End Goals

[Targhee]

What are your end goals for homeschooling your LC child? What skills, knowledge, and competencies do you want them to achieve by the time they are done with high school and ready to leave for college/trade/work??

 

Do you want them to have completed certain courses? Taken certain tests? Be able to write certain papers? Be able to create and keep their own schedule? Be able to budget and track their money?

 

I realize this will be different for each child based on their particular needs and circumstances. Some end goals might be emotional, social, or based in practical life skills even. I would love to see these end goals/benchmarks from this group, as opposed to the general high school board group.

 

To be honest, I'm trying to plan benchmarks for my 2e oldest. We have been on the fence about whether next year is high school or gap year before high school. I think we may, instead, set the end goals and say "when you reach these benchmarks you'll have done the minimum to graduate." Just mulling this over. Thanks for input.

Edited February 17, 2016 by Targhee

[nanette0269]

I would love him to have intrinsic motivation....with that, the whole world will open up.  Can't exactly test for that though :)

[Targhee]

Some things I've thought about already

 

Academic

Able to plan, research, organize, edit, annotate, and/or otherwise complete:

• an expository history paper on an assigned topic

• an expository science paper on an assigned topic

• a persuasive paper on an assigned topic (stance is her choice)

• a literary analysis paper on assigned book/topic 

Able to complete an organized, supported, basic (5 paragraph or similar) essay from a given prompt in under 45 minutes

 

Engage in a group discussion, expressing opinions and politely disagreeing and agreeing with people

 

Able to take notes from a lecture (how to measure that they're effective notes?)

 

Able to take notes from a text (how to measure that they're effective notes?)

 

Complete math through Calculus (this is her strong area and I think she may choose AP and beyond)

 

Complete a year long course in US History/Government (she hates history, and for some reason US History the most)

 

Practical Life/EF

Be 100% responsible for tracking, planning, completing and turning in assignments, interacting with other students, and interacting one-on-one with the instructor in an outside class

 

Able to consistently pay a bill for 12 months time (cell phone? car insurance? something I make up? this is an EF thing that I'm really worried about)

 

 

 

Social/Emotional

Plan, invite, execute activity with friend/friends independently (except for any incidental support like a ride)

 

Able to name how she is feeling and express it to someone else with assertive confidence (we definitely need to break this one down for intermediate goals)

 

 

 

[PeterPan]

Well if you're on the fence, do the gap year.  It's easy to do DE and keep going, and you can always go oh, let's graduate earlier than that.  Just harder to add it at the end.

 

Your very last goal of the whole list is the one most concerning to me and the one I would focus on.  If you don't have social, you aren't employable.  So social is the one to nail.  That's what you'll regret in 5-10 years, not whether she can write a paper.  She can learn to write those papers in DE or whatever, but social skills are challenging to make up.

 

In fact, I'll go so far as to say if you're struggling so much to make that happen, I would go ahead and outsource that now.  

 

You seem very concerned about writing.  Is she struggling with writing?  I don't know if you've already said her diagnosis or you don't want to?  If you're seeing challenges with writing, those could go back to that diagnosis.  Then it's a question of whether they're EF or reflect deeper language challenges or what.  That would be something to sort out.  I don't think writing particular types of papers matters (heresy!), but I do think it matters if you deal with the underlying issues so she CAN.  But if she doesn't do them till DE and she DEs later by doing that gap/5th year, that's fine, kwim?  But if she's having challenges with understanding details vs. main points, understanding inferences, organizing her thoughts, getting her thoughts onto paper, whatever, these are foundational.

 

So to me, that goal, with my dd, becomes: ability to get her thoughts onto screen and ability to understand how to get her thoughts organized into a way people can understand.  

 

I actually agree with and see why you put in that goal about organizing things with friends.  I'll take that one step further, or at least say how it shows up with my dd.  In our house, that thing I'm looking for is taking responsibility for that whole process.  I'm FINALLY seeing that shift from "it's 11 and can I go do x in an hour" to "I did my work ahead, can I go do x in an hour".  THAT to me is huge, huge, huge.  But I think we're saying the same thing and I'm saying I get what you mean.  It's this little incidental thing that, you're recognizing, reflects a lot of mature life skills that she needs in place to be functional and ready.  Totally agree.

