My youngest son is a brilliant thinker, a real outside the box kind of kid, but he reads slowly (with great understanding) and struggles with handwriting and spelling. This year, as an eight grader, we began noticing that he was struggling to correctly copy mathematical equations. He would err in the transcription, not in the solution, and then correctly solve an incorrect problem. He had a great year in language arts, but my husband was his teacher and believes that when laptops are available to students, they should all have the opportunity/choice to use them for drafting to publishing. Unlike his previous middle school language arts teachers, one in particular, who harped on him constantly about neatness, letter formation and spelling, his dad grades all kids journals for thinking. Even with the support of word processing, we both saw Isaac struggle with spelling of even simple words and began to push for evaluation in February. Sadly, because he is a brilliant kid who still scores well on the standardized tests by local standards, we met with resistance. I could point to the decline in his test scores but since they were high in comparison to our general population, we ere dismissed. His math instructor was quick to label him lazy and a behavior problem (something we have discovered she does with any child who is struggling) and he was pretty quick to let her know she was an idot (which she is not, but she was a non-certified, math phobic person assigned to proctor a poorly designed distance learning class and is does appear she pretty much hates boys). I ended up having to threaten to call the State Department of Education and file a complaint before they finally decided to test him. He did not qualify for services BUT was clinically diagnosed as dyslexic with a specific focus on dysgraphia. In other words, he could spell and visualize words correctly but then scramble them when asked to write the same thing. He cannot transcribe information well, makes reversals and transpositions that impact meaning. He is not lazy, he CANNOT do this due to a specific processing disorder. I had met someone about about a year ago with a son with the same diagnosis and as she described her son to me, along with the fight it took to get him services, she could have been talking about my son.
Your post, the comment about a boy afraid to take chances, made me cringe. Isaac was blessed with elementary teachers who saw his gifts and his brilliance and looked beyond, not without cringing, his spelling and handwriting. But when he got to middle school, all that changed. I honestly came close to decking his first language arts teacher as she messaged to him constantly that he was less than intelligent because of handwriting and spelling. Every conversation we had with this women centered around these issues--never with a suggestion that he might need to be tested, but always the message that he was lazy. She refused to allow him to word process his drafts, citing technology as a crutch, yet the kids did all their final work on some computer program and the program did the grading!! I feel so guilty, as Isaac is a free spirit and though I KNEW laziness was not the issue, I didn't see it as a learning disability. 25% of the kids who are truly dyslexic (and that is not a huge number, from what I understand) do not have any difficulty with reading but struggle exclusively with writing. What would have happened to my son, identified early on as gifted, if he had had teachers like this early on? Would anyone have seen him as the brilliant kid I know? How would that have impacted him emotionally and socially? Instead he was referred early to the gifted program and viewed as an outside the box learner. While those teachers never stopped trying to clean up the spelling and the handwriting, they saw beyond it. He has been so lucky. And now we have the diagnosis and required modifications that will help others to see beyond it. Okay, I am rambling, but here is some food for thought. The district psychologist, my husband and I both were in agreement that college will not be daunting for Isaac. There, it is common practice for kids to tote computers, tape lectures and to hire someone to edit and clean up their papers to meet style guide requirements. His passions are art, photography and computer graphics. He will do fine. However, we feared for him with the rather rigid expectations of our high school staff, many of whom think their laptop carts looks best when padlocked shut. "Once we get this boy through high school, he is going on to do great things," the psychologist spoke in the presence of my son. "This is a specific learning disability which can be accommodated." She went on to explain that his drop of 12 IQ points was probably directly related to his disability and thoroughly explained to my son the mathematics beyond standard deviations. He realized that the high end of the standard deviation was his previous IQ (or very nearly) and was able to understand he does not fit the test well, rather than see himself as 'dumb'. So as a teacher, I am taking this lesson away. There are children out there with organic reasons for poor handwriting (awkward, inconsistent letter formation, oddly spaced words and spaced between words) and poor spelling. For some, this is the only manifestation of a learning disability. Lori Jackson ----- Original message ----- From: djchan <djc...