Ground Floor/Remediation Help for 9th Grader

[Raeof5]

Hello, I've decided to bring my daughter home for her high school years because I feel like she's seriously fallen between the cracks in public school. I don't even know how she was getting the grades she did get because she needs so much help in the basics and I feel so ashamed that I didn't realize how much she was struggling before. So, now I need to play some serious catch up.

 

She does want very much to go to college and become either an ethical hacker or something to do with crime scene investigation. She likes to joirnal but her writing is very immature for her age I feel. She needs serious help in writing, math and reading. She can read but not as well as she would like or as well as I think she should be able to read. She does not like to read at all but that may be because of the reading difficulties.

 

I really need help in making a plan that will catch her up and lay solid foundations as well as get her ready for college. She's willing to work year round if necessary and just really wants "to feel smart and not struggle anymore". I don't think there are any learning disabilities at the moment. She went to a school where wrong answers were marked with stars and happy faces because "she tried". She's a very creative, artistic person who learns better visually.

 

So far I've looked at these products for this year. Can you help me construct a plan for her? I'm not sure what's too much or what will help. Please feel free to suggest things that aren't on the list. We want to begin as soon as whatever I order arrives. Thank you so much!

 

English:

-Fix It Grammar

-Jensen's Punctuation

-Killgallon (middle school books)

-Movies as Literature

-Writing with Ease

-Phonics Pathways

 

Math:

- Lial's BCM

- Not sure what else for actual algebra.

- Also need something to really cement math facts because she has trouble retaining those.

 

I think we will be ok for history and science and electives. Thank you once again for your help!

[gstharr]

I suggest you start with a review of great references on this board: 

Starting High School, Outsourcing, Online Class, Tutors, Dual Enroll., AP, PSAT, SAT/ACT, SAT II, CLEP, GED -- links to past threads here!

Started by Lori D., Aug 21 2012 08:31 A

[Another Lynn]

I'm curious if others would recommend Writing With Ease for you or not.  It certainly does address some of the skills you are concerned about.  But.  If I remember correctly, it will sometimes expect the student to remember some fairly picky details from the passage which can be frustrating.  And you may feel like you're not catching up quickly enough.  IEW (Institute for Excellence in Writing) has its pros and its cons, but it can be used across lots of different levels which might be a good thing in your situation.  You can start with single paragraph re-writes and repeat those as long as you need and then work up to longer selections.  If you think you would be comfortable teaching it without the dvds, I would start with theme based writing books (All Things Fun and Fascinating or the one about Myths would have lots of easier selections to re-write from, or you could look at the Ancient History theme based book.)  

 

Movies as Lit. sounds like a great idea.  At the same time, I would assign books slightly below her level to increase fluency and enjoyment.  Once fluency and enjoyment increase, you can slowly climb the ladder of more grade appropriate or challenging books.  If you know of challenging books you think she would enjoy, read them aloud and discuss them together.  This will really help comprehension, vocabulary, etc.  

 

You're a great Mom for recognizing her need and addressing it!    

[OneStepAtATime]

Hugs.

 

I know you feel there are no learning issues, just a bad school, but if she is struggling across the board in many areas you might want to consider actually doing more in depth research into learning challenges. Time is ticking. If she does have an underlying issue getting it addressed now will make a huge difference. If research raises some red flags then getting a neuropsychology evaluation to determine if she might have stealth dyslexia or dyscalculia or dysgraphia or is dealing with extremely low working memory/processing speed/executive functioning issues/developmental vision issues or even ADD could really give you a much better path to follow to help her. Any of those things, if not properly identified and addressed, could be holding her back from her true potential. Look into twice exceptional (2e) kids, too. Some kids are super bright but their gifts mask their issues and their issues keep them from really surging forward in areas of strength. They tend to fall through the cracks the most because the reason for their underlying issues is not obvious.

 

Maybe read up a bit, possibly even check out The Mislabeled Child and The Dyslexic Advantage by Brock and Fernette Eide. Or get on the Barton Reading and Spelling Website to read a bit more about dyslexia and possibly the Roni Bird site regarding dyscalculia. You might also hop on the Learning Challenges board and talk to other parents of kids that ran into some academic issues.

