Meeting Reading Specialist tonight, need advice

[beishan]

My son is ESL student and was behind in reading in first grade. He started receiving pullout class in March. By May, he was still reading at guided reading level D/E per school final assessment. They expect at least level H at the end of first grade. We have been working hard with his reading through summer. We tried Reading eggs, AAR and finally landing with Dancing Bears and I SEE SAM. To cover any gap that I may leave, I also hire a reading tutor who teaches phonics in OG method and do guided reading with him. She is an experienced reading specialist (serves as Reading Specialist for 20 years) from neighborhood private school. With all the help from the tutor and me, he is making steady progress.

 

 

Early September, we finally found that he needs glasses (farsightedness) from exam at COVD and he got his glasses on September 11th. In mid September, school assessed his reading level and told me that his level remains unchanged at level D (=DRA 8) so he will continue for pullout class. I was in shock because I do see difference between May and today. Therefore, I requested his tutor to administrate a reading assessment privately last week. Her school is using DRA so she tested him on DRA. The result came out around DRA 14-16 which is late first grade level and not far behind from what school is expecting for beginning of second grade. It is a big different from the result at school (DRA 8). From my observation (he was reading Frog and Toad with help in June and is reading Young Cam Jansen with very minium help now), I would believe DRA 14-16 is more accurate.

 

 

I am meeting the reading specialist tonight. How should I proceed with this conversation to avoid offending the teacher? Our tutor does not mind presenting the written report she did to the school. She is confident with her result. I do appreciate that my son can receive the extra resource from school but I just need to make sure the help he received is what he needs. Not something he already knows forever.

[Tsuga]

Tough call. The teachers do a lot of these and they also know what they can handle in the classroom. For them, it's better to get too much help than too little, so if this teacher has a child who is just catching up and needs language assistance, I could see her erring on the side of caution. Perhaps try to go at it from her point of view:

 

"I know that there are some reasons to err on the side of caution, but I'd really like to see him working at grade level as much as possible, and I think that there is evidence he can do it. The tutor he has believes he can do it and has a written report. Do you see a solution that would have him moving forward, while still making sure that he's not taking too much individual attention in the classroom? For example, could we have him work on reading at this level, and if you find you need support, I can help in the classroom for those times, until you have a chance to do another evaluation?"

 

That's my suggestion. Perhaps someone else has another one.

[Pen]

What does he miss in the regular class during pull out time?  And how important or valuable is it compared to the pull-out?

 

Have you ever sat in on reading sessions in the class and in pull out session?  

 

 

Doing so (or asking to be able to do so) might give you a better sense of what is actually happening and whether it is helpful or not.   And / or ask exactly what they are reading in the pull out.   And how much time does he actually get to read with assistance in the pull out compared to regular class? And who is doing the teaching in either case?  

 

My experience is that pull-outs may have far fewer students per teacher and thus be valuable for time each child actually reads.  And even if it is a little low for him, the extra time might still be of help.   However, some pull-outs may be with more or less helpful/knowledgeable teachers.   The same though is also true of regular class where he may have an aide or parent come to work with his table rather than an experienced reading teacher.   

 

I would also ask if possible to know exactly what the test consisted of and what he did wrong that got him the low score.

 

You could also ask your son what he is doing in the pull outs and whether he thinks they are helping him or not.

 

I personally would not push to end the pull out time unless you know it is not helping him or he is missing something very important.

[beishan]

Thanks. Just came back from the meeting. So far the pullout session looks really nice. As Pen said, they only have 2-3 kids with reading specialist at the time. He is pulled out while the rest of class is having guided reading session with home room teacher. At the back to school night, home teacher mentioned that she normally could get to each student twice per week for guided reading. Other than that, they will do group reading. Therefore, he will definitely get more individual attention in pullout session. In the pullout session, they are using Wilson reading system to review phonics and go over some sight words as well. I just reviewed the units they have done in the past two weeks and seems suitable for him. He pass the unit test for vowel teams and they will soon to start guided reading with him. This reading specialist is really open mind and she is happy that we have a tutor to help us. She is not the one who tested him for reading level and she does even not know he needs glassess to read so big chance is that he forgot wearing his glasses when he was tested. She said once they started guided reading, she will have more time to observe him as a reader. If level D is too easy for him, they will move on to the higher level. His Dibels is just slight off the benchmark and he did very well on non sense words(much higher than benchmark). He just need more work on fluency (slightly off benchmark) and retelling. Now I do feel more comfortable to let him stay in the pullout session and also happy our district has good resource to help him.

[mathnerd]

As you said, you should be happy that your child gets pullouts for reading. This means that he gets far more individual attention in an area where he needs the most help in. Far better to have that than the opposite where the child who needs extra attention gets lost in a crowd in the classroom. I am happy for you that they are still keeping him in the pullout and good job on getting the outside tutor to help him.

[SKL]

My child is also in a pull-out that she probably doesn't strictly need at this point.  I am glad, though.  A little more practice can't hurt, and I believe that after having a really rough time last year, this area of new competence should build her up.  At least I hope so.  I have been invited to meet the tutor next week, but I'm not sure about fitting it into my schedule.

[kiwik]

It sounds like the ideal set up for a pull out. I'm sure as soon as they think he doesn't need it they will remove him from their list - if it is anything like here there will be other kids waiting.

[Pen]

Thanks. Just came back from the meeting. So far the pullout session looks really nice. As Pen said, they only have 2-3 kids with reading specialist at the time. He is pulled out while the rest of class is having guided reading session with home room teacher. At the back to school night, home teacher mentioned that she normally could get to each student twice per week for guided reading. Other than that, they will do group reading. Therefore, he will definitely get more individual attention in pullout session. In the pullout session, they are using Wilson reading system to review phonics and go over some sight words as well. I just reviewed the units they have done in the past two weeks and seems suitable for him. He pass the unit test for vowel teams and they will soon to start guided reading with him. This reading specialist is really open mind and she is happy that we have a tutor to help us. She is not the one who tested him for reading level and she does even not know he needs glassess to read so big chance is that he forgot wearing his glasses when he was tested. She said once they started guided reading, she will have more time to observe him as a reader. If level D is too easy for him, they will move on to the higher level. His Dibels is just slight off the benchmark and he did very well on non sense words(much higher than benchmark). He just need more work on fluency (slightly off benchmark) and retelling. Now I do feel more comfortable to let him stay in the pullout session and also happy our district has good resource to help him.

 

 

That's good!   I think you are lucky he is getting the extra help--more often the problem is the opposite, that a child needs extra help, but scores a little too high to get it.