I've talked about my children's issues with spelling before. Bear is a junior in high school. Kitty is a freshman. Both usually pass the Modified version of the Statewide Standardized testing and when they don't... nothing really happens.
We're usually told the kids are "working at grade level" so our concerns are "unfounded." We were told that this year, Bear "almost" passed the Language Art section so we shouldn't be too concerned. Apparently he bombed the writing portion, but did fine on reading which brought up his score enough to "almost pass."
Struggling to Stand had suggested awhile back that I get the children assessed by an occupational therapist. I couldn't get the school to acknowledge a need, but they did assess the children for a special software called Solo 6. The school will implement the program for both kids - mostly in English class. They've decided to use it with the whole class so my kids don't feel singled out and because the school feels it would benefit thier classmates too (both my kids are in special ed).
Recently we went to a brief orientation on the program and they gave us a copy to use at home. Basically it's an interesting program, but I don't see it helping us much at home since our kids refuse to write unless forced. Plus, part of what it does is read what they've written out loud and you can tell it to check for spelling and possible homonym errors. I asked if it checked for grammar errors, but was told no, since most grammar programs are "wrong 50% of the time anyway." Basically I don't see how it will help my kids because the words spelled are so different from the correct spelling sometimes.
I did ask if they could check the kids' hearing because I've occasionally wondered if they just weren't hearing the words correctly, but more likely it's just that they've never seen the word written down before. Bear consistantly uses Granmal when meaning to write Grandma.
Can you work out what the title of this post is? I'll give you a hint. I found Bear had written it on the grocery list.
We're usually told the kids are "working at grade level" so our concerns are "unfounded." We were told that this year, Bear "almost" passed the Language Art section so we shouldn't be too concerned. Apparently he bombed the writing portion, but did fine on reading which brought up his score enough to "almost pass."
Struggling to Stand had suggested awhile back that I get the children assessed by an occupational therapist. I couldn't get the school to acknowledge a need, but they did assess the children for a special software called Solo 6. The school will implement the program for both kids - mostly in English class. They've decided to use it with the whole class so my kids don't feel singled out and because the school feels it would benefit thier classmates too (both my kids are in special ed).
Recently we went to a brief orientation on the program and they gave us a copy to use at home. Basically it's an interesting program, but I don't see it helping us much at home since our kids refuse to write unless forced. Plus, part of what it does is read what they've written out loud and you can tell it to check for spelling and possible homonym errors. I asked if it checked for grammar errors, but was told no, since most grammar programs are "wrong 50% of the time anyway." Basically I don't see how it will help my kids because the words spelled are so different from the correct spelling sometimes.
I did ask if they could check the kids' hearing because I've occasionally wondered if they just weren't hearing the words correctly, but more likely it's just that they've never seen the word written down before. Bear consistantly uses Granmal when meaning to write Grandma.
Can you work out what the title of this post is? I'll give you a hint. I found Bear had written it on the grocery list.
