Marguerite
Active Member
OK, I feel I'm taking a risk posting this because the details are so specific that an astute teacher could identify us. But I'm not saying anything mean or untrue, so here goes.
I tend to not start many threads about difficult child problems, so please forgive me for this one being so long.
difficult child 3's school is a state-based correspondence school. He's been studying by correspondence for 6 years now, at this correspondence high school for five years. The school posts work home, I supervise difficult child 3 doing his work then when work is done I sign it and post it back. My job as supervisor (voluntary yet essential) is to make sure he's actually doing it himself, and also to help keep him organised. I'm an interface between difficult child 3 and the school. Also for the last 18 months i've been a parent rep on staffing committees at the school - when they have a staff position to fill, they need to form a committee to work together on all points of staff appointment, from writing the ad to choosing who to interview right through to the interview process. People on the committees have to have training and also have to be representative of all specified groups. I've been the only current parent at the school with training, so last year was a busy year for me. The school leant on me heavily but also made as many concessions for me as I needed, especially when I was very ill.
Back to the problem - in past years in almost all subjects, teachers have been very understanding of difficult child 3's autism and other needs to be accommodated. We've had the occasional problem of a teacher badly not getting it. English has been a problem before (different teacher) when the teacher noted in phone conversation with difficult child 3 that he seemed brighter than his work made him seem; I felt if the teacher met him and gave him a face to face lesson, it would help with understanding. It backfired - this teacher is a lovely person but there is steel in there too; difficult child 3 was being talked to in rather mock-stern tones with, "I know you can do this; you're a smart kid, you might have your mother conned, but you can't fool me." Then a smile, a dig with the elbow, and "right?"
difficult child 3 grinned with embarrassment but I knew he didn't understand what the teacher was getting at. But the teacher took the grin to be complicity, and said to me, "We understand one another now. There should be no more problem."
In the face to face lesson I organised with this teacher, I sat in to observe. I noticed something that alarmed me. The teacher took it for difficult child 3 being obstinate, I saw it for what it really was - difficult child 3 was struggling to find the right word, with words that should have been simple. So I contacted his Speech Pathologist to request a detailed assessment. Her report was brilliant, it was detailed and very helpful. It pinpointed areas of concern but also identified what the teacher had seen - difficult child 3 is very bright, he does have a university level vocabulary. But he will often struggle with word-finding because due to his history of language delay, he has far fewer mental connections between words and ideas, than other people. He also will struggle to communicate and pick up more subtle 'hidden meaning' stuff; but when on topics he is familiar with and is passionate about, he has little internal censorship and will spill out with absolutely everything.
At about this time, the school hired a SpEd. This new SpEd looked at the very complex Speech Path report and translated it for the staff. But the English teacher still didn't get it - one typical question asked of difficult child 3 was, "In this text, what did John believe Jack was thinking?"
Classic theory of mind stuff, still just a bit out of reach for difficult child 3. But the teacher couldn't understand why difficult child 3, a bright kid with an amazing vocabulary, couldn't do such a simple thing. The rest of that year was a struggle, but the teacher has stayed in touch with difficult child 3 and every time they have met (we go in to school at various times for the occasional personal lesson or the scheduled optional group lessons) makes an effort to go say hello to him, to jolly him along and ask how he's going. Along the way that teacher was up for promotion and I was on that committee.
Flash forward to now. The English teacher this year is a different one. SpEd has been very much on board for difficult child 3 since she started, and has been very helpful in interfacing with any staff who have difficulty 'getting it' although at this school there are so many kids enrolled for such a wide range of different issues, most teachers have a broader understanding than most. SpEd has also helped us apply for Special Provisions needed for our strict state-based exams. State exam rules are stricter than Dept of Ed rules and also interfere with curriculum.
Along with regular weekly work (which difficult child 3 struggles badly to keep up with) there are regular assessment tasks which state exam board sets the guidelines for. Failure of the student to do these assessment tasks unaided and with all required elements can lead to failure in the course. Unaided is especially important. With difficult child 3's weekly work, I am allowed to help difficult child 3 because the aim is to help him learn and to get the work done. I work with the teachers and communicate with them (often by notes on work being returned, or by email) to let them know ow much I've helped and in what way. It's important for teachers to know where difficult child 3 is struggling.
This time the first task to be done was English. difficult child 3 has been having some intense one-on-one lessons with several teachers including English, to help him catch up. Then the school organised a class study day to help the students with more skills to do this assessment task, which was creative writing. along with other parents I sat in on part of the study sessions because of my own personal interest in writing. It was stimulating and brilliant even for me. I sat up the back, difficult child 3 was not even aware I was there much of the time. I noted he raised his hand when the teacher asked who likes poetry.
