(a random blast from the past)The Kiddo came home with his first ever progress report this week. For Kindergarten they rate in levels, vs grades, but it seems to be the same basic idea.
So I read through his report expecting a few 2's, but mostly 3's and 4's. I was shocked at how many 1's he has.Concepts of print, he's got a 1. Um he can write all his letters, and name them, so I'm confused what he would need to get a higher grade there.
Phonemic awareness is a 1 because he doesn't really grasp syllables, that I get, I'll work on it with him.
Comprehension is a 1. What?? The kid can read and answer the question he just read. I guess it's a one because he doesn't do well at making predictions using title and picture clues. I think that's my fault, when we read books and he asks me what people in this picture are saying or doing I always tell him "well lets read and find out" and we go into reading. So I guess I should have a conversation about what he THINKS they are saying and doing and THEN read.
Writing is a 1. Why? Because he doesn't look at a picture and use it to generate writing ideas. He'd rather draw his own picture and write using that. *sigh*
Patterns and relations is a 1. He gets patterns, he knows how to tick things off as he figures it out. But he gets distracted in the middle and forgets... I suppose we could work on that *grumble*
Measurements... he's never been one for spacial perception. I guess we can work on that too.
And btw look over on the side and he has a TWO for reading level. WHAT!!!?? I'm wondering how well they want a kindergartner to read to get something higher then that.
*deep breath* If he didn't have an excellent in social skills I'd be kicking myself for not just homeschooling him, I mean jeez!
I am really looking forward to our teacher conference Thursday evening. I promise I will not argue with her, or spend any time defending his scholastic abilities... but a good conversation on why he got so many low scores will be nice. As I said to the Man (during my year long rant on the subject) what he can do at home is not necessarily what he does do at school. He may be distracted, or unfocused, or just plain lazy, at school because he doesn't have anybody hovering over him forcing him to do his best work.
I hate how guilty I feel about it... I really hope there's a time when I will stop feeling personable responsible for every time a teacher says he has "failures."
3 comments:
The problem is they aren't "failures" - or even Ds or Fs. They are ones.
I'm encouraged to give students a few criticisms or to note where they can improve, even if they are the best in the class. Similarly, I've been thinking that all teachers probably have similar strategies, and its unfortunately deceptive (though I've tried to be as honest as possible).
One method is always rate something higher and something lower.
Another is to start the individual out low and have him improve. (in my comments, I always say that I am happy about their progress or improvement, and I look forward to seeing the same improvement next month. or something).
My theory is this that, perhaps, she's doing the latter? He is "1" in a few areas, so that later she can PROVE she is a good teacher, by showing how he's increased from 1 to 2 to 3 throughout the year.
If it was A/B/C/D/F, the idea of what they stood for would already be determined (i.e. good or bad at the subject). But with the numbers, its like saying "he needs no help here," and if you say that for everything, then why have him go to school?
But I agree; I'd want to talk to the teacher immediately.
oi! i'm more convinced its part-deception now. did you notice?
The number of...
4s - 5
3s - 2
2s - 1
1s - 6
You have seven higher numbers and seven lower numbers. Suspicious! And how often is someone doing "excellent" in one area and "poorly" in another? No! Its almost always a bell curve!
...okay, i need to stop writing. I'm flooding your comments section.
Did you go to the conference?? How did it go? Nathen's teacher is super hard on him this year. Last year he was top of his class this year i feel like a bad mama.
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