Did your child’s grades slip in 7th?

[Anonymous]

In middle school, I told my kids the only courses that mattered were math and foreign language since they went on HS transcripts. Neither took the HS ones in 7th so I don’t remember 7th grade grades.

You have a long road ahead of you. Have your kid try their best to develop good study habits and set them up to be as independent as possible now. Someone gave me that advice to back off and let them manage in MS and help them navigate it as practice, even if grades dropped. It was the best thing I did to set them up for success in HS. And before you ask, both have adhd, one has an IEP.

[Anonymous]

My kis a flourishing now! 7th seemed to be the year to let them grow!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So solid Bs indicates she isn’t going well? Your kid got easy As and has finally hit the grade she actually needs to do more.

And remember, a B is still a very good grade !

Not in public school. A B means they didn’t meet a standard. It’s a good grade in most private schools without grade inflation.

[Anonymous]

Did your school move to the 90/10 grading system? Where quizzes/tests are worth 90% of grade and homework 10%? Ours did and it’s terrible. It benefits no one. Homework and in class assignments make up the bulk of the class work, then there might be a couple quizzes and tests sprinkled in. Sometimes teachers will only make them 10 questions! So if your child gets a 9/10 or 8/10, on that one quiz, it could bring their whole grade down to A- or B.

But with that said, it does sound like she has poor study habits and isn’t preparing. I’d say no to group studying- especially in 7th grade. You know they are mostly goofing off. I found middle school is hard to help your child. I often didn’t know what was due when, when tests would be, or even the content. It isn’t like 1995 when you could bring your textbook home and your mom could quiz you over chapter 5 material. I don’t think there is much you can do other than checking her grade daily and making sure she doesn’t have missing assignments, ask when tests are and make sure she is dedicating time to study.

[Anonymous]

There is plenty of time to turn these grades around later.

[Anonymous]

Middle school is the time to learn how to study and meet increasing expectations. It is also a great time to make mistakes. Try to instill good study habits and have your child reflect on their effort vs grades.

My child's grades did not slip but she learned that she had to put more effort in if she wanted to get straight A's by 7th / 8th grade as less than a handful in her grade were likely to achieve this objective, according to the principal of her school.

DD still does a lot of homework at the kitchen table free of devices and attends de-facto office hours several days after school to complete homework assignments. I am told asks clarifying questions in class and she has learned she needs to participate more in class, all of which I appreciate.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

It’s the school board demanding that 2 tests are 70% of a kid’s grade. This is similar to college, but overkill for MS and HS. This is not how it is across the nation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:no

Same.
6th seems to be the big challenge in MS as they adjust to multiple teachers and more rigor.

[Anonymous]

Former 7th grade teacher and current tutor; I see this all the time. 7th grade is when the reading for all classes gets a lot harder--longer passages, smaller text, more description, harder vocab, more inferences. Kids can struggle with this for any number of reasons, including needing to strengthen their executive function to pay attention, weak vocab, or weak background knowledge. These could be signs of a learning disability/ADHD but are also just as likely signs that they could benefit from the maturity of time or from outside support, which could come from you or from a tutor.

Would your kid be open to your doing some HW with them 1-2 nights a week, just to see how they think? You could be able to inject a few strategies that would really help, or be able to give a brief summary of the reading that would unlock their understanding for the rest of the book. You could use that to determine whether they need ongoing support or whether a little spot-check here and there is good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did your school move to the 90/10 grading system? Where quizzes/tests are worth 90% of grade and homework 10%? Ours did and it’s terrible. It benefits no one. Homework and in class assignments make up the bulk of the class work, then there might be a couple quizzes and tests sprinkled in. Sometimes teachers will only make them 10 questions! So if your child gets a 9/10 or 8/10, on that one quiz, it could bring their whole grade down to A- or B.

But with that said, it does sound like she has poor study habits and isn’t preparing. I’d say no to group studying- especially in 7th grade. You know they are mostly goofing off. I found middle school is hard to help your child. I often didn’t know what was due when, when tests would be, or even the content. It isn’t like 1995 when you could bring your textbook home and your mom could quiz you over chapter 5 material. I don’t think there is much you can do other than checking her grade daily and making sure she doesn’t have missing assignments, ask when tests are and make sure she is dedicating time to study.

Are you in Loudoun? My son is in 6th grade and this is so frustrating. Some of the tests will even have less than 10 questions so missing 1 is already an A-.