He argued with us over the task though, because it required him to do a draft and he says he hates drafts. When he writes a task, he just writes. This comes back to the Speech Path report which said that when he gets going on something he knows, you get the lot. But in the last year he's learned how to edit his work more effectively, especially when the accompanying notes give clear, specific instructions.
I talked to the head teacher about how to deal with these problems. I was to get copies of difficult child 3's first attempts before he overwrote them as edits, and hopefully these would do as drafts.
difficult child 3 had two tasks to do. He ranted about the need for drafts; husband suggested he stop whining to us and write about his complaint instead. So he did, and made it one of his tasks. He wrote the other one while we were staying with easy child. I sent difficult child 3 to do some writing while I rested (doing a lot of resting lately!)
I sent the work off (duly signed as student's own work, as it was) with a note from me asking for help in future specifically to teach difficult child 3 how to write drafts. I also was concerned about the subject material of the rant, as I knew there were errors of fact in there as well as a very aggressive tone. But the aim was just to get the student communicating, so I felt the subject material would not be an issue.
I got a phone message late last week from the English teacher, "We need to talk". I was still out a lot due to seeing doctors daily and I rang each day and missed the teacher. She finally rang me on Friday on the mobile. I was knocked for a loop when she said quite directly, "difficult child 3 did a very good writing task. Too good. I've spent time with him now, I know he's not capable of that standard. You must have written it for him."
There was no way I could defend myself. One of her arguments was that there were no real handwritten drafts. I reminded her that he as use of computer authorised; I had asked for help for difficult child 3 to be taught how to write drafts; if I had cheated, I would not have drawn attention to this. Besides, difficult child 3 would never allow me to help him - that is why we had been needing her help in face to face lessons. He had written about things he felt strongly about, hence the fluency. I think part of it comes from the wrong perception that autistics can't feel or express emotion.
It was a difficult phone call at a very bad time. I had no time to deal with it until after we got home, by which time this teacher had finished for the term. So I drafted a detailed email to the class teacher, copied it to the SpEd.
SpEd rang me. Apologetic because if class teachers don't 'get it', she sees it as her fault. After discussion with SpEd I talked to the principal, who was involved with me in staffing committees. If I am such a cheat and so dishonest that I would write my son's assessment for him, then it has a nasty bearing on all staffing appointments I was involved with. I MUST be seen by this school's staff as beyond reproach, and if it is now on difficult child 3's file that we can't be trusted, then bang goes everything.
I'm upset on so many fronts, but one that really upsets me is that this teacher, by focussing on our perceived dishonesty, is then missing the alternative - difficult child 3 is capable of some amazing work, when conditions are right. So how can we help make those conditions more right for him, more often? They will miss this, if they are watching us suspiciously instead of trying to find ways of dealing with his splinter skills. And this greatly risks spilling over into other subjects.
At this stage the SpEd is on side and the principal seems to be too. But they won't be able to talk to the teacher until next term - several weeks away.
The teacher did say that there were other students, not just difficult child 3, whose work was "too good to be true" and who, like difficult child 3, now will be required to do all assessment tasks at the school under teacher supervision. Considering that they can be given a week or more to do assessment tasks, this won't be workable. I feel students are being punished for high achievement, it is sending a very bad message. Besides - that lesson I sat in on was brilliant and was specially designed, I was told, to give the students every help in doing a good job with that task. I suspect that lesson bore richer fruit than the teacher is prepared to credit.
I haven't told difficult child 3 about this because it would really upset him. Besides, if he has to be told at all, I want this teacher to be the one to tell him, to his face, that she suspects him of cheating by having his mother do his work. His reaction should tell her a great deal.
And last night some envelopes arrived from school. Normally I get difficult child 3 to open his own mail but this time I opened it, just in case it included his returned work with the accusation written on it. It didn't - but it did include an earlier assessment task which had earned difficult child 3 a very high mark - he had written encouragingly and passionately on the topic of "never give up". It included a lot of the elements his teacher had said difficult child 3 is incapable of expressing. I'm wondering if they've been considering us as cheats for some months (because this previous work was done back in April and they've been hanging onto it). They also marked him down for not handwriting part of it - I had already cleared that bit, he shouldn't have been penalised. Normally I would let it go, but the way I feel right now... I want to extract every bit of concession for him now. Every. Last. Bit.
Next term (as early as possible) I will be requesting a face to face meeting with SpEd, the English teacher, the principal, the speech pathologist and any other interested parties. Probably subject head teacher too. I am going to propose he be given a topic that I know difficult child 3 feels strongly about, and have him be given this topic by the English teacher or SpEd (I would prefer SpEd; by this time I suspect difficult child 3 will be angry with his English teacher and too upset to work for her) and see what he can produce - in a time period up to a week. Same time frame - fair's fair. Besides, difficult child 3 needs the practice with writing tasks anyway. It will be one more practice, from his point of view (I hope).
