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<blockquote data-quote="Marguerite" data-source="post: 150613" data-attributes="member: 1991"><p>Christy, you said, " I'm wondering if he can use it in a sentence correctly then obviously he is familiar with the meaning of the word. Is the definition then necessary?"</p><p> </p><p>I was thinking that as well, but his teacher is insistent. And it does make sense I guess - it all would be working towards helping him have confidence in using synonyms. </p><p></p><p>He's just spent ANOTHER day STILL working on the same worksheets. I rang his Year Advisor to talk to her about it. She said we COULD simplify the work for him, but if we do then we will permanently remove his chances of ever going to uni. </p><p></p><p>The way it works - English is a compulsory subject for the HSC (Higher School Certificate). He can have it dumbed down for him, with the wording made more concrete, but there are certain outcome requirements which unfortunately involve a certain amount of abstract interpretation. We do have the option of choosing "Life Skills" versions of these subjects, including Life Skills versions of History & Geography (which are not compulsory to the HSC). </p><p></p><p>But if he chooses Life Skills English, then he may get his HSC, but not qualify for university entrance.</p><p></p><p>Mind you, there ARE other ways of getting in to university, including enrolling in a TAFE (technical college) course and using that as a springboard into uni. It's what easy child 2/difficult child 2 has to do, since the subjects she chose to study for the HSC were ones which never lead to a high enough score, to qualify for uni entrance. You could get full marks in these subjects but because they're seen as easy, they get scaled down. We have the ridiculous situation with our HSC, that students who want to go to university to study Medicine are advised to NOT study Biology for the HSC, but to study Physics and Chemistry instead. Biology is seen as easy and gets scaled down; Physics is seen as difficult and gets scaled up. So we have the ridiculous scenario of First Year university students studying Medicine, suddenly discovering that they know absolutely nothing relevant to their course. Uni courses now have to teach high school Biology all over again, to their medication students. Utterly ridiculous!</p><p></p><p>I've coached students through their HSC exams, students who chose Physics in order to get a higher mark, and who simply can't handle it.</p><p></p><p>difficult child 3 may need to switch to Life Skills English, according to his Year Advisor. His English teacher seems desperate to avoid this happening. I can sympathise, but he will fail outright if he falls badly behind in everything else, in a desperate attempt to keep up.</p><p></p><p>This afternoon he took a half hour break for lunch (he watched a half hour TV quiz show while he cooked some noodles and ate them) and then was back at work. But he decided to leave English for a bit and get on with some other subjects, all of them available as online lessons. He has done four of them.</p><p></p><p>Our usual goal is two subjects' worksheets per day. Spending four days on one worksheet is a recipe for disaster. If he takes this long, with my help - no wonder he can't do the same work in two hours in an exam.</p><p></p><p>Next year difficult child 3 will be in Year 10. This is an important year in our high schooling - it's the year he sits for the School Certificate. Thankfully, a lot of it is now assessment-based. He is beginning to do badly in exams, partly because he's so bogged down with some subjects that he gets no time to practice exam technique. And his English teacher is concerned because Year 10 English requirements are very high and we're going to have to put a lot of work in with difficult child 3, to get him up to that standard.</p><p></p><p>Once he's past the School Certificate, we have the option of Pathways - he can do his schooling part-time. Since we know he's going to need extra time anyway (to wait for his brain to mature and catch up to his intellect) then we'll be taking this option. He can still work full-time, but on half the number of subjects and so do a more thorough job. We did this with difficult child 1 as well, and it made a big difference. If he had stayed in mainstream he would have failed the HSC. As it was, he was already halfway through his final year when we pulled him out, dropped half his subjects, and dragged him the rest of the way in the same correspondence school difficult child 3 is now in. They worked hard with him, he worked hard, and he passed English, Ancient History and Biology. Two years later he was ready for the next three subjects, which he also passed. Again, not a brilliant mark but he DID matriculate.</p><p></p><p>At this stage, it looks like the speech assessment will be on Tuesday. I wish we were already there, I want answers and solutions.