Measuring progress

I can see why you’d have a problem with trust. But as an insider, let me just say that we have some wonderful, kind special ed. teachers and administrators who simply just do not know what to do with children who have reading disorders. It isn’t that they deliberately try to make a child not succeed, they just don’t have the tools to do it. If I were you, I’d be relying on outside testing and outside remediation. By the way, my child with APD and reading problems is not in my school system, she is in a charter school.

Janis

Before you get more BB information, ask this question of the PHD that you have hired to do the independent evaluation; hopefully you know what tests that person is using, and how they will help you and your parents work towards an IEP for your brother.

It’s interesting that I keep seeing the Brigance come up on comments. I have always viewed it for diagnostic purposes and don’t know anyone that uses it “correctly”. I favor curriculum based assessments and they don’t get you into trouble for using testing without consent. We almost always use the Woodcock too and that makes a lot more sense and isn’t so cumbersome.

Many of those good sped teachers do not have the resources to teach reading in the way they know would help a child. They do know what works. In the never never land, each child would have that one-one help but in my world there are 5 staff members for 110 kids - try and schedule that one-one time with that mess. We ask for more staff and there’s no $$$$. Reality is reality!

I thought about your comments for a long time but I don’t think it is the letter names that are interferring with his automaticity. I say that because he has no trouble with decoding a single letter that is always representing the same sound. It is the advanced code that is a problem for him. Too many different ways to represent the same sound. I think that is the problem for him.

Beth

K.,
I admit I am a bit biased toward A CAPD problem that needs specific remediation to ensure success in a phonographix type program. So I was looking for things in the test scores that support that. I will use percentiles here because as a layperson they mean more to me than standard scores; bear in mind that anything below 25%ile is outside the normal range and an indicator for remediation.

2nd grade—TAAS—9%, TAPS—21%. These two tests are directly related to auditory processing and would indicate a deficit that should be remediated. On the CELF, Oral directions—treading water at 25%, Recalling sentences—5%—these two are also strong markers for auditory processing. I can only cite the case I know best, my son’s, but right before he did Fast Forward, he scored 16% and 9% respectively on these subtests (not too unlike your brother). In the post test these two areas registered the greatest improvement—both flew up to 50%. You also have a Wepman test of Auditory Discrimination of -2SD. I’m only making an educated guess here, but I understand that 1 standard deviation is 15 points on a standard scale so -2SD would give a standard score of 70, or 2%ile. This would also be consistent with a serious auditory processing problem. THE TOPS score is interesting in view of its later nosedive—are you sure it’s 40%ile or is it SS40, which would be less than 1%ile. My son’s CAPD is remediated to an acceptable level but his TOPS is still terrible.

4th Grade—Huge improvement here. Is this because the language therapy was working or was it because the therapist also gave the test and willed it to show progress and, thus, her effectiveness. (Sorry for that bit of cynicism.) Nonetheless, indicators that all is not well: continued bad performance on the Wepman and the TOPS is (still?) at <1%

7th Grade—Everything is falling apart. Possibly because of no services—if you call 30 minutes a week of language services for the kinds of problems that were showing up in second grade—or maybe because it was another tester without a stake in the outcome. In any case, you have oral directions—9%, word classes—5%, and recalling sentences at 16%. TOPS is higher at 16%, but still below normal.

On top of this you say you have a CAPD diagnosis from an audiologist. I really think that all of the above, combined with the struggles you appear to be having with phonographix, point to remediation of an underlying cognitive deficit in auditory processing. I am not surprised that the SLP admitted your brother had CAPD but did nothing about it—until recently there wasn’t anything to do about it but accomodate it. The audiologist who did my son’s CAPD diagnosis didn’t know about Fast Forward, for example. I really think that FastForward should be given a shot in your brother’s case—you must press your advocate to ask for this and have the school pay for it. I also don’t think that IQ scores of unremediated CAPD kids are that valid—my son’s shot up 13 points in both verbal and performance after FFW and intensive language therapy (1 hour, 2 x a week). (In truth, though I thought the therapist was great, I think FFW had the biggest impact.) 13 points on your brother’s IQ would put him in normal range, though you may not get similar results due to his age. But in any case, you would be building a foundation for him to finally learn how to read.

I understand he is sick of services—but how would he feel if he didn’t have to go to school, instead do FFW at home, perhaps combined with Audiblox, and Math Facts the Fun Way and Quarter Mile Math for his math facts, followed up by phonographix once he completed the FFW. If he could do this in lieu of school, he might not feel so negative, particularly if he could see actual progress. Your brother is truly an at risk child given he is the age he is and still can’t read and has problems with basic math facts. I really feel the school owes you big time here, but if they are unwilling to pay up, maybe you need to take things you in own hands and try homeschooling.

