Jim in the Sixth Grade

When Jim entered middle school in the 6th grade, things changed considerably. Jim was clearly qualified for inclusion in accelerated classes, many of which required even more than the typical written assignments that all students face in middle school. Although Jim’s teachers used a variety of instructional methods and provided opportunities for students to respond in different ways, writing tasks were increasingly complex and lengthy. The pencil grips continued to serve Jim well for filling in blanks, matching, short answers, spelling tests, and bubbling in answer sheets. However, for longer written tasks such as journal writing, essays developed during class time, and note-taking, Jim began to experience problems that he had not faced before.

To make things even more complex, Jim now had five teachers instead of the single teacher he had had in elementary school. Not all of his teachers were initially aware of Jim’s accommodations. Because his disability was largely “invisible” he was at first subjected to misguided urging to “pay attention to what he was doing” and “write neatly” rather allowing his writing to deteriorate after about the middle of the first page. When Jim’s teachers were informed about his accommodations, some of them felt he could do better if he tried harder, but he was given extended time for his assignments and successfully finished most of them at home.

Jim was an outstanding student in every area, even those requiring extensive writing. Because of his intelligence and effort, Jim was well-liked and respected by his teachers. When it was brought to their attention that he was spending a great deal of time in the evening on written work that other students were generally finishing during class time, they became concerned because they knew that the written work would only become longer and more detailed as Jim progressed through middle and high school. They met to discuss what to do. They considered shortening Jim’s assignments more, but realized that even shortened assignments were taking a long time and shortening them any more would change them so much that Jim’s written products would be significantly different than those of the other students. Although they did not want to lose him, their thought was that it might be better for Jim to be in regular classes where less writing was required, so they called an IEP meeting to discuss this possibility.