How do you know if your child is in the "slow" class?

[mirlee]

Our son just started First Grade and is going into his third week of school. I meet his teacher and she is very nice. The room has a great wall of windows for natural light, the room has a good bit of space, it is full of books, posters, and even some art by the children. On the surface it all looks pretty good and normal.

Then came talking to other parents of First Graders in the same school. Two of whom had kids in his Kindergarten class last year. Well, we began to get a little worried. We noticed that he wasn't really bringing many papers home. He only brought two pages of work home with him the whole time so far. In talking to the other parents, it seems that our son's class is much less rigorous than the others. The other students are bringing things home every night. Just a worksheet or two, but still. He has already said that he is bored sometimes. Danger sign number one for us. When it comes to math and science, he is really excellent. This is not a parent bragging, this is based on comments we get when we go to the museums and other places. His word recognition is okay, but could use some work. His reading, well, based on today's push, is not so great.

It is so very hard not to get worked up about this. He is a really smart boy. He just has a very active imagination and is active physically.

How can you figure out if a child is in the "slow" lane? I would like to drop the teacher a note and ask how children are selected for the class or if I could figure out how they are placed. I just don't want to hurt his chances in the classroom. It is especially difficult for us because we are both educators. Dh teaches in a totally different school district, and, I am a professor. We work with our son all the time reading, writing, and whatever.

Am I off here?

[lauren]

I don't know if this will really get to your question or not, but I have noticed each year that there are often major differences between the assignments and amount of homework coming home between two different teachers of the same grade. My children talk to their friends and I talk to the parents in passing. Some teachers just send home more work, and have different routines around what they want kids to do at home. I think it would be helpful to schedule a chat with the teacher, and ask if there are differences in abilities between the two classes. More likely there are not, and then you can focus on the issue of your child saying he is bored and problem solve with the teacher what can be done about that. perhaps it is a new teacher, or perhaps because of a few challenging children, the whole class is being brought down a notch in terms of expectations. Good thing to check it out.

[bobandjess99]

i too would focus on the being bored part, and ask outright how the classes were determined and what her homework philo is...perhaps your kids teacher just doesn;t believe in daily homework?

honestly, from what i have seen, math/science ability means NOTHING in lower elementary...it is ALL about reading ability...gotta be able to read, read well, read early...if they dont read well, pu them in special help, get a title 1 teacher in here, reading specialist, etc......Its all about the reading......

[BusyMommy]

That would be tracking and teachers/schools really aren't supposed to do that. Classes should be divided up evenly btw allllll the variables, including abilities. I bet it's just the differences in teaching style. I'd just tell the teacher your ds says he's bored and ask her how you & she can work together to solve that.

My son is in kinder this year and has NO homework-- . His best friend has homework every single night. Again, just differences in teachers as their schools are next to each other & test the same on standardized tests each year.

[stik]

Your son may be bringing home less work than other kids because he's able to finish it all during the school day.

I wouldn't worry about the level of the class, but I would talk to his teacher about his complaints of boredom. Whatever is going on in the rest of the class, a bored kid needs more challenge. Tracking is extremely unpopular in elementary schools right now, so I would be very surprised if your son was in a "slow class."

[wildmonkeys]

Maybe his teacher is using less worksheets than the other teachers? From my perspective, that would actually be a good thing. My son isn't bringing home as much paper as the other first grade classes at his school, but his teacher seems to be a little more hands-on and has them working on ongoing things like a Nature Journal rather than doing worksheets.

DS actually told me math was boring in first grade so I sent in a note letting his teacher know and asking if she could take a quick look at him and make sure he is in the right math group and left me a note saying they had been very busy with assessing new students skill levels the first week and were going to sort all of the kids into groups that better fit them beginning the third week of school and she had already noted that he needed a bit more challenge as he was finishing-up his work so quickly and spending much of his time volunteering to help her

So maybe they are still just settling in?