I know there is a FastForWord provider one town over from me. I looked into it for my son. I will re-examine it for my brother.

Also, part of the reason I think you see improvement in fourth grade is becuase she cued and coached him on a lot of the testing. I don’t believe that they are accurate.

I am not sure how he would feel if he didn’t have to go to school. He is actually looking forward to attending the vocational school. He is really into hands on and has signed up for HVAC, marine mechanics, and carpentry, and he is really excited about it. I would love to have him stay home and be homeschooled on the days that he has his academic classes. I think it would help him a lot but not sure what the school will allow.

Thanks
K.

And then she fudges the testing to show she did something. I am so glad my son’s K teacher all but told me the school’s SLP was worthless.

With regard to FFW—perhaps you could contact her and show her the language scores (sharing doubts as to validity of 4th grade ones) and see what her opinion is on the usefulness of Fast Forward for his profile. If she thinks it would help, and maybe even if she’s just on the edge about it, I would definitely do it. If he can’t process the phoenemes he hears, phonographix will be a struggle and decoding will remain out of reach for him. Also, it might be helpful for him to do the Earobics game (www.cogcon.com) starting right now to begin remediating auditory deficits.

I’m glad he’s excited about school. If he could take the neat courses he wants and skip the academic courses in favor of homeschooling remediation for a year, that would seem an excellent option. He could even repeat the year to get the academics next year and that way he could take even more of the types of courses that he likes. There is no reason why he couldn’t take five years instead of four to finish high school. Ordinarily, I suppose school districts don’t like to do this, but as I have said, they owe you a lot. (I think so even more based on the review of SLP’s history.) If you are willing to do the homeschooling and he is willing to try it so he has a good chance at success, I think you need your advocate to press for this, even though it is probably a little out of the box for the school district. Even if the school ends up paying for FFW and an extra year of vocational ed, this should be a relatively cheap solution to the problem for them and one that actually might have a chance of being helpful.

For benefit of Linda F. I’ve posted under my usual name—“Wondering” just fit my bafflement at how K.’s brother came to be in this situation at age 14.

A few things come to mind—an 8 on similarities is not bad—within normal range (25%ile—if he scored 8s across the board, his IQ would be 90). According to a Wright’s Law article, this is the single most telling subtest for intellectual horsepower. It gives you some idea of what his potential might be with good remediation (which could even drive this score higher, particularly as he is now battling language deficiencies). Arithmetic 2—this is his very lowest score—could be do lack of mastery of math facts. I have noticed on reading posts here that, where the child has CAPD, almost always the lowest subtest score is in arithmetic. Also, although remediation has helped all my son’s scores immensely and he has always been great at math facts, this one did not move, showing how stubborn an indicator of auditory processing problems this can be. (Mind you, this is just a pet theory—I haven’t seen anyone on the board’s address this.) Anyway this is another sign CAPD remediation is needed. Comprehension is 3—low—bear in mind this is social comprehension and verbosity is valued in the answers. Language LD kids are often not very verbose and could be penalized here. After my son was reasonably remediated he went from 6 (9%) to 10 (50%) on this subtest. Your brother’s vocabulary score-6—is also low, but I don’t think you could expect much here with unremediated CAPD and very limited reading ability.

On the performance side he was brought way down by the coding score of 2. Wright’s Law indicates that this most predictive of reading problems. My son had language LD but initially scored a 10 on this—and he never had a problem laerning to read, despite pitiful CELF and auditory processing scores. Unfortunately, perhaps, this score (together with the 5 on symbol search, which is very similar to coding) indicates the need for more remediation in a different direction—vision therapy. Have you had a developmental optometrist test him? I know there is a lively dispute about this field— my son’s problems did not lie in this direction so I am glad I have not had a stake in the dispute. But in your brother’s case, I think it would be worth investigating. One of the reading specialists on this board, Rod, I think, has said the few kids he has not had success with phongraphix needed vision therapy before they could be successful.

A combination of FFW and vision therapy could do a lot for your son. Also, though I have not used it, after looking at these scores I think you should really try Audiblox—it addresses visual processing issues and some auditory processing. It is not very expensive and it would be worth trying for 2 hours a day or so until school starts. The other test he is low on in performance—picture arrangement 5—is somewhat related to verbal deficiencies as it requires sequencing pictures into a story.

