feeling desperate - child struggling with new curriculum 2.0 in MCPS

[Anonymous]

MCPS was touting their wonderful new integrated curriculum but it's been a nightmare for my son. He has a severe fine motor delay and difficulty spelling and organizing his thoughts in writing. Although he gets OT, MCPS refuses to provide support with the writing process. The new curriculum is so writing intense! He's just feeling overwhelmed and hopeless. He's always been decent at math, but now he seems to be lost on that too. I'm just curious what accomodations are common with the new curriculum and how other children with SN are doing with it.

I wish I had money for private school, but I don't. I feel like I'm failing my son by leaving him in a bad situation. For what it's worth, he is in one of the highest performing schools in MCPS and the administration at the school is very kind. The big issue is the new curriculum combined with the fact the county reps refuse to provide appropriate services. At the IEP table, the reps from the county treat me like I'm just a whining, neurotic, helicopter parent. Everyone says hire a lawyer or advocate but I can't afford it and we make too much money for someone to take us on pro bono. I feel so stuck! All I can think to do is homeschool and my husband is opposed.

[Anonymous]

Has any academic testing been done to show he has other weaknesses related to writing besides fine motor delay? The academic testing results would be your support for any accommodations you're requesting.

[Anonymous]

Who are the county reps? At my DD's IEP meeting, everyone present was from the school. When you bring up your concerns, what do they say? Any chance he could work one-on-one with the resource teacher, or is that the service they're denying? Do you think a tutor with a special education background might help?

[Anonymous]

My sympathies OP. You're in a tough situation.

First, I forget what the program is called, but there is a way to send kids to private schools where it's publicly-funded, e.g., Chelsea School. Overall it might be worth the short term expense of a lawyer or educational consultant who can help you navigate the system.

You could also apply to privates and see if you get financial aid.

[Anonymous]

OP, are you sure it's the curriculum? I don't see a lot more writing this year as compared with previous years (my son is a second grader.)

My experience may not be relevant, but fwiw a lot of young boys struggle with all the issues you mentioned. I posted here in September with concerns about my NT son's writing and spelling (actually in the general schools forum if you want to find it in the archives) and got a wide range of responses. I've also posted here for help on the issue of organizing thoughts, which is also a struggle for him (he would go blank and just not write anything.) Many had helpful suggestions, including legos as a way to improve fine motor, and many suggesting he probably had some need for specialists of one kind or another. Somehow, though, he has come an amazing distance in just a few short months; his handwriting is almost unrecognizable from September and his spelling is intelligible and often correct! And now, with the amount of writing they do, he takes it in stride and doesn't seem to get terribly anxious about it. I can only credit his teacher, who is the best, and the fact that he just seemed to make a developmental leap - he's now reading comfortably above grade level, which may also help. I don't mean to discount your concerns about the curriculum or about his need for further interventions, just to tell you that the issues where your child has challenges are not uncommon and sometimes it's mainly time and maturity that helps.

[Anonymous]

18:18 Thanks for the perspective. I do agree that things will probably improve a bit just through the maturational process. The problem is that while we wait for them to improve, he's bringing home really poor work. The reason I think there is more writing is my daughter is in 4th grade at the same school. She did a lot of writing, but not across every subject. Even in math, he seems to have to do a lot more writing and explaining. He's in private OT, as well as getting OT in school, and it's helped a bit with handwriting. However, he has a pretty major weakness in his hands and we don't anticipate that improving much more. He still can't snap his pants and can't pull legos apart at all. He does extra OT every summer. We're just grateful that he can now write and cut with scissors. It's just exhausting to have to write such a large quantity. I believe next year they will be willing to allow the accomodation of a laptop, but I'll find out more on Tuesday at our next IEP meeting. As far as organizing his thoughts, I'm just hoping it will improve over time.