 

I would budge on the history.  If she's enjoying her math that much and clearly that bright, then I would do history WEM style, letting her pursue topics from angles that interest her more.  It's entirely unnecessary to study history straight through, chronologically and grotesquely, focusing on white men and their battles.  She could pursue the history of mathematics across time, silverware across time, science fiction across time, music across time, lingerie across time, midwifery across time, women's rights laws and legal issues across time, keep going...  And it doesn't have to be in order.  You could make a checklist with key centuries/time periods and say she needs to read books or watch videos to hit those key time periods in her area of interest.  You could set a minimum number of required horizontal history texts to read.  You could put together a set of virtual fieldtrips or actually travel to complete the study.  For instance, for US, you could do virtual england (pilgrims launch site, blah blah), jamestown, yorktown, etc.  You could give her a list of 36 key things that she is to use to create a US History vacation guide that could be a whole year long project.  You could have her watch the Drive Thru History dvds.  You could get the VP cards and have her do them all in 2 years, focusing on OTAE/NTGR/MARR the first year and US1/2 the 2nd.  Or spread those over three, with OTAE/NGTR year 1 and MARR year 2.   She would use them as her bare minimum, learn this, spine, and then fill in with intellectually appropriate things.

 

History is just way overrated.  It's taught way too linear, way too disgustingly.  I certify myself as problem the biggest history hater on the boards, and I say it's because it's focused on names, makes no sense (not explained as things overlapping, too linear, incomprehensible), and too focused on details.  History is a never-ending fractile, with continued detail no matter how deep you dig.  You can't WRAP YOUR BRAIN AROUND IT.  So when you quantify something and say here are the 36 main points you must know and you're done, that's making it comprehensible.  When you say let's do history from the perspective of music and say screw wars, etc., you still LEARN about the wars and white men and all that, kwim?  Or do american history with movies, kwim?  I took a whole class in high school on 20th century that was just videos every day.  Most popular class in the school, lol.

 

I think high school needs to involve empowering them and them finally figuring out they have an angle on things THEY are interested in.  With my dd, I use essays.  She just has this passion for writing and lit, so to connect with science, with history, with anything via essays and good books really works for her.  And she walks away going THAT WAS INTERESTING, rather than learning a list of terms and forgetting them.

 

And that's really controversial, because then you have exposure gaps.  Oh well.  I finally gave her a couple history texts this year, and I'm like just read 'em, fill in those gaps.  

 

I don't think kids necessarily stay passionate about the same things through high school and into adulthood.  They might, or they might not.  But to get latched onto something or explore topics from the perspective of that thing for a while, that can be really healthy.  Opera, does she like opera?  You could cover tons of history with opera.  And that social stuff and perspective taking.  You could watch an opera together every week, reading the libretto, asking what the characters are feeling, looking at how it shows.  Then you could look at another version (maybe a more modern one!) of the same opera and see how that changes.  A lot of your self-awareness and noticing how others feel is EF (executive function).  So when you say ok, it's EF, that means it's also something that responds to therapy, to work.  This means, ok, we can work on this in our literature time, in our opera time, with video modeling, etc., and we can actually make some headway here!  Absolutely you can, and that way you're merging your goals.  Because, like I said, I think your last goal is SO important.  It's THE goal, and you could spend two years going ok, every single thing we're going to do (a mythology study, our math, our lit, our science) we're going to use to work on this self-regulation and the social understanding.  Mythology would be WAY awesome for that, and you could find a way to count it as history, kwim?  It's something I've thought about with my ds.  All those wacky gods and their crazy actions.  How do they feel?  How do you know what they're feeling?  How does the art portray that?  How do we look when we feel that way?

 

There's a book VideoCues we were just discussing and there was a webinar on it too.  

