i am looking for information on strategies to accurately reflect a student’s accomplishments on a report card. child has cognitive deficits and is being taught in a reg ed class (elementary level). child’s program is modified, but the report card has specific pre-printed statements, ie, speaks in complete sentences, uses appropriate capitaliation, punctuation, etc.
a grade of “P” indicates “working up to grade level” which this child will not likely ever do, yet the child is doing wonderful in the classroom and i would like some way to reflect this ON THE REPORT CARD.
thanks for any input!
Re: report cards
In our school, we have indicated on the report card that the grade is modified when the course content/work/objectives have been modified to address the needs of the individual student. The parents have been informed what this means and receive more realistic feedback this way and it seems to alleviate some teachers’ angst regarding giving one student an A who is doing A work for their ability and giving another a B for their work based on a competitive system against a given course standard, i.e., 80%.
Ever hear of legal fiction?
This is from my: the child must succeed concept.
Tell her the truth. You’re not working at grade level but you are coming closer and doing the best you can so I’m going to give you a P. Next time it will be a little harder for you to get that P but if you keep working hard and making progress, I’ll keep giving you a P
I think it’s called accommodation. (-;
Re: report cards
What is being done to remediate this child; what are his deficiencies; and why do you think that there is no hope for this child in improving his/her deficiencies?
Good question.
And I might add exactly the reason I took the remediation of my child’s cognitive deficits out of the school’s hands.
There are ways to improve childrens’ cognitive abilities. I could care less what my son’s report card states. I want him to get to the level of everyone else. He won’t get there with easier work and by not addressing his specific cognitive deficits.
Re: Good question.
> There are ways to improve childrens’ cognitive abilities. I
> could care less what my son’s report card states. I want him
> to get to the level of everyone else. He won’t get there with
> easier work and by not addressing his specific cognitive
> deficits.
i’m learning not to care as much what the report card says.
but my “wanting” him to get to the level of everyone else and the reality of that occurring are two separate issues. i’ve learned to be more realistic in my expectations - he will not be like everyone else. that is my/his reality. its kind of like expecting a child who is blind to improve each time he runs the maze simply because he has done it before - he’s going to need help in order to be successful - and it is unlikely that he will ever do it like everyone else.
Re: Good question.
That is exactly what I was told when my daughter was diagnosed with dyslexia twenty years ago, she will never do anything like anyone else and she will have to be read to because dyslexia is genetic and she will have to be read to, noone can remediate that. I almost believed everyone, good thing for her and many others that I didn’t. She would not be reading her college books today, let alone be in college. What is your son’s problem and what are they doing to remediate it? What help are they giving him?
Re: Good question.
It really isn’t accurate to compare dyslexia with blindness, because, unless the blindness is caused by a condition that can be cured (such as cataracts), the person is always going to be blind; no amount of remediation will change that. He can learn to function with his blindness, but he cannot learn to see. The same thing goes for deafness. It’s more accurate to compare dyslexia with traumatic brain injury. If a person sustains such an injury, he receives physical, occupational, and speech therapy to regain his lost abilities, and he continues to receive therapy either until he has regained the abilities lost, or until it becomes clear he’s not going to be able to. Similarly, you don’t just assume that a person with dyslexia is never going to be able to read and write. You give that person intensive remediation, to teach him to read and write and spell, and usually, he does, albeit slowly and with greater difficulty that he’d have without the dyslexia. The degree of progress made varies from person to person, of course, but progress CAN be made, oftentimes great progress. You never know, until you start, just how much, of course.
Yours truly,
Kathy G.
Re: Good question.
> It really isn’t accurate to compare dyslexia with blindness,
> because, unless the blindness is caused by a condition that
> can be cured (such as cataracts), the person is always going
> to be blind; no amount of remediation will change that.
i was not comparing dyslexia to blindness - but i think one can compare blindness to mental retardation in some ways. my child is mentally retarded - no amount of remediation will change that. yes, we can work on his functioning levels, etc. - but he will likely still remain mentally retarded….that’s my/his reality. his problems go beyond a learning disability.
Re: Good question.
Jane,
That was said to me in the beginning. I was told to accept that my son had a life long deficit.
That just has not been what has happened. It has been alot of work. But the right work in the right way can change neural pathways. I don’t even think he works harder than the average LD child. His homework is now much easier since we have dealt with the deficits directly. So he actually works less and is less frustrated.
Over his life span the work we are doing now will lead to less work overall.
Your report card would need to be changed. As you describe it, there’s simply no way to accurately reflect the wonderful work this student is doing in the absence of his ability to work up to grade level ON THE REPORT CARD .
Have you posed this question to your principal or guidance counselor? It’s a very worthy question but it doesn’t seem like it can be answered by anyone outside your school.