A few links to begin Day 1
So, Schools are closed (part 2) Official Day 1. We are all trying to wrap our heads around what is occurring in the world right now. While I am extremely anxious about our health, I am also thinking about my children and their education. And, I know you must be anxious because I have received many emails and DMs from friends, clients and complete strangers. I have read the Federal Department of Education Guidance. I have listened to Special Ed Attorneys and Advocates via zoom and Live FB discussions. Everyone is saying the same thing that while our kids are guaranteed FAPE, the only people who are responsible during this here and now is US - the parents. Not unlike any other day, we wear many hats to ensure our child's success. Full disclosure, though. I am NOT a teacher. I have a Law Degree…and this provides very little assistance attempting to teach my just-about-to-be diagnosed Dyslexic child to read. I know we will get through this and I am chalking it up to our 34th blip on this extremely bumpy 3rd grade radar screen. Will he regress (even more)? Most likely. We were just learning how truly far from grade level he was (originally) purported to be, and as a Team, we were scheduled to meet Friday to formulate a service plan to attempt any closure on this gap. Obviously, this never occurred and our meeting is put on indefinite hold. Not going to lie - I shed some tears of frustration, anger & confusion, had a small pity party, and regrouped to focus on how we can best provide him help RIGHT NOW.
What gift were we given as parents? TIME. This is my plan starting today, and looking into the next potential 3-4 weeks at home. Hopefully this can help those asking what I am doing. 👩⚖️ME: I am reviewing my child’s CURRENT IEP. I am going through each goal to see what *I* can possibly do to help him with these goals. Again, I am neither a reading instructor nor a special eduction teacher, however I do understand IEPs. As a parent, you MUST be able to use a calculator to determine progression or regression based on your child’s goals. You will quickly learn when doing a document review (IEPs, progress reports, data, etc.) that if you cannot calculate your child's BASELINE data to current data, you have a huge problem and we need to put a BIG mental RED FLAG sticky note to address this ASAP. Goals must be written as measurable according to progress monitoring resources (more on this next post). 📚Now to HIS plan: He will do an hour a day of LEXIA (we will separate into two-30 minute sessions/day), Khan Academy (20 minutes), XtraMath (20 minutes)), Epic Reading (20 minutes), and Spelling City (20 minutes). We will break these up by taking snack breaks, electronic time, chores around the house, and fun outside - playing on a trampoline, go for a run, scooter around the neighborhood, shoot hoops… whatever we can do to get outside and full disclosure - I am not taking away device time. I'm a realist. We have to get through this in one piece 💁🏻♀️Will this be perfect? No. Will we keep to a precise schedule? Definitely NOT. But, I will do my very best to keep to the times above to get at least 2+/- hours / day of some type of learning in addition to 20-30 minutes of nightly reading. Lexia is great, however you do need a subscription via your school ( ask your teacher if you can get access!). Epic works well if you do not have Lexia. You can search by subject, narrow by grade level, or Lexile level. Most of the books have highlight tracking to help with oral reading, as well. Epic also utilizes some multi-sensory approaches with visual and audio components. Mental RED FLAG sticky #2: You MUST know your child’s current reading data (ex: LEXILE, AimsWeb, Dibels, STAR, etc, as well as YOUR District's curriculum GRADE Norms - mental RED FLAG sticky #3 - get this if you do not have it!). This way you can track any progress you may see over these next 4 weeks! Take a BASELINE read now (day 1) and at the end of the 3-4 weeks. You will want this data for the team. Email me at Jen@MaserAdvocacy.com if you have any questions!
Links for reference:
XtraMath: https://xtramath.org
Spelling City: https://spellingcity.com
Lexia: https://www.lexiacore5.com (you need a subscription)
Khan Academy: https://www.khanacademy.org
Epic Reading: https://www.getepic.com