 

For the notes, I'd just get the IEW Adv. Comm. series.  Good enough.  She can work through it when you're ready and apply.

Edited February 18, 2016 by OhElizabeth

[FairProspects]

I'm not sure about the end game at this point, but I can tell you that the EF skills alone make me thrilled we decided to go with the lower grade. I knew ds was behind in EF skills but I had no *idea* how far behind he was, and I can tell now that he is in school with same age peers. He is WAY behind in independence, organization, and general EF management skills. I think we will get there and thankfully his charm makes a lot of people more willing to put up with his quirks, but I'm so grateful we decided to go with the lower grade to give the EF more time to mature and develop. Socially, the lower grade has helped too.

 

We can always find ways to challenge him academically with additional courses, mentors, etc. but for us anyway, the EF & social/emotional had become the biggest barriers to moving forward. We just had to pause and let him work that out, even if he all the math is a review for awhile.

Edited February 18, 2016 by FairProspects

[Heathermomster]

This is a great question.

 

DS needs to understand algebra, be able to answer essay questions, have study skills, and work on EF.  I really want him to be comfortable using his accommodations and be able to self-advocate.  I also want him to know the LORD and be content with himself.

Edited February 18, 2016 by Heathermomster

[Targhee]

Thanks, OhE! I added my own comments in blue. Really at this point my focus is on defining the end goals, and later she and I will map out routes to get to them.  I will definitely hit the Hive up for help in that process, too! 

Well if you're on the fence, do the gap year.  It's easy to do DE and keep going, and you can always go oh, let's graduate earlier than that.  Just harder to add it at the end.

 

Yes, that makes sense.  Gap year is the way I have been leaning.  Knowing my own dd, I need to have this all fleshed out before approaching her, though - I have a strong suspicion she will take the idea of a gap year really personally, as if we doubt her ability.  I need to make it objective - here are the goals, if you achieve them in 4 years great, 5 years is OK though too, but either way these are the end goals.

 

Your very last goal of the whole list is the one most concerning to me and the one I would focus on.  If you don't have social, you aren't employable.  So social is the one to nail.  That's what you'll regret in 5-10 years, not whether she can write a paper.  She can learn to write those papers in DE or whatever, but social skills are challenging to make up.

 

In fact, I'll go so far as to say if you're struggling so much to make that happen, I would go ahead and outsource that now.

 

Thanks. I agree social skills are paramount to a happy and successful life, and that's why I included them in my end goal.  It is still a working list. DD is an introvert by nature, her ADD makes her a bit of a daydreamer on top of that, and on top of that she has some anxiety over the fear of making social missteps or doing things wrong.  I'm not worried that the social won't come, but at this point initiating social activities is one goal I have for her.  She enjoys getting together with other teenagers, and she participates - she just isn't initiating.  Heck, I remember middle school being a time where I just didn't feel I fit in with anyone, and it took me until I was nearly 15 before I felt like I knew who I was with some surety, ergo I knew how I lined up with the world around me. I still have anxiety over making phone calls under certain circumstances, so while dd's anxiety isn't debilitating it is something I can both relate to and see the need to address.  

 

You seem very concerned about writing.  Is she struggling with writing?  I don't know if you've already said her diagnosis or you don't want to?  If you're seeing challenges with writing, those could go back to that diagnosis.  Then it's a question of whether they're EF or reflect deeper language challenges or what.  That would be something to sort out.  I don't think writing particular types of papers matters (heresy!), but I do think it matters if you deal with the underlying issues so she CAN.  But if she doesn't do them till DE and she DEs later by doing that gap/5th year, that's fine, kwim?  But if she's having challenges with understanding details vs. main points, understanding inferences, organizing her thoughts, getting her thoughts onto paper, whatever, these are foundational.

 

So to me, that goal, with my dd, becomes: ability to get her thoughts onto screen and ability to understand how to get her thoughts organized into a way people can understand.  

