The last two weeks have been really rough for Ian. . .and for me. He was given an assignment to do outside of school, and that just didn't sit right with him. Although he was allowed to choose the person about whom he would write, there were some restrictions. For example, the person had to be real and must have made a significant social contribution. In addition to the one-page written or typed report, each student was to draw a picture of their subject and dress as the person for their presentation.
Ian chose Ben Franklin because he was a cool inventor. He selected his subject a few days after being given the assignment. Each day after school I tried to get him to sit with me at the computer and research old Ben on the internet. He would scream, cry, and beg me not to make him do that. He felt overworked and abused by being asked to complete an extra assignment. As a result, he has been refusing to do his regular homework too. It is as if he has gone one strike.
Maybe it was a mistake for us to tell him about Gandhi. His was one of the suggested biographies, and Steve and I went to great lengths to tell him about Gandhi's life and his philosophy of civil disobedience. We also thought Ian would look adorable in costume as Gandhi. We weren't certain he understood what we were saying, but as the last two weeks have shown, Ian DOES understand the act of protest and is willing to use it in order to get his way.
My parents visited last weekend, and we thought for sure Ian would respond to Grandpa's interest in the project. We were wrong. All Ian wanted to do was play Star Wars on the computer. It became a serious battle. In the end, the game disk was confiscated and the computer turned off. Finally, on Sunday morning, Grandma was able to sit with Ian and read an article from the internet with him. Together they learned about Franklin's early life, which seemed to flip the switch of interest half-way for Ian. He didn't seem to mind hearing about Ben, but he was not going to write the report.
When I was about to email Ian's teacher and tell her things were not going well, my wonderful friend, Karin, called. She had a great idea for getting Ian to do the report. She and her husband came over and got him on the topic of school and the report. She told Ian for every fact he could tell her about Ben Franklin, her husband would tell him a joke. I recorded the whole scene on my phone so we could type it using Ian's own words later. It went really well. When they were finished, Karin and Doug gave the kids a really cool new pool toy as a reward.
Karin reminded me that Ian is supposed to have accommodations on assignments like this. I completely forgot! How could I forget something so important about Ian's IEP??? When Ian gets this upset over an assignment, we're supposed to modify it so he can be successful. If we'd been smart, we would have approached it differently and given him a list of things he could include in the report and have him pick some of them. It's second grade for crying out loud, not a grad school midterm.
On Monday afternoon, Ian and I sat down at the computer to type the report. Having him tell me all the cool things he had learned about Ben Franklin made it very easy to put the report together. It was such a relief for him when it was finished, he said very happily, "That wasn't so bad after all!"
By then, Ian and I had discussed the whole costume issue. It became clear that Ian was not comfortable with this portion of the assignment. Although we came up with suggestions from his own wardrobe, he just didn't think he could do it. Rather than push him into a severe attack of anxiety again, I decided on my own that that the costume was going to have to be our major modification. It was a sensory issue. Ian needed the comfort of wearing his own clothes the way he was used to wearing them, which he did.
Tuesday morning, Ainsley and I arrived at school at 9:45, just in time to hear the presentations begin. Ainsley was so excited to be in Ian's classroom. She wanted to sit next to him. Fortunately, she was easily persuaded to join me in her own seat next to me at the back of the room. She was quiet and sat still through all of the reports, which was not possible prior to beginning Methylin.
Ian stood at the front of the room and proudly read his report to his classmates. He did a wonderful job. One of the other moms even commented on how well he reads. During the last friend's report, Ian sneaked over to stand beside me. I put my arm around him and whispered in his ear, "You did awesome, dude! I am so proud of you!"
He leaned forward, gave me a kiss, and whispered back, "Thank you for encouraging me."
2 comments:
Another success! Count each baby step. Later when Ian has to do a longer reporrt you can remind him about the feelings of accomplishment he had after completing the Ben Franklin assignment.
I have to make some modifications for my daughter with dyslexia as well, like writing down her comments so she can read them before a presentation or typing things for her last year. Now she is so motivated to do her own research and writing that she begs to go on Google and will combine interests: She learned about Sacajawea from the movie Night at the Museum. She also loves reading a series of diaries about real life princesses. My clever girl started typing her own book, Sacajawea, Princess of Idaho. When she has completed her other homework, she often types a diary entry. It's been a great creative outlet as well as self-motivated practice for organizing her writing and spelling.
Maybe you can take this opportunity to prompt Ian's interests in historical figures. They can be just as interesting as Luke Skywalker.
Hello. This post is likeable, and your blog is very interesting, congratulations :-). I will add in my blogroll =). If possible gives a last there on my blog, it is about the Impressora e Multifuncional, I hope you enjoy. The address is http://impressora-multifuncional.blogspot.com. A hug.
Post a Comment