</p><p></p><p>Marg</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Marguerite, post: 150613, member: 1991"] Christy, you said, " I'm wondering if he can use it in a sentence correctly then obviously he is familiar with the meaning of the word. Is the definition then necessary?" I was thinking that as well, but his teacher is insistent. And it does make sense I guess - it all would be working towards helping him have confidence in using synonyms. He's just spent ANOTHER day STILL working on the same worksheets. I rang his Year Advisor to talk to her about it. She said we COULD simplify the work for him, but if we do then we will permanently remove his chances of ever going to uni. The way it works - English is a compulsory subject for the HSC (Higher School Certificate). He can have it dumbed down for him, with the wording made more concrete, but there are certain outcome requirements which unfortunately involve a certain amount of abstract interpretation. We do have the option of choosing "Life Skills" versions of these subjects, including Life Skills versions of History & Geography (which are not compulsory to the HSC). But if he chooses Life Skills English, then he may get his HSC, but not qualify for university entrance. Mind you, there ARE other ways of getting in to university, including enrolling in a TAFE (technical college) course and using that as a springboard into uni. It's what easy child 2/difficult child 2 has to do, since the subjects she chose to study for the HSC were ones which never lead to a high enough score, to qualify for uni entrance. You could get full marks in these subjects but because they're seen as easy, they get scaled down. We have the ridiculous situation with our HSC, that students who want to go to university to study Medicine are advised to NOT study Biology for the HSC, but to study Physics and Chemistry instead. Biology is seen as easy and gets scaled down; Physics is seen as difficult and gets scaled up. So we have the ridiculous scenario of First Year university students studying Medicine, suddenly discovering that they know absolutely nothing relevant to their course. Uni courses now have to teach high school Biology all over again, to their medication students. Utterly ridiculous! I've coached students through their HSC exams, students who chose Physics in order to get a higher mark, and who simply can't handle it. difficult child 3 may need to switch to Life Skills English, according to his Year Advisor. His English teacher seems desperate to avoid this happening. I can sympathise, but he will fail outright if he falls badly behind in everything else, in a desperate attempt to keep up. This afternoon he took a half hour break for lunch (he watched a half hour TV quiz show while he cooked some noodles and ate them) and then was back at work. But he decided to leave English for a bit and get on with some other subjects, all of them available as online lessons. He has done four of them. Our usual goal is two subjects' worksheets per day. Spending four days on one worksheet is a recipe for disaster. If he takes this long, with my help - no wonder he can't do the same work in two hours in an exam. Next year difficult child 3 will be in Year 10. This is an important year in our high schooling - it's the year he sits for the School Certificate. Thankfully, a lot of it is now assessment-based. He is beginning to do badly in exams, partly because he's so bogged down with some subjects that he gets no time to practice exam technique. And his English teacher is concerned because Year 10 English requirements are very high and we're going to have to put a lot of work in with difficult child 3, to get him up to that standard. Once he's past the School Certificate, we have the option of Pathways - he can do his schooling part-time. Since we know he's going to need extra time anyway (to wait for his brain to mature and catch up to his intellect) then we'll be taking this option. He can still work full-time, but on half the number of subjects and so do a more thorough job. We did this with difficult child 1 as well, and it made a big difference. If he had stayed in mainstream he would have failed the HSC. As it was, he was already halfway through his final year when we pulled him out, dropped half his subjects, and dragged him the rest of the way in the same correspondence school difficult child 3 is now in. They worked hard with him, he worked hard, and he passed English, Ancient History and Biology. Two years later he was ready for the next three subjects, which he also passed. Again, not a brilliant mark but he DID matriculate. At this stage, it looks like the speech assessment will be on Tuesday. I wish we were already there, I want answers and solutions. Marg [/QUOTE]
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