BJ
Barney & Ben

[Flor]

When I taught elementary we spent a lot of time at the end of the year dividing up the kids equally as far as ability and behavior. Some teachers give more HW but I don't think AT ALL that that means they are doing more rigorous work in the classroom. Some teachers believe in nightly HW and some don't. As far as him being bored, you can talk to the teacher about that but my experience has been that some kids are bored in class, and others are able to challenge themelves regardless of the assignment. For example, the assignment might be to write about an animal. One kid writes 3 sentences and is bored, another writes a detailed paragraph then asks if she can draw a picture, too. Some kids feel inspired by certain teachers and certain assignments, but it doesn't always mean that the work level is inappropriate. I'd look into it the reason for the boredom, though.

[elizam]

Yes, We Found That Out Quickly

Originally Posted by bobandjess99

i too would focus on the being bored part, and ask outright how the classes were determined and what her homework philo is...perhaps your kids teacher just doesn;t believe in daily homework?

honestly, from what i have seen, math/science ability means NOTHING in lower elementary...it is ALL about reading ability...gotta be able to read, read well, read early...if they dont read well, pu them in special help, get a title 1 teacher in here, reading specialist, etc......Its all about the reading......

For some harebrained reason, we gave up hsing our 7yo this year and put him in PS second grade. After two days, the teacher, reading specialist, and principal had a little meeting with me in which they told me he basically "couldn't read at all" (not true, but his sight word recollection isn't the greatest, and he is just now getting the hang of reading simple phonetic materials). His math ability (very quick with numbers, has nearly all his basic addition/subtraction facts down; can borrow and carry fairly easily, knows most money and time problems) was glossed over. They told me he had to be set back into first grade, and that the very easy math there would give him great confidence (he had already lamented over his too easy second grade math). It was all about the reading. only first graders qualify for Title One, which they wanted him immediately.


He cried all day in school, he told me, but no one except his seatmates noticed. They also goggled at his quick math fact recollection.

We pulled him out. What a rollercoaster ride. I don't believe in my heart he has a problem. Actually, they didn't, either...they just didn't want him in second grade. They also said "math isn't what we remember from when we were young...by next year; it's all about if he can read and solve word problems, not fact recollection."

Humph. Still not sure what to think.

[boongirl]

You are off to try to mull this in your head or drop the teacher a note. This is a concern for you, a geniune one, and it should be addressed in person, through a meeting with the teacher. Call and make an appointment and discuss your fears. Don't ask right off if her class is the "slow" class as you don't know that. Homework is not a measure of a child's worth. It could be that this teacher understands that homework is not going to actually help children succeed in life and in fact detracts from a child's enjoyment of school and takes from family time. Also, if he is bored it could be because he is not getting it or because he is getting it too fast. It is very early in the year to expect the teacher to have every child's mind figured out. But, ask her about how she is going to stimulate children. Ask her about your child being bored - how can this be changed. Don't automatically assume he is bored because she is not teaching right. And, don't automatically assume that he is in the "slow" class until you have more information from her.

[JBaxter]

Usually the first few weeks of school are review from the previous year and a time that the teacher can sort the children to different groups. My older 2 are always board the first couple weeks. Send a note to the teacher if your worried. I didnt think they separated 1st graders into different classes. In our are it wasnt till middle school that they had Merit & standard separations.

[mirlee]

Thanks so much for all the advice and support. I guess I was expecting a little more rigor based on his Kindergarten experience and what was going on in the classes of his friends. I know that his teacher is a veteran. I could tell that the first minute I spoke to her on the first day. He did get about 5 pages of words to work on for recognition, some were review words from the previous year as well as a list of words for his spelling test on Friday of this week. Maybe she just doesn't give homework the first couple weeks of school. The thing he really likes is that she makes sure to get them outside everyday when it is nice. His Kindergarten teacher was never able to do that. He said recess is his favorite part of the day. Oh, and lunch runs a close second.

I have to admit that I am a worrier. Until things go right or the way I think they should, I kind of obesess. It is very very hard not to compare his work to that of the other students. It is also hard not to look at what is going on in the other classes and compare.

I think the other thing was that I was worried about him being "Identified" without them telling us. He had special help in reading last year and they weren't so quick to tell us he was getting that. I just happen to be on the committee with his reading specialist. She actually thought that he did fine, but really wanted to be there for the individual attention.

I am going to see how it goes, continue listening to what he is saying, and see what other parents are saying about their experiences. Who knows, maybe he actually has the perfect teacher for his learning style?