Bottom line, this child needs remediation on basic cognitive skills. There is little point in an academic program until this is done—his chances of success look slim otherwise. The subtest scores I have not mentioned are 8s and 9s—these are within normal range and I think indicative of what he could do with remediation. The question is whether you and he are prepared to put yourselves in high gear for a year to really get this remediation done and will the school accomodate an unorthodox arrangement for partial homeschooling.

Just a comment on your hypothesis about arithmetic and coding WISC scores…my child has APD (speech-language impaired) and those two subtests were her highest scores. I also do not think the WISC is a great predictor of reading success as it does not test phonemic awareness, which IS a problem for many APD children. However, poor coding scores may be an indicator of some kind of visual problem which might effect reading.

Janis

Hi K,

I have remediated older kids a lot faster than the 12 hours, depends on what they are missing. The 12 hours are meant for them not for a young student that is just being taught to read. In the book, it tells you what you should be doing at what age. For a ‘normal’ first grader, maturationally, they should only do the basic code, segmenting and blending. At the most, they should only go into the ’ ch’. sh, and th of the advanced code and should only spell those words that they are capable of reading. You may be going to slow with your brother, remember the whole program is about segmenting and blending and you just want 80%, not 100%. He will be fine, any questions, call me. You are doing great.

Shay

With all of these accommodations, he will never be independent. Way too many for his age. Have never seen so many. Let him be accountable for most of his work. You have everything done for him, with all of these there is no reason for him to be independent.

Beth,

Here is a suggestion. Tell him that more than one letter can represent a sound and then have him look at the chart in the book. Show him the sounds and the combinations and have him really look at them. Let’s say the sound for ‘oe’, ask him what he sees in the list that is similar in most of the combinations? He should answer there is the letter ‘o’ in them, then go onto the next sound and show him the similarities of those combinations, etc. Do a lot of decoding the words and mapping. Map, Map and more mapping and he will soon understand that not each letter represents a sound. If you want more help, email me and I will try to help. Shay

What are curriculum based assessements that you speak up. Could you name a few please. Just wondering if our school is using them or not. Thanks

A child with poor short-term auditory working memory will likely not do well on the arithmetic subtest. Such a working memory deficit often accompanies CAPD—though not necessarily, as perhaps shown in your daughter. As for coding, agree that there is no necessary connection with CAPD—that is why I am suggesting to K. that her brother may have dual deficits in auditory and visual processing. The Wright’s law site does not sugggest that the WISC is a good predictor of reading success. But it does say that of all its subtests, the coding one is most indicative that a child may have reading problems—agree it may indicate visual problems that can interfere with learning to read, but it is not the whole story because, as you point out, nothing on the WISC tests phoenemic awareness, which is the root of many reading problems.

I appreciate your post it helped clear up a lot of confusion with what the IQ scores mean.

It is very confusing to be handed a set of test results and given the standard, “he is doing average”, when you know he is not.

I am hoping that the independent eval Dr. will have some good suggestions. I have to bring her all these tests and IEP, back to preschool, today, hopefully it helps bring everything together but she already said she understands he hasn’t been properly educated.

Thanks again,
K.

He has had those accomodations in his IEP for as long as I can remember, and they are never done. I am not exaggerating, the only thing he has ever gotten was an alpha smart and calculator to check his work.

I would love to have an IEP with no accomodations but until he has some remediation he needs this help at the new school. They have gone over the list already with my parents and they said a lot of the things on the list they already do with the other children.

When he has made significant gains, I will start pulling things from the list at the new school. However, I need him to see some success and if the list helps him I am going to leave it, at least for know.

K.

Beth,

I should just keep my mouth shut. LOL Shay is the true expert on this. Follow here advice.

Linda

A curriculum based assessment is developed based on the curriculum of the district. It measures what a child in your district should know, not what some nationwide standard says they should know. You must use the curriculum from beginning to end specifically in the area of reading, spelling and math. Samples are taken and the kids are assessed. I have used many methods to assess students and these are the best but the teacher must develop them - there is no boxed program. It doesn’t come in a box - but after 24 years of teaching it is great!

I like this, I think this makes the most sense for determining progress for IEP goals. Thank you for clearing this up for me. I was thinking it meant the standardized tests they give the children every year.

K.,

Doesn’t this just blow your mind, how many accomodation they are willing to give verses actual remediation?

The time and money involved in implementing all of this, as well as keeping track of whether everything on the list is addressed and maintained, could be used to bring in an appropriate remediation program for him, no?