 

As for material to use, whatever you use, if it has a placement test please use the placement test. Improperly placed students can get severely demoralized especially if they then have to start over at a lower level. Start her where she is actually at, not where her grade level from school says she should be. Don't panic. Things can be sped up later once the foundation is more solid.

[EKS]

Agreeing with OneStep that you should strongly consider getting her evaluated for learning disabilities.  If she has LDs and needs accommodations on the SAT/ACT or in the classroom in college, she needs an official diagnosis.  The information from the evaluation will also help you help her to learn in your homeschool.

 

As for what to do:

 

For math, I'd consider doing a quick run through of Math U See (elementary level materials, so Alpha-Zeta).  Lial's BCM is great, but if she is a visual learner, the MUS approach might really click with her.  It also really focuses on the concepts, whereas BCM focuses on procedures (there are concepts in there, but they aren't emphasized like they are in MUS).  You could probably get through the end of Zeta in a semester.  I'd give her the placement test to see where she places and start there.  Be sure to give the test exactly as the instructions say, watching her do the problems and looking for discomfort/distress/confusion as she does them.  Finding the problems to be easy is just as important as getting them right.  If she knows her addition and subtraction facts, she won't need to use Alpha, and if she knows how to add and subtract multidigit numbers reliably (with regrouping) with understanding of what she's doing, then you won't need to use Beta either.  Once you have her placed, she will probably also be able to speed through the first several lessons of each level.  (I know all of this because when my son was halfway through Saxon 7/6, I decided there was something amiss about his understanding, gave him the MUS placement test, and he placed into Beta, which is essentially 2nd grade math.  We did Beta-Zeta in five months and it was one of the best decisions I ever made.)  I should mention that this option is expensive, but if you can get materials used, it may be doable.

 

Then I'd switch to BCM once she's done with MUS.  I'd use it to cover anything MUS missed and as a great big review.  I'd present the material to her and if she can do the example problems on her own with no input from you, then she doesn't need to do any practice problems on that particular topic/problem type.  I've used Lial this way (both BCM and her Intermediate Algebra books) and it works like a charm.  You will want to linger on the chapters at the end of the book on algebra and geometry.  At the end of BCM, she should be ready for Algebra I.

 

Reading:

 

Have her read aloud to you every day.  You will be working on fluency here, so the books you choose need to be very easy for her to read.  She should be able to read them with very few mistakes at at least 100 words per minute, but your goal should be 150-200 words per minute.  You may have to start with books for much younger children--that's ok!  Just gradually up the reading level until she is able to read on grade level at 150-200 wpm for 30 minutes at a time.

 

In addition to reading aloud, if she already knows basic phonics, I'd have her do REWARDS, which helps kids learn how to decode multisyllabic words.  There is REWARDS Intermediate and REWARDS Secondary.  Use Secondary if she is able to read easily and fluently on a 4th grade level (and use Intermediate if it is a 2nd grade level).  REWARDS is an extremely powerful program and consists of only 20-25 lessons (some of which are better done over two days).

 

While you're doing all of this remediation, it is important to have her work at a higher level as well.  Read works that challenge her aloud (so literature, nonfiction, history, science, etc).  Discuss them.  Have her stretch her thinking and reasoning skills, which will probably be far above her reading/writing skills.

 

Writing:

 

This is trickier, because teaching writing is always tricky.  Grammar is fairly straightforward--my favorites are Michael Clay Thompson's materials for concepts alternated with Hake Grammar for practice, but this may not be the most efficient approach.  For writing, during the first year, I'd probably have her simply write about what she is learning, starting with sentences, moving on to paragraphs, and then introducing multiparagraph pieces in the last month or two of the year.  For all of her written work, I'd focus on clarity and coherence, nothing fancy.  Also, if she doesn't know how to type well, this is the time to learn.  Then next year you might want to introduce a writing program.  I don't make recommendations about writing programs, because I have never found one I like, but some resources that are worth looking at are Grading with a Purple Crayon (which is a writing program of sorts) and Engaging Ideas (which is actually for college instructors, but it has a ton of good information about teaching writing and using writing in the learning process).

 

Also, know that there are really no magic resources.  The key to remediating this sort of thing is tons of one-on-one instruction and guided practice.  If something isn't working, don't be afraid to make changes.  It may take a few tries to get things right.  

 

Best of luck to you and your daughter.  I suspect that once you start working with her, you will see good progress. 

