My 2nd grade son has problems with reading. He has an IEP saying he needs to attend pull out reading 4x a week, 1/2 hour a day. He is a year behind in reading. We’re not happy with the school program so we sent him to the Read America clinic (last week) for a week. We also have a private tutor once a week (starting next week). Anything he gets at school is a “bonus.”
My question is this: Report cards came home yesterday and he got a D in reading. Of course I don’t think 2nd graders should get grades, but that isn’t my issue. He was so upset with the D, saying “D is for dummy”. The teacher note said how well he was doing, how he was improving so much, how proud she was of him - but all he cared about was the D. He had A & B’s for everything else, so we talked that up.
My friend says he shouldn’t get a D, as his expections should be lower since he is LD and is in pull out reading. I can agree with that. My husband says giving him a C when he doesn’t earn it isn’t the right thing either. I can agree with that. His IEP goal is to improve a year in a year time - which will still have him a year behind. So I guess he will always get a D?
Should I speak to his teacher? The ESE teacher? What do I really want them to do? What do you do?
Re: Report card ?
I agree with Patti, that was a bad move by the teacher. And I also agree that grades are a dumb thing in grade school as they serve no purpose. Maybe they are for parents who want their child in the top high schools? Even back when I was a kid which was 1844 or so, we didn’t have grades but marks like “Excellent, Doing fine, Needs Improvement”. The ABQ public schools use pluses, checks and some other symbols. It makes more sense.
I don’t think a dyslexic (dyscalculic, dysgraphic) kid should be penalized like this, esp if she/he is making progress.
BTW, I was kept off the honor roll for many semesters (in college) because I am uncooordinated and got Ds. This wasn’t as serious as your problem but shows as the same failure to consider “what the person came in with” rather than comparing kids to themselves.
—des
I agree, but here's another perspective...
I chose not to have an IEP for my son (many reasons, few choices!) so he did not have any protection from ‘modified marking’, which I was assured would SAVE my child’s self-esteem.
I disagreed. Right from the get-go, I told my son that ‘marks do not define us. They simply tell us where we are, and where we need to go’.
IMO, The teacher DID make a mistake in this case — a hard-working second grader on an IEP should NOT have to learn this lesson. A modified C in gr. 2 is an appropriate motivator! TEacher GOOFED! But she is human too…It is hard to learn this so young — but your child will be stronger for it.
Why not explain that the marks are very subjective — they simply show that compared to where he NEEDS to be with reading, he still has a ways to go…that he is working hard, and soon he will see results in his marks? If he thinks marks DO define him — that ‘D is for dummy’, he needs to learn that he is wrong.
In our house, ‘D’ is for ‘Danger’ — cuz you’re in the ‘danger zone’ and maybe you need to work harder. Or need more time…or simply have to have faith that you ARE on the road, and if you keep ‘plugging’, someday your report card will reflect the marks your hard work deserves. Sometimes you have to say, ‘well, a D is at least a PASS!’ and leave it at that — in our house, we buy a gift to celebrate the end of school — whether A’s or R’s, given that the effort has been put in. (and obviously your kiddo is working his tail off on the hardest lessons of his young life!)
If you feel (as I do!) that the school has a poor and inappropriate attitude to marks in this case, share this with your child in a way that doesn’t ‘put down’ the school/teacher, but helps him understand that you have another philosophy — the report card does not say WHAT he is — it says WHERE he is, and now you will help him get where he WANTS to go…luckily, in Gr. 2 Mum and Dad still have the major power, so he will likely be very comforted by your attitude, and stronger for your support.
Best wishes to you and your child! From Grade 5 perspective, this seems easy, but I remember the second grade tears while we were still learning this lesson…
Re: Report card ?
Of course, the danger with modifying grades is when it is done without the parents’ knowledge or consent. Mom and Dad see Bs or Cs and think junior is making progress or holding his own, when junior really is stagnating because his LD is not being appropriately addressed. I’m not suggesting that happened to the parents who posted about this above, but it is an all to real danger in special ed.
