Middle School help asap - thanks!!

First, try for an accommodation like voice recognition software. If the school is Mac-based, I’m not sure that much is available. This way, your son can say his ideas and the words he says are typed. It takes a little work to get it calibrated properly, however, it can be a wonderful tool for bright, dyslexics. They can talk it, just not write it.

On the topic of what is “fair” in grading, I’m not commenting. I see both sides (common for me) and I really don’t care much about grades. I care more about learning.

As a teacher, if my the learning objective is memorizing, then I guess I’d not modify that except to reduce the number of items to memorize. However, I don’t do much of that. (The newer learning objectives and state standards do not focus on rote memorization—more on thinking skills.) My learning objective would be more related to “where to find it” than “memorize it.”

You also might try a summer program for dyslexics (Landmark School in Boston area, Eagle Hill in NYC/CT, or Lab Schools in Baltimore and DC have very high programs.) Sometimes there are so few very high functioning language-based LDer’s that public schools may not have programs developed.

Hiring a tutor for writing might be a good idea, too.

My child has different learning issues (has asperger’s syndrome) but is also highly gifted and is included into all honors classes. She writes a few sentences for inclass work, but does no independent writing at home. So she does not do the written homework assignments for any classes. She does need to be with peers who think on her level and she needs the rest of the curriculum that is in the honors class. She just does not write and I would never ask her to memorize words out of context—neither does her teacher. I met with the teachers and inclusion teacher and made a list for each class of how to modify work. So, if my daughter turns in one vocab worksheet, keeps a short list of the reading she is doing outside of class, does some inclass writing and completes an essay, she would get an A. Needless to say, she is not doing the essay and we will be back in an iep meeting next month to argue about how to support her in writing. Some classes she is graded on class participation, because she learns orally and can respond that way. She was in one non-honors class last year (math) and it turned into an exercise of how much boredom she could tolerate. Due to her social language problems, she was not always kind about the intelligence of the other kids.
My feeling is that she is so smart and full of general knowledge, she needs the stimulation of the honors setting. The required class work should be adapted to what she can accomplish, not what the teacher wants to see.
my big argument with the school is basically they have no way to teach a gifted child in their area where they need support (resource classes are aimned too low for my kid) and they will not admit this and will let the child drift along, because they are smart and compensating for their difficulties and not causing riots. My daughter’s evaluations state that she needs one on one writing tutoring, but they won’t give it to her. It needs to be a trained teacher, and not an aide without technical training on how to teach higher level writing.
I will be aiming for a private high school, as my child doesn’t fit the model, and they won’t make a space for her so she can make progress.

Dear Worried Mom,
I’ve been in your shoes, and I am a teacher of high-functioning LD 8th graders in a private schoool for LD students. I think you need to have this teacher come to the IEP meeting, so she can understand what is involved in the accomodations that you have written into the IEP. You also need to stress that she is obligated by law to follow the IEP. That being said, you don’t want to create an enemy or get her annoyed at your son, so you and the special education teacher (in New Jersey we have Learning Consultants) should ask this teacher to help you come up with strategies and accomodations with which everyone can live. One idea is for your son to tape record all the preparatory parts of his long writing assignments and then write only the final copy and to tape record the short reaction and analysis papers. Speech-to-text software for word processing is very helpful, too. It’s expensive, but the school might be persuaded to pay for it if it is necessary, and it is a worthwhile investment. He might be allowed to dictate assignments to you or a scribe, with the understanding that the person taking dictation will not edit anything. Hope this helps.
Fern Goldstein

It sounds like in math he’s getting accomodations, copies of notes, more time—not modifications, which is different work or activities than the other students. It may be that he requires modifications via an IEP in the English class, but that should be up to you, the special ed. person and the Honors course person. I am the parent of a bright Ld middle schooler and would not expect an A unless my child was doing the same A work as everyone else(nor would my school give it)…I don’t believe in modified grades, and certainly one would never see them on the state standardized tests or on SATs.

