PALS and failing to meet 2nd grade benchmarks
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Anonymous
| If you want your child referred for further testing/support, it will go faster if you do it yourself. In some schools, the referral process for teachers is overly cumbersome and frankly I think is designed to discourage referrals...which can be good if teachers are trying to "pass the buck" rather than improve their instruction, but not good if a child actually needs support. I worked in public schools for over a decade and also recently referred my own child for testing, so I can say from experience that they moved a lot faster on the parent-initiated referral. (Not saying that you need to refer, but just an FYI!) |
Anonymous
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Find out if there was a specific area on the PALS test she did not do well on.
You can work on fluency at home. Fluency is often tested by having kids read out loud and this is a hard skill for some kids to master and can affect the reading assessment skills. Pick a book that is appropriate to your child's current reading level. You can use the five word test - if there are more than five words the child struggles with on the first few pages, the book is too hard. Once you find a book that your child can read fairly easily, have them read out loud to you the same page or pages every day. The repetition builds confidence and allows them to work on adding in things like inflection which factor into reading assessment scores. |
Anonymous
What I'm struggling with now is how to distinguish between a problem that can be addressed by repetition and focus, and when it's time to acknowledge that the normal strategies aren't working and the problem is bigger than we originally thought. I appreciate all of the advice, and I suspect things could end up swinging in either direction for us. |
Anonymous
I am on the OP of the thread about moving to FCPS within 20 minutes of Reston. In my personal experience, LCPS is not going to do shit about your kids struggle with reading. My DD is in 3rd grade. I've been raising flags/asking for help since 1st. Past first grade, they don't actually TEACH reading. They just have the kids read independently and discuss their reading with other students. Teachers do NOTHING to actually progress the reading skills. I give up. |
Anonymous
FCPS will pull your child out for decoding and fluency instruction, but for the most part they are also working on comprehension over decoding and fluency from 2rd grade on. |
Anonymous
Comprehension is our issue. But there is NO instruction at all. Its "Read this, answers these questions, discuss with your partner." Where my mom is, 3rd graders still get 20 minutes of small guided reading groups w/teacher 3x a week. I have met several times with the teacher, had a reading specialist evaluation and meeting, and their "conclusion" is basically "huh, weird, well she doesn't have a learning disability, we don't know why she's struggling with comprehension. maybe she needs to just read more at home? shrug." There is NO core instruction at the school level! NONE. |
Anonymous
That's all most of us did in ES. We would read independently, meet with the teacher, take turns reading aloud and go back to our seat to answer questions at the end of the chapter/book. |
Anonymous
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It really helps if you read with her but don't require her to do all the reading. Read a few sentences, then have her read a sentence. Your "phrasing" will help her gain confidence.
I do volunteer tutoring with slow readers and this is the best method I've found. It's not based on anything I've been told, it's just the method that works for me. |
Anonymous
The problem is that they don't teach skills in isolation anymore so children don't even know what to look for. It's all about synthesis of skills which is great in theory IF the children actually learned some skills first before integrating them all together. |
Anonymous
| Whatever course you and others take, I would recommend the parent supplement classroom reading practice with the old fashioned way of teaching a child to read. First, start when they are 2 years old with flash cards - picture on one side and word on back. Show them the pictures over and over until they know what it is. Then start showing the picture and then the back. Ask them what it is - they should start putting the picture and word together from simple memory. If you are having terrible trouble in 2nd grade, you may want to consider having the child repeat 2nd grade before going further to 3rd. There are so many more skills needed in 3rd grade that it is very hard for the child to catch up without serious remedial intervention. |
Anonymous
| Ask for the PALs summary from the teacher and post it here. If they missed it by just a few points because of spelling, I would not worry, but I personally would work with my child a lot during the summer because you want them to go into 3rd grade strong. To be honest, no matter what I would get a tutor for the summer if you don't feel comfortable doing it yourself. But if it was just a few points on the spelling I wouldn't worry. Also, what was the reading level? |
Anonymous
wow... what truly horrible advice hahaha |
Anonymous
| Don’t wait for the school. Take action yourself now if you are in doubt. Get a tutor for the summer to strengthen your child’s reading skills. You should never delay help with reading. A tutor cannot hurt your child and will only help. |
Anonymous
| Why would someone resurface this thread from 2016? By now that kid is in middle school, right? |
Anonymous
Good catch. I was really confused because we only use PALS in kindergarten now. |