I have several teachers in my family (some teach gifted, some teach LD’s, some teach a range of special needs including gifted kids with learning issues, one teaches kids with serious physical disabilities with a range of intellectual challenges) and posed the Egypt question to them and got back two quick replies.
One would give your son the assignment to teach a class on the Pharoah’s he researched. Assume the class knows nothing about Ancient Egypt, so include as much background as you think they’ll need to understand the class and the topic. Use whatever visual aids you think are appropriate- a slide show is fine but no visual aids are required. Practice the assignment and time yourself so it is 15-20 minutes long, and rehearse some answers because you’ll likely get questions. You will be graded on how well you’ve researched the topic and how well you communicate your understanding to others.
Another would give your son the assignment to create a map, a game, a scavenger hunt, or some other kind of presentation using the same topic as he was assigned. He would not be graded on the “arts and crafts”, but on how well the game/map etc. conveyed the information and how he used facts about the Pharoah’s to illuminate various aspects of ancient Egyptian culture.
Both teachers would have then assigned a follow up once this was done- to create a simple four paragraph essay (neither called it an essay- it’s either a writing exercise or a written summary) which uses a topic sentence/paragraph format to convey what was in the game or lesson plan.
I don’t know if either of these assignments resonate with you… but I think their point is that some kids approach writing an essay like they are having root canal without anesthesia, but find other formats quite easy and fun. And then- once the content has been organized and arranged in a fun format- actually crafting paragraphs and sentences is a snap. The goal is to engage the kid, teach some content, and help teach how to organize their thoughts in a linear fashion. Actually writing the paper comes at the very end, once the kid has done 90% of the work already.
Does this help??? would his teachers be receptive to thinking outside the box for him?
@blossom Both of those suggestions are very close to what the assignment actually was. She didn’t call the written part an essay, she just said there had to be a written component that was at least 3 paragraphs long. My son’s ended up being 5 because he wrote a paragraph for each pharaoh, plus introductory and conclusion. He also had to present it to the class, so we kind of went with the first suggestion. I asked him questions that came to mind about the information he was presenting so that he would be ready to answer questions of any came up. He says his teacher said he did well, but we will see when the grade comes out. He also could have done any sort of visual aid that he wanted to do. We just decided on the slide show because it was the least messy and easy to fix if he messed up. We’ve had meltdowns over projects when something was messed up and we had to start over or his (or my) grand ideas turned out to be much more difficult than we anticipated.
I really like the idea of having him just type in the information he wants to share and then worrying about putting it into proper paragraphs after it’s all there. That would probably take a lot of the pressure off. I’ll definitely try that next time he has a writing assignment.
Writing with him is also a challenge for me because throwing together a standard 3-5 paragraph essay comes so easily to me. I had his introduction written in my head before he even came up with a hook. I have to fight the urge to write things for him or give him too many suggestions. I taught 8th grade ELA last year and remember finding handouts where the students plugged in each sentence in a box. I’m going to find them again and print some out for my son. I don’t teach ELA anymore.
Just a little update. Thanks again for the suggestions. After the conference and numerous discussions with my son about why he needed to complete and turn in his work and use his class time wisely, he has made a bit of progress. He brought 2 of his Fs up to Cs by turning in some of his missing work and completing everything assigned after the conference. His math grade is a 77, so one good test grade could bump it up to a B. History is a 75. He has been slower to catch up in ELA, but just got his grade bumped up to a D by redoing an essay that counted as a test grade. His science grade that was previously a B is now an A. So he went from 3 Fs and a B to 2 Cs, a D, and an A in just a couple of weeks. He also has several assignments that are still waiting to be graded, including a project in history.
I’m reading That Crumpled Paper and have an audiobook that I’ve been listening to. We’re also going to keep working on organizational strategies and talk to his doctor about upping his meds. It looks like talking to him frankly about what was going to happen if he failed a class has helped get him to take his work a bit more seriously. Or maybe he is just sick of listening to Mom harp on him. Who knows lol.
It is. His math grade has gone up to an 83 since I posted and his history grade is a 78. I’m still waiting for his history project grade to post and it’s worth a test grade, and tests are 45% of his overall grade, so I’m sure that will bump him up to a B (he has no test grades in there now). He turned in a 2 week old missing math assignment that I had been begging him to ask for, so I think the teachers are doing more reminding than I gave them credit for. He says he finally asked for it, but with the number of times he forgot, I feel like it’s more likely that his teacher suggested he do it when he had some extra time. Every time I check his focus and one of his grades went up or he completed missing work or he did well on a test (he got 105 on his science test, so his science grade is now a 97), I send him a text (that he gets when he turns his phone back on after school) praising him for it. I’m not going to let up on monitoring him just yet, but I’m very proud of the improvement I’m seeing so far, plus it’s proof to him that his teachers and I were telling the truth when we said that he could easily have all As and Bs if he just completed all of his work.
Everything the teachers do doesn’t have to be in an IEP or 504 plan. I’m sure the entire class benefits when the teachers remind them to turn in homework, or give extra time to do it. Parents can give reminders too.
My daughter was missing assignments once or twice per week. I finally figured it out that it was on Tuesdays. On Tuesdays, they walked into the school, dumped their backpacks, and went to Mass. When they came back to the classroom, the routine was different and she never remembered to take the assignment out of her backpack. She usually found it at the end of the day when she was cleaning out her backpack and loading it with new stuff, and she’d turn it in late. As she got out of the car on Tues mornings, I’d remind her to hand in her homework. It helped but having the teacher remind them when they returned from Mass was better.
In 5th grade, they started switching classrooms for math and reading. Daughter was always forgetting her math workbook and a pencil. All it took was a 3.x5 card taped to her desk that said “For math, 1) notebook, 2) pencils, and 3) book” She needed that visual reminder. Every time. All year. Her IEP had expired by then, but the teacher agreed to continue some of the things in it.
That’s my point. Everything doesn’t need a caseworker and a nurse and a psychologist to come up with a solution to the problem. I have a lot of friends with kids with LD and they spend a lot of time fighting for rights and accommodations and special programs. It worked better for us to just ask the teacher for help when D needed it (like reminders for homework or the reminder card). Most teachers were happy to help.