Can your son type and is that helpful to him? If not, I’d suggest that he dictate his work to a willing typist as that would help to close the gap between his good thoughts and his ability to put them into writing. With that accomodation, he may not need modification. I got my own dyslexic, severely dysgraphic son through his Language Arts classes doing just that. He dictated to me and I typed as he spoke.

As to grades, I’m not a teacher who thinks that grades should be based on the amount of work done. I don’t like grades much but as I have to give them I believe grades should reflect the mastery of the concepts. To me it would be perfectly appropriate that your son be awarded an A if he has shown mastery of the concepts taught to that level. A great novel if read and well understood can be summed up in one fine sentence. We don’t need to write a novel in response to a novel to show we understood it.

Good luck.

What do you say to the nonLD honor students in the class who do all the work and meet the course criteria for an A? What if they ask for reduced work, but still want an A? I think it’s a slippery slope to modify grades and one that colleges see right through, especially if the grades aren’t in line with SATs, or standardized tests.

Middle school is the time when writing becomes a big part of every course. If your son has not yet attained basic competency in writing he will be at a distinct disadvantage. Accomodations and modifications can help, but he still needs remediation to address his LD. Does your son have strong fluid reasoning abilities? From your description it sounds as though he does. Fluid reasoning is related to skills required in mathematics, the sciences, reading comprehension and higher level written expression. If you can get your son past the mechanics of writing then you may be able to capitalize on his reasoning abilities in order to make him into at least a competent writer. I have seen my own gt/ld dysgraphic child reason his way through a writing assignment, assisted by word-processing, spell-checkers and word prediction software. He still hates to write, but he is becoming competent at doing it. First, though, we had to get him specific, one-on-one instruction on the basics of what is a sentence and what is a paragraph, not to speak of what is a noun, a verb, an adjective, etc. If your son cannot produce at the same level as the rest of his class, then by all means he should received modifications. Nonetheless, just because he is in middle school does not mean that the remediation should end.

Andrea

That non-LD student should count his blessings that he or she doesn’t have to work half as hard as his learning disabled peer to express his intelligence.

Great answer, Fern, my gifted, LD daughter would love to be able to produce the same amount of work as everyone else. In fact, her teacher has to discourage her from trying to bring all the work she doesn’t finish in class home to do. That’s why the law and accommodations are in place for the DISABLED student.

I am reading these thoughts and comments with great interest as I have a gifted globally LD daughter who attends gifted classes in elementary school and I am trying to decide how we will tackle middle school and the gifted curriculum.

She has some pronounciation problems, so I’m not sure the text to speech will work for her; however, she types approximately 20-25 wpm and with auditory spellcheck and organizational software, she is able to produce much of the same work as her peers, with extended time.

Being the parent of a bright LD middle school student I see the value in accomodations and modifications, my disagreement is with modified grades; what does it do to the student(MR, LD, it doesn’t matter) who’s received A’s on a modified scale to then see his/her GPA, SATs, or state standardized tests measured on the same yardstick as the rest of the world? I’d see that as a huge shock, both as a parent and as a student. My LD son works very very hard but his best work is no where near the top of the class and he does not deserve an A; he is very aware of the rubrics for grading in each classs…the teachers hand them out at the beginning of the year and parents and students sign them.

What do you say to the nonLD honor students in the class who do all the work and meet the course criteria for an A?

I say from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs.

What if they ask for reduced work, but still want an A?

As I said, to me it’s not about the amount of work done and I regret that modern schools see an education as work completed rather than concepts mastered.

For example, if a student in my math class seems to understand the math naturally, I don’t expect that student to do many problems. What would be the point? I try to customize assigned work to each student as much as I can. I don’t believe in busy work. If a student understands the concept that is being taught, and needs no further practice to grasp it, I don’t assign further work to that student(s).