Hopefully what they actually are able to provide for him from this exhaustive list will help him see some success. But as you know, don’t hold your breath that this will go over smoothly if at all.

I am hopeful but there is a catch 22 with this school.

I attended this same vocational school and did fine but I did not have any of the learning difficutlies that my brother had.

My older brother also attended this school and had an incredibly bad time. However, the problem there was that he went his entire school career, kindergarten to senior year without the proper diagnosis, so as with a lot of kids who go unremediated, he became uninterested in school and just about failed out of school.

This time around I am much more educated and won’t make the same mistakes twice!!

K.

Hi Beth,

Every student that I test have problem with the advanced code and multi-syllable words. Kids know the basic code when you test them but when you ask them to segment sounds in words, even when they know the word, they often say the letter name instead of the sound. If you are still having trouble with the advanced code, try this. As I said before, show him the chart in Reading Reflex of all of the vowel sounds and their choices and ask him what they have in common, then tell him that when he sees the letter o with another vowel in the word, it will usually have the /o/ sound. Generally, when the vowel is by itself, it will have the short vowel sound. I always review the sounds that were learned before during the next day of tutoring. I ask the child, name me the combinations for the /oe/ sound, and they make the list on the white board. I would love to talk to you personally. Would you email me your phone number and when I can talk to you? Maybe I can help you with the remediation.

If I were given a list of this many accomodations as a class teacher, I would throw my hands in the air and say “Do whatever the heck you want to; I can’t even keep track of all this stuff, much less find out what little I *am* allowed to ask you to do for yourself.” Sorry, but there are limits to my time, memory, space on the desk, and so on.
It would be a good thing to sit down and try to cut the list to the most important four or five that really help. Then the class teacher could honestly agree to try to keep them in mind and do them seriously.

(1) When teaching, I almost always teach the *name* and the *main* sound of the letter at the same time. For example, *name* “ay” *main sound* “ah”. In fact, with most kids (except the most extremely confused) I teach all the usual sounds from the beginning: some letters have one name and one sound, Bee — b-b-b; some letters have one name and three sounds, Ay — ah, ay, aw as in (picturable key words) apple, apron, arm. Then after the alphabet is at least partly recognized, I can start introducing real words without contradicting myself — here, hh - ee - rr (and e at the end is silent); Peter, ppp - ee - tt - uh - rr; the, th - uh; this, th - ih - ss; etcetera. Yes, this is a little slower at first; it takes a few months with most kids to get the whole system down and during that time you have to support them in their sounding out; but after that first couple of months, they can take off and read. I have found some kids made more and not less confused by a rigid teaching of phonics; first they say “ay” and so “see - ay - tee” certainly sounds nothing at all like “cat”; then they are taught forcefully to say “kk - ah - tt” which works fine for “cat” but then they can’t do “play” or “car” and so they give up on the whole thing as a bad job. Often the most intelligent and analytical kids are the worst turned off by teaching that contradicts itself every few weeks. Try being straightforward and direct about the fact that the code does have overlaps and that two and three-letter combinations are necessary; but there *is* a system and it *is* learnable.
I generally teach one letter and its sounds per day in classroom work, maybe two in intensive tutoring; then one up to four new words, sounded out and spelled and traced and written and read in five different contexts, per day; one new word a day for beginners, up to four when they are really catching on. Then review every three to four days. This means a couple of months minimum to teach the alphabet and the pre-primer vocabulary; longer for tutoring, and every minute is well-invested. These kids can really read and will soon take off independently.

(2) After the general rough outline is developed as above — letters and letter combinations stand for sounds, there are 44 or 45 (depending on your accent) sounds and around 100 spelling combinations, and this is a *limited* number and *is* learnable, and the student is 80 to 90% accurate on consonants and short vowels — then go back and do the classic: One Thing At A Time.
The sounds of O for example:
The main sound is as in octopus (picturable key word), on, off, hot, dog, etcetera. Search through reading vocabulary and speech vocabulary for ten or twenty or more simple so-called “short” o words. Write them, sound them out, spell them, and generally get the basic sound well reviewed.
Next lesson: the so-called “long o” or “says its name” as in oak tree or oatmeal (picturable key words), usually either (a) with another vowel close by as a “helper” as in boat; goal, toe, rope, hope, hoping, etcetera; or (b) at the end of little tiny words like no, so, go; and (c) sometimes just to be difficult ow as in blow, row. Search through the reading and speech vocabulary for as many “long o” words as possible, and then categorize them into which group, oa, oe, o_e, o_i; _o; ow; then for each group write, spell, sound out, etcetera.
The above may be quite enough for a beginner; use your judgement whether the student is ready to do analysis yet.

