When too many topics come at once and block each other from entering these pages, the simplest  remedy is to write a detailed account of Robert’s and my work on a given day. This is precisely, what I will do.

December 4th, 2012

Robert completed the last section of Steck-Vaughn’s Social Studies Grade 4 workbook/textbooks.  The book introduced Robert to six United States Regions – their landforms, natural resources, and their residents’  occupations. Finishing the book  is a good pretext to look back.

If I wanted to introduce a new topic to typical children, I would start with finding out what the children already know and through questions and answers I would prepare them for new information. Connecting prior knowledge with new facts seems a good way to assure better understanding and smooth digestion of new concepts.

With Robert it is much more tricky.  I hardly know what he knows, although I know what he has been INTRODUCED  to. Moreover, I found out long ago that asking so-called leading questions did not work for Robert.  So instead, I kept on  reminding him about familiar experiences, events, or places related to the topic of a lesson.   Surprisingly, I had more to relate to while talking about six regions of the US, than while introducing different communities, as it was done in Social Studies Grade 3.  Although we did not travel through two of the six US regions, our 2009 cross-country trip was still a great help. After we returned home in September of 2009, we used pictures and maps to review our trips a few times.  We colored the states we traveled through one way and the other.  We traced all the rivers we crossed on the way.  We listed all the landforms we passed through. Additionally, we also used some of the geography folders  from Take It to Your Seat series we did in previous years/months.   I could not ask Robert what he remembered, but I could present to him what he had seen or done before.

The reason I use Steck-Vaughn’s series of Social Studies workbooks/textbooks is that from all the materials found in the local teachers’ store this series seemed to fit Robert’s way of learning (or my way of teaching) best.  It is highly probable that there are very well-developed  curricula addressing similar topics, but they are mostly inaccessible to parents, because of prohibitive price and because they are mainly advertised and sold to schools.

I  chose 1st grade level of this series many years ago, because I  did not see too many questions in the text.

Encountering too many questions is an intimidating experience, even for typical children. For Robert it was a huge obstacle and…given the goals I set for Robert, completely unnecessary.  The questions in these books were few, woven into a text, and required simple, short answer related to the previous paragraph.  The tests at the end of chapters or sections were also straightforward. The new words had their meaning explained clearly.

Still, the first three levels we did a few times.  We went only once through level 4 workbook.  It seemed easier for Robert than the previous ones.  He was making fewer errors on the quizzes at the end of chapters.  It might be because he remembered better.

When he hesitated while choosing one of the four answers, I  asked him, what word or words he remembers from the texts.  Having Robert recognize the word he came across in the text was an achievement in itself, given problems with short and/or working memory.

I am aware  that Robert might not remember those new words after we close the book.  Still, the fact that he remembered them after turning  a page or two was  a progress.

That day, we did much more.  Robert completed, partially with my help, the lesson 91 from 4th grade Saxon Math.  We read another text from 1st Grade Reading workbook based on Common Core standards.  With the help of  No Glamour Sequence Structure Robert “read” 20 sentences. The matter of fact, he did what is much more difficult for him than reading. He was saying each sentence, based on a sequence of four pictures. For instance, a set of pictures representing a man, man peeling a banana, a banana, and man giving a peeled banana to a little boy, was a cue for Robert to say, ” The man is peeling a banana for the boy.”  (Yes the pictures seemed a little redundant, but in the end thay pointed to different part of the sentence.) I didn’t want Robert to write sentences in provided spaces.  I wanted it to be a strictly oral exercise.