I'm not sure how cville's response could warrant that level of sass. Jesus.
Assuming I'm too stupid to know the difference between sounding out words and regurgitating words she's memorized kind of pissed me off.
Do you often get pissed about others trying to help you when you ask a question? It wasn't an attack on your parenting/intelligence. Kids are sneaky fucks and it's hard to tell sometimes if they're reading or memorizing.
I'm not sure how cville's response could warrant that level of sass. Jesus.
Assuming I'm too stupid to know the difference between sounding out words and regurgitating words she's memorized kind of pissed me off.
Well, that's not what I did at all but if sounding off made you feel better, have at it.
For the record, it is my understanding that figuring out whether a kid is sounding out words and understanding their meaning vs. memorizing them/their sounds is difficult. I, personally, have little idea whether or not L is doing one or the other. And I presume that I am very smart. Nay, I am fucking positive that I'm very smart.
Assuming I'm too stupid to know the difference between sounding out words and regurgitating words she's memorized kind of pissed me off.
Well, that's not what I did at all but if sounding off made you feel better, have at it.
For the record, it is my understanding that figuring out whether a kid is sounding out words and understanding their meaning vs. memorizing them/their sounds is difficult. I, personally, have little idea whether or not L is doing one or the other. And I presume that I am very smart. Nay, I am fucking positive that I'm very smart.
You've been on this teacher's case since day one when she didn't send a personalized email home to tell about the day. I think a conference would do you good at this point, especially with the behavior issues/inconsistent consequences experienced last week.
That wasn't me crazy cakes!
She is still inconsistent though. But at this point there's nothing I can do about that (she's been teaching 10 years), and it's up to her and M to figure out what works for them.
Oops, sorry about that. But for real... Conference. More times than not, teachers appreciate you voicing your concerns and asking questions and being involved.
Well, that's not what I did at all but if sounding off made you feel better, have at it.
For the record, it is my understanding that figuring out whether a kid is sounding out words and understanding their meaning vs. memorizing them/their sounds is difficult. I, personally, have little idea whether or not L is doing one or the other. And I presume that I am very smart. Nay, I am fucking positive that I'm very smart.
/Cville out
Then I apologize. I took it as an attack.
I have no idea what about me generally or our history would have given you the idea that I'd lay in wait for 9-10 years to attack you about kindergarten readiness. To be frank, I am very hurt. I appreciate the apology.
I have no idea what about me generally or our history would have given you the idea that I'd lay in wait for 9-10 years to attack you about kindergarten readiness. To be frank, I am very hurt. I appreciate the apology.
same. I was hella confused. I should have asked for clarification first.
When I taught K take-home books were always at the child's instructional level. It is good to supplement at home, but I do think you need to touch base with the teacher about differentiation. Sometimes with kids who were reading we had them work with Reading interns (Grad students).
Not going to lie though, kids who come to K reading are hard to differentiate for especially because there is often only one and you don't want them to work alone.
Oh this was super helpful. In her Pre-K, about 8 of the 16 kids could read, but they had a lot of practice and a very small class size.
Then of course, we work with her at home. Reading, word searches, etc.Â
I'll give it a couple of weeks. I bet they will be more age appropriate then.
But, after a month a casual conversation about differentiation is highly appropriate. Non-judgmental "hey, as you know my kid can read and I'm just wondering what I can expect in terms of differtiation at school and how can we support that at home?"
Post by phdprocrastinator on Sept 1, 2015 17:58:58 GMT -5
If you want to find out what the teacher's going for with the homework, I think it's all in the delivery.
"Hey, I've found DD seems to be flying through the reading. Is there anything you'd like us to focus on at home?" Teacher should then suggest something about sight words/phonics/comprehension. If it's something you think she's already doing, then you have an opportunity to point it out. If her teacher is planning on doing an assessment but it just hasn't been done, this is her opportunity to let you know. (And also why I always tell my intern teachers to set up a communication system early - to avoid these sorts of situations).
This is different from barging into the room with a list of books your daughter can read and demanding recourse.
It's possible to be a reasonable parent and still question a teacher.
lol, at a teacher differentiating lessons for every single kid in class. Unless you have 4 kids in your class, not going to happen. Flexible groupings according to need, with guided reading instruction, sure.
But, back to the OP. I wonder which assessment tool the teacher is using. Some can take a LOT of time to complete and make it hard to complete a full class (depending on the size of the class) quickly. That being said, by the 4th week of school a teacher should have completed most. It could be that your child was nervous the day she read and didn't read fluently. Fluency has several different indicators - rate, accuracy, expression and flow. Once a child can read a text with an appropriate amount of fluency, reading comprehension is assessed. It is possible that your child didn't demonstrate comprehension of the assessment text she read.
