Year 9 DS - English

[Muffinwoman1]

DS is currently in year 9 and I received his report today through the post. He's doing okay in Maths and Science (but a weekly tuition session for Science has helped greatly). However he struggles with writing subjects like English lang/lit, RS, History and Geography. For English he's been averaging grade 4 since Yr 7, so not really leaving much breathing space for a bad day. With History and Geography, I've seen a steady decline from 7s and 6s to now 3s. In RS he got a 2! He was a star student in primary school and he's like a different person now with his attitude towards learning as well as attainment. At the last parents evening I asked his English teacher about weak areas and she was very vague which didn't help. In my opinion he struggles with explanations and inference. If he is told to write a page about a certain topic, he manages 5 lines and then can't think or anything else to write. This affects his work in all the subjects above where he is expected to write and elaborate.

I'm worried. The teachers feel he has lots of potentiaI but doesn't try/ easily distracted by others and I do agree to an extent. He was always an avid reader until last year and now refuses to read. He would rather have an after school detention than read his book. I should add he is low level autistic, and after an assessment with SALT they agreed he has some slow processing skills but overall his grasp of language and understanding is fine. He refuses any intervention or support at school (SALT suggested visuals, extra time for exams etc) so it's very frustrating. School is a challenging environment for him anyway but he could do so well if he put some effort in.

Perhaps if we supported him in English then he would improve in the other subjects too? He's refused English tuition at the centre he attends for science as he feels anxious around new groups and tutors. Are there any resources which Mners could recommend please? I'm encouraging him to read even if its a couple of pages every night but are there any websites or workbooks which may help?

He sounds very much like my dyslexic son in the not knowing what to write. My son's reading is OK but spelling and getting his thoughts on paper are hard. He uses aa laptop which helps hugely and has extra time and a movement break for exams. In his assessment it showed he had very poor processing and working memory although high verbal comprehension etc showing the spiky profile for dyslexia. It was the 'not knowing what to write' thing which triggered having an assessment in Y5.

However, if your son is refusing intervention that is hard

My DD1 with dyspraxia also struggled to know what to write. She could know all the information but be unable to pull the relevant bits out of her brain iyswim?
She also couldn't do inference for toffee.

For English Language we set up 'rules' for each question.

e.g. a question on using language for effect:
Read passage, what is overall impression?
Now go through passage, think about changing some words, does that impact the overall impression? If so those are the words giving the impression. (e.g. crash v bump).

For other things we did very structured writing. Short sentences in point, Evidence, Explain. We also insisted on mindmapping / bullets before starting and then ticking things off as used.

It helped a bit, and wouldn't get high grades but was enough to get the pass for English Lang & Lit, helped however by controlled assessments. She dropped History got an E in the mock.

Choose GCSE subjects sensibly. Don't assume you can fully solve this.

I'm dyslexic, I use a few different programs but Inspiration is what I would recommend for getting idea down.

You can just put the information you know in any order on the screen and then you put links with extra information. It's a bit like a mind map.

Say he had to write about the tudors in history, you could start with a list of Tudor monarchs and the other important people and put links between the monarchs and then between them and the other people, key dates etc.

Once you have all the information down and linked it produces an essay plan for you.

I've also found knowledge organisers useful.

Third thing - BUG a question.

B - box the question word
U - underline
G - go back and tick off

So for the question, "Identify three causes of the French revolution"

You draw a box around, "identify" - so this means you just need to list, you do not need to explain.

Underline, three causes and French revolution

Write down three causes and then go back and tick off what you have written down.

It's probably not a great question, hopefully you get the idea.

My ASD DD really struggles with 'essay' based subjects - particularly those that require opinions. She was fine at primary but as the work got more challenging at secondary she has had to work very hard to keep up. Because she is very aware that this is due to language difficulties from the ASD, her teachers help where they can. So questions such as "why did the author..." Or "what might have happened..." are difficult as she cannot see the world through someone else's eyes. She always says "how would I know, I didn't write it...." 🙂

And of course if people don't understand why he is finding it hard, he may just think it is his fault. And it is not worth trying because he doesn't understand it.

Perhaps explore what he finds hard - for DD, some of the questions are straightforward. Ones asking for facts. So overall she does okay, but actually has a really spiky profile.

It is worth picking this up with the sendco - they may have some suggestions that could help in the classroom

Not what you asked but the numbers you mention don’t really make sense.
are they supposed to be equivalent to gcse grades as it is highly unlikely that anyone would be given grade 7 (a grade) in year 7 or even grade 4 (a GCSE pass).
It seems more likely that they were working on a different grading for year 7 and 8 and are now working on gcse gradings which means you have nothing to worry about currently.

@Gymrabbit The school has probably been giving flightpath grades, ie on track for, not currently working at. Under that system the DC has slipped.

Not accepting support or alternative arrangements is surprisingly common. Students don’t want to appear different to their friends or be identified to others as having needs.
it sounds like his needs have been identified and supported by the school (which can be the hardest part for some) but the sticking point may be that if your son won’t accept them they may have to be withdrawn before the exams as they need to be custom and practice for the exam board to allow them.

