I am looking for some suggetions for accomodations for a 504 or IEP for homework. Right now my 9 year old gets 2 extra days to do his homework. I did not agree to this. He cannot remember anything from the day, once he gets home, He is way below grade level in writing especially creative. And he needs help with basic math, mostly word problems. This 2 extra days has done nothing. She gives him 25 spelling words on Friday that he spends the entire weekend working on since he has homework m-t also. He has no sports, no friends, no clases we even had to stop religeous school this year. AND HE IS ON MEDICATION AT THE TIME. The teacher says he does GREAT in class every day, But this homework thing has got to change.
We have tried everything from rewards to taking everything away. nothing changes. Until he can get some skills to cope with this, Some changes need to be made.
Any suggestion would be appreciated!
You could ask for them to reduced the amount of work- maybe he could skip every other math problem if he tends to get a lot of those. The only problem with this is if he actually needs the practice.
One thing that helped my son with his reading homework was to break the reading section in to chunks (I'd put a colored dot after every 3-4 sentances). He would read to each dot then stop and I would ask questions about what he'd read. I would write down what he told me and then when he was finished he would have a summary of what he read that he could refer back to as he was answering the questions. It's a lot of work on my part, but it reduced his frustration hugely.
As far as turning in assignments, my son did not officially get extra time, but his teacher last year would not penalize him if it was one day late- any later and he would have to stay in from recess to finish it. The problems were just that he would forget the notebook/folder that he needed to do the assignment, and since the teacher was supposed to be checking to be sure he had his stuff she couldn't very well penalize him if she didn't check.
My youngest had a hard time with writing so she was allowed to print, given shortened written assignments and the option of using a voice to text software (dragon naturally speaking). She was getting work with the special ed teacher for her writing to improve it.
Because she would forget her books, we had a duplecate set at home.
The special ed teacher also has homework club to help her kids with homework. Spelling tests are on fridays so the Special Ed teacher gives practice tests on thursday.
Here are ideas for accommodations and modifications:
http://www.wrightslaw.com/info/fape.accoms.mods.pdf
it is from wrightslaw:
vickie, thanks for the advice. The special Ed teacher to teach him HOW to write and come up with ideas is what he needs. He also needs someone to go over the math with him ( I can do spelling but math I have no clue) and then he will remember it. That's why I suggested it to them( actually just the writing and math intervention classes) no IEP needed and they blew me off. He doesn't forget his books, just everything he learned in them and needs to go over the material multiple times to retain anything. I am not equiped to do this. I got a phone number of free IEP advocates (although sometimes I think you get what you pay for)and plan to call them immediatly. I am just at my end with the school. We have no great options here in his school district. I was told to complain to the superintendant. Whew! Again, thanks for the advice.