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[quote=Anonymous]I am really not sure what this has to do with my original response, but I'll try.  My responses are in bold below.

Before I begin, I'll say again, because I think it's getting overlooked that I do think that there are very valid reasons for families to choose private school.  I'm not claiming  that you didn't have good reasons for choosing private.  I'm not saying that your particular public school wasn't lousy.  There are good and bad public schools just like there are good and bad private schools.

I made a specific response to a specific poster who was making broad generalizations about public schools that were inaccurate.

[quote=Anonymous]To the teacher (my quote is challenging on the iPad)

Can you give these services to kids without IEP's?

1:1 - pull out of the class, etc

What if the kid does not qualify for an IEP?

[b]Some of them, not others.  Kids without IEPs at my school can be placed in co-taught classrooms, where there is a special educator involved in planning, and reteaching.  They can get small group push and pull out groups under our Response to Intervention program.  These services are likely to be a little more standardized, e.g. chosen from a list of 2 or 3 research based reading programs.  They are unlikely to get 1:1 instruction.  [/b]

Do you feel most teachers are able to do this or it is hit or miss.

[b]I think that there are skilled and less skilled teachers in both public and private.  Both can be hit or miss. [/b]

Do you do a modification for students that don't have IEP's?

[b]Yes, current best practices in special education, require schools to provide services and modifications before a child is referred for special education, in order to assess their response to intervention.  Does every school do this?  No, they don't.  But then again, not every private schools has Orton-Gillingham trained specialists either.[/b]

My son did not qualify to be pulled out otrek have an IEP his reading in 2nd grade was that of a beginning Kindergardener (reading out loud fluency and Accuracy) but he answered the comprehension questions at the level of a 5th grader, which apparently - I guess when averaged is on grade level.

[b]This makes no sense.  How could he comprehend a text he couldn't read?  A child reading on a beginning Kindergarten level, is reading scintillating texts that say things like "A lion" (next page) "A tiger" (next page) "A Kangaroo", it's pretty impossible to apply fifth grade level comprehension skills such as inferring character motivation to a text like this.

On the other hand, if he answered comprehension questions on a test designed for children to read themselves, but instead had the test read to him, then there's no validity in that.  Most young children understood texts that are far more challenging than what they can read until at least 5th or 6th grade.  This wouldn't be a valid test, and so scores wouldn't be averaged.

If he answered questions on a test designed to test listening comprehension, then those scores wouldn't be combined with reading scores, since they are two different domains.

It sounds like you are either misinterpreting/misrepresenting his scores, or you had a really bad evaluator, or both.  Bad evaluators definitely happen, whether in public or private settings.  Again, I'm not defending your particular school, just asking that public schools not be painted with a broad brush. [/b]

Do you think you would need 2 hours for reading/writing/etc you had 12 kids in the classroom half of which are reading 3+ grade levels above their grade level.

[b]I am confused by this question.  Did you move your nonreading second grader into a program like this?  I'd be pleasantly surprised to find out that a teacher with strong Orton-Gillingham skills would be working in such as setting.  I'd also wonder how well a child would be served in a program where the average student was 5 years above them.

To answer your question though, I think that even with small group sizes, and advanced students, children benefit from longer reading times than was in the proposed schedule I replied to.  However, I also think that that time should be divided up differently.

Kids who are advanced readers, where they are 2nd graders reading on a 5th grade level, or 5th grade level, benefit from time, time to go deep into reading and writing, to explore ideas, and make connections.  They benefit from longer periods of time for reading and writing to allow themselves to immerse themselves in ideas, and then to represent those ideas for others.  A good reading program for kids like this includes blocks of time for kids to read independently, and then blocks of time for them to reflect, whether in a book discussion, or in writing.  A good writing program includes time to work on a single piece, researching, drafting, adding details, organizing and reorganizing ideas, editing and polishing.  All that takes time.[/b]

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