Re: Report card ?
Marking is a real swamp, and once you get into playing around with marks, you get sucked down in the quicksand forever.
What do you think marks represent?
- A student’s achievement in comparison to fixed criteria?
- A student’s achievement in comparison to the average in his class?
- Achievement on fixed goals set by the larger community?
- Achievement on goals chosen by the individual teacher?
- The teacher’s subjective view of how hard the child is working?
- The teacher’s subjective view of how “good” his behaviour is?
- The teacher’s subjective view of his personal development?
- An effort to motivate the child to do the work by providing the reward first?
- Appearance and likeability?
The only ones of these that can be applied even remotely fairly or evenly are achievement on fixed external criteria, set by the larger community. All of the rest are wide-open barn doors for abuse.
Personally, I had one teacher threaten to fail anyone he thought was “immature”. As a person who has always looked 20% younger than my age at any time, and already being a year younger than the average for the grade, and being not a social success, I was literally scared sick. Luckily I was transferred to another class due to overcrowding, but this could have been very tense.
My daughter got thrown off the honour roll in Grade 6 for a low science grade. When I went in and tried to find out what was going on — she was a science nut and knew more than the teacher — the teacher said she gave A’s only to students who did more than asked. But she didn’t *tell* the kids that the only way to get A’s was to do extra. My quiet reserved little kid did the best job possible on assignments and in class, and did huge amounts at home that didn’t show in class, and didn’t pester teachers, so she got a B. Pardon?
In kindergarten one of her teachers tried to drive her to an emotional breakdown and marked her down severely, because the teacher was offended to have an extra kid moved into the class in the middle of the year. Then on a parent-teacher day I was called to a special meeting with one of our neighbours and her daughter, a nice kid but not an academic family with several problems; it turned out in the course of the meeting that the teacher had categorized us as academic losers because we lived in the poor part of town (I was a single mother returning to university) and she thought she would treat the two “slow” kids at the same meeting. I disabused her of this attitude towards my daughter quite forcefully, but my daughter still has some mental scars.
When you want to modify grades according to subjective criteria, you open a can of worms.
It should be possible to arrange an IEP to modify criteria in a measurable way — say set a goal of achieving a 3.0 level in reading, and if you achieve a 2.8 you get a B, or whatever, but measuring effort is an intangible that is just asking for trouble.
And kids who don’t happen to have social skills, or come from the wrong side of the tracks, or speak the wrong way, or have the wrong skin tone, or don’t buy their clothes at the right store, are going to be badly hurt by it.
grades should serve a good purpose
which teacher gave him the grade? His classroom teacher or his pull-out teacher???
If his pull-out teacher gave him the grade for reading, that might be one thing. If his classroom teacher gave a child a D in reading when the child is pulled out for reading, what was the point of that???
I’d straigthen that out with them. Goodness, you all know he’s behind in reading. why does he need to see that reinforced with a D?? Look at what it’s doing to him - what good purpose does that serve and how does it serve his learning?
His reading should NOT be compared to other children in the classroom - such a comparison serves no good purpose and until he catches up, his best efforts will only be able to earn him a D.
Grades should serve a good purpose. I’d need help to understand what good purpose giving a D to this child serves.
Re: Report card ?
Thanks for all your help. I meet with his teacher on Monday. It was his real teacher that gave him the D. The pull out reading teacher gave us another paper that stated he was “on target” and was doing well.
I still don’t know what to say to his teacher. He had a reading unit test last week, I am interested in how he did on that - post Read America intensive clinic. His last unit test was 64%.
Hi Kelly,
My daughter is in high school and has struggled with Dyslexia for years. In middle school and also in elementary school some of her grades were “modified”, meaning she didn’t get a “D” she got a C based on the effort she was putting forth and due to the fact that she got some modifications on her homework. This may work for your son, he may feel like he is working as hard as he can but he isn’t getting anywhere when he gets a “D”. Giving him a “C” that is modified may help him deal with this frustration.