Learner Narrative 2

To: The Child Studies Team

From: Joseph Kille

Date: October 17, 2006

Re: Charles Guiteau

Hello,

I am writing to tell you that I am very concerned about the extremely low grades Charles is earning in English General 12. His current average is a 53. An additional concern is the inappropriate content in his practice essays. As I see it, the problem breaks down into three areas: reading, sentence structure, and essays.

Charles has consistently received low scores on the multiple choice sections of classroom assessments. This demonstrates an overall problem in reading comprehension that I have also noticed when questioning Charles about texts given reading time during class. To the best of my knowledge he is doing most of the reading assigned in class and for homework. He showed particular struggling when trying to recall details from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a text that we read mostly in class and discussed extensively.

Charles also has considerably difficulty recognizing or constructing complete sentences with any regularity. During our weekly review of vocab, Charles is usually unable to identify to which part of speech each word belongs, even after we identify whether it is “a thing”, “a way you describe something”, “a way you do something”, or “something you do.”

Finally, Charles can not or will not follow directions for short writing assignments and essays. When he does complete writing assignments his ideas ramble, he does not stick to the topic assigned, and very often includes reference to content that is very inappropriate (violence, naked bodies, etc.)

I feel that this last problem is due more to his frustration with the work than a desire to “act up.” Charles is always very friendly to me and his classmates, and I only mention the violence and sexual content of his writing to illustrate what I perceive to be his aggravation with the difficulties he is experiencing in class.

Charles requires extra help that goes beyond our meeting before and after school to discuss reading and assignments. This is why I would like to discuss with you the possibility that Charles spend the third and final marking period of the year back with Mr. Garfield in a resource center classroom, as the provisions in his IEP (preferred seating, unlimited time on tests, and supplemental visual aids) seem to be insufficient.

I am looking forward to hearing back from you or setting up a meeting.

Thank you for your time,

Joseph Kille