[1xmom]

My dd's school has been in school for almost a month and has had no homwork. Like another poster stated, when I talked to the teacher at our open house, she stated that they will ease them into the homework. They will first start w/spelling & reading words. She also said she then starts to divide them by reading level. So I don't look for my dd to start getting homework until the beginning of October.

[chel]

dd's public school tries to keep all the classes equal (for race, sex, and skill level) Though my dd's reading level is much lower than her classmates, I would prefer her in a "slow" class, but I guess this way each reading group could be 5 dc instead of a class of 20 all reading together.
I'm just the opposite. I hate all the worksheets that come home. I would rather it all stay in the workbook. It's just so messy (sorry OCD coming out )

[annettemarie]

Originally Posted by BusyMommy

That would be tracking and teachers/schools really aren't supposed to do that. Classes should be divided up evenly btw allllll the variables, including abilities. I bet it's just the differences in teaching style. I'd just tell the teacher your ds says he's bored and ask her how you & she can work together to solve that.

I'm thinking this varies by school district. My son's school does something called "academic clustering," which means all the gifted kids are in one classroom together, supposedly so they can do enrichment activities in the regular classroom and not just in the pull-out program. I'm not sure how I feel about this.

That said, my son's been in school since before Labor Day and still has no homework. Frankly, I'm grateful. And I really wouldn't use worksheets as a measure of how much he's learning. A really good teacher will get away from worksheets and into real active learning.

I think you should absolutely speak to the teacher to figure out what's going on, especially if your child is bored. I hope you can find some answers! He's a lucky guy to have a mama who worries about him and keeps up with what he's doing in school.

[boongirl]

Annettemarie is right about different districts and schools having differing opinions on tracking. Tracking went by the wayside in the 1980s after being used heavily in the 1970s. By the 1990s, it was a bad word. But, teachers also started to realize that it was really hard to teach one lesson to the whole class. Some sort of system is needed to differentiate instruction. What is generally accepted nowadays is the idea of testing the children throughout the year to see what they have learned and starting new groups afresh every few months. In schools where I have worked, this is done best by several teachers working together to teach reading and math at the same time. The students from all classes in that cluster move around according to where they need to be. The idea being that their needs are being met by being in a group that is appropriate for them. But, they have a homeroom that is made up of a diverse student group and they may be in one class for reading and another for math. Their needs are being met.

[mirlee]

Well, yesterday it turns out I had two school related meetings. The first was for our Reading First program that works to establish strong reading proficiency in students beginning with elementary. http://www.readingfirstsupport.us/de...p?article_id=8 . I am a parent representative to the Reading First team. So, I got to hear how the students were doing across the district and learn when their first assessment will be coming. It also helped me evaluate my son against what is going on district-wide. He is improving, but is lagging behind the mean. That's okay. I already knew that based on his home performance when we work together.

My second meeting was a PTO meeting. I was able to get some reassurance there based on what one of the teachers was saying during the meeting.

His homework has picked up a little. I am beginning to think his teacher has a different approach than what I was used to or what I was expecting. So far he has brought home three sheets of words to work on, words for a spelling test, and a pre-decodable book to read. I had to sign the front page after he read it.

I have to say the one thing I really like about his school is the push for recess. The principal is really adamant that the kids get out everyday.

[GearGirl]

You sound just like me!! Maybe we can be first grade buddies. Basically I worried about that too, for no reason at all. They are not allowed to put kids in special classes, and really no teacher would agree to that for their own sanity unless it were a special needs class with much smaller #'s and more support, so no, your child is definitely not in a slow class. The difference in work is likely just the teacher. There are so many parents talking about being worried about their kids reading levels starting first grade. I'm worried and not worried at the same time. My son is still 5, so he is young. Some kids are a year older, so in a year, yah, I think he would be a much better reader than they are at this point, but instead he is being compared to them now, so he is probably behind. His teacher sent him off to the reading specialist, who sent him back saying he reads. More like he reads when he wants to and seems to not be able to read when he doesn't. He has trouble sitting and focusing, so I am guessing this will be a little stressful as we go along, so I will be right there worrying with you! And, I have no links, but I've hear MANY times that early reading is not a sign of academic success or intelligence neccessarily, a much better indicator is problem solving and reasoning skills.