It has been a joy to see my 7th grader bringing home As and Bs;it certainly has been a huge boost to him but…..
we receive grade summaries every Wednesday. Honestly, the good grades are coming because hes a well behaved ,responsible kid. His current language arts grade is based on 28 items, 26 of which are things like returning his grade report signed. For these he has A+s. He has had only one test and that was a D(plurals and he added S to everything as in ‘foots’ and ‘childs’) The other grade was an essay which DH had him revise 10-12 times to where it was more DHs work than DSs(I dont blame him-it was VERY poorly done)For that ‘they’ received a ‘b’.
So, even though part of me is happy to see good grades, and happy that he is happy, I worry about him
We are busing and ds now attends the lowest performing middle school in the district-very poor area of town;kids with mucho struggles at home. The 6th grade is where the busing started so thats a very mixed crew. 7th and 8th grade is still mostly neighborhood kids except for a few transfers which is where my son fits since we homeschooled last year
I suspect that for the majority of the 7th grade kids, getting parents to sign a paper is a major accomplishment and a basic skill that needs to be accomplished before they can tackle other things
But, that is not this family. I worry he is going to be completely unprepared for high school when it rolls around.
Conferences are coming up-how can I address this without sounding like I want them to grade him harder?
How can I express my concern in general?
They didnt know he had an IEP for over a month. I let it go because it was interesting to see how he did without it.
When they discovered he was an IEP kiddo, they were shocked, because, in their words, “he is doing so well”
Yeah, by the grades, he is, but I dont think “foots” is a good sign. And it worries me that they cant seem to recognize a distinction between cooperation and learning :(
Hi Mary
Well we remediated eveything else ourselves at home so I was surprised when the school offered an effective program for helping him learn to write.
He would make errors like the ones you described.
I think in all honesty when they were teaching those basic skills in the lower grades he wasn’t there because he was working on other things. In fifth after tons of remediation of his actual deficits he CAN LEARN grammar and even spelling. He gets tutored 1-2 times per week through the schools basic skills program and I have seen a very big improvement.
I personally believe that schools offer such programs to parents that pursue them and less based on need. Ask about basic skills help.
clsoing the gap
Learning to cooperate is for some kids and some families an accomplishment. But your point is well taken. You don’t see your son’s skills as improving and you’re worried that his high school will expect certain skills of him.
Doesn’t sound as if your son is in the right school for him. His grades are wonderful but his education is not. There isn’t much that can be done about that - speaking to it can raise the hair on a teachers’ back - it may well be that her other students aren’t ready for a real challenge and they’re still working on getting their grade reports back and signed.
Is putting him in another school an option? If not, could someone work with him at home to help him close the gap between what he needs from school and what he’s actually getting at school? A tutor? One on one help can accomplish a lot. It doesn’t sound as if he’s coming home with lots of homework anyway.
Good luck.
Your instincts are right. The school is trying to work with what it’s got — so your son is a big fish in a very small pond.
Hey, those other skills are worthwhile… but generally they don’t get rewarded. I’d be shopping for more intellectual challenge and higher skills. Would he be up for it? Is there a teacher who could be coerced into raising expectations?