English Woes and boys.

[scarlett]

Thanks daughter and pink panther....it's reassuring to know other dc are similar. He has always been the same. Everytime my dc write thank you letters, ds2 and dd will write a long chatty one, ds1 will literally write thank you and then a silly comment....all in massive letters to fill up the Page. I was looking at another piece of history where they had to describe the Bayeux Tapestry and he wrote "they crossed the sea in a boat " I did point out all the details which he missed, but he wasn't listening. Other pieces of work he can do well in...it would seem the " bones " are there, he just needs to put a bit extra effort in. Hopefully that will come!

[new2me]

My year 8 DS is exactly the same and he's driving his poor English teacher to distraction. DS loves reading but hates analysing and refuses to write more that a few lines on any subject. His teacher is hounding him to get the last tasks finished for the reading challenge and has resorted to writing notes in his planner. I checked his planner last night. Underneath his teacher's comment he had written - Please stop writing notes in my book. You're taking up too much space.

[Midget Man]

If you feel that teacher feedback isn't really helping either then I would email them asking for more in depth comments/guidance then your son will actually hear from someone that isn't his mum(mine hates mum being right). My sons latest essay had comments such as "I would condense this section", "I would have separated these two points" "good conclusion"

I am keeping this essay attached to the fridge to use as a tool for future essays.

[Belinda]

Sometimes it is the actual act of writing... It can be quite laborious doing it all day - and then more still for homework. Or... an achey wrist?

Maybe it will get better when your DS switches from mostly writing in a workbook to mostly word processed essays / work. Seems to happen / improve from Y9 on.

[Okanagan]

Could you suggest that when questions are set he's also given a guideline of the approximate number of words required for the answer? So it's obvious that if the question is "Describe what happened at the battle of X (100-150 words)", it would be obvious that "it was very very very b l o o d y" wasn't enough.

[mystery]

DS1's description of a battle: My year 4 child is heading this way already. A sentence as long as your son's will be a miracle by the time she is in year 8. She says "what's the point when I'm not going to be a writer?"

The significant point to me is that at my junior school and senior school one would not have dared turn in a piece of work like that. Or maybe some people did and I was just too silly and did not realise you could get away with it.

DS2's reading: do you think he makes those errors when he is reading in his head or is this a reading out loud phenomenon only - hard to tell I know. Does he make these errors when the text is harder or on all types of text? It is possible to do something about inaccurate reading if this is perpetual fault of his. Also it's perfectly possible to be assessed level 5 and make loads of errors like that. It's a task though. Younger children here showing signs of this habit / sloppiness / lack of attention to detail but it's hard to find the time with them to do anything about it. Toe by Toe, for example, would help if you could both be bothered with it and find the time. Lots of prisoners do it. Not sure if that will tempt him.

[KB]

If the teachers are not happy with the work why do they not make him redo it?
If he is not interested in doing more then why would he unless he is made to?
If its a subject wide issue then maybe try contacting the Head of Year so the school can implement a 'joined up' approach - maybe with the English teacher taking the lead or having specific targets set that the Head of Year then checks on?
I agree that the school should be setting very clear targets and then enforcing them rather than leaving you to fight the battle at home.


With regard to reading out loud - have you had DC's eyes checked by a reputable optometrist?
Apart from just being long or short sighted there are other specific issues that might be making it hard . Its also worth checking for visual perceptual problems that might be helped by coloured overlays (or even coloured glasses). These problems are often associated with dyslexia but are not confined to this group so DC would not necessarily be exhibiting any other difficulties in the classroom.

If its just a 'nerves' issue then you could try getting DC to record reading so can practice with out having anyone else listening 'live' or read either 'live' or recorded for a younger relative or friend to enjoy?

[scarlett]

I think I need to chat to ds1 to find out what his teachers say in class. Looking through his books , an abysmal piece of work is usually followed by a better one. Some teachers give examples of what they are saying...others just say it's rubbish. I'm just wondering if it's because he is lazy, finds the work too hard or runs out of time ( because he is messing around) no one has contacted me from the school, which they do if a child is struggling...so I guess he's just lazy.

Ds2 has perfect eye sight ( the opticians opinion, not mine ) and actually misses words out when he speaks as does dd. Not sure why. Ds asked to read from the bible at church recently, as ds1 often does and I was cringing before hand, but bizarrely he read fluently and not sounding as if he needed a good whiff of oxygen. What does that mean?

[Amber]

. Ds asked to read from the bible at church recently, as ds1 often does and I was cringing before hand, but bizarrely he read fluently and not sounding as if he needed a good whiff of oxygen. What does that mean?

It means he is perfectly capable of reading aloud when he can see a point to it. Many people are dreadful at reading aloud, and if it is performed merely as an exercise in reading aloud, then they might quite rightly wonder why it is worth putting effort in.

In the early days of parenthood I used occasionally to eavesdrop on DH reading to the children. Luckily he used to send himself to sleep long before they dropped off, so we didn't have to endure it for long.

[mystery]

Yes, I would suggest that is probably the case too - unless of course he had practised the passage he read in church. There's a difference between reading out loud, and reading in your head. If he is doing the same thing while he is reading in his head it could be a problem if he is doing it with a good percentage of words - but it is of course much harder to detect. Missing out words while speaking to you at home - yes probably just the same thing - not really concentrating on what they are saying - after all it's only Mum, doesn't matter does it because you can guess what they mean.

DH just the same both reading and speaking. Very irritating. It didn't happen when we first met - he was concentrating then!