Third lesson, maybe soon after the above and maybe a while later: If he is ready for analysis, go through reading vocabulary and find all the words with the letter o in them; then categorize them as to whether they match octopus or oak tree or another sound you haven’t done yet. It’s easiest to treat “come” amd “some” as “short” o that is softened; no need to invent more categories than you need. Try to figure out the patterns that stand for each sound.

That does the two basic sounds for o.
The same for a, e, i, and u,two basic sounds each
Then the same for ar, or, er-ir-ur

This gives you a month or two of work doing one vowel sound and a couple of patterns for it every day, and again it’s worth every minute of it. These kids will read with comfort and confidence and will spell well.

Further lessons (maybe right away if the student is getting to advanced levels, maybe later, maybe six months later): do the same for oo in book and soon and oy/oi in boy and coin and ow/ou as in cow and out (key picturable words oops (spill), oil (oil can for car), owl and ouch (thumb and hammer) and finally (advanced students) ough which is either an o sound or a u sound with either no consonant or f. Go through reading vocabulary and get every word with o categorized. Think of words with each sound and try to spell them (praise good phonetic spellings as good positive tries even if not quite standard!!) Look for patterns such as oy at the end and oi in the middle, ow at the end and more often but not always ou in the middle, etc.

Even in voc/tech hs he will have to take and pass the 10th grade MCAS; this should be discussed with your indep. evaluator, and should come up at the IEP meeting and hopefully the school will put your brother into MCAS tutoring ASAP. There is a big difference between having a diploma and a certificate of attendance…with all these accomodations, I wonder if the school thinks he’ll make it to a diploma.

Assistance with and or adapted reading material across the curriculum.
Well, I guess that makes me sad to hear that a teacher would just tell my brother to do whatever he wanted. I guess that is part of the reason that he didnt’ get any help all this time.

I would hope that when the teacher read that he had a home to school notebook and that he would be bring weekly progress reports to fill out that a teacher would send home a note saying that she wasn’t sure where to start. Also, we have a meeting every year at the beginning of school to help clarify any questions the teacher might have, if a teacher is experiencing difficulties with this list I expect them to say, ” I don’t understand what I am supposed to do.” Not say, no thanks I’ll pass!

I have condensed the list to show what a general Ed teacher is actually responsible for. If a teacher decides that these things are not acceptable I will ask that the teacher in writing tell me that they will not be using the IEP accommodations list.

1. Assistance with and or adapted reading material across the curriculum.

2. Provide assistance for organization, long-term projects, making sure homework can be done independently. A simple sheet can be handed out in the beginning of the year explaining how they should be completed, I will laminate it at Staples.

3. Long-term projects are to be given as follows: periodic checks by instructor to ensure “Fred” is on task. My brother initiates this, he shows what he has accomplished to the teacher. Should only take a minute during one period.

4. Long-term projects are to be accepted based on what is turned in. Add small star to his name, as a cue that he isn’t to be graded on what he handed in. However, if his project was periodically reviewed this wouldn’t be an issue.

5. Directions given in any format necessary re: written, type written, and/or oral, to accommodate “Fred” . Since reading is still difficult for my brother, it is necessary to help him understand in other ways. I would think that a teacher who saw a struggling child would help anyway!

6. Practice test or examples provided before test is administered. For
example, the night before an exam.

7. Spacing increased between test items.

8. Visual cues (arrows and stop signs) provided on test forms to show order of test questions.

9. .Reminders to maintain effective posture for writing.

10. Graded on content, not penalized for errors in mechanics of writing.

11. Opportunities to correct errors.

12. Letters, meetings, phone calls, and progress reports used to contact parents regarding “Fred”. Teacher told me that they were not aware they had to contact us for any reasons.

13. Specifically designed instruction.

The teacher list has been condensed to 13 items, some of which are not daily and are still initiated by my brother. This might still be too much for some teachers, which is fine as long as I receive in writing their reason for choosing not to do it.

Below are things that are done by my brother, some seem obvious that teacher should be doing anyway, and some could be handled at one meeting with my brother:

1. Continue to encourage self advocacy skills, (recognizing and understanding his own strengths) Don’t all teachers encourage students?

