School Work

So, I went to Hazel's after school work session. It was...interesting. There's some things that are a little unique about Hazel's school and class. She is in the 3rd grade, so her class has 3rd and 4th grade students. This is good in a way, and bad in a way. I realized this before school started, but even more so after yesterday.

Let me explain.

One of the benefits of expeditionary learning is that the kids are supposed to be able to work at their own level. That being said, I think it is definitely better for kids that are supposed to be in gifted and talented programs. In some areas, Hazel is definitely on that. Harrison really is, and he is LOVING school. In other areas though, Hazel is NOT accelerated. This becomes a problem when assignments are given like the one she had to work on yesterday.

It was comforting to look at the other kids notebooks and know that she was writing the same way, style, same level, as they were.

Okay, now that I have you thoroughly confused, I will try to explain.

They are learning about rocks. For this assignment they were supposed to answer questions on igneous rocks. So, they had to copy questions from the board and then find the answers in the the handouts they were given.

Well...they had one set of handouts per table. I knew, right then, that that, for Hazel was a HUGE problem for her. Then, there were a ton of handouts. I think most 6th graders would have struggled, or maybe I'm just dumbing them down. My point...the assignment was extremely advanced for a typical 3rd grade level student. There were at least six kids there with parents helping them with their assignment. They weren't allowed to bring them home to work on them, because there were "too many handouts to give to everyone."

I overheard one parent gently telling the teacher that she felt like her son quit working because having that many handouts was a little overwhelming for him. It kind of sounded like the teachers of that level were trying to find ways to get the students to learn how to write questions and answers because that is what they will be doing when they do field work, and they wanted them to get used to it now.

So, I think it was a learning experience for them too.

I don't like having parent/teacher conversations when there are lots of people present, so I didn't. I held back. I decided I would wait and see if another situation happened where I would need to have a conference with her teacher. Hazel likes learning this style of learning, but she really needs to be able to have her needs met too.

I felt like being in that room I didn't have time to work with Hazel the way I would have at home. With me helping her, telling her each word to write in the sentence, it took almost AN HOUR. No way would she have gotten it done by herself! If we had been home I would have handed her the sheet with the correct information on it, and had her find the answer, tell me what she would write, and then have her write it. We were pressed for time, so I couldn't do that at the school. That bugged me, but I really was on a time thing. I needed to get back home.

So, we are going to have our own mini research sessions where we have a handout and then have questions for Hazel to answer so she can get used to using the information she has to find the answer she needs. I asked her if she thought that would help, and she almost breathed a sigh of relief. "Yes, Mom, I think that would help A LOT!" So, I guess that is what we will do. :)

On a side not though... after I wrote the email to her teacher, the next day the kids were being noisy at Hazel's table and her teacher put her out in the hall to do her work, and it helped. She got her assignment done! I don't like the idea of her being out in the hall though. I know at other schools they actually have ear headphone sound reducers that kids with that issue can wear. Maybe I will suggest that to her teacher and send Hazel with a pair.