Life With Boys

The mis-adventures of two crazy boys and their bleary eyed parents.

THE Parent Teacher Conference …

This would be more aptly names the Patent Teacher Conference Disaster, but I didn’t want to scare you.

Let’s preface this with a few things First — Tyler started first grade August 13, our first conference was on Wednesday, Oct 1. Second — I cry really easily. I’ve tried to control it. I’ve tried blinking. I’ve tried looking away, but I always fail.

Positive feedback from the conference: (quoting the paper from the teacher)

  • Tyler is very knowledgeable in Science and Social Studies.
  • Good observer (Looks closely at the pages of a book)
  • Kind to others.

Areas for improvement:

  • Needs to practice sight words nightly (If you’re new to this, Sight Words are the most common words in English that should be known “on sight”)
  • Needs to become more focused and a better listener

OK — I can take that.

What I was not expecting was to find out Tyler has been tagged for reading intervention since just after school began. That he is in the “Kids Reading Club” (teacher code for remedial reading). Don’t you think the teacher should would let you know this after the testing was done — not 6 weeks in? Question two? How is it if he was on track in Kindergarten, he knew all the skills to move on to first grade, how did we magically start off the year so behind?

Her response was something along the lines that they forget things over the summer. Yes, I agree and understand which is why we continued to do workbook pages and sight words all summer long. She also suggested that we need to read with him more.

The assessment tests show he’s behind in everything — letter sounds, sounding things out — and most astonishing he got a whopping 3 of the 71 sight words right. I am baffled beyond belief. Because I know it’s not right. Is he reading by himself — no. Can he tell you letter sounds — yes.

It makes me really wonder about his testing ability — is he goofing off? does he understand that this counts? Something is just not right.

So of course in my frustration I started to cry. She really didn’t know what to do with me then. It’s not that I’m so upset that he needs help, it’s that we were in the dark and completely unprepared for what we were getting into. That he did well in kindergarten which led us to believe he was on track for the next grade but suddenly everyone but us learned to read on their own this summer.

So, the solution?

  • Tyler continues to work on sight words nightly (like we have been since he started Kindergarten. )
  • We are scouring the world for level one easy readers (he’s a Rigby level 4 reader,- he’s supposed to be up to 12 by the time we finish 1st grade — but so far all I can find is whole classroom sets of Rigby readers). The thing is is uses the pictures to tell him the story, so I don’t know if he’s really reading or just guessing. I’ve been looking at some Sight Words DVDs but haven’t committed yet — although I guess we can go ahead and get Morgan started on all of this as well.
  • He is writing a story book with the shark stickers we went to pick out yesterday (if we position it as a craft he’s all for it).
  • The teacher is supposed to call us weekly with a progress report. And he is supposed to be retested in January.

So with all this added fun we are now up to at least an hour or more on “school stuff” a night — in the first grade — can’t wait for second. Several people have commented that we should do the amount of homework we think is appropriate and call it quits — but how can I do that when he obviously needs to put in so much more time to get caught up?

Bleach …. welcome home.

Posted by:

Danielle Oser

6 responses to “THE Parent Teacher Conference …”

  1. StLmom

    My mother in law taught 2nd grade for 25 years and she would tell you that boys sometimes take a little bit longer to “get there”. He’ll be OK. I totally understand your frustration (and probably would have cried too — as you know, I’m a waterworks person as well). Schools are getting worse and worse with their communication. I find that you have to be very proactive in getting in touch with teachers and it’s only then that it occurs to them to share information with you. Hang in there. You’re doing everything right.

    Reply
  2. rachel

    Hugs, Danielle. He sounds like he’s within the normal range to me. I understand they’re making kids learn to read earlier and earlier these days, because school funding is so tightly tied to test scores. This may just mean, too, that he does poorly under stressful conditions.If you’re really worried, though – is he too young to be assessed for dyslexia? I don’t know how early they’re able to tell, or whether it would put your mind at ease, but it seems like the kind of thing where, the earlier you know about it, the better.

    Reply
  3. Anonymous

    It’s such a fine line with the whole homework thing. First if you push it too far he will hate school all together although your approach to the “craft” theme might work. Danielle, Tyler is super smart and you know that! I was talking to my schools music teacher and she was talking about her son and his reading. First, it was so hard she said then one day it just clicked and now he is above all the others. She said that you just have to be patient with the schools and not stress. It is all about him, not the tests and money. Let him go through the struggles and just be there for him. Remember, I had a hell of a hard time reading and I began to hate mom because of her pushing. Make sure matt is on board so it’s not just you, because you know that Dad didn’t help with that stuff, and I never hated him… Just take it one day at a time and keep it fun. Look up some fun ways to teach reading and just keep finding Dinosaur and airplane books to keep the interest. No worries, it will work it way out. Love ya and call if you need support… MWAH Mindy

    Reply
  4. Natalie Jo

    As I was reading I just wanted to hug you. I know you cry easily. IT is one of your great qualities! I love it. It shows that you are not afraid of your emotions. Anyway… simillar situation happened to my sister and her twins. Kindergarten same teacher everything great. First Grade, Seperate classes. One teacher notices and talks to her about it. And began to work on the problem. I would be more concerned that they didn’t talk toyou. That is a little long to wait. But I just have a 4 yr old in pre-school. I do know that both twins are reading great now and that it just takes time. On another note, Jacque was put in the “special” reading and she turned out ok. In fact, I think she reads the most out of all of my sisters. Some kids just take time. Ok. Sorry for the novel. Loved your hawaii pictures. Really made me miss you. and the waterworks. XOXO!

    Reply
  5. Uncle Mike

    Danielle, I think he will progress rapidly with all of the attention your giving him. You need to have a nice talk with the school and teacher about “no surprises”. That way you will be more prepared to work with them on the improvement plan. Hope things get better soon. Hang in there.

    Reply
  6. Semalee

    Here’s the thing to remember with boys. I have this type of thing happen in my classroom all the time and it’s really not that alarming. Boys in particular progress in ONE area at a time. You talk all the time about how creative he is etc. Well, that’s the area he’s progressing in right now. In a while, he will probably progress rapidly in reading and fall a little behind in science and art… Eventually it all evens out, or at least that’s what I’m told, but my husband still has a one track brain… Don’t they all????So work with him like you are, but don’t stress too much about it yet. If he’s still behind around the end of the school year there may be some other problem going on that you will need to address. In that case, email me, I have some websites I can dig up 🙂

    Reply

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About Me

I started this site so my mom could get news about her grandkids without me having to walk her through the process of trying to open and email attachment several times a week.  Since then she has passed away and I’ve fallen off the blog wagon, but I’m inspired to pick it up again now.

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