Moved to New School- Repeating Content

lovessleep

Wed, Dec 23 2015, 2:25 pm

Hi, we recently re-relocated to Ohio where we had been living before we had been in NJ for the last 3 years (while my husband was in graduate school). My kids were in YBH of Passaic and my son's 2nd grade rebbi was terrific, so much so that he still knows pretty much by heart all four parshios he learned last year. This has become a bit of a problem since in his new school their pace is different and for the last 3 months they covered one of the parshios from last year (Chayeei Sara) and have recently started the last one my son did in 2nd grade (Toldos). At the beginning of the year when everything was new and shiny my son was able to control himself despite the fact that he was bored to tears during chummash but he's been slowly unraveling over the last month or so. I had spoken to the school's admin about this before the move since I was told what the learning schedule was to be but I was told they would deal with it as problems arose - and now that behavior and attitude has become a factor, they need to deal with it. The problem is that they don't have any resources available to be able to pull him out of class during chummash to do something else with him. I considered moving him up to 4th grade because he is one of the oldest in his class but the school didn't think he was prepared enough in secular studies (to which I agree). Everyone seems to be all out of ideas and I'm feeling a bit hopeless. If anyone has any suggestions at all, I would *greatly* appreciate hearing them. Thanks!

bigsis144

Wed, Dec 23 2015, 2:43 pm

Just so you have this perspective, I switched schools and went from 2nd to 4th grade exactly for that reason.

The school I came from was Ivrit b'Ivrit. My parents knew it was closing and so in May of second grade I sat in on a third grade class at the school my parents wanted to send me to. They were still chanting "vayomer: and he said" to teitch each possuk. Multiple times. I literally was crying by the end of the period begging my mother not to put me in that class.

So I got put in 4th grade. I had to catch up on multiplication and cursive handwriting (the two big things I'd missed skipping 3rd grade), and that was stressful for a while (no special tutors, just my parents and flashcards and one of those multiplication "push a button on the grid to see the product" boards), but I caught on and it was fine.

seeker

Wed, Dec 23 2015, 3:48 pm

Is he missing in skills/abilities or just in content in secular studies? If it's just content then you may as well go for it and tutor him to close the gap. If he'll be behind in reading fluency and and in math concepts that might be more of an issue. Does the school have any resources to help kids catch up? Is he a quick learner?

seeker

Wed, Dec 23 2015, 3:50 pm

Alternatively, if the schedules are the same/similar can he be in 4th grade for kodesh and stay in 3rd for secular studies? By the end of the year maybe he'll catch up enough in the secular to fully merge into the same class. I have had at least one student who did some variation on this and it worked for them.

lovessleep

Wed, Dec 23 2015, 6:39 pm

When he started school I did have them do their full battery of tests (which I'm assuming covered both skills and content) and he was missing important skills in math and language arts. It's possible we could find a 3rd/4th grade english tutor since I don't have the patience and time to do this supplemental teaching and he is a quick learner (albeit a bit lazy sometimes) soni could see that working. I'll bring the idea up at our "roundtable meeting" next week. I'm more concerned that my son won't actually want to move classes since he loves his friends and feels comfortable in his class though.

lovessleep

Wed, Dec 23 2015, 6:41 pm

seeker

Wed, Dec 23 2015, 7:52 pm

Loves his friends and at the right skill level for 3rd grade... sounds like the better idea is staying put and seeing if he can join a different class just for chumash. Either that or the rebbi had better find a way to engage him even with him knowing the parsha already. It's called differentiation and it's something the rebbi should learn how to do regardless.

lovessleep

Wed, Dec 23 2015, 8:20 pm

He's a first year rebbi - I'm not sure he knows much about differentiation and I think it would be hard for anyone in this case (it's a class of 18 boys at extremely varied levels) and even the more veteran curriculum development person who has been trying to help doesn't know what to do. I'm kind of blown away by this because this can't be such a rare circumstance in smaller schools like ours.

DrMom

Thu, Dec 24 2015, 2:41 am

seeker wrote:

Hard, shmard - if the class is extremely varied then that only makes it even more important. Until now it seemed it was only your child who was extremely varied. Can they bring in an assistant and have groups at different levels?

This. 18 kids? That's not a huge class.

How is your son handling the secular studies?

(Typos corrected)

Last edited by DrMom on Thu, Dec 24 2015, 3:04 am; edited 1 time in total

lovessleep

Thu, Dec 24 2015, 3:01 am

The Rebbi has asked for an assistant but the school is not able to provide one. They did some restructuring in the class a few weeks ago which apparently has taken care of the issues with the mid and low level students. My son and another boy (who is just one of those "ilui" types ) are the only ones that need the extra resources at this point and they're not going to do anything for just two kids.

My son is doing fine in the secular studies but he's not a big fan of common core and likes to solve problems his own ways so he gets kind of frustrated with the curriculum. He's not a careful test taker either so I'm sure that the evaluations weren't the best reflections of his potential.

lovessleep

Thu, Dec 24 2015, 8:33 am

That was the first suggestion from tthe school but doing worksheets is not the kind of thing that makes my son happy and fulfilled. Maybe older kids could do that successfully but 3rd grader is just too young. I had suggestesuggested that he form a chavrusa with that super smart kid- that they could sit on the side and learn rashi together or something like that but for some reason the curriculum director person didn't think that was a workable idea.

seeker

Thu, Dec 24 2015, 11:44 pm

Extension work shouldn't by definition mean worksheets. Some of it could be on paper but only within the context of a larger learning relationship - for example, prepare this and that on your own today and we'll discuss it and or present it to the class tomorrow. Very different than doing worksheets and giving them in to be graded, see? Because they're ahead of the rest of the class they can strengthen their understanding of the material by "helping" create materials to supplement the lessons for the rest of the class. for example, they can use what they know (which would necessarily involve reviewing it as well, thus they are practicing their learning and textual skills without feeling as redundant as going through it with the class for the first time) to create a poster or powerpoint presentation illustrating or explaining a topic, which the rest of the class can view/enjoy/use to enhance their own understanding of the unit. There are all kinds of extension activities that can be used to engage kids at different levels, rather than disengaging them as worksheets are wont to do.

naomi2

Mon, Dec 28 2015, 4:31 pm

I would NOT move him up a grade if he has friends where he is. that is an extremely important part of school. you and the rebbe need to come up with a solution together of how he would do other work or read quietly during chumash time. if he can't do independent work, he is not advanced enough to go up a grade.