Well this year has not started well. School wanted to give additional reading skills so took away social studies. I was told by teacher that she would teach some social studies anyway but at conference time the teacher said that she wasn’t able to do much.(I shouldn’t have gone for it as it was too good to be true).They were waiting for the READ 180 program to show up and it just is now just getting started.They are saying there is not enough time for speech pull-out because of READ 180 and they haven’t been following IEP on the reading objectives. They are not allowing me to come into classroom as I would create behavior problems in the kids (I wanted to go over my child’s papers as they do not send them home -because they would get lost). I sent some E-mails and got no response and am finding out it is their way of saying no.This is getting frustrating as SPED laws are being broken. I am trying to get it ,so this will work as I am teaching her reading, and math at home, and I need the school to help with writing and study skills and speech. I am getting them to do the WIAT test as that was the last test my child took so I can compare. I’ve talked to the principal a couple of times as the IEP is due in 3 weeks and I wanted them to get on it. Alot of the staff is new, so I know they need extra time for adjustments, but I have been patient,and voiced my frustrations, and I am wondering how much longer should I give before I say enough is enough and we need to do something for this child, as last year it took until March to get the IEP going. I am all ears for suggestions for making it work out.
Re: what to do with middle school language delayed youth?
Thanks for the reply, I mentioned silent reading time was the best time to pull her but that is going away since the READ 180 started. I am hoping to see if they will do READ 180 after school as someone previously suggested. Thanks again for your suggestions.
they aren't going to do it after school
Read 180 is done during school time and is taking place of language arts. Where I work they have tutorials before and after school but that doesn’t include READ 180. The tutorials are for kids who need help with Algebra and also prepping them for the CAHSEE Exit exam for High School. But often in high school the kids aren’t even attending those…they have jobs and their social life seem more important.
Re: what to do with middle school language delayed youth?
Well, some other suggestions I had would be to do ESL that they offer after school or have the speech pathologist give me homework/worksheet assignments. I was looking for a good computer interactive grammar games for practice which would be more acceptable to my child than worksheets. My child has 2 periods of 90 minutes of English,90 minutes of Math and 90 minutes of PE (which she would probably like to get out of). The second semester is Art and Science and I don’t want her to miss either. The speech pathologist has a 3 week rotation of 2 weeks working with child directly and the third consulting with teacher on things they can do.
you can use these websites
http://www.quia.com/pages/havefun.html. Also reading books with her and discussing them will help with her grammar and vocabulary as it will generalize instead of lots of worksheets. They can’t take away PE that is mandated by law…so she would have to give up art or science if you wanted her pulled out.
Re: what to do with middle school language delayed youth?
Be highly creative in your thinking, too. Especially if seh’s willing to work at home, an occasional ‘mental health’ day or an early dismissal or late arraival (especially if you can do something with her) is a good reward for a good attitude.
I work in the secondary setting and it is really hard to coordinate speech pull out when a kid has a packed schedule with 2 periods of Read 180 and also 4 other classes. It is common practice if a kid gets RSP or Read 180 that they will either give up their elective, science or social studies. It is an IEP team decision. Recently we had a kid qualify for RSP/Speech in middle school and I was the one on the team who said that I didn’t think it would be a good idea to take away her elective and so we made the decision to keep her elective and take away social studies. She really enjoyed her elective and she was doing well in it…plus the social skills in the elective class were also important. I am pulling some of my speech students during Sustained Silent Reading so as to not interfere with their general education classes or I go into RSP.
Keep reading with her at home, if you watch TV used the closed captioning, also play lots of vocabuary games like Blurt!, Cranium, etc..