4th grade; independent work; parenting and working

[Anonymous]

I'm wondering what the experience other families are having with DPCS fourth grade and handling both the supervision of when the kids need to be on for live instruction and when they need to be doing independent work. Especially for those with working parent(s), how are you managing it logistically, and is your child getting everything done that's expected in the course of the day?

Out youngest is in 4th grade and has struggled with remote learning, even though he's a smart kid and generally does well in school. I can't say as I blame him, as the curriculum is disconnected, and I'm not surprised he feels bored. Without the energy of the in-person classroom and the ways to build the lessons creatively in interactivity among the students, it starts to feel like worksheet worksheet worksheet.

We can make it work if someone is overseeing the logins, the troubles with Teams, and being available to answer questions about the assigned work during the school day, and so on. But that's not feasible every day, by any means, and on the days I'm on top of 4th grade, I get woefully behind on my own work. (Both parents in our house have to be on Zoom for chunks of time, often presenting. And the other work I have to do is not really work that I can do in short spurts. Trying to squeeze the work in during late nights is about to do me in.)

I'm asking here for your sense of how independent your 4th grader is able to be with DL. If it's working for you, what systems have you set up? How are you making this work? If it's not working smoothly, what decisions have you made--or are you making--in and among the assignments and tasks due? How much energy are you putting in to try to make something work that might just not be workable for some kids, especially at this level where they still very much need to move during the day (versus all these hours at the computer), and when concentration is still a point of challenge.

[Anonymous]

My 4th grade DD has been totally independent work-wise during DL. I have almost no idea what her schedule is, assignments are, etc. I've heard only good reports during my two video meetings with her teacher. I will say that I feel like she doesn't have enough to do; she comes to "visit" me often while I'm trying to WFH.

[Anonymous]

OP - yes we are also struggling - the best I can say we just try our best every day, some are better than others and you know what it will all work out - I am an wait to get DC back to school.

Here are some things we do
1. We have essentially stopped anything to do with specials - too much work - with really no benefit
2. We also don’t do any of the “can do” stuff
3. At dinner each night we review must do’s and what wasn’t done - and try our best to get lingering stuff done or we use the weekends for catch up
4. We have added timers and alarms to the Alexa to get DC more self sufficient with getting online
5. DC has a dedicated space with a desk and we’ve hung up all the items needed so we don’t have to help find “that piece of paper”
6. The writing has been the hardest part - we’ve been trying to get these things planned out and have it done in little bits not all at once - like do one paragraph today and one tomorrow, etc

[Anonymous]

Very similar experience to above. We ask non-specials teachers to email us directly if kid doesn't seem to be paying attention, or doesn't show up in meetings. The teachers have been good about that, embarrassing the kid, which helps keep her motivated. Not convinced she's learning enough from meetings, though she enjoys seeing familiar faces of both teachers and kids (we've been in the fairly small school since PreK). We ensure that the kid reads an hour in the evenings and do geography and history on our own, because the social studies curriculum is a joke. Writing is our weakest point - she fights it, but never mind. We're doing a lot better than in the spring.

[Anonymous]

Agree, for my third grader, he skips non-essential classes, he has alarms on the computer that go off to call him to each class, I review what he was supposed to have done with him at lunch and dinner with makeups in the evenings and weekends, and he has to eat lunch fast so he can go run a few laps around a park during lunch. A babysitter supervises outdoor time outside for a few hours after school. What a life, right?

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks for these responses, and it's not a surprise at this level that there will be a range of independence. But I especially appreciate the ideas you all offer here--several that I'd been mulling but that we'll now put to work. And just thanks for the companionship too, in this time that's difficult in so many ways.

[Anonymous]

Father of a 4th-grader. She is doing fine. She is self-motivated most of the time. She is keeping up and taking on more responsibility for her learning. It was hard at the start, but now it is much smoother. She also has a great teacher who is on top of her and her classmates.

[Anonymous]

Executive function deficits.

[Anonymous]

Ours has been great about being in class but he cuts corners/skips independent work. So We bought a day planner. Every morning we sit down with him and copy down assignments for the day. He has to add anything he hears about during class. He checks things off as he does them. We check in mid day and late afternoon. Trying to help teach him organization and self motivation. It’s a lot. I focus on math most because I feel like you have to practice that more. We read books all the time- so I think ELA will be fine if he does cut corners.

[Anonymous]

We are focusing on math. Teacher told us she will not teach writing essays, as are usually taught in fourth grade. My daughter finds the online dcps ELA curriculum where they read articles online and answer basic questions boring. I figure that they will teach the kids writing in fifth grade so we have her read books. Specials is too much screentime so we skip that. All of you have very good ideas. I think that getting the child to take responsibility is key, but it is easy to get distracted texting or watching a music video online. Ours needs a lot of monitoring, so scaling down expectations has been key.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Executive function deficits.

Executive function normalcy for 4th graders.

[Anonymous]

4th grade son has been struggling all year, and same with all of his other friends.

[Anonymous]

Likewise. It takes some 4th graders, especially boys, more executive function than they have to sit through a remote class when freedom is only a click away.

[Anonymous]

My sons have been doing fine keeping up. We do a lot of the scheduling things that others have mentioned.

Key for us has been printing out the Canvas schedule every morning. I put handwritten annotations on it too. I cross out most of the specials and other busy-work activities and also add things like household chores, indoor fitness routines, or supplementary educational activities. So they don't have a lot of down time but I make sure that they are off screens for their add-on responsibilities. They also are ok with me adding extra stuff because they see that in exchange I let them opt out of a lot of school stuff too. We also have at least 2 hours of scheduled outdoor time each day (each parent takes one hour). They know they can count on this and it is a huge boost to everyone's sanity. We both WFH and one parent is "on call" in the mornings and one in the afternoon, so if a child needs something, they know who to interrupt. As the school year has progressed the interruptions have been less and less frequent. That said we have also been very lucky in not having many technology hiccups this year. That is the one thing that is harder for them to navigate on their own.

[Anonymous]

Thankfully the fourth grader has the technology down (thanks to a lot of effort on the teacher's part, I'm sure). The challenge is not rushing through all the independent work and staying focused on the lesson. The curriculum has not been that interesting, so it's hard to stay motivated. Kids are really burnt out at the end of the day, so we're not supplementing apart from independent reading.