs or fundraisers etc etc)so we didn't keep all his papers as we figured ok we reviewed the document, don't agree with the score (he will get a 0/100 for not showing work on math problems even if the answer is correct) and then we move on instead of harboring on that.

Reviewing his "grades" today which still are incomplete he is "failing" a couple of subjects and that is what had me concerned as to whether or not they could "hold him back".