 

Yes, writing is a struggle in certain respects.  DD is 2e, with both ADD and a language-based LD.  She actually writes very well as far as voice, vocabulary, grammar, sentence variety, and literary/poetic elements go.  She started a novel with NaNoWriMo last fall, and works on it with pleasure.  Expository writing is a struggle in general (and summary and outline skills are in particular), and a point of resistance from an otherwise compliant child.  I'm savvy enough to know that the resistance most likely stems from lagging skills or delayed cognitive ability.  Teasing out which it is from asynchronous development, EF deficiencies from the ADD, and the language-based LD is difficult, but we're working on it.  

 

Delineating several specific academic writing goals is important, I believe, because I think they are within her grasp to achieve but I need her on board with getting to those goals.  I hope to get more cooperation in developing the specific skills when she sees they're non-negotiable.

 

I actually agree with and see why you put in that goal about organizing things with friends.  I'll take that one step further, or at least say how it shows up with my dd.  In our house, that thing I'm looking for is taking responsibility for that whole process.  I'm FINALLY seeing that shift from "it's 11 and can I go do x in an hour" to "I did my work ahead, can I go do x in an hour".  THAT to me is huge, huge, huge.  But I think we're saying the same thing and I'm saying I get what you mean.  It's this little incidental thing that, you're recognizing, reflects a lot of mature life skills that she needs in place to be functional and ready.  Totally agree.

 

I would budge on the history.  If she's enjoying her math that much and clearly that bright, then I would do history WEM style, letting her pursue topics from angles that interest her more.  It's entirely unnecessary to study history straight through, chronologically and grotesquely, focusing on white men and their battles.  She could pursue the history of mathematics across time, silverware across time, science fiction across time, music across time, lingerie across time, midwifery across time, women's rights laws and legal issues across time, keep going...  And it doesn't have to be in order.  You could make a checklist with key centuries/time periods and say she needs to read books or watch videos to hit those key time periods in her area of interest.  You could set a minimum number of required horizontal history texts to read.  You could put together a set of virtual fieldtrips or actually travel to complete the study.  For instance, for US, you could do virtual england (pilgrims launch site, blah blah), jamestown, yorktown, etc.  You could give her a list of 36 key things that she is to use to create a US History vacation guide that could be a whole year long project.  You could have her watch the Drive Thru History dvds.  You could get the VP cards and have her do them all in 2 years, focusing on OTAE/NTGR/MARR the first year and US1/2 the 2nd.  Or spread those over three, with OTAE/NGTR year 1 and MARR year 2.   She would use them as her bare minimum, learn this, spine, and then fill in with intellectually appropriate things.

 

History is just way overrated.  It's taught way too linear, way too disgustingly.  I certify myself as problem the biggest history hater on the boards, and I say it's because it's focused on names, makes no sense (not explained as things overlapping, too linear, incomprehensible), and too focused on details.  History is a never-ending fractile, with continued detail no matter how deep you dig.  You can't WRAP YOUR BRAIN AROUND IT.  So when you quantify something and say here are the 36 main points you must know and you're done, that's making it comprehensible.  When you say let's do history from the perspective of music and say screw wars, etc., you still LEARN about the wars and white men and all that, kwim?  Or do american history with movies, kwim?  I took a whole class in high school on 20th century that was just videos every day.  Most popular class in the school, lol.

 

I think high school needs to involve empowering them and them finally figuring out they have an angle on things THEY are interested in.  With my dd, I use essays.  She just has this passion for writing and lit, so to connect with science, with history, with anything via essays and good books really works for her.  And she walks away going THAT WAS INTERESTING, rather than learning a list of terms and forgetting them.

 

And that's really controversial, because then you have exposure gaps.  Oh well.  I finally gave her a couple history texts this year, and I'm like just read 'em, fill in those gaps.  

