1st time IEP for highschooler

Can’t help with the IEP, but here’s a different tack — since you’ve been out of the system for a while she isn’t in a lockstep anyway — how about cutting out one of the academic courses and replacing it with another study/ assistance block, and being prepared to take another year in high school later? It isn’t a race despite what some people think, and if she is still not fast she doesn’t need to be pressured.

Below are some standard accomadations that you should request in your daughter’s IEP.

Specify that she should use a calculator in math class and tests so she does not make inattentive errors. Maybe her exams could be open book so that she is able to figure out what process to use use when.

If her oral expression is poor, ask for oral exams and evaluations .

I am not real sure if the high school would be the same as grade school but you should be able to ask for reduced assignments, study sheets, peer tutors.

How about books on tape for the Lit 2 class?

You know I have a problem when we change so much of the structure of a general education class that we should be putting the student in a sped resource room. This has bothered me for years that we think we are accomodating when we change much of the structure. Back when dinosaurs roamed we felt that the teaching style should change but not all the requirements of the course. No wonder general education teachers get where they don’t want sped kids in their rooms - they lose control of the teaching structure.

I always think about my IEP requests and if a it is practical for a teacher to implement them.

I do not see how using a calculator in class (or an open book exam) would impact the teachers time or lessons plans.

Yes, oral exams do, BUT on the flip side if a student knows the course content yet can not express himself in writing, then is it fair to base his evaluatioin on a written exam? It is not as though exams are given on a daily basis, this would only be a few times a year.

And if a teacher does not have the time to do this, alternatives can always be worked out with a little imagination. Instead of writing his answers, what is wrong with the student recording his answer in a tape recorder?

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So what would be your solution then to have students who need accomodations served in a special ed room?This is difficult with this new inclusion model going on.Who can find a self contained LD classroom or resource room.These rooms are generally if available filled with the kids people feel cant be taught.I dont think it would be doing any good to put a child with good cognitve skills and good behavior in with kids deemed unreachable.I dont think any child is truly unteachable they just have to be taught in a way that reaches them.Inflexibility can be a huge barrior to over come.

I’m not really trying to appear inflexible it’s just that some of the accomodations that have gone into some of my IEPs lately are excessive. A student that is in a general education classroom should only require moderate accomodations or they simply do not belong there and the continuum of services should occur. I just am very frustrated that parents think their kids just need a calculator or more time and that will somehow close the gap on their prerequisite skills that are needed for success/learning in the general education curriculum. I’m not inflexible I just see some of these accomodations as being pointless. Obviously, I am a fan of remediation and inclusion is not, under any circumstances, remediation. SPED/LD kids today graduate from high school and may have general education classes on their transcript - but they still can’t read, write, or think. I see it every day and unfortunately it is the parents resistence to pull out that restricts our opportunity to remediate.

I agree with you about remediation.I am very glad you dont feel that special ed kids can not learn, that is how I took your orginal post, must be having a bad day.Not only our special ed kids graduating not having adequate readig, writing, and math skills so are some general ed students due to overcrowding and the need to teach to the middle.I agree with you their should be different levels of instruction available.Thank you for clarifying.

Greetings to all,

Thanks so much for your very helpful suggestions. You’ve given me much to think about.

Regarding written expression, what is a reasonable accomodation regarding writing assignments in Literature 2? The only thing I can think of is reduced writing assignment in that maybe she would be responsible for 2 pages instead of 4. I do want my dd to learn - and she is very capable of learning. However, even though she is in 10th grade and her written expression skills are slowly improving, she still needs help with developing a topic and closing sentence. She still writes run-on sentences and sentence fragments. She can correct a run-on or fragment sentence when it is pointed out to her but she doesn’t always recognize it herself.

Additional suggestions are welcome!

Blessings, teresa

Greetings Victoria,

Actually, I have thought of that myself but emotionally, that would devastate my dd. That step would convince her that she was as “stupid” as she always thought she was (despite a high average IQ). It would be worth the $$ to have her graduate with her class and then work the next year on lagging skills before entering college.

When I began homeschooling my dd 2.5yrs ago, it was our intent to homeschool a year or so longer as needed. However, things change and she’s back in the public school system.

Blessings, momo

I would not want my child in your class since you think ld kids can’t read, write or think.

I am sorry for you since you apparently don’t have much understanding of what ld is about.

Please note there are kids in regular ed that cannot read etc. I would never say they cannot think.

Greetings Victoria,

I agree with you that the new idea seems to be just push all the kids through school no matter what. Noone seems to give a hoot if they can read, write, do math etc.

A grave injustice is being done to all the kids sped or not that don’t learn what they will need to know in the real world.

I do think that the extra time in school may be most needed prior to high school. If they are taught to read and comprehend all other areas will be easier to learn.

Here is a thought suppose we didn’t have a certain grade level just a level of accomplishment.

I read a book called Learning Outside the Lines by Jonathon Mooney or Moody…I can’t remember which right now. He is dyslexic and has ADHD and graduated from Brown University with a degree in English! I took my dd to hear him speak and he said that the way he got through college was to write his papers and fax them to his mom each night. She made the corrections and faxed them back to him so he could re-write them.

My own dd is much younger than yours but she tells me what she wants to say and I write it out or type it for her. There is also voice activated software but it can be hard to build a word bank that is reliable. Since your dd is older I bet she would have more success than we did.

It sounds like for “in class” work she would need some accomodations such as more time and maybe another student who would volunteer to proof read her work before she turns it in. Do you think your dd would be open to that? What about a laptop that she could carry with her to be used in class and for homework? These are the things we are looking at for our dd to eventually use if she needs them. Currently she is being home schooled so we use whatever we want as far as accomodations go.

