9th grader struggling with honors English

[Anonymous]

DS is struggling with honors English. The assignment for mice and men actually looks hard. He has never been taught foreshadowing, symbolism, and analyzing literature in previous years and is confused that a book has more meaning beyond the literal words. This is a smart kid who went to CES. Is anyone else's kid in the same situation?

[Anonymous]

Yes, get a tutor.

[Anonymous]

Learning new things and stretching is kind of the point. HS is different than MS with greater expectations. PP is right - if he can’t get what he needs in class and by going to the teacher before or after school or during lunch, a tutor is an option. Bit it might
Also just take him a bit longer than some others to pick up these concepts.

[Anonymous]

My first instinct is to pick something somewhat ambiguous/mysterious (Lost comes to mind) to watch or read together as a fun family activity and discuss it naturally (not in literary terms and certainly not as a lesson) as you go. You can speculate about what different clues may have meant and what might happen next.

Basically, foreshadowing, symbolism, and other literary concepts are all common narrative elements. English classes just adopt formal terms and make it boring and stuffy. Once he’s familiar with the concepts, he can apply the academic terms to them.

[Anonymous]

What middle school did they go to?

I feel certain that my MCPS 9th grader learned these concepts at his MCPS middle school (no special program/magnet)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DS is struggling with honors English. The assignment for mice and men actually looks hard. He has never been taught foreshadowing, symbolism, and analyzing literature in previous years and is confused that a book has more meaning beyond the literal words. This is a smart kid who went to CES. Is anyone else's kid in the same situation?

A smart kid can learn foreshadowing, symbolism, and analyzing literature now that it is being taught.

Have you tried showing him a definition of foreshadowing and symbolism?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DS is struggling with honors English. The assignment for mice and men actually looks hard. He has never been taught foreshadowing, symbolism, and analyzing literature in previous years and is confused that a book has more meaning beyond the literal words. This is a smart kid who went to CES. Is anyone else's kid in the same situation?

Did you ever notice any signs of autism or get an eval? This is common with autism.

Most other people intuitively understand and use subtext, even non-academic people of average intelligence.

[Anonymous]

I would go over what each of the literary elements mean and then help him brainstorm. A lot of kids need to have direct instruction in this kind of stuff.

[Anonymous]

He needs to be talking to his teacher about his confusion, not you.

[Anonymous]

What is meant by struggling? I have a hard time believing kids has never needed to analyze any literature before Mice and Men as Benchmark and Studysync both have kids doing this albeit with shorter stories. Not to mention the kid was in CES.

That said, Steinbeck may require the kid to remember and think more than earlier novels and that is to be expected. Kids struggle with some books in English.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He needs to be talking to his teacher about his confusion, not you.

Kids talk to parents. That is a good thing. Talking to the teacher can also happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He needs to be talking to his teacher about his confusion, not you.

I disagree. He should talk to his teacher but you should also try to help him. The reality of education in 2025 is that parents need to be involved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS is struggling with honors English. The assignment for mice and men actually looks hard. He has never been taught foreshadowing, symbolism, and analyzing literature in previous years and is confused that a book has more meaning beyond the literal words. This is a smart kid who went to CES. Is anyone else's kid in the same situation?

Did you ever notice any signs of autism or get an eval? This is common with autism.

Most other people intuitively understand and use subtext, even non-academic people of average intelligence.

This was my first thought, also. I'm surprised if they didn't cover symbolism in MS-- my kid talked about it a lot by 8th grade (in the sense of questioning whether the teacher was reading too much symbolism into texts where authors didn't intend it). Even if it was never covered, it needs to be taught sometime so 9th grade is fine.

If the kid's problem is not catching all of the symbols-- this is normal. College kids who've studied this for years will have the same problem. It's also a very subjective process and people won't interpret text the same way, so there's no "right" answer which might be frustrating. If the problem is that the kid doesn't get the 'idea' that symbolism or foreshadowing exist, then I'd concur with the thought of looking further into possible neurodivergence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DS is struggling with honors English. The assignment for mice and men actually looks hard. He has never been taught foreshadowing, symbolism, and analyzing literature in previous years and is confused that a book has more meaning beyond the literal words. This is a smart kid who went to CES. Is anyone else's kid in the same situation?

He didn't already this book in CES?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS is struggling with honors English. The assignment for mice and men actually looks hard. He has never been taught foreshadowing, symbolism, and analyzing literature in previous years and is confused that a book has more meaning beyond the literal words. This is a smart kid who went to CES. Is anyone else's kid in the same situation?

Did you ever notice any signs of autism or get an eval? This is common with autism.

Most other people intuitively understand and use subtext, even non-academic people of average intelligence.

That’s not autism. That’s a bad curriculum.