I have a 12yo in Y8. He is dyslexic, uses a laptop but still obviously struggles with certain things.
He has a large project to complete this weekend. He's only had a week, and it involves writing at least 7 newspaper articles about a topic and putting them into a document that looks like a newspaper.
He's got to read all the background info and then write the articles.
He can't absorb the information.
He's asked me to read it out loud to him, which I have, and I'm trying to talk through it with him. Then I've suggested some bullet points to break it down. He's still really struggling.
What should I do? Should I sit with him for several hours, prompting and suggesting what to write? Should I do nothing and let him tell his teacher he just can't do it?
It's not reading itself which is the problem, its processing and organising the information. It feels like they are testing him on something he simply can't do. And I don't want to do it for him as that proves and achieves nothing. Yet he is compliant and wants to do it. Giving in nothing would seem like a bad move as his attitude is good.
WWYD?
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When your child can't do their homework - what are the options?
Pipistrella · 24/01/2016 11:20
Thank you, there is some excellent advice here - the trouble is that I'm having to do nearly everything. He will try and put an article together with literally no knowledge of the subject. He will phrase it badly, spell it badly, repeat himself and not answer the question.
I've found a wiki page and we're reading that together but it is very hard for him and I have ended up practically dictating what he ought to write.
It turns out that they have not studied this subject at all in class. It's the women's suffrage movement, and they are currently doing Oliver Cromwell 
So we both have to read up about Emmeline P, about Emily whatsit at Epsom and the hunger strikes and the Cat and Mouse act, and also about the RPA of 1918, what caused it to pass through parliament, what its impact was and some Vox Pops from women of the time - and then we have to present all this in a newspaper format.
I'm sorry but I don't really understand what it is testing apart from his knowledge of how to find a page on Wikipedia, and his ability to comprehend an entire topic which they haven't discussed, by himself, and then put it into perspective and context within a few hours.
It's bizarre, isn't it?
Do they make any differentiation for your DS at all, generally? If not and this is the tip of an iceberg I would be asking for a meeting with the SENCO to get this sorted. Does he has have EHCP/any support etc ?
If this is a one off (leaving aside the "checking each day what HW you have for a min) I would absolutely let him do his own work, help him with research, small amount of written work, incorrect spellings etc etc. I would (if you have time) go through with him, talk him through the corrections he needs to make and get him to rewrite it etc. I would then put a note in the planner either asking for a chat on phone or face to face with teacher or explaining DS has done his best with the task and he has brought the "before and after" so they can see how much time he needs to spend on a task to get it to the correct level, please could they reduce the tasks accordingly? A discussion would definitely be helpful.
I'm not a teacher but have DC with SN at secondary and this is what I did if problems arose. The teachers need to differentiate but sometimes "whole class" tasks are handed out willy nilly and they forget how much more time everything takes. I also made a point in Yr 7 at looking at their planners each night and seeing what HW they had and explaining (I could say this in my sleep 
) if they do a task when it's set they won't risk leaving it til they get other tasks and it's unmanageable. "Only English" one night is fine until three nights later they have English, maths history, IT etc etc I seem to have beaten it into them a few years later 
One DC has dropped a couple of subjects on the basis they'd be better off spending more time on the more "important" subjects (and their SN meant they really struggled with the dropped subjects) but I know a lot of schools don't like this. I'm also not a great fan of large amounts of HW and agree it should be for reinforcement but a lot of it seems to be for "private research" these days.
As long as my DC did their best in say an hour, they would take it in as completed as it is and explain, with note from parent if required.
The SENCO may be the best person if this is an issue with more than one teacher. Good luck
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I would be asking why it hasn't been differentiated or fully explained to him.
My ds2 had a similar issue with one teacher. He was given 3 detentions for not completing homework he had no record of and didn't understand. I told him to do the detentions as he should have asked for help and then wrote letters to his senco re the teachers failure to follow the plan that was in place. I felt that Ds2 was being set up to fail and told them in writing.
Ds2 has had no problems since.
On an aside while this was going on his head of year then wrote wanting to discuss his detentions as 3 was "concerning". I didnt reply as i felt that was really not a conversation that would begin or end well.
Write to the school.
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