Yesterday my 14 year old was called to guidance because they decided to change his schedule for this semester. The semester will be 2 weeks old on Friday. They did not tell him why the schedule was changed. For two of his classes just the time slot changed (he had the same teacher), for one class they changed the time and the teacher. I emailed guidance to find out why they changed the schedule. The reply was because we felt the new English teacher would be a better fit for him? What makes me curious about this is that all freshman are required to take the same English class. 1 semester they have Appreciation of Literature and 1 semester of Appreciation of Language. My thought is that each class learns exactly the same thing. Last semester when he had Appreciation of Literature he had the hardest teacher in the whole department (this admitted by the guidance office) and reading is his worst skill. After he was in this class a few weeks they entertained the idea they made a mistake putting him in the class but did not change him because the semester had started already. Now he is in language which he does very well at minus the spelling. He has tested above grade level (11.3) for language mechanics. He can write really good papers minus the spelling. His sentence, paragraph, essay, poem, ect skills are all above average. He comes up with very creative stories with well developed characters, ect. I don’t understand how all of a sudden he can be a “poor fit” in a language class. Have any of you teachers seen this done to students before? He had an A average in the language class he just left. I am just curious. Seems a double standard. They changed him in one we did not ask for but not for one that all involved thought was a bad fit.
Re: Strange or common place?
If your child is classified, they had an obligation by law to consult the special education team. They do not have to notify you (in New Jersey). Every state is different, however. It would have been at the very least, common courtesy for them to do that. We frequently change class placement in our school (a private school for LD kids) without consulting parents, but we usually call and let them know why. We base our changes on testing results, but also on class dynamics. We also sit the kids down in the upper grades and give them an explanation.
It could be that the original teacher may not be comfortable dealing with LD students, and the language teacher, not wanting to reveal that, felt that a switch would be better in the long run for your son’s self-esteem.
Re: Strange or common place?
I just think since he is a freshman in high school someone should of talked to him. The teacher never asked him if he was having difficulty or anything. She decided he was not a good fit for her class and got his schedule changed. The poor kid fretted for a night wondering what he did wrong. For the last few days the new teacher has had him catch up on “work missed.” He did assignments in the other class and they did not transfer the grades over. If you change a kids class because you think he is overwhelmed do you have him make up the work the class did since day 1? He is adjusting and is almost all “caught-up” I just felt it was undue pressure on him. Thanks for your insight from a teachers point of view.
Re: Strange or common place?
Lisa, go raise a stink about the other class grades being transferred.
My son had a math class changed in 6th grade and his classroom grade was failing until they transferred over the grades from his former class. I had to stay on the teachers a couple of weeks til they did.
Amy
ps his class was changed because he was cross teamed and this school hates to have kids cross teamed.
I got an e-mail from my sons reading skills teacher, he stated that my sons orginal language teacher had come to him with concerns she had about my son being in her class. Since she went to him I am assuming it has something to do with vocabulary and poor discrimination of sounds. He said, he, the language department chair, and both teachers involved got together to chose a course of action. The solution they came up with was
changing his class. He said the orginal teacher would be getting with me about the concerns so he did not tell me what they were. My point is why was I not involved? Does not the parent have a say. Why did they not speak to the student so he was not worried he did something wrong. He spent the whole night fretting no
matter what I told him. I am concerned that my sons self-esteem might take a blow. I plan on going to the school in person and talking to them about how they approached the situation. For the most part they have been good but this was just not a right course of action.