At a loss
I got a new student for the second time today. Not a second new student. The same new student, for the second time.
About a month and a half ago, I got a little boy who looked, spoke, and acted way too young for first grade. Early-elementary kids grow so quickly that after a little time around them, you can sort them by age fairly accurately. Kindergarteners, for example, look, act, and speak differently from first graders. So I asked him how old he was. "Five," he responded. I asked him his name but I couldn't understand the answer. So I asked him to write it. He scrawled some letters, backwards, upside down, across an entire sheet of paper. It spelled his name, but barely. I took him to the principal and told the principal that he was too young for first grade and that there was clearly a mistake and he should be in kindergarten. The principal said that there was no mistake.
I went to visit his mother, and I found out that before coming to Mississippi, he had been in a special school for hearing impaired special-ed students. He has partial hearing loss, but evidently it fluctuates from ear to ear. Also according to his mother, he didn't speak until he was 3. Although this is consistant with hearing loss, the boy seemed to be able to hear fine. His mother told me he can hear regular volume, but he can't hear yelling. Um...
Anyhow. I was prepared to accept all of that. Evidently in his old school, he had already completed the equivalent of kindergarten. But he just should not be in a regular first grade classroom. If he had completed kindergarten at my school, which is by no means a paragon of high standards, and emerged with his current skill, set he would have been retained. But since his old school was only through age 5, they had decided to pass him to another special school for older students. And then his family had moved. But since he was supposed to pass in that state (to another special school! based on age alone!) the principal told me that they have to put him in first grade here.
I told his mother that she should fight to put him in kindergarten. I had special ed students last year. I had six of them. Skills-wise, they were low. Some of them were very low. And one of them was emotionally very young as well. But not nearly to the same extent as this boy. She told me that she would do that, although she might take him to another city where he had gotten into a special school.
He came to my class 2 days. And then he was gone. I assumed he had gone to the special school.
Today, he came back.
I do not want him in my class. Even to me, this sounds incredibly selfish. I teach at a public school. That means we take everyone. But this little boy will get nothing out of my class unless I create totally separate lessons for him. His speech, behavior, attention span, everything is light years behind even my lowest student. This little boy doesn't know how to hold a pencil or follow directions. My other students are writing sentences with ease. They are reading. He doesn't know all of his sounds. I don't know what to do!
It sounds easy. Just go ahead, make lessons on his level. But we are talking all subjects. Not just math, reading, and writing. Science. Social Studies. He can't do any of it. And while I am teaching him these lessons, what will my other students be doing? First graders don't sit and do work. Every single child needs to be acknowledged within a maximum period of ten minutes. Unless we are in centers, I suppose, but I can't totally neglect 16 students to spend the entire centers hour teaching K--. That's our guided reading time, which is the only way those 16 students are going to become proficient readers. And even so, an hour a day isn't enough. And I can't tutor him after school. I already tutor 3 days a week. The lowest students in the grade. He wouldn't even fit in with them.
I'm at a total loss.
This is not something I know how to deal with. I am not this good of a teacher. I am not good at differentiating to this level. I can differentiate reading. Even math, to some extent. I can't differentiate school.
About a month and a half ago, I got a little boy who looked, spoke, and acted way too young for first grade. Early-elementary kids grow so quickly that after a little time around them, you can sort them by age fairly accurately. Kindergarteners, for example, look, act, and speak differently from first graders. So I asked him how old he was. "Five," he responded. I asked him his name but I couldn't understand the answer. So I asked him to write it. He scrawled some letters, backwards, upside down, across an entire sheet of paper. It spelled his name, but barely. I took him to the principal and told the principal that he was too young for first grade and that there was clearly a mistake and he should be in kindergarten. The principal said that there was no mistake.
I went to visit his mother, and I found out that before coming to Mississippi, he had been in a special school for hearing impaired special-ed students. He has partial hearing loss, but evidently it fluctuates from ear to ear. Also according to his mother, he didn't speak until he was 3. Although this is consistant with hearing loss, the boy seemed to be able to hear fine. His mother told me he can hear regular volume, but he can't hear yelling. Um...
Anyhow. I was prepared to accept all of that. Evidently in his old school, he had already completed the equivalent of kindergarten. But he just should not be in a regular first grade classroom. If he had completed kindergarten at my school, which is by no means a paragon of high standards, and emerged with his current skill, set he would have been retained. But since his old school was only through age 5, they had decided to pass him to another special school for older students. And then his family had moved. But since he was supposed to pass in that state (to another special school! based on age alone!) the principal told me that they have to put him in first grade here.
I told his mother that she should fight to put him in kindergarten. I had special ed students last year. I had six of them. Skills-wise, they were low. Some of them were very low. And one of them was emotionally very young as well. But not nearly to the same extent as this boy. She told me that she would do that, although she might take him to another city where he had gotten into a special school.
He came to my class 2 days. And then he was gone. I assumed he had gone to the special school.
Today, he came back.
I do not want him in my class. Even to me, this sounds incredibly selfish. I teach at a public school. That means we take everyone. But this little boy will get nothing out of my class unless I create totally separate lessons for him. His speech, behavior, attention span, everything is light years behind even my lowest student. This little boy doesn't know how to hold a pencil or follow directions. My other students are writing sentences with ease. They are reading. He doesn't know all of his sounds. I don't know what to do!
It sounds easy. Just go ahead, make lessons on his level. But we are talking all subjects. Not just math, reading, and writing. Science. Social Studies. He can't do any of it. And while I am teaching him these lessons, what will my other students be doing? First graders don't sit and do work. Every single child needs to be acknowledged within a maximum period of ten minutes. Unless we are in centers, I suppose, but I can't totally neglect 16 students to spend the entire centers hour teaching K--. That's our guided reading time, which is the only way those 16 students are going to become proficient readers. And even so, an hour a day isn't enough. And I can't tutor him after school. I already tutor 3 days a week. The lowest students in the grade. He wouldn't even fit in with them.
I'm at a total loss.
This is not something I know how to deal with. I am not this good of a teacher. I am not good at differentiating to this level. I can differentiate reading. Even math, to some extent. I can't differentiate school.
posted by Jessica at 12:07 AM
1 Comments:
it's hard to comment when there's nothing to say -- what to do? Just the best you can.
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