pull out to small group for reading comp. and math reasoning

My concern with my own child in a similar situation was, what time is pull-out and what would my child miss? You may want to ask the same question. Also, you have to consider, where will you child be best served? Sitting in the classroom during that time or going to the small group pull-out? Ask lots of questions, find out exactly what they’ll be doing to help him. Hopefully that will give you a clearer idea of what should be best for your child. Good luck!

I would definitely ask questions about what they will be doing during the resource time, and what he will be missing. When I pull students out I arrange the time so that what is occurring in the classroom is the same that the child will be doing with me; so I take the children for math when their class is doing math, and reading when their class is doing reading. The biggest point I would find out is if the resource teacher is covering the same material that the classroom teacher is at that time, but using a different strategy, or if the resource teacher is using a different program altogether. If they are using something completley different, will your child be held accountable for what he/she missed in the classroom while with the teacher? My opinion is no, especially considering your child’s age. IF something is given that the classroom teacher feels he must participate in, then he/she should bring it to the resource room. Also, if the resource teacher is proposing to spend 45 minutes each day simply on math word problems, when is your child going to learn the skills that go into those problems (multiplication, division, etc)? Most elementary school classrooms only spend 45-60 minutes each day on math, and I can’t imagine that the other 15 minutes in the classroom would be enough to introduce those skills to your child and have him/her practice them to mastery. I hope these suggestions make sense, and I hope they help!
Jenn

Jenn,

You are right on my mind, that is exactly my concern so I only implement reading comp. and not yet start math reasoning.
Since reading comp. time, teacher will read the book with whole class then discuss about the book, now instead of in big class, my son will do exact same thing in smaller grp. (2 - 3 kids) that matches.
But math reasoning is something I am not sure what to do ? Do you think pull in to classroom will be able to help my son ?
They said, my son require to build math reasoning concept, which requires 1:1.

Thx,
Shelley

Hi Shelley ~ I would ask for an informal conference with the special ed. teacher and the classroom teacher (not a PPT/IEP meeting), and let them know your concerns about math. Ask the sped. teacher what she envisions that time to look like ~ what would they cover, how would the time [i]possibly[/i] be structured, etc, remembering that what she tells you may be different from what actually happens, simply because the teacher can’t predict changes, etc. that will happen up until the point your son begins to see her for math. Ask specifically how they plan on addressing the other piece on math skills. It could be that she has already thought this through, or that she has ideas. Make the conference a friendly, informal time where you can lay out your concerns and then all of you brainstorm together the best and most feasible solution that will help your son.

Good luck ~ hope this helps!
Jenn

Shelley:

<<I do not want implement full 90 min. pull out daily
until I see the results and understand the felling
from my son (he also have 2x30min. speech per week).
We start with 45 min. daily for reading comp.
What is your suggestion on pulling out ?>>

The reason for poor reading comprehension and math reasoning skills may be one and the same. I agree with you that both weaknesses can be addressed in that same time 45 minute period. If I were that resource teacher, I would begin with Visualizing and Verbalizing, a language and reading comprehension program, and then apply learned skills to reading and solving math problems.

It used to be that many of our LD children could excel in math, because there was limited reading involved. Now, it is the opposite. If they’re weak in the computations area they’re allowed to use a calculator in many cases, but if they are weak in math reasoning skills and problem solving they drown because of their deficits in reading and/or language comprehension.

Marilyn

What might help is the resource teacher developing study guides with your son to use during tests as an accommodation (how to solve specific types of problems, what the steps involved are).

Since his decoding and written expression are pretty good, his teacher might consider using his writing for him to read and work on comprehension questions similar to his grade level questions. Or, have a good supply of books on the same topic as the grade level text story that he can read on his level, to build some background before he works on the harder text.

Brian Cambourne has a good book called Read and Retell that works on a variety of ways to support reading comprehension.

His writing should be typed up and kept in a binder for him to practice with. Some can be original stories, others can be responses to short magazine articles or poetry, for example.

I am an SLP and I love to collaborate in the classroom. Those scores are pretty low on his language…Do as much as you can outside of school to enrich his language. Also, if you have private health insurance you can probably get speech covered considering his low test scores..