And I don’t care about colleges. As a teacher, my responsibility is to teach my students - not to pander to the colleges. I regret that modern high schools have a stronger relationship to colleges than to their own students. I grade my students without regard for what the colleges will think.

With extended time, my own LD son was able to do quite well on the SATs. Indeed, the purpose of accomodations and modifications is to enable the LD student to succeed. With the ideal accomodations and modifications, in theory all LD students should be able to earn As.

It can be argued that if the present accomodations and modifications are not allowing the student to be optimally successful, there’s a flaw in the IEP and/or how it’s implemented.

I think this shows that grades and test scores are apples and oranges: my daughter has not done 90% of the homework for 6th and 7th grade—if she was graded on work completed, she would have c’s to f’s. At the same time–all of her teachers comment that she masters the content and the understanding in the curriculum and her standardized test scores range from 90-99%. Knowledge and its application does not equal written output—that is just the standard way of measuring it. btw—she scored 0 on the written essay part of her SAT-9 test—she turned in a blank paper. that is what a gifted child with a disability might accomplish.

Well said, Sarah. I totally agree with you.

Can someone please help me with a clear definition of the difference between modification and accommodation?

I work with a bright HS student who is dyslexic & dysgraphic. He was recommended to take 4 majors (an appropriate load,even for most non-ld students) but he and his parents wanted him to take 5 majors (4 classes at the highest tracked level, and being heavy reading courses). The school changed his schedule to meet those requests. (ugh!). All of the possible technology has been put into place for the boy at school and at home. The sky has been the limit there. However, now we are disagreeing on appropriate workload from teachers. He clearly can not do all of the work because of TIME, not ability. He is requesting reduced work load. Teachers do not give busy work. Any advice on what to do?

I basically agree - a rubric should be a rubric. It really should not be the end of the world to get less than an A.

Accommodation means helping the student’s access the curriculum or complete the given assignment by giving support, i.e. using a computer, text-to-speech software, having a scribe, etc., but the student is responsible for completing the work. Modifications require changing the nature or form of the assignment or the work to be learned. For example: reducing the number of problems to be solved, exempting the student from certain tests, changing essay tests to multiple choice, etc. It sounds like this kid bit off more than he can chew, regardless of his learning disability and should drop a course.

Okay - and this is just plain ignorance

Reducing homework so that a child does 15 in lieu of 30 math problems, with the 15 being representative of the whole, and the student grasps the concept is considered a modification? I thought that as long as you met “Sunshine State Standards” (what they are called in FL) this was NOT considered a modification.

For instance,

a friend of mine has a severely dyslexic 9th grader who had to dissect (for lack of a better word - I’m sure the english teachers here know what I mean) 8 plays. My theory is that if you can dissect 4, you can dissect 8. He spent over 11 hours doing this work. If he only does 4 and is graded on the 4 and does them correctly, is that considered a mod. or an accom?

Maybe I’m confused. Could someone shed some light?

How did you go about getting reduced homework load in middle school? I don’t want it unless she is just plain unable to keep up, but wondered if you have an IEP or 504 and how you worded your accommodation (or is it considered a modification) on your daughter’s paperwork.

Presently my daughter is able to keep up; however, I understand there is a lot more writing in the middle school years and that’s probably her biggest deficit.

Shortening an assignment is a modification that you must have stipulated in the IEP. I’m not sure if a 504 would cover this type of modification, probably yes. If your child is classified, she should have a case manager on the child study team (they may call it something different). The case manager is responsible for identifying the appropriate modifications and accommodations and writing them into the IEP. Of course, you can insist that he/she do just that.

A modification is a change in the work expected or the curriculum taught to address a child’s special needs or deficits. For example: requiring fewer problems completed in math, accepting an oral presentation instead of written report. An accommodation is a practice or technology that enables a child with special needs to access the regular curriculum and/or to complete assignments as given. For example: text-to-speech software, use of a lap top in class, using a scribe, enlarged type, etc.