My first grade daughter came home today with her papers for the week for
me to review and send back to school on Monday.
Her math paper had a huge red “F” written on it.
She got all questions correct on the first page. On the second page,
the directions were different and she did not catch that and missed all
the answers as a result.
Here is what bugs me- she KNOWS the information but always makes
lots of mistakes on her math worksheets. She has CAPD and is
really really bad at following directions. I have had a conference with
the teacher re. this and she says that following the directions is part of
the grade and that she has to count them wrong.
What should I do? it is not fair for the kid to fail, especially when she
knows the information. She is not in special ed or on an IEP.
thanks
stephanie
Re: need advice - help!!
In the absence of an IEP- which may take a while if it happens at all as there are some significant legal hoops to jump- here are some thoughts and accommodations for you to share:
1- Color code the number signs. Your child can learn to do this but the teacher should do it for a while. + in green, - in red. Use large numbers with lots of white space.
2. Have you daughter repeat the directions in her own words. Again, as she gets older this becomes a self monitoring strategy, but now she should occasionally repeat to an adult. This is a normal sort of routine in most first grade classes because they are all easily distracted at one time or another:) and should n’t be hard for the teacher to do.
3. Talk slowly when you are giving directions- more slowly than at other times. Rate of presentation is as important as sequence. People never believe this one until they try it- but I have watched an entire kindergarten class chill and listen attentively to a teacher who calmed them by simply slowing down. It was cool.And no one messed up on the directions either.And.. it wasn’t their teacher.
Good luck
Robin
Re: need advice - help!!
I know you’ve already explained to the teacher that your daughter has trouble following directions. Perhaps you could ask her to help you in monitoring your daughter’s progress in this area. Ask her if she will take a moment to ask your daughter to repeat the directions for an assignment, and then the teacher can initial the page to show that your daughter correctly explained the instructions. This will help you both to learn if your daughter is misunderstanding instructions, forgetting them, or what. Also, you should be seeing the teacher’s initials on a good portion of your daughter’s work demonstrating that she is following through on asking your daughter to repeat the instructions.If you don’t, then you know she isn’t going to work with you and you’ll need to figure out other avenues.
Jean
Think about getting her an IEP. This teacher’s attitude is all wrong and sadly it make take an IEP to make her see that. And this is just first grade. There may be other teachers equally ignorant in your daughter’s future. An IEP would offer her some protection.
Good luck.