GRRRRRRRRR

[mel]

Over the past three weeks i have noticed that my S cannot read. he memorises his school reading books when we read with him. I have mentioned this often to his teacher and this morning i mentioned it again. After murmering words to the affect of 'he's doing ok' she walked away and said to the TA 'i think im more qualified to be able to tell if a child can read than she is and S is reading really well'. OOOOOOOHHHHH im hopping mad

i thought about not reading with him at home so she could see on their ONE reading day a week that he is not getting it but if i do that i feel that im not doing the right thing for my S.

can anyone give me any ideas on how to get the point over to an 'obvious expert'

[mossgrove]

Could you ask her to sit with you while he attemts to read a book he has never seen before? It migh be an eye-opener for her!

 

Simon

[Brook]

Hi Mel,

 

Maybe you could get one of the books he has memorised and write a list of words from it, then see if he can read those actual words in a different text. If he cant then send in the book and list and ask her to have a look.

 

Brook

[LKS]

Hi Mel don't know how old your S is but my daughter is what the school like to call a struggling reader She is in year 4 and has been statemented since year 1. I have always known she has a huge problem with reading the school are reluctant to acknowledge how bad this is.. Don't give up on this Mel, don't let your S get to my daughters age and experience the misery of not knowing how to read. She also guesses a great deal of words, but take away the pictures or take the words out of context and she is lost I know that they have standardised reading tests at school this gives the teacher an idea of the child's reading age. The one used on my daughter was a list of words not in alphabetical order or anything and with no other clues. Good luck Mel

[puffin]

I agree that you should ask the teacher to test his reading with an unseen text with words that she thinks he knows - without any picture clues.

[call me jaded]

I would approach the Headteacher on the basis that you've spoken to S's teacher and did not get a professional response. Then relay what was said. I would then stress that I was not out to cause trouble, but that I would really like to have a second opinion as to whether S is reading or memorising the words, in a way that causes the least stress to all.

[mel_jayne]

Hi all,

Most schools test all children to find out where thy are in there eduction.I had a few probblems with my kid's school .So in the end i went to the local education department.The school weren't very happy but now they work with me

[mel]

thanks everyone spoke to Ss teacher again this morning, gave her the list of so called 'read words' and she said she would test him this afternoon and let me know how he does. i was still angry this morning and mentioned her unprofessional comment to the TA to her. i pointed out that as i had known my son for all his 5 years and she had only dealt with him for 4 weeks, i was more qualified than she was to know if he could read or not! I told her that next time i had a problem with Ss education i would go straight to the head instead of bringing it to her attention. She couldnt apologise enough and has told me that she will arrange fortnightly meetings with me so we can discuss Ss progress. I need to lose my temper more often it seems.....

[call me jaded]

It really saddens me that parental concerns are dismissed until you show you mean business. Let's hope this is one teacher who has learnt a lesson.

[mel]

I hope so, it makes me so mad that teachers seem to get respect, every one thinks they are always right. even my own dad said "im sure she knows what she is doing". nobody knows more about our children than we do.

[Zemanski]

teachers get respect because most of the time, for most kids, they do a pretty good job.

 

but this one was very unprofessional - her saving grace is that she admitted her mistake, backed down and is now trying to put things right - many teachers would have a really hard time doing that.

 

it is sad that we have to get so frustrated that we end up being pretty heavy with teachers but I'm really glad this parent-teacher relationship is back on track - it makes such a big difference.

 

hope she's learned to listen properly now

 

Zemanski