2. Use of tape recorder. That is my brother’s responsibility

3. Provide texts on tape including but not limited to classroom textbooks. Done through special ed office.

4. Provide extra set of texts for home use. Done when normal textbooks are handed out in beginning of year.

5. Homework assignments reduced in volume of work. This was easily taken care of. He was told to do either evens or odd. Then if that didn’t work because that was not the type of homework, he was told to set a timer and work for 15 minutes and then move on. When he was done, he returned to the first homework and tried to complete more. This was the teacher’s suggestion.

6. Student cued to remain on task. Done by all teachers when a child is talking or not paying attention.

7. Frequent review and clarification. Again, done in special ed room with special ed teacher or at home with family.

8. Frequent review and clarification. See comments at #6 and #1.

9. Preferential seating after consultation between “Fred” and his instructors. One meeting done between classes would solve this problem.

10. Use of calculator to check work. Is in IEP so he does not get in trouble when he pulls out calculator to check work. Ok’d by math teachers.

11. Weekly progress reports for teachers and special education teachers. Done by my brother, only takes about 1 minutes to fill out. Done at the end or beginning of class.

12. Oral test options or other method of evaluations to accurately assess what “Fred” has learned rather than what he can read or write. These tests are taken to the special ed room for my brother to take with the special ed teacher or aide.

13. Take test un-timed. See #12

14. Assitive technology (including alpha smart and FM system) Has nothing to do with teacher, they need to do nothing.

15. Modify or reduce written work to accommodate his rate of written output. See #5

16. Grading is to be done by process of that the student understands about the material at hand. Can’t you put a star next to his name in your grade book, to cue you that you he is graded differently.

17. Opportunities to demonstrate learning through a variety of mediums. Oral book reports, poster, stories, again can be handle easily through special ed room, or after class when project is handed out.

18. Home to school monitoring notebook for recoding daily and long term assignments. My brother initiates the need for this. He will ask you if you need to write anything.

19. Stimuli reduced re: number of items on desk limited. Done easily with one reminder that he should only have book, notebook, and pencil/pen on desk.

20. Use of scribe. When he needs a scribe it is done by an aide. He generally doesn’t need one when he is using the alpha smart. However, on long test when writing is involved he will need assistance. The scribe can be the computer and the test can be done in the library.

21. Additional work examples provided. An examination of the book would provide extra samples, or can be worked out at beginning of year. Suggestions of another book we could purchase or homework website.

Actaully the Director of Special Ed at the vocational school saw this list and said that in their classrooms they already do well over half the list. Considering some thing,such as extra texts, alpha smart, etc, don’t actaully have much to do with the teachers, that means almost everything else on the list is covered.

K.

Hit submit by accident!

Forgot to mention he recieves extra time, test items he doesn’t understand, and use of calculator.

The MCAS alternative says that he can take the test with accomdations.

K.

Yes, most of these things I try to do anyway.

Some of them are issues. For example, reminders about posture. I was taught that to do a physical skill like writing, you had to have your hand and arm free to move and your eyes focused on the paper. However, when I taught in the classroom and tried to get kids to work in an effective posture, I got hauled up in front of the principal and told in no uncertain terms that I had no business interfering in the students’ personal choices, and if they wanted to turn their feet sideways into the aisle and trip me when I walked and twist their upper bodies and lie on their left hands on the desk and write that way, it had nothing to do with me and I was only there to teach the *subject matter* and their handwriting was their own business and it was my business to read whatever I was given. Maybe your school is different, but I’ve been burned more than once about this. If as the teacher you *must* tell one student about posture or something similar and never ever mention it to another, well, you get stressed. Especially when the student you’re not supposed to tell gets mad and yells at you for telling the one you are supposed to (yes, happened to me in the classroom, many times, and no, not ED but regular class.)

Notebook, homework check, monitoring posture, monitoring desk, reminders, special grading, alternate instructions, modified presentation of papers, etc. etc. — sure each *one* of these only takes a minute or so (except the papers). But ten one-minutes add up to ten minutes. If as in the typical high school you only have forty minutes of teaching time, that means 25% of the class teaching time is spent on monitoring one student. Yes he deserves all the help he can get, and no this is not practical in a large-group situation. Especially if two or three others in the class also have special needs, and there is zero time left to teach anything.

Remeber also that typically a high school teacher has five or six classes of 25 to 3- students each every day, or 150 students a day. Out of these 7 to 10 may have special needs and IEP’s — maybe more in a vocational school. Your *one* list of thirteen or twenty-six items may not look that bad to you — how about *ten* different lists for 130 modifications with some things the same and some different on every one? Can *you* remember that, on the fly, while also trying to remember 150 names and six lesson plans and who’s absent on the football team?