 

I don't think kids necessarily stay passionate about the same things through high school and into adulthood.  They might, or they might not.  But to get latched onto something or explore topics from the perspective of that thing for a while, that can be really healthy.  Opera, does she like opera?  You could cover tons of history with opera.  And that social stuff and perspective taking.  You could watch an opera together every week, reading the libretto, asking what the characters are feeling, looking at how it shows.  Then you could look at another version (maybe a more modern one!) of the same opera and see how that changes.  A lot of your self-awareness and noticing how others feel is EF (executive function).  So when you say ok, it's EF, that means it's also something that responds to therapy, to work.  This means, ok, we can work on this in our literature time, in our opera time, with video modeling, etc., and we can actually make some headway here!  Absolutely you can, and that way you're merging your goals.  Because, like I said, I think your last goal is SO important.  It's THE goal, and you could spend two years going ok, every single thing we're going to do (a mythology study, our math, our lit, our science) we're going to use to work on this self-regulation and the social understanding.  Mythology would be WAY awesome for that, and you could find a way to count it as history, kwim?  It's something I've thought about with my ds.  All those wacky gods and their crazy actions.  How do they feel?  How do you know what they're feeling?  How does the art portray that?  How do we look when we feel that way?

 

There's a book VideoCues we were just discussing and there was a webinar on it too.  

 

Thank you for the suggestions on history.  I was warm-and-cold about history as a high school student; I hated it in middle school.  It can be done terribly.  I'm not adamant about linear history, dates and names of people and battles, etc. My stated end goal of having US History/Civics is about helping her become an informed citizen - aware of the origins of our Constitution and form of government, basic understanding of political processes in the country, as well as knowledge of major events and figures which shape our current landscape. We'll work out the shape of the course later.

 

I agree that learning does need to involve empowering them in their own interests.  That is a significant part of our homeschool.  We have nonnegotiable elements to our studies, but we also meet every few months to talk about their interests and passions, and set some general goals and make plans for exploring things.  Then we meet weekly to plan their personal study time.  My hope is to continue to feed a love of learning, develop EF in goal setting/planning/scheduling, and to support them in exploring their own interests with skills to do so.

 

For the notes, I'd just get the IEW Adv. Comm. series.  Good enough.  She can work through it when you're ready and apply.

 

I haven't looked at the Adv Comm series, but I will.  I believe the note taking issues stem from the same place as the expository writing issues - which place we're still trying to locate ;-).  We have tried a few things like Cornell notes, mind mapping, traditional outline notes, etc.  We'll keep exploring vehicles for taking notes until we find something that works for her - maybe IEW will help!

 

 

[Targhee]

Thanks to those who have shared.  I'd really love to hear more, if others are also thinking in terms of end goals for high school.

 

I've added a few things to my list in progress (new in bold).  

 

Academic

Able to plan, research, organize, edit, annotate, and/or otherwise complete:

• an expository history paper on an assigned topic

• an expository science paper on an assigned topic

• a persuasive paper on an assigned topic (stance is her choice)

• a literary analysis paper on assigned book/topic 

Able to complete an organized, supported, basic (5 paragraph or similar) essay from a given prompt in under 45 minutes

 

Engage in a group discussion, expressing opinions and politely disagreeing and agreeing with people

 

Able to take notes from a lecture (how to measure that they're effective notes?)

 

Able to take notes from a text (how to measure that they're effective notes?)

 

Complete math through Calculus (this is her strong area and I think she may choose AP and beyond)

 

Complete a year long course in US History/Government (she hates history, and for some reason US History the most)

 

Practical Life/EF

Be 100% responsible for tracking, planning, completing and turning in assignments, interacting with other students, and interacting one-on-one with the instructor in an outside class

 

Able to consistently pay a bill for 12 months time (cell phone? car insurance? something I make up? this is an EF thing that I'm really worried about)

 

Able to independently break down large assignments into smaller tasks, schedule and complete the smaller tasks, and synthesize the larger project by a due date

 

Able to work in a group on a problem and be able to discuss, compromise, collaborate, encourage/give positive feedback, and exhibit professionalism and a positive attitude

 

Social/Emotional

Plan, invite, execute activity with friend/friends independently (except for any incidental support like a ride)

 

Able to name how she is feeling and express it to someone else with assertive confidence (we definitely need to break this one down for intermediate goals)

 

[OneStepAtATime]

Good thread.  Following.  

