9th grader drowning academically, what to do?

Parents Forum
1

<p>My 9th grader has had some health issues for the past 9 months ago that have lead to large number of absences. During the first semester he missed about 35 days of school. Between that and a relatively heavy academic course load, he’s completely overwhelmed, and his grades show it. The course that is killing him is Arabic. He missed the entire unit on the alphabet and doesn’t recognize many of the letters, so he can’t read or write at all. His guidance counselor tried to reassure me by pointing out that his final grade for the semester will be the average of the two quarters, and that since he passed Q1 with a C, he can’t actually fail the course because C and F average to D. </p>

<p>At this point, I feel like we have 3 choices.</p>

<p>1) Put lots of effort, and money since he’d need a tutor, into getting his Arabic grade up to a C, at the expense of time to study other classes, and then continue to support him next quarter. I think this might well result in the lowest GPA of the 3 options, because the C in Arabic would likely lead to C’s in other courses that have the potential to be B’s.</p>

<p>2) Put lots of effort and money into Arabic. Get his grade up to a C and then drop it take PE for second semester. Either retake Arabic or start Spanish or French next fall. </p>

<p>3) Give up on Arabic altogether, take the D, put that effort into other classes, and then start Arabic or a new language in the fall. </p>

<p>I’ll be honest and say I like 3 best, but I don’t feel like I know enough about college admissions to know how that D and having only 3 years of a language will impact him. I should add that he’s likely a B student to begin with. That’s where he was in middle school, at least, but we don’t have any high school semesters without health issues to make predictions. So, I’m not asking whether he can go to Harvard with a D and 3 years of foreign language. I’m asking whether he’ll have fewer mid tier choices, or whether they’ll say “it’s 9th grade, there were extenuating circumstances”.</p>

2

<p>Does he want to