Non-core subjects for special needs: Go for comprehension or reading level?

[Shari]

I am trying to work out a budget for our hs next year, and I'm wondering how others handle this. I have a pretty good grasp of what to do with my rising LD student for the 3R's but I'm stuck on the non-core subjects.

For things like science and history, do you go with your ld student's comprehension level or their reading level? For instance, I am looking at NOEO science which is living books driven. I could choose the lower level that ds could read for himself, the content of which he probably already knows, or I could read the upper level to him and actually increase his knowledge. Same thing for TOG history. I could keep him in lower grammar another year with a lot of picture books and easy readers, or bump him up a level and spend a lot of MY time reading aloud.

I am already spending two or three hours of one-on-one time instructing this ds in Language Arts and Math. Adding in extra time for non-core subjects ?? Well, I could .... but I'm doing it now and it is a struggle to get it all done, plus trying to supervise my older ds.

How do others handle this?

(Siloam -- your post in another thread about how you do TOG with your students was very helpful! How do you do science?)

[sheryl]

Hi Shari,

Ice prevents us from going to church this morning, so I'm here to read a few posts!

I won't be much help. My dd is 10 1/2 (5th grade). She is an A/B student, but there are struggles in her ability to learn new concepts and retain (memory) them.

With that said, she is an avid reader from the get go. She's above her level and could read for hours. I decided to capitalize on that last year in 4th grade. I taught her to do her school independently so I could actually do something else in any given day besides h'school. :glare: I enjoy h'school and am committed to it. But, honestly there are other duties/tasks to complete.

At the end of 4th grade her behavioral issues were becoming heightened. She was tested, diagnosed and medicated. She was too young for the indenpendent work. I did not go over with her. I asked her (silly me) if she understood it and come to me with questions. Well, she never did. As a result she suffered in math and did not have a good grasp of the other subjects either. :confused:

This academic year I teach 1 subject at a time. She does her work in my presence. I may be only right there ironing or fixing dinner, etc. She works and I ask her to stop every so often to check her math work. Out of 30 problems I'd stop her about 3 times to check her work, etc. For Science or History (we study 1 subject for 1 semester) she'll read 5 pages and we'll discuss it. Abeka has comprehension check questions after each section that may only be 2-3 pages long....with long font and graphics it comes out to about half that. So, I'll assign 2 sections each day. Spelling is easy to work in anywhere, anytime. Language we do together and I monitor more closely like I do math.

So, that's it for the 4 core: Language, Math, Science and History.

The extras we work in: spelling (part of her LA program), health, and she starts violin tomorrow. I do copywork, dictation, etc. 1 day a week, but it only takes minutes.

It's VERY hard for me to be able to do anything else with her like Art. But, I'm going to try.

HTH in some way. Blessings to you! Sheryl <><

[siloam]

(Siloam -- your post in another thread about how you do TOG with your students was very helpful! How do you do science?)

For science I do much of the same thing as with history. At breakfast I read aloud from what ever we are doing at the time, right now that is God's Design Plants and after that we will probably revisit Winter Promise Animals and Their Worlds.

My oldest is then doing the God's Design Physics texts on her own. She doesn't have the typical reading issues that a dyslexic does. If you have her read aloud she does make the typical errors, but in reading to herself she naturally skims (so she reads fast) and has a high comprehension rate, at least for big picture issues. Then I have her answer the questions, and she self corrects them with the TM. From there I set aside 15 per day for her to re-read both the text and the questions to prepare her for the tests.

My 2nd dd isn't working independently yet. I am reading the God's Design Earth series to her (started this year). This is a lower priority, so I only get to it about twice a week. My focus is to get her used to listening to answer questions. Next year (5th) I will have her start to read on her own (and will record the lessons if needed for her to listen to as she reads) and she will write out the answers to the questions first then we will go over them together. For 6th the plan is to have her writing out her own answers, self correcting, studying and taking the tests like my oldest.

Next year the plan is to have my oldest move on to Apologia General. I chose Apologia specifically because they do have an audio version, so they can listen and read at the same time, as needed.

I also wait to introduce Latin, music and an art program till 5th or 6th grade because I need them to do it independently. With Latin I literally started with one page per day in 5th grade. We are still in the same book, but have moved up to a whole 2 pages per day. :D Actually it isn't that bad, she will finish the book and start another next year. For art, give all my kids tend to be dysgraphic, I bought the Artistic Pursuits K book. I know I could have gone with a higher level book, but I though it would also frustrate them. It was the perfect choice for my kids. Both dh and I are amateur musicians, and I want the kids to be able to play something, but music lessons aren't in the budget. I found a piano book set (Piano Adventures) with clear directions and bought it for my oldest, and again on a lower level that she "could have" started with (primer). She has been working through them independently, and recently just finished the first level and is now working on playing the pieces with a CD I bought of accompanying music.

My plan is to have my younger children follow the same general path, though I might take longer to introduce all the components. My oldest wanted to do art, music and Latin, so starting them all in a year wasn't a big deal. With my younger three I will probably start one a year, unless they want to do more.

Heather

[Dobela]

I have always tried to go with my son's comprehension level in other subjects. It is more work but I don't see any reason to 'hold him back' in those. I found that with social studies/history he was actually bored when I chose according to this reading level instead of his comprehension level.

[Lucidity]

Hi Shari,

I have the same concerns as you. My son's reading level is below his comprehension. What I've done this year is a little of both and so far its working great. I pick read alouds for his comprehension and then pick out some lower level reading books that go along with the subject. I usually alternate a harder book with an easier book or two, then another harder, etc. He HATES the lower books but I'm making him do it anyway as I've seen great progress so far with it. We are currently using Sonlight Core 3 and he loves it but the readers are above him - so those are turned into read alouds and I pick out Winter Promise titles or some other titles that seem a good level for him.

Science - I'm not totally sure yet where we'll end up. We are currently doing Sonlight Science 3 and though its a little easy for him, this is the first time he's had to read to learn and then answer questions on the worksheets. It's been really good for him so far. I guess I'll see where he is after we finish it and then decide if I want to bump him up a bit or just continue with Sonlight 4. He'd prefer not to do any science as his love is history. Actually, if I could read every subject to him including how to do math, he'd be in heaven. :)

[MamaSheep]

I'm going with comprehension level and reading to dd (except with her readers and some library books in the subject areas). I am hoping that eventually her reading will catch up with her comprehension, and then we'll be able to move forward from there without having to play catch-up concept-wise.

[EKS]

I've always gone for comprehension level. Maybe a science program that's not living books driven would cut down on the amount of schooling time while still giving your son the information he needs, perhaps supplementing with books that *are* at his reading level?

[Renee in FL]

Combination of the two - I read him books at his comprehension level and he reads books at his reading level. He is *mostly* at grade level now, but his vocabulary (or lack there of) holds him back some.

[Ottakee]

Does he learn well and retain from hearing/seeing stuff?

If so, what about using a lot of books on tape and DVDs? You could get a netflix membership and pick out science and history DVDs on the areas you want to cover. It might take a bit of digging to find ones that are age appropriate though.

If he has an officially diagnosis of dyslexia, he could get free books on tape through the Library for the Blind. My dd did that for a while until her reading level came up. You can get just about any book (and even magazine) in print this way. It might not work as well for textbooks unless he has the book in front of him to see the pictures/diagrams, etc. but for more "living books" it might work out well.