But in the meantime - I am so angry! Beyond furious.
Marg
I tend to not start many threads about difficult child problems, so please forgive me for this one being so long.
difficult child 3's school is a state-based correspondence school. He's been studying by correspondence for 6 years now, at this correspondence high school for five years. The school posts work home, I supervise difficult child 3 doing his work then when work is done I sign it and post it back. My job as supervisor (voluntary yet essential) is to make sure he's actually doing it himself, and also to help keep him organised. I'm an interface between difficult child 3 and the school. Also for the last 18 months i've been a parent rep on staffing committees at the school - when they have a staff position to fill, they need to form a committee to work together on all points of staff appointment, from writing the ad to choosing who to interview right through to the interview process. People on the committees have to have training and also have to be representative of all specified groups. I've been the only current parent at the school with training, so last year was a busy year for me. The school leant on me heavily but also made as many concessions for me as I needed, especially when I was very ill.
Back to the problem - in past years in almost all subjects, teachers have been very understanding of difficult child 3's autism and other needs to be accommodated. We've had the occasional problem of a teacher badly not getting it. English has been a problem before (different teacher) when the teacher noted in phone conversation with difficult child 3 that he seemed brighter than his work made him seem; I felt if the teacher met him and gave him a face to face lesson, it would help with understanding. It backfired - this teacher is a lovely person but there is steel in there too; difficult child 3 was being talked to in rather mock-stern tones with, "I know you can do this; you're a smart kid, you might have your mother conned, but you can't fool me." Then a smile, a dig with the elbow, and "right?"
difficult child 3 grinned with embarrassment but I knew he didn't understand what the teacher was getting at. But the teacher took the grin to be complicity, and said to me, "We understand one another now. There should be no more problem."
In the face to face lesson I organised with this teacher, I sat in to observe. I noticed something that alarmed me. The teacher took it for difficult child 3 being obstinate, I saw it for what it really was - difficult child 3 was struggling to find the right word, with words that should have been simple. So I contacted his Speech Pathologist to request a detailed assessment. Her report was brilliant, it was detailed and very helpful. It pinpointed areas of concern but also identified what the teacher had seen - difficult child 3 is very bright, he does have a university level vocabulary. But he will often struggle with word-finding because due to his history of language delay, he has far fewer mental connections between words and ideas, than other people. He also will struggle to communicate and pick up more subtle 'hidden meaning' stuff; but when on topics he is familiar with and is passionate about, he has little internal censorship and will spill out with absolutely everything.
At about this time, the school hired a SpEd. This new SpEd looked at the very complex Speech Path report and translated it for the staff. But the English teacher still didn't get it - one typical question asked of difficult child 3 was, "In this text, what did John believe Jack was thinking?"
Classic theory of mind stuff, still just a bit out of reach for difficult child 3. But the teacher couldn't understand why difficult child 3, a bright kid with an amazing vocabulary, couldn't do such a simple thing. The rest of that year was a struggle, but the teacher has stayed in touch with difficult child 3 and every time they have met (we go in to school at various times for the occasional personal lesson or the scheduled optional group lessons) makes an effort to go say hello to him, to jolly him along and ask how he's going. Along the way that teacher was up for promotion and I was on that committee.
Flash forward to now. The English teacher this year is a different one. SpEd has been very much on board for difficult child 3 since she started, and has been very helpful in interfacing with any staff who have difficulty 'getting it' although at this school there are so many kids enrolled for such a wide range of different issues, most teachers have a broader understanding than most. SpEd has also helped us apply for Special Provisions needed for our strict state-based exams. State exam rules are stricter than Dept of Ed rules and also interfere with curriculum.
Along with regular weekly work (which difficult child 3 struggles badly to keep up with) there are regular assessment tasks which state exam board sets the guidelines for. Failure of the student to do these assessment tasks unaided and with all required elements can lead to failure in the course. Unaided is especially important. With difficult child 3's weekly work, I am allowed to help difficult child 3 because the aim is to help him learn and to get the work done. I work with the teachers and communicate with them (often by notes on work being returned, or by email) to let them know ow much I've helped and in what way. It's important for teachers to know where difficult child 3 is struggling.
This time the first task to be done was English. difficult child 3 has been having some intense one-on-one lessons with several teachers including English, to help him catch up. Then the school organised a class study day to help the students with more skills to do this assessment task, which was creative writing. along with other parents I sat in on part of the study sessions because of my own personal interest in writing. It was stimulating and brilliant even for me. I sat up the back, difficult child 3 was not even aware I was there much of the time. I noted he raised his hand when the teacher asked who likes poetry.
He argued with us over the task though, because it required him to do a draft and he says he hates drafts. When he writes a task, he just writes. This comes back to the Speech Path report which said that when he gets going on something he knows, you get the lot. But in the last year he's learned how to edit his work more effectively, especially when the accompanying notes give clear, specific instructions.