About those re-spaced papers: well, if it’s one I made up myself on the computer, I can re-format the whole thing, come to school early and hope the printer is working, and print a special copy; with luck this only adds another twenty minutes to my work day, every day.
If it’s something that came with the textbook, or from a workbook (far more common since teachers don’t re-invent the wheel daily) let’s see, I can photocopy it, cut apart all the questions, and repaste them down spaced out farther and then photocopy it again, of course assuming the school’s copy machine isn’t jammed and the secretary isn’t making a thousand copies of the school newspaper that day — gee, that adds an hour to my workday every day and leaves me in violation not following the IEP each time the photocopier jams or is busy. I’m sorry, I am an honest person and I am just not going to promise to do this.
Anyway, why is all his work fill in the blanks? A lot of work and time and headaches and poor handwriting can be solved all at once by buying him a pack of a hundred sheets of lined paper and a stapler so he can write his answers and attach them.to a handout or just pass them in with his name on top.This would be more appropriate for high school anyhow.

About that grading issue — as a teacher, I’m under state laws and regulations and school board policies and all that. For example, in one school I was in there was a very silly policy that required grades to be sent out at least eight times a year (four reports and four warning reports), and each evaluation sent home had to be based on at least six separate grades. That meant a report every twenty days of school and a grade at least every three days. Personally I don’t believe in grading homework — it’s supposed to be practice and learning after all - but if I didn’t grade homework in that system I would have had to prepare, give, correct, and hand back a test every three days; I also don’t believe in making the classroom only tests. This whole system is a heavy enough load on a teacher, and a student whose homework is not supposed to be graded produces an unresolvable conflict of rules — another recipe for stress. And then there are tose other students under different policies.

What I suggested before is rooted both in practicality and psychology. A normal person can keep three or four things in their mind at once. Think of three or four things that would really help him, put them in short simple sentences that can be remembered, and give the teacher a chance to think about actually *teaching* him. For example (these are just suggested summary points):
(1) Limit written homework to what the student can do in 15 to 20 minutes per subject. Use non-written alternatives when possible.
(2) Use any assistive technology as needed, responsibility of student and family.
(3) Grade according to improvement/effort/non-written performance, not compared to class.
(4) Give all homework assignments in written form. Exact format, handouts, writing in notebookm or website, to be organized between teacher and family.
You can of course add details or clarifications to these, but this is a list that is physically doable. If as a teacher I got this list, I would at least know what I was supposed to be doing, and except for written homework asignments, a weak point of my own, I’d be able to work with it.

Excellent post, Victoria. I have to agree with you completely. If I saw a list of accommodations that big, my first thought would be, this child is inappropriate for a regular classroom if he needs this many accommodations.

I cannot recall K.’s brother’s scores off the top of my head. But I can tell you that in my state, a child at high school level reading on an elementary level will not make it through the state testing for a diploma. I don’t care how many accommodations there are. The reality is, he needs to be trained to do a particular job, which it sounds like he will be able to do in his vocational program. However, even there expectations must be realistic as technology today demands more highly skilled workers.

If it were me, I might consider sending him to Orlando for the Phono-Graphix intensive as it may give him a boost in reading to help him believe it is possible to improve. I think we have established here many times that not much true remediation happens in high school…unless you live in Shay’s school district! ;-) Accomodations are great for kids who have some good skills and just need some minor changes to help them succeed.

Janis

Well, I hope he doesn’t again get teachers that say “Do whatever you want, I am too busy!” I will be very disappointed but this time I will be smarter about it and pull him from that class. I don’t want “educators” surrounding my brother who don’t really care whether he succeeds or not.

I guess if he orignally got the “Free and appropriate education” he was entitled to I wouldn’t be here with a list of accomodations.

K.

One more time, I DO care, and that’s why I will be honest with you about that list.

Do you prefer people who smile sweetly to your face and promise everything will be perfect, and then go away and leave him with the same old same old? Haven’t you had enough of that yet?

By definition, learning involves change. You have to do something different to learn a skill and to grow up. If you keep doing everything the same way all the time, you’re stuck in kindergarten for life.

OK, in his case, he has NOT had effective teaching. And no, it is NOT his fault, and he definitely doesn’t merit any blame. But he has to be part of changing the situation for the better, because it’s his life.
So, after eight years of ineffective teaching, you are going to trail the same ever-lengthening list of things into the high school and tell them that he has to be treated in the same way. It hasn’t worked yet so why is it going to work now?

The realities of life are that high school teachers do see 100 to 150 kids a day. The subject-matter teachers will barely be able to keep track of normal work. The special-ed teachers are probably constrained by the same 45-minute classes as the rest of the school, and high case-loads too.