[kbutton]

Targhee, I love, love, love this list, and I am enjoying the comments.

 

One thing I'd say about the types of papers--it may not be necessary for some kids to know how to do all of those kinds of papers, but some kids need to see enough different kinds of writing to be able to see which skills are consistent across all of them and why they are alike/different. Can you tell my son is a "reverse engineer" sort of kid. Also, a purpose to a paper imposes a certain amount of organization on its own, which can be valuable for a student that struggles to organize or put thoughts into a hierarchy. I would humbly suggest (still trying it out here) that knowing the audience for each an every piece of writing helps with this too. 

 

If you had told me in high school or even halfway through college that I was going to be a technical writer, I would have laughed until I turned blue. I tested out of all of freshman composition just to avoid having to come up with something to say in an essay. The one and only writing assignment I enjoyed in high school was a research paper--I didn't have to come up with what to say; the topic dictated that to me. I hated essay questions on tests--is it an essay, or is it a test question? Just how much do I need to answer? Do I answer like we're having a conversation, or do I answer like someone is reading the answer but doesn't know what the question was? 

 

None of these things were evident to me, so I think covering a variety of kinds of writing is important. Also, if the student stumbles onto one kind of writing they do well, they can get comfortable with that and then carry that over to the other kinds of writing.

 

I would have NEVER been able to answer an opinion question in any academic fashion in high school. I equated such a question with "I really and truly think this with all my heart," or "when you say this, this is what comes to mind." No one, at any time, told me that I could just pick a POV (any POV!), find facts to support it, and then write about it, and I would not have been able to articulate that that is what I needed to hear! (It was also a small school in a small town where teacher had either taught my parents, aunt, and uncles, or went to school with my parents, aunts, and uncles, I would have been mortified to express an opinion and have someone take me the wrong way.) And for the record, I was a really good student, but I was a big picture, whole to parts learner, and I don't think I had a single teacher in K-12 who taught whole to parts. I was the kid with the good grades that got asked all the time to help with homework, but it was usually the other kids' questions that helped me figure out what i was missing in class, lol! The kids who were "struggling" grouted the tile for me, so to speak, and then I could see the mosaic and explain the picture back. I am sure they never quite realized they were tutoring me as much I was them. I just felt bad they were getting worse grades and did what i could to help.

[texasmama]

This is a hard one for me.  My son is academically doing well in a college prep but not rigorous course of high school subjects.  That alone is worthy of mention.  :)  Because his is motivated to do well academically, my main goals in that area is to continue to provide him with outsourced classes and materials which are a good fit for his abilities.  He is having a good 9th grade year.

 

My main goal for him is to stretch him a bit each year.  I want him to try new things and have new experiences and think about things that he didn't think about before.  It is important to me that each year he has a bit more independence.  Although it will be awhile before he is driving independently, I talked with dh about maybe getting him his learner's permit this coming summer so he can start to take very short trips through our neighborhood to start out with.  (Our neighborhood consists of one long street and a few cul de sacs and no through streets.)  Since I want him to drive independently at some point, and I know he needs huge amounts of practice doing new things to develop a comfort level with them, that seems like a good idea.  He might have a learner's permit for two years for all I can predict.  I want him to feel comfortable, and we have to start somewhere.  We are rural and not in an area where public transportation is an option.  I do what I can to encourage his social outlets, as well.  In addition, I think he would greatly benefit from a part-time job earlier rather than later in life - again, so he can get real life experience with a starter job.  He will dual enroll, as well, probably starting with an online class and then working up to an on campus class.  The more experiences I can give him, the better.  I fully expect that he will be able to attend college and be successful and will be independent.  I also expect that he will be with us for a long time, longer than the other kids.  We are fine with that.

 

 

[kbutton]

He might have a learner's permit for two years for all I can predict.  I want him to feel comfortable, and we have to start somewhere.  

