In an attempt to help parents understand what this means, we are hosting a workshop. The workshop will be led by Nancy Williams, Director of Thorup Tutoring, and Vikki Carrel, Academic Therapist. Here is some feedback from one of our parents:
“This year I invited my daughter’s academic language therapist, Vikki Carell, to participate in our 504 meeting at Olympus Junior High. This meeting also included all of my daughter’s teachers, her school counselor, the vice principal who is in charge of 504s, my daughter Eliza, and myself.
Vikki, who is employed by Thorup, prepared some excellent material and compiled it into a folder for each of Eliza’s teachers. She explained Eliza’s diagnoses in clear and brief terms and offered insight into the reading, writing, and processing deficits Eliza has and how teachers and her 504 can best support these challenges.
When Vikki spoke, teachers were interested, and appreciative of her knowledge. Some did not even know what dysgraphia was, nor did they have any understanding of what a dyslexic student faces every day, every class period. Vikki’s input sparked questions for teachers that they asked directly to Eliza like, “When I ask you to answer a question aloud in class, does that bother you?” or “What about when I ask you to read aloud?” “How is the assignment length for this project?” and “If you need help at all, please come talk to me and we will figure something out.”
The teachers were very supportive and we are able to acquire accommodations for Eliza that we hope will assist her as Granite moves to more proficiency based grading. Much about this new grading system is still unclear. I anticipate that it will be difficult for kids who continue to retake tests and retake again, striving for proficiency, but simply do not test well.”
To learn more about this workshop and reserve your seat, click here.