[Anonymous]

At his next IEP meeting, see if they can give him an alpha smart (basically a portable word processor) so that he isn't putting all of his energy into the actual activity of writing so that he has no energy left to come up with ideas (my son had the exact same problem). Also, see if they will give you a scribe for the writing assignments (basically, an aide who will sit with your son and write down what he says). Also, see if you can scribe homework for him. I know that he needs to practice writing to get better but for kids with low tone, there is only so much they can do each day. If his OT's aren't teaching him keyboarding, get Type 2 Learn and have him work on it at home. As he gets older, he is going to be typing, not writing, so he should learn it sooner rather than later. Ask if he can get modified writing assignments (i.e., if the assignment is to write 3 paragraphs, he only has to write 1 or something like that).

Also, I disagree with the pp about private placements. It is very difficult to get a private placement (i.e., private school paid) by MCPS.

Good luck at your meeting.

[Anonymous]

5:50 and 7:36, we have our next IEP meeting on Tuesday. MCPS sends a school psychologist and a PPW (pupil personnel worker) to the meetings. The school staff are always nice, but they seem to be afraid to stand up to the two MCPS reps. My other child has an IEP and because her services are different, MCPS reps are never present. It's a very different experience and I always leave feeling supported and acknowledged. Getting back to my son, I begged and pleaded for testing for a learning disability (he already receives services for speech and a fine motor delay) and they finally agreed. I received the draft report last week and I'm guessing from the way it's worded, they don't believe there is a disability. For now, his accomodations all relate to the physical act of writing. What I'm looking for now is someone to support him with written expression. He's coming home with extremely poor marks on his papers. After a slew of emails back and forth, I got word on Friday that the principal has now asked the resource teachers to work with him, but we'll see if he makes it official by adding it to the IEP. That's really all I was looking for from the start. The problem is that if it's not in the IEP, there's no promise it will actually happen.

I should also add that he's very good at math. He does quick calculations in his head and can solve real-world problems. However, on his math assessments, he can't explain how he got his answers. If I ask him to explain answers verbally and I scribe, the answer makes sense. If he has to just write it on his own, it's garbled. Nowadays, he's so frustrated that he simply writes he got the answer in his head. When we tell him to try to explain it, he starts to sob. It's really sad because he used to like math and his calculations are actually correct 95% of the time. I'm wondering if it's realistic to ask the teachers to scribe during math assessments.

[Anonymous]

23:19 here: Sounds exactly like my son at that age. They can put a scribe in his IEP. He can take his math assessments in a separate room with a scribe. If you aren't happy with the IEP, don't sign it. Are you on McNeeds? I know there are volunteer advocates who can come to the meeting with you (you may not have enough time to find one for this meeting but possibly for the next). You are doing all of the right things for your son. Now it is the school's turn to do their part.

[Anonymous]

23:19 here. Check out www.wrightslaw.com before the meeting for ideas and legal support.

[Anonymous]

My son is similar in terms of extreme handweakness (at that age) and difficulty with written output/organizing thoughts. He was also amazing with numerical calculations at age 5 but has trouble articulating how he arrives at an answer. I am new to this system so perhaps I don't know what I'm talking about, but I suggest you keep working on OT (hands WILL get stronger over the years), esp. on proper pencil grip, proper letter strokes, etc.; get all the help you can get....and then (here's where some may disagree) don't worry about his marks at this age. You set your own goals for his writing and encourage him to meet those. It is not worth his or your stress and as he matures he will be more capable of handling more work (I'm talking middle school and beyond). I'm not sure grades are important in the early stages except for getting into special programs (which seem high pressure to me--but don't quote me).

[Anonymous]

I feel for you OP. My DS can't generate ideas and write at the same time. He can do one or the other but not both at the same time. I also totally understand what it's like to be in a meeting and feel the staff is afraid to speak up to those who have the "power" in an IEP meeting (I think George Costanza called it "hand"). I know you say you can afford an advocate/consultant but I think you should rethink that. We had some similar problems getting DS into special ed and related services - a very, very difficult time. In desperation, we turned to an advocate/consultant. It was expensive but DS got what he needed and we got such piece of mind. It was well worth the cost (less than $1,000 for initial meeting, eligiblity meeting, IEP meeting + one follow up). We now only have the consultant/advocate come for the annual IEP review (about $350). Everyone is one time, well prepared and know they have to be on top of things or our consultant/advocate will be calling them on the carpet). My experience is that consultants/adovcates will allow you to set up a payment plan. Having her has really made a difference for DS and us. It's been such a relief and DS is really getting what he needs - for example, his special ed teacher allows him to record his ideas for writing and then allows him to type them on the computer (he's in 3rd grade). Even his second grade special ed teacher recognized that some kids just aren't up for the handwriting and taught some of them keyboarding. They're also teaching him test taking strategies, how to highlight text to find answers and other study skills. It can be done!