 

Unfortunately, our state doesn't let you do this. I think you have to test within a certain amount of time (road test, not permit test), and then if you fail the test a certain number of times (or maybe not pass it before your permit expires), I think you have permit test again, start your driving hours all over again, etc. I guess we could just keep doing the permit test, but I think there is a limit on that too. Anyway, a friend is having significant drama with this right now, and it's not fun for them. 

[FairProspects]

I'd add:

 

Able to advocate for themselves for their learning needs. With the disability office, the instructor, other classmates or assigned note takers, etc.

 

It is critical that our kids know how to ask for their accommodations respectfully and through the proper channels. Also that they know how to stand up for themselves when well meaning but ignorant or inexperienced individuals do not honor their accommodations.

 

Also, time management. Having a GOOD understanding of how long certain tasks will take them and budgeting that amount or more of focused time. Not giving up because the tasks take them longer than others but just accounting for that time and planning it in. Acceptance of their strengths and weaknesses and themselves.

[Targhee]

Targhee, I love, love, love this list, and I am enjoying the comments.

 

One thing I'd say about the types of papers--it may not be necessary for some kids to know how to do all of those kinds of papers, but some kids need to see enough different kinds of writing to be able to see which skills are consistent across all of them and why they are alike/different. Can you tell my son is a "reverse engineer" sort of kid. Also, a purpose to a paper imposes a certain amount of organization on its own, which can be valuable for a student that struggles to organize or put thoughts into a hierarchy. I would humbly suggest (still trying it out here) that knowing the audience for each an every piece of writing helps with this too.

 

If you had told me in high school or even halfway through college that I was going to be a technical writer, I would have laughed until I turned blue. I tested out of all of freshman composition just to avoid having to come up with something to say in an essay. The one and only writing assignment I enjoyed in high school was a research paper--I didn't have to come up with what to say; the topic dictated that to me. I hated essay questions on tests--is it an essay, or is it a test question? Just how much do I need to answer? Do I answer like we're having a conversation, or do I answer like someone is reading the answer but doesn't know what the question was?

 

None of these things were evident to me, so I think covering a variety of kinds of writing is important. Also, if the student stumbles onto one kind of writing they do well, they can get comfortable with that and then carry that over to the other kinds of writing.

 

I would have NEVER been able to answer an opinion question in any academic fashion in high school. I equated such a question with "I really and truly think this with all my heart," or "when you say this, this is what comes to mind." No one, at any time, told me that I could just pick a POV (any POV!), find facts to support it, and then write about it, and I would not have been able to articulate that that is what I needed to hear! (It was also a small school in a small town where teacher had either taught my parents, aunt, and uncles, or went to school with my parents, aunts, and uncles, I would have been mortified to express an opinion and have someone take me the wrong way.) And for the record, I was a really good student, but I was a big picture, whole to parts learner, and I don't think I had a single teacher in K-12 who taught whole to parts. I was the kid with the good grades that got asked all the time to help with homework, but it was usually the other kids' questions that helped me figure out what i was missing in class, lol! The kids who were "struggling" grouted the tile for me, so to speak, and then I could see the mosaic and explain the picture back. I am sure they never quite realized they were tutoring me as much I was them. I just felt bad they were getting worse grades and did what i could to help.

Thank you for the insights!! I do think there is a lot of learning style/thinking differences that at play in DD's writing (and speaking) difficulties. I will make sure we are presenting the big picture (purpose, audience, appropriate voice, etc) as we continue to build writing skills. DD is a strange mix of global and analytic thinking. I have tried to include whole picture explanations for writing tasks, but I think there is a lot more I can do in this regard. Edited February 21, 2016 by Targhee

[Targhee]

This is a hard one for me. My son is academically doing well in a college prep but not rigorous course of high school subjects. That alone is worthy of mention. :) Because his is motivated to do well academically, my main goals in that area is to continue to provide him with outsourced classes and materials which are a good fit for his abilities. He is having a good 9th grade year.

