8th grade Language Arts

[Mabelen]

My 8th grader has just started attending public school. She has been tested as gifted, especially in the Language Arts area. This is the kid that was reading fluently in both English and Spanish by the age of 4 without having had any instruction.

 

Soon after the beginning of the school year she started complaining her Language Arts class was too easy, and that her teacher gave very easy work with very generous deadlines, and made it look as if it was a big thing. For example, they have this online grammar program, which I believe is a good program, but for instance they were required to do the first 9 lessons in unit 1 in 3 days, my daughter did 19 lessons in class on the first day getting all 95% to 100% scores! We just relocated and prior to our move she was in an independent school where she always felt challenged. We waited for school to start in earnest thinking the pace would pick up, but it did not.

 

I had a conference with her teacher and had no satisfactory answers - this from a teacher who claims to have certification in gifted education! I already spoke with the counsellor and they will not change her to a different teacher who I know is giving more challenging work, so I have two choices, #1 Talk to the Principal (I don't know if this will do any good though) or #2 Forget about #1 and do it myself at home. I am more inclined to doing #2 but I need a good solid program because neither my dh nor I are native English speakers.

 

Another gripe I have is that she is having to take the California English Language Development Test (supposedly for students with a home language other than English for whom there is no previous testing) even though she has lived in English speaking countries all her life and has been schooled in English from Pre-K to 8th grade. Her reading lexile is that of an advanced 10th-12th grade level, and both her Maps Reading and Language Arts scores are above those of the average 8th grade Gifted Spring Norm scores (and this testing was just done in her school in the last month)! I just think this is a total waste of time, I know it won't hurt, but why bother when there is so much evidence that she is proficient in English!

 

I want her to be stretched and to be well prepared for English Honors in High School. I am worried she won't be if she is coasting all this year. Does anybody have any advice? What areas should I focus on, any ideas?

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

Well, my kids are still little, so I don't have personal experience with this. However, my goddaughter has always been way ahead of the game in language arts, too. On her first day of first grade, she read the whole reading book that was supposed to last the whole year. The teacher had no clue what to do with her, so her mom planned out work, sent it to school with her, and she did the extra work at school. They eventually sent my goddaughter to a higher grade for reading, and now she is in 5th grade and is in the 6th grade reading class, but her mom still sends extra work to school with her. I don't know if this would be a possibility for you. You could plan the lessons and just have your daughter complete them when she finishes her easy work at school.

[cougarmom4]

I'm in a very similar situation with my ds12, 7th grade. He just started public junior high after homeschooling much of last year and being in a charter school previously. I was completely shocked to see his reading list (of novels the entire class will read together) included Harry Potter #1 (he read it as a 2nd grader!) and Holes. There were a few others--popular type of books that I wasn't as familiar with...but clearly not literature worthy of analysis & discussion. Ah, that might be the key right there...they must not plan on doing much analysis & discussion! I feel like reading instruction in ps is all about enjoying reading...but certainly there should be more to it. As for writing, their assignments thus far have been more of the 'fun' types of things--writing a recipe (the kind with 1 cup enthusiasm, 2 tsp determination, sprinkled with something) and watching a TV show & writing about the plot.

 

Anyhow...I'm with you. I am also trying to determine what to do at home for afterschooling...as it looks like this is my only real option. Honors classes don't start until 9th grade at our school. I'm trying to pinpoint exactly what it is that I want to focus on...should it be grammar? Writing? Reading worthwhile literature? Discussion of the lit? Vocabulary? It's going to be hard to do it all, so I need to prioritize as to what is the most important. Any opinions?

 

I'd question the testing you said your dd had to do to prove English profiency. That seems so ridiculous! Is there anyone you can talk to so you can get her out of it? It seems like her scores from last year ought to stand for something.

 

Good luck!

[Mabelen]

I'm in a very similar situation with my ds12, 7th grade. He just started public junior high after homeschooling much of last year and being in a charter school previously. I was completely shocked to see his reading list (of novels the entire class will read together) included Harry Potter #1 (he read it as a 2nd grader!) and Holes. There were a few others--popular type of books that I wasn't as familiar with...but clearly not literature worthy of analysis & discussion. Ah, that might be the key right there...they must not plan on doing much analysis & discussion! I feel like reading instruction in ps is all about enjoying reading...but certainly there should be more to it. As for writing, their assignments thus far have been more of the 'fun' types of things--writing a recipe (the kind with 1 cup enthusiasm, 2 tsp determination, sprinkled with something) and watching a TV show & writing about the plot.

 

Anyhow...I'm with you. I am also trying to determine what to do at home for afterschooling...as it looks like this is my only real option. Honors classes don't start until 9th grade at our school. I'm trying to pinpoint exactly what it is that I want to focus on...should it be grammar? Writing? Reading worthwhile literature? Discussion of the lit? Vocabulary? It's going to be hard to do it all, so I need to prioritize as to what is the most important. Any opinions?

 

I'd question the testing you said your dd had to do to prove English profiency. That seems so ridiculous! Is there anyone you can talk to so you can get her out of it? It seems like her scores from last year ought to stand for something.

 

Good luck!

 

I have decided not to rock the boat regarding the English proficiency testing. It is ridiculous, but at least it won't be detrimental to my daughter! I think I have to pick my battles with school carefully and this one is pointless. I know I will receive a letter in the mail declaring my daughter proficient and that will be the end of it... that's what happened with my 5 year old in Kindergarten, but at least I realized there was a point on testing her since there really was no other official evidence of her English proficiency!

 

I am right there with you regarding prioritizing. I think I will leave grammar out since at least I know they are covering that part systematically. I am planning on having her take part in NaNoWriMo in November. I showed her the information last night and she was so excited! It was close to bedtime and I had to peel her off the computer to go to bed. So probably October and November we will focus on that, then I am unsure as to how to proceed. I will also check out a book club held at the public library. Other than that I am not sure what to do yet, so I would welcome any ideas you may come up with.