[Anonymous]

OP, I am an elementary school teacher and also a private tutor for kids having trouble with reading and writing (although I am not looking for new students right now).

There's an exceptionally good remedial writing curriculum I have recently found and begun using. It is called "Pattern Based Writing".

http://patternbasedwriting.com/

The first five patterns are very simple to teach and easy for kids to understand. The early assignments have kids mostly copying sentences, but filling in their own details. By doing this, the students develop writing stamina and get practice holding just a few ideas in their memory while they mentally rewrite a sentence so it makes sense.

For example, the first two sentences might be:

1. I know I'm sick when ________________________________, _______________________________________, and __________________________________.

2. ________________, ___________________ and ____________________________ are three ways I know I am sick.

While the above exercises may seem boring and uncreative, they are exactly the kind of basic practice many kids need. I have seen my poor writers improve dramatically after just copying into a notebook about three worksheet pages full of these types of sentences. Having a sentence with just three blanks seems to help them not get stuck when trying to generate ideas. After kids complete 3 pages of 30 sentences each, generating three details on each topic, they find it much easier to generate ideas on different topics of their own choosing.

Pattern 2 has the students take sentences with three details and turn them into a more generic topic sentence. For example, they turn this sentence:

1. After school, I have a snack, ride my bike, and watch some tv.

into this one:

1. After school I do several relaxing activities.

There are again several pages of this type of activity -- take a sentence with three details and turn it into a more general topic sentence. It seems rudimentary, but again, the child has to be a little creative (but not a lot) while writing a sentence on a piece of paper, copying many of the words (but not all of them) from a model. This provides just the right amount of scaffolding poor writers need, I believe.

Patterns 3 and 4 have children practice more generalizing and giving details on a topic, and by pattern 5 they are putting everything together to write a 5 sentence paragraph with topic sentence, 3 supporting details, and a concluding sentence.

Again, I realize that this system of writing may sound overly formulaic, but I have found that kids who see themselves as poor writers first really benefit from frequent practice with this type of structure. I don't think kids get enough basic composition instruction in school. Many need the extra practice. I have just used this system with 5 individual students (including my own 4th grader) since I learned about it a few months ago, but already I am seeing a great deal of improvement in my students' writing fluency and ability to generate ideas (and not get stuck).

If you are interested the curriculum can be downloaded from the above website. I can't remember how much it cost == maybe in the $30 range? WELL worth it.

[Anonymous]

To the PP with the "overly formulaic" writing practice -- this is perfect for MCPS, which is teaching thru their BCRs on math and reading assessments, an *extremely formulaic* way of writing. Even my very advanced vocabulary, high reading, strong writer daughter had trouble with BCRs when she transferred to MCPS. I had to literally sit down with the BCR rubric and teach her what the response formula was. Once I did that she improved.

My son has writing/language diagnoses and also has trouble with BCRs. In math particularly, what helps is getting a sample "good answer" to the math BCRs. Also a "word bank" as part of the BCR answer space should be given every time. And, the child has to have enough room to write, and separate paper to "brainstorm" or organize thoughts.

[Anonymous]

OP, my son, 2nd grade, is also struggling with the 2.0 curriculum. And I KNOW it is the curriculum that is challenging him because he also has fine motor delays and there is a ton of writing even in math. His confidence is being ruined, as math in general normally comes easily to him. But to have to write out an explanation for how he reached each answer is laborous for him and discouraging.

I am mostly angered that the curriculum is only in a few schools, sort of like a pilot. It's not fair that the 'pilot' school kids have to endure this curriculum and not the other schools' kids.

I sympathize, and don't think it's fair to kids like ours