Re: “I just am very frustrated that parents think their kids just need a calculator or more time and that will somehow close the gap on their prerequisite skills that are needed for success/learning in the general education curriculum.”

I am surprised to read that is what parents, like me think….especially the knowledgeable parents on this message board.

I am not suggesting that using a calculator will solve a LD child’s difficulties. But if a child can learn complex mathematical concepts but always got the answer wrong due to a multiplcation error a calculator sure can bridge help gap and allow that student to continue on with a secondary school math program, instead of stopping at trying to memorize the time tables.

AND I do not think a calculator will close the gap between my LD daughters ability and her achievment! It is just a tool to make her life easier. Of course, she first need to learn the mathematical concepts first . Of course a general classroom teacher does not have the resources, training, time or knowleage to teach an LD child math. And I would never demand that of a teacher. Experience has taught me that is not achievable.

That is why I have hired a tutor, who is trained in the Lindamood Bell Coud Nine program. So please do not make that assumption about parents.

Ashley,
This is appears to be a bright, perhaps gifted, student, who also has LDs. This is something that many of today’s educators choose to ignore. I have such a child in high school. Believe me, if you think that resource centers remediate, I think you are kidding yourself. As the you move into middle school rr becomes a wastebasket of different disabilities. All subjects are taught together, unlike replacement rr. In the lower grades, there is an attempt to remediate, but still with the varying issues and needs it does not get done. I want my child in the mainstream with whatever accom. are appropriate.

My daughter, only 4th grade, uses a computer in her classroom. She is a very bright child, reads on grade level, makes straight A’s with accommodations. She gets extended time for written assignments and often does every other math problem. I expect these accommodations to continue through high school. This is a child who is FULLY capable if given extra time to compensate for her processing deficits. She has never been to resource, altho, if I could have had someone like Victoria, Susan Long or Shay, I might have considered it. These lades are diamonds in a pack of coal. Not your typical. I agree with “been there”, I’ll pay for private tutoring and expect all accommodations necessary in the gen ed classroom.

Teresa,

I was also going to suggest books on tape for any of the history or Lit classes. She may be overwhelmed with all the reading.

Some accommodations my LD consultation HS kids had were: extended time on tests, spelling not counted in grade, allowed to use spell checker, tests read aloud, outline or study guide provided for each unit, extra drafts of writing assignments allowed, oral essay questions (done after school so as not to embarrass the child), etc.

I think an open book test is going beyond an accommodation. Basically that is providing the answers…unless of course the test was intended to be open book to help the kids learn to find information.

One question, does your state have mandatory testing for HS graduation? Ours does and it would seem beneficial to stretch it out another year to reduce the number of academic courses per year if the diploma depends on real mastery of the course content. The people complaining above about LD kids graduating without being able to read can’t happen here…they either master the material to get a diploma or they drop out.

Blessings to you and your daughter, too!
Janis

momo, you just stated some good objectives there. Writing a paragraph with appropriate topic and closing sentences, correcting run-on sentences, identifying sentence fragments… These are objectives that a resource teacher could address while working on Lit. or History assignments with her. She still might need the accomodations of more time or reduced # of pages or paragraphs required. (I would rather see two well written paragraphs that pages of run-on thoughts). My dd 11th grader has virtually the same issues!

I teach advanced math, as few people on this board do, and unfortunately many people don’t see what a real worthwhile math class is all about.

Oral testing wouldn’t bother me a bit — I’d just have to find a reader whom I trusted not to give “hints” and send the kid to do it.

On the other hand, allowing a calculator or an open book on a closed book exam would completely undermine the whole point. There are areas where calculators are allowed or even required (ask me about the funny story on that one some time). There are areas where open or closed book makes no difference. But there are other areas where yolu are specifically testing knowledge, and a closed book test is given for a reason.
For example in algebra or calculus there are certian “classic” problem-solving techniques which a student must master. There are several examples of these techniques in any decent text. So if I give a test and clearly announce to the class that they are to learn techniques A. B, and C, the whole point of the test is to give three problems and see if the students apply the correct technique. Give one student this test open book, and if she is at all intelligent she’ll open the chapter and copy the model (True, I’ve had many who didn’t do even that. but that is another story.) Now, I am not interested in wasting my time and hers by having her copy a model and me marking her copy — total waste of time

This is a tricky question since everything you list is a standard and reasonable objective for passing Literature 2.

Admittedly I’ve seen bad examples including my own daughter’s teachers, but a good teacher in high school will be demanding grammatically correct sentences with no fragments or run-ons, organization with topic sentence and development and conclusion, and longer papers from 3 to 10 pages depending on the subject and time allotted.
If you ask for shorter papers a good teacher will be in a quandary because this is one of the main things being taught and it’s a real fight for most students, not just LD, to write longer meaningful papers; yes, better a good short paper than incoherent rambling, but Literature 2 exists to get students to do more in-depth work, and t5he teacher may feel you’re pulling the rug from under her feet.
I would think extended time would be reasonable, and you could talk about having your daughter dictate work for you to type — if the teacher is working on content this should be acceptable, but if she is concerned with form then the student has to do it solo.
You might also have a reduced number of smaller assignments to allow more time to work on major projects.

I totally agree with you. We made sure that the kids that went into the inclusion classrooms were remediated in reading and writing and all that they have to do is do the work expected of them so as to practice the skills that were remediated last year. The kids that still need remediation are in the self-contained classroom so that more remediation can take place. Next year, they will be ready for the reg ed classroom to succeed, not to be so accommodated that they feel like they aren’t really doing the work. I know a girl that was in inclusion, had every accommodation that you could think of, graduated high in her class and flunked out of community college. Didn’t inclusion with lots of accommodations help her? She came to me to really learn how to read, I hope that she does better this year.