@charter.net> To: Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension Strategies Email Group <mosaic@literacyworkshop.org> Date: Sunday, June 14, 2009 6:06 AM Subject: [MOSAIC] ***SPAM*** Re: Do we really need to teach explicitstrategies? > Renee, > I am a retired teacher and I found these same problems when I taught. I > think it comes from adults in the child's life who are controlling and do > not allow the child to learn by mistakes. I once had a child (boy) in my > first grade classroom who was held back because of failure to perform. > Trying to get him to put anything on paper was a nightmare. He was so scared > of making a mistake that he refused to try to do anything. I later found out > his previous teacher stood over him while working and pointed out every > mistake he made and he had to do it all over. It took over half the school > year for him to relax and gain confidence in himself before he could write > anything other than his name on a piece of paper. He ended the year well but > had lots more 'trauma' to overcome from that year with the controlling > teacher. Children who have issues with self confidence ie "Is this right?" > have not been allowed to feel successful after a mistake and fear being > wrong and punished. They don't understand that it's ok to make mistakes and > that mistakes are normal parts of learning. > I hope you have a very successful school year next year. > > Deidra Chandler > MA Reading > MA Early Childhood Ed. > ps. I teach adult education now and still find this same mentality among > them. > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Renee" <phoenix...@sbcglobal.net> > To: "Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension Strategies Email Group" > <mosaic@literacyworkshop.org> > Sent: Saturday, June 13, 2009 10:32 PM > Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] Do we really need to teach explicit strategies? > > > >I teach Art to Kindergarten, first, and second graders. I have many, many, > >many students who constantly ask, "Is this right?" and "Can I (whatever)?" > >and "What do I do?" and many, many, many students who say, "I don't know > >how to (whatever)" and.... the most disconcerting of all.... many students > >who, right after I give directions for whatever we are doing and send them > >off to the tables to get started, will just sit there. Just sit, and sit, > >waiting for me to tell them to start, even though the paper and/or other > >materials is sitting right there in the middle of their table. I walk by > >and say, "I'm not sure what you are waiting for" and they look at me. > > > > This is all AFTER I give directions, perhaps model the use of a new tool > > or show a couple of techniques or show a few examples (which I then put > > away) to spark some ideas. I always end my introduction (which takes place > > as a whole group, sitting on the floor), with directions to go find a seat > > and get started. > > > > I really think this is a direct result of way too much direct instruction > > and focus on "the right thing" and "the right answer" and not enough > > discovery and/or inquiry. I base this, of course, on my own deductions > > relating to the degree of "is this right?" behavior among different > > classes (I taught 24 classes last year) and my impressions of their > > regular classroom teachers' teaching styles. Very unscientific, to be > > sure. :-) > > > > A story: > > I had one little boy this year, a first grader, who in the beginning of > > the year REALLY wanted me to tell him he was doing the right thing. Early > > on, I said to him, "This is art class. If you are following directions and > > taking care of the materials, whatever you put on the paper is going to be > > the right thing!" and after that, if other students asked if they were > > doing the right thing (which they did, often), I referred them to the > > first boy. On the last day of school, when we were charting what they had > > learned in Art class, my young man offered, "that anything you make in art > > class is the right thing." :-) > > > > Renee > > > > On Jun 13, 2009, at 6:02 PM, cnjpal...@aol.com wrote: > > > >> > >> Renee > >> ........ > >> I am very interested in your comment about kids getting into that place > >> where they can't function without modeling. Can you talk a little more > >> about > >> that idea for me? I tend to think that my kids ALREADY come to me like > >> that...even the K kids. Maybe what we need to model is independent > >> thought and > >> problem solving. > >> Jennifer > >> > > > > > > "The important thing is not to stop questioning." > > ~ Albert Einstein > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Mosaic mailing list > > Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org > > To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to > > http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. > > > > Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Mosaic mailing list > Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org > To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to > http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. > > Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. > > _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. 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