Edited July 11, 2017 by EKS

[Raeof5]

Thank you all! Her older brother was diagnosed with ADHD so I will definitely look into LDs.

 

EKS, do you think the Miquon books would do the same as the MUS? I have those already for my youngest so I was wondering if that would work.

[EKS]

Thank you all! Her older brother was diagnosed with ADHD so I will definitely look into LDs.

 

EKS, do you think the Miquon books would do the same as the MUS? I have those already for my youngest so I was wondering if that would work.

 

I have never seen the Miquon books, but in looking at a few samples, I noticed that they seem to be not as focused as MUS (and I think that focus is really helpful for accelerated remediation).  Also, the MUS materials don't look like they're made for little kids, the way what I saw of Miquon did.  I know your daughter is motivated, but it seems like if you can avoid reminders of how far behind she is, that could only be a good thing.

[Raeof5]

Ok, thank you! I'll give her the placement test as soon as we get home. I feel a little better about all of this.

[katilac]

I would seriously consider using an online program that assesses what the student knows, and what would be best to learn next. It can be really time-consuming to just work through everything with a text like Lial's BCM, and it's not always needed.

 

ALEKS is one I have used for math, but they don't offer language arts. I know that IXL has all of the main subjects, but I haven't used it myself. 

 

What I like about this approach is that she can spend time each day remediating specific skills as needed, while still having time to do more interesting work. So she might be remediating punctuation, but also reading and discussing important novels. For math, I'd probably just have her do ALEKS or whatever until she is algebra ready.

 

Check your local library for online resources, mine has a bunch of helpful stuff, including live online tutors in every subject and a writing lab. With the writing lab, you submit a paper online and they return it with feedback in a day or two. It's helpful to have objective feedback. 

 

 

[Vida Winter]

I would consider IEW for all things concerning writing and grammar, and CLE for math, which can be accelerated, supplemented by Khan Academy (use Khan several levels below grade until she is comfortable with moving up). I would also add read-alouds, copywork, and dictation (easy to start with), and good books that are below her reading level that are not a struggle. Start there, and gradually move on. You want it to be easy, then more challenging once a comfort level is achieved, even if you need to start at a 5th grade level or below.

[Raeof5]

Do you have any recommendations for an online writing course and the assessment that you mentioned?

 

I would seriously consider using an online program that assesses what the student knows, and what would be best to learn next. It can be really time-consuming to just work through everything with a text like Lial's BCM, and it's not always needed.

 

ALEKS is one I have used for math, but they don't offer language arts. I know that IXL has all of the main subjects, but I haven't used it myself.

 

What I like about this approach is that she can spend time each day remediating specific skills as needed, while still having time to do more interesting work. So she might be remediating punctuation, but also reading and discussing important novels. For math, I'd probably just have her do ALEKS or whatever until she is algebra ready.

 

Check your local library for online resources, mine has a bunch of helpful stuff, including live online tutors in every subject and a writing lab. With the writing lab, you submit a paper online and they return it with feedback in a day or two. It's helpful to have objective feedback.

[TarynB]

You're getting great suggestions already, and I don't have much to add, but I wanted to mention this website for online reading and math assessments, which they call DORA and ADAM/DOMA. I've used them in the past and was pleased with the feedback reports we received. These might help you pinpoint your daughter's current level in these subjects, see what she's mastered already and where to focus next.

 

https://www.letsgolearn.com/lglsite/assessments/

 

 

Edited July 11, 2017 by TarynB

[Raeof5]

Excellent! Thank you so much!

 

You're getting great suggestions already, and I don't have much to add, but I wanted to mention this website for online reading and math assessments, which they call DORA and ADAM/DOMA. I've used them in the past and was pleased with the feedback reports we received. These might help you pinpoint your daughter's current level in these subjects, see what she's mastered already and where to focus next.

 

https://www.letsgolearn.com/lglsite/assessments/

[Raeof5]

Excellent! Thank you so much!

 

You're getting great suggestions already, and I don't have much to add, but I wanted to mention this website for online reading and math assessments, which they call DORA and ADAM/DOMA. I've used them in the past and was pleased with the feedback reports we received. These might help you pinpoint your daughter's current level in these subjects, see what she's mastered already and where to focus next.

 

https://www.letsgolearn.com/lglsite/assessments/