 

My main goal for him is to stretch him a bit each year. I want him to try new things and have new experiences and think about things that he didn't think about before. It is important to me that each year he has a bit more independence. Although it will be awhile before he is driving independently, I talked with dh about maybe getting him his learner's permit this coming summer so he can start to take very short trips through our neighborhood to start out with. (Our neighborhood consists of one long street and a few cul de sacs and no through streets.) Since I want him to drive independently at some point, and I know he needs huge amounts of practice doing new things to develop a comfort level with them, that seems like a good idea. He might have a learner's permit for two years for all I can predict. I want him to feel comfortable, and we have to start somewhere. We are rural and not in an area where public transportation is an option. I do what I can to encourage his social outlets, as well. In addition, I think he would greatly benefit from a part-time job earlier rather than later in life - again, so he can get real life experience with a starter job. He will dual enroll, as well, probably starting with an online class and then working up to an on campus class. The more experiences I can give him, the better. I fully expect that he will be able to attend college and be successful and will be independent. I also expect that he will be with us for a long time, longer than the other kids. We are fine with that.

I like this thinking - continual gentle stretching, working towards independence, and being realistic with how and when that might be achieved.

 

Driving has been a concern for me. The distractability, and the difficulty focusing attention on the appropriate things, has serious consequences when you are driving! I had thought about delaying getting her license, but I didn't think about extended permit driving (duh!) - great idea.

[Targhee]

I'd add:

 

Able to advocate for themselves for their learning needs. With the disability office, the instructor, other classmates or assigned note takers, etc.

 

It is critical that our kids know how to ask for their accommodations respectfully and through the proper channels. Also that they know how to stand up for themselves when well meaning but ignorant or inexperienced individuals do not honor their accommodations.

 

Also, time management. Having a GOOD understanding of how long certain tasks will take them and budgeting that amount or more of focused time. Not giving up because the tasks take them longer than others but just accounting for that time and planning it in. Acceptance of their strengths and weaknesses and themselves.

Very good point! DD has trouble being politely assertive, and that is something I have been trying to address here and there, but I really need to approach this more directly and intentionally so she can speak up for herself.

 

Time management is HUGE - we've been working on this specifically for three years now, but I know this will be a life-long struggle. It makes me a little less certain what type of end goals for high school to set. Some of this will have to be time, as her prefrontal cortex continues to thin into her 30s. I need to work on this, but also establish external supports and accommodations.

 

This last bolded part is critical - they need to understand and value their unique strengths and weaknesses!

[texasmama]

Unfortunately, our state doesn't let you do this. I think you have to test within a certain amount of time (road test, not permit test), and then if you fail the test a certain number of times (or maybe not pass it before your permit expires), I think you have permit test again, start your driving hours all over again, etc. I guess we could just keep doing the permit test, but I think there is a limit on that too. Anyway, a friend is having significant drama with this right now, and it's not fun for them. 

I will look into this.  It seems odd, doesn't it, to limit the amount of practice a person gets?  You need however much you need, I think.  

[texasmama]

I looked into the learner's permit, and it expires when a person turn 18 and is not renewable as a learner's permit after that time.  So it looks like he could get it and truly have it for over two years before he turns 18, if needed - at least in Texas.

[kbutton]

Thank you for the insights!! I do think there is a lot of learning style/thinking differences that at play in DD's writing (and speaking) difficulties. I will make sure we are presenting the big picture (purpose, audience, appropriate voice, etc) as we continue to build writing skills. DD is a strange mix of global and analytic thinking. I have tried to include whole picture explanations for writing tasks, but I think there is a lot more I can do in this regard.

 

My son needs whole to parts and then parts to whole. It has to be elements of both and mostly in that order (some switching back and forth comes into play). I am mostly whole to parts, but then I have to sift the parts back through the big picture and make sure i don't make up something just because it jives with the overall big picture. I can take in details, but I prefer to work it out vs. having them presented. They make more sense if I can put them where I think they belong than if someone imposes their own structure on it for me (unless they are prescient). In other words, my intuition sometimes leaps ahead of the details, and I smoosh two ideas together that are actually more nuanced, and that sifting on my own (or through talking) helps me correct that tendency.