Chapter 15

Turn to p. 559 in Ormrod’s text.  Now, imagine that you are meeting with Ingrid’s grandmother today to explain her scores on the recent standardized achievement test pictured at the bottom of p. 559.  What will you tell her about Ingrid’s performance? her strengths? her weaknesses? If grandmother asks you what she could be doing at home to help strengthen Ingrid’s skills, what will you suggest?

 

  First of all, I would begin with letting Ingrid's grandmother know how much I enjoy teaching Ingrid! I think that in a conference, it is so important to begin with a compliment to assure your student's guardian that you want the best for the student, just like they do.

I would show Ingrid's grandmother the computer printout showing all of Ingrid's scores on the standardized achievement test. This way, she would have a visual as I explain Ingrid's strengths and weaknesses.  I would begin by noting how well Ingrid performed in reading comprehension, science, social studies, and math concepts. I would stress that these are definitely some of Ingrid's strengths, especially reading comprehension, where she performed well above-average. However, I would also point out that Ingrid performed below average in spelling and math computation, which may be some of her academic weaknesses. 

I would suggest that Ingrid's grandmother work with her at night of her math computation and spelling. As a teacher, I would look at Ingrid's work and compile a list of words that Ingrid seems to have a hard time spelling that most children her age do not have trouble with. I would give this list to her grandmother and encourage her to work with Ingrid on her spelling nightly. Each week I would give her grandmother a new list of words to practice with Ingrid. I would also encourage Ingrid's grandmother to work with her on math computation skills. Again, I would send extra practice problems that we are working on in class home with Ingrid and encourage her grandmother to work with her a couple of nights a week. I would suggest a website about math computation strategies for her grandmother to read. This website has a lot of great pointers about improving math computation. I would also suggest websites, like Arcademic Skills Builder , that have tons of games in all subject areas to improve skills. This could really help Ingrid in both spelling and math computation.