A good teacher is going to try to discover what he can and can’t do and what skills he needs to learn and how to get those skills through to him. Some of those changes will not be easy for him. Some of them will involve admitting that he doesn’t know things like basic reading and going back to get it right this time, and this is very painful for a high school kid. A good teacher is going to try to work through this with him. A good teacher is going to try to teach him skills for independence.

I don’t work miracles and I don’t promise miracles. But I *have* taught a number of non-readers like your brother to be independent readers. And the first step in that is for you as a student to stop telling everyone including yourself all the things you *can’t* do, and start working on what you *can* do.

It’s bad enough as a teacher to be constrained by time and number of students and bureaucracy, but we try to deal with it the best we can.
But now the all-powerful IDA act enforcer comes and lays down the law to me about every move I can make in the classroom and several extra hours of work to do after class, and well, yes, there is a limit of human capacity and I have to tell you honestly that you have passed mine. Sorry I am human and less than perfect.
Tell me, what is *his* response if you give him a list of twenty-six paragraphs to memorize and he will be kicked out of school if he misses one line? Gee, well, I’m a human being myself and I can’t memorize it either! And I respond poorly to threats, don’t work well under that kind of stress, so putting this demand on me at the risk of losing my job is not going to help me be a good teacher to him.
Sure, I could lie. You’ve had lots and lots of smiling lies already over his last eight years. Sorry you don’t like a person honestly admitting their limits either.

I guess what I prefer is people who teach. I have had enough of being told, “Oh yes we can do that and help your brother” and then I walk out the door and they crap on his head! I guess that is what I am really sick of.

I guess coming on line, hiring an advocate, and reading everything that comes out on CAPD, LD, dyslexia, learning, teaching, returning to college myself, and getting an independent eval to learn how to help my brother, isn’t enough.

I am not entirely sure how he can’t be more part of the solutions. The reading success he has had and any success in school for that matter, he has created himself. At our last IEP meeting the principal, guidance counselor and special ed teacher, all explained how my brother has basically created his own system of compensations. I think to date he has done all the changing by himself, it is time he gets some help from the educators, the ones who were hired to teache him He has been part of changing the situation for the better, but I can only expect him to do so much on his own.

After eight years of ineffective teaching, I am going to give the new school the benefit of the doubt. I am going to trail the same ever-lengthening list of things into the high school and tell them that he has to be treated in the a way, that helps him learn. I am going to take my pages of test resutls and sit in the same meeting and ask the teachers, face to face, what they don’t understand and what they can and can’t do for my brother. This time if the lie and aren’t honest and say “We are too busy and have too many kids to do this” I wan’t be so forgiving in handing out second chance. We will sit down as a family and decide what he wants to do.

Fortunately, the school my brother will attend only has about 400 children. His class size will be much smaller than at the high school, where there are approximately 2000 kids. I also hope that is teachers will be able to keep track of normal work, that doesn’t sound to promising if the teachers can’t even complete their own scheduled work.

I hate to add fuel too the fire but you say a good teacher is going to try to discover what he can and can’t do and what skills he needs to learn and how to get those skills through to him? How will they do this if they can’t keep track of assignments, are held down with rules and regulations, and don’t have a few mintues at the end of the class to talk with my brother. My brother is not fooled by what he can and can’t do. The sad reality is that he is so willing to try anything that is asked of him. It is only when a teacher tells him to his face, ” I am too busy to help you” that he says the same in return. I guess it is not o.k. for a student to return the same respect that is handed out.

I am not asking for a miracle. I am asking you to show my brother the reason you became a teachers, to help kids. After 11 years of teahcing himself, I don’t think overnight my brother can stop saying “I *can’t* do it” especially if he is again put in the position of having to do it all himself.

So, I guess it is ok for teachers to say, “No thanks” to the IEP and that’s ok.
Instead of offering suggestions or asking for a meeting, teachers just get to say “Not interested” and that’s that. Is teaching the only profession where you can never get fired. If you were a plumber and every job you went to you said, “Gee, I can’t fix that, sorry” or better you said “I can fix that” smiled and then left without fixing the problem. How long would you have a job? Teachers, whether they like it or not, hold my children in their hands. Why am I not allowed to find out what they are going to do with him?

You are right, I have had lots of smiling faces and I have probably had more teachers saying “No thanks” I don’t want twenty million reasons why teaching is the worlds hardest profession. I want to hear why you still love it and how we can make changes that will effect your students.

K.