I have two ASD children, one already been through this so I do understand the difficulties from both sides. What finally worked is them realising that the aim of an exam is to get the marks, not to do what they want (often misinterpreted or created their very own question rather than the one the exam asked). Exam practice at school in year 10 helped.
As did explaining it this way so they can be very logical about it. Eg The aim in this question is 6 marks here, this is how to get each of them. I thought the Bug method above was helpful. Changing to this perspective helped them understand and actually relate to the exam/question. Practiced questions at home using anything they could be offered; the extra time/laptop/quiet room/visual aids/coloured paper and helped them realise the benefits by seeing how many more marks they could get.

There isn't really such a thing as "low level autistic". I assume you mean internalising autism, autism that doesn't especially impact those around him in that he doesn't show behaviour that people find difficult to manage?

This is a really common pattern and usually it's to do with the curriculum expectations not gelling with his autistic learning strengths. Essay writing is really hard for some autistic teens who are comfortable with precision and factually based work. Essays do have a "correct answer" in that you need to make a reasonable interpretation of the text, and you need to justify your interpretation, but it isn't obvious what that answer is and neither in general is it clearly shared prior to the youngster being expected to write the essay. This means there is a high risk of being incorrect, which increases anxiety.

Add to executive functioning difficulties which are really common in autistic teens (difficulties with planning, selecting relevant info from stored body of knowledge, prioritising which of this knowledge is most pertinent to answer this question, monitoring time whilst writing etc) and it's easy to see why many autistic kids struggle in essay writing subjects.

Most useful interventions: worked examples, examiner reports, clear mark schemes, teacher making it very clear when the student needs to record something important that the teacher is saying about a character, being clear on task purpose.

Thank you for all the replies. Lots of helpful suggestions there that I can ponder over the holidays and see which could work towards supporting DS with his writing. (There isn't much point in asking DS as he shuts down and denies he even needs any intervention!). Also I don't expect miracles as alot of it is part of his ASD and totally agree about choosing GCSEs wisely. I know that he prefers eg History over Geography but has a better shot at passing the latter. Again, convincing him is another story.

The Senco reassured me last year that although DS isn't open about his diagnosis, the teachers will discretely put the scaffolding in place to support him with the suggestions from SALT like mind maps, visuals etc. Nothing to my knowledge has been done as the few teachers I've spoken to recently weren't even aware of his ASD never mind anything else. Executive dysfunction is a big issue as he's labelled lazy, a daydreamer, easily distracted, not participating in class, too chatty, the list is endless. It's not deliberate. If he's overwhelmed, over stimulated, anxious, tired or deep in thought about something he listens but doesn't hear so it makes thinking, planning, interpreting, and then writing even more challenging.

@Gymrabbit I think they are 'on track for' grades. I spoke to his science teacher the other day who told me he got a 7 and if he continues the way he is they expect a 7 for his gcses.

@AutismProf yes sorry I used low level because he can come across as neurotypical which is why his ASD was missed for years. He struggles to relate with other Autistics we know amongst family, friends and his school peers who may be 'higher needs' ie nonverbal, dependent, learning difficulties or behaviours. Sadly there's alot of emotional trauma due to masking for so long and being told " oh no, he's fine!" by doctors, teachers and other staff at his primary school.

Muffinwoman1

thanks for clarifying.
have never heard of that in 20 years of teaching across 5 different schools.
and the idea that you can predict a gcse grade based on someone’s year 7 work is silly (I know that’s what FFT targets do but they are equally ridiculous!)

@Gymrabbit You'll get on well with @noblegiraffe she is less than complimentary about flightpaths too.

@Gymrabbit I agree.

And @Muffinwoman1 I wouldn't refer to it as 'low level autism' it almost does your son a disservice. He either has a diagnosis or he doesn't. My sons were high achieving and went to special Ed schools. They both Attended uni (one is there now) and are not deemed low level. They also have none of the behaviours you described.

Not having a pop just being honest.

@Gymrabbit I agree and I'm hoping for some clarity and will bring it up (amongst many other issues) at the next Parent's Evening in Feb/March.

@stomachamaleon You're righr and I apologize if I offended anyone that wasn't my intention. He was described as being at level 1 - requiring little support by Camhs after his diagnosis. But I can totally see why this is incorrect because his needs and difficulties vary from day to day. He regressed badly after burnout in summer of 2021 and hasn't been the same.

Don't get me started!!

OP, you said "In my opinion he struggles with explanations and inference. If he is told to write a page about a certain topic, he manages 5 lines and then can't think or anything else to write."

This is probably related to his autism. A pp mentioned that autistic students can also have a problem with offering opinions as black and white thinking means that if they aren't sure about something or don't really have an opinion, they struggle to just say something is their opinion to get the essay done.

It could be useful to think of sentence starters that get around this: 'It could be said that the author's use of colour is intended to....' or 'Some people might think that the author meant...'

@Muffinwoman1 you didn't offend me but I just mean look at it a bit differently.

Both my sons struggled with English. They used to tell me after half a paragraph that they had answered the question (and they had generally) but it was factual and to the point.

I showed them ways to 'fluff' and 'stretch' paragraphs. Give examples and use sentence starters. Practise made perfect and they both passed.

I am still doing sentence starters when ds3 phoned me from uni!

noblegiraffe makes some good suggestions. I teach all my students to say something about the verbs in a language question because there's always something to say!

Thank you so much PPs for the suggestion about sentence starters. I think that's something which can definitely help him. English isn't my first language but we have the power of the Internet to practice and get some help from! 😁

@Muffinwoman1 will send you a dm with some sites and bits that might help.