I talked to the head teacher about how to deal with these problems. I was to get copies of difficult child 3's first attempts before he overwrote them as edits, and hopefully these would do as drafts.
difficult child 3 had two tasks to do. He ranted about the need for drafts; husband suggested he stop whining to us and write about his complaint instead. So he did, and made it one of his tasks. He wrote the other one while we were staying with easy child. I sent difficult child 3 to do some writing while I rested (doing a lot of resting lately!)
I sent the work off (duly signed as student's own work, as it was) with a note from me asking for help in future specifically to teach difficult child 3 how to write drafts. I also was concerned about the subject material of the rant, as I knew there were errors of fact in there as well as a very aggressive tone. But the aim was just to get the student communicating, so I felt the subject material would not be an issue.
I got a phone message late last week from the English teacher, "We need to talk". I was still out a lot due to seeing doctors daily and I rang each day and missed the teacher. She finally rang me on Friday on the mobile. I was knocked for a loop when she said quite directly, "difficult child 3 did a very good writing task. Too good. I've spent time with him now, I know he's not capable of that standard. You must have written it for him."
There was no way I could defend myself. One of her arguments was that there were no real handwritten drafts. I reminded her that he as use of computer authorised; I had asked for help for difficult child 3 to be taught how to write drafts; if I had cheated, I would not have drawn attention to this. Besides, difficult child 3 would never allow me to help him - that is why we had been needing her help in face to face lessons. He had written about things he felt strongly about, hence the fluency. I think part of it comes from the wrong perception that autistics can't feel or express emotion.
It was a difficult phone call at a very bad time. I had no time to deal with it until after we got home, by which time this teacher had finished for the term. So I drafted a detailed email to the class teacher, copied it to the SpEd.
SpEd rang me. Apologetic because if class teachers don't 'get it', she sees it as her fault. After discussion with SpEd I talked to the principal, who was involved with me in staffing committees. If I am such a cheat and so dishonest that I would write my son's assessment for him, then it has a nasty bearing on all staffing appointments I was involved with. I MUST be seen by this school's staff as beyond reproach, and if it is now on difficult child 3's file that we can't be trusted, then bang goes everything.
I'm upset on so many fronts, but one that really upsets me is that this teacher, by focussing on our perceived dishonesty, is then missing the alternative - difficult child 3 is capable of some amazing work, when conditions are right. So how can we help make those conditions more right for him, more often? They will miss this, if they are watching us suspiciously instead of trying to find ways of dealing with his splinter skills. And this greatly risks spilling over into other subjects.
At this stage the SpEd is on side and the principal seems to be too. But they won't be able to talk to the teacher until next term - several weeks away.
The teacher did say that there were other students, not just difficult child 3, whose work was "too good to be true" and who, like difficult child 3, now will be required to do all assessment tasks at the school under teacher supervision. Considering that they can be given a week or more to do assessment tasks, this won't be workable. I feel students are being punished for high achievement, it is sending a very bad message. Besides - that lesson I sat in on was brilliant and was specially designed, I was told, to give the students every help in doing a good job with that task. I suspect that lesson bore richer fruit than the teacher is prepared to credit.
I haven't told difficult child 3 about this because it would really upset him. Besides, if he has to be told at all, I want this teacher to be the one to tell him, to his face, that she suspects him of cheating by having his mother do his work. His reaction should tell her a great deal.
And last night some envelopes arrived from school. Normally I get difficult child 3 to open his own mail but this time I opened it, just in case it included his returned work with the accusation written on it. It didn't - but it did include an earlier assessment task which had earned difficult child 3 a very high mark - he had written encouragingly and passionately on the topic of "never give up". It included a lot of the elements his teacher had said difficult child 3 is incapable of expressing. I'm wondering if they've been considering us as cheats for some months (because this previous work was done back in April and they've been hanging onto it). They also marked him down for not handwriting part of it - I had already cleared that bit, he shouldn't have been penalised. Normally I would let it go, but the way I feel right now... I want to extract every bit of concession for him now. Every. Last. Bit.
Next term (as early as possible) I will be requesting a face to face meeting with SpEd, the English teacher, the principal, the speech pathologist and any other interested parties. Probably subject head teacher too. I am going to propose he be given a topic that I know difficult child 3 feels strongly about, and have him be given this topic by the English teacher or SpEd (I would prefer SpEd; by this time I suspect difficult child 3 will be angry with his English teacher and too upset to work for her) and see what he can produce - in a time period up to a week. Same time frame - fair's fair. Besides, difficult child 3 needs the practice with writing tasks anyway. It will be one more practice, from his point of view (I hope).
But in the meantime - I am so angry! Beyond furious.
Marg