All of this to say that it is worth asking a question about it. But please also know that a lot of parents say their child can read better at home than they have been assessed at school, this is actually a fairly common occurrence. But still, asking is never wrong, as long as it is done respectfully.
lol, at a teacher differentiating lessons for every single kid in class. Unless you have 4 kids in your class, not going to happen. Flexible groupings according to need, with guided reading instruction, sure.
But, back to the OP. I wonder which assessment tool the teacher is using. Some can take a LOT of time to complete and make it hard to complete a full class (depending on the size of the class) quickly. That being said, by the 4th week of school a teacher should have completed most. It could be that your child was nervous the day she read and didn't read fluently. Fluency has several different indicators - rate, accuracy, expression and flow. Once a child can read a text with an appropriate amount of fluency, reading comprehension is assessed. It is possible that your child didn't demonstrate comprehension of the assessment text she read.
All of this to say that it is worth asking a question about it. But please also know that a lot of parents say their child can read better at home than they have been assessed at school, this is actually a fairly common occurrence. But still, asking is never wrong, as long as it is done respectfully.
Thank you! Teachers do it have time to differentiate for every single student, it's impossible!
lol, at a teacher differentiating lessons for every single kid in class. Unless you have 4 kids in your class, not going to happen. Flexible groupings according to need, with guided reading instruction, sure.
This is absolutely the expectation where I teach. When I was a classroom teacher it meant that kids swapped classrooms for Guided Reading so each teacher could do as little planning as possible, but it also ends up with teachers always feeling like they are chasing their tails. At the very least, teachers should have running records and know the kiddos instructional level and send home appropriate books. Also, another reason that I'm so glad to be a specials teacher now!
lol, at a teacher differentiating lessons for every single kid in class. Unless you have 4 kids in your class, not going to happen. Flexible groupings according to need, with guided reading instruction, sure.
This is absolutely the expectation where I teach. When I was a classroom teacher it meant that kids swapped classrooms for Guided Reading so each teacher could do as little planning as possible, but it also ends up with teachers always feeling like they are chasing their tails. At the very least, teachers should have running records and know the kiddos instructional level and send home appropriate books. Also, another reason that I'm so glad to be a specials teacher now!
Strategy grouping and guided groups does not mean tailored instruction for individual child. It means we can group kids by need. This group needs support with inference, this group needs support with mental images. It would take a lifetime to instruct each individual child daily. Although, conferring helps with individual goals, but you can still only meet with so many kids one to one on a daily basis.
This is absolutely the expectation where I teach. When I was a classroom teacher it meant that kids swapped classrooms for Guided Reading so each teacher could do as little planning as possible, but it also ends up with teachers always feeling like they are chasing their tails. At the very least, teachers should have running records and know the kiddos instructional level and send home appropriate books. Also, another reason that I'm so glad to be a specials teacher now!
Strategy grouping and guided groups does not mean tailored instruction for individual child. It means we can group kids by need. This group needs support with inference, this group needs support with mental images. It would take a lifetime to instruct each individual child daily. Although, conferring helps with individual goals, but you can still only meet with so many kids one to one on a daily basis.
I don't disagree with you. Expectations and reality are two different things.
ginger if she's still sounding out the words then I wouldn't call her a fluent reader. She's an emerging reader. Does she know all of the kindergarten (and first) sight words and can read them instantly? She should be able to read them after seeing them for literally only 3 seconds. A fluent reader should not have to stop to sound out words if the book is at their independent level (besides maaaaybe a couple but event that is debatable).
Running records are not the same thing as differentiated lessons for each student. But that's another conversation.
No, but they are a way to assess students in order to differentiate.
In my class each child had a binder of both Math and ELA they were working on. They worked one-on-one with both myself and the classroom para almost every day. We are a very poor, underperforming school and the expectation is that we have data for each student and individual plans for each. Now, of course, a study just came out saying differentiation does not work.
My point with asking about differentiation, I think OP should be able to ask what her child is doing because she can already read. As a teacher or parent, a simple explanation of Guided Reading groups would be fine with me. Clearly OP is frustrated the work seems to be too easy and as a parent she is her child's best advocate.
Differentiation does work and is good teaching. Teaching 20+ different lessons doesn't work and isn't a reasonable expectation for teaching AND won't translate into higher test scores. It will translate into burnt out teachers. But again, it's a different topic for a different thread. I don't want to derail it any further. I just think setting up parents to think that their child should be receiving individualized lessons from a classroom teacher is a bad expectation to set forth.
Post by sweetbrier on Sept 1, 2015 22:18:16 GMT -5
I have never expected the school to provide all materials for my daughter to learn how to read. Do you have a library you can go to? In kindergarten the easy readers were awesome. There's usually a section of them with varying levels marked. They're fabulous. Bob books or other little books like that are really good, and then we moved on to more easy readers. I work at a library, so I was already used to bringing her reading material.
As she gets older, it evens out much more. But the first couple years I really didn't rely on the teacher to challenge her because she has so many other students and it's much easier for me to go with her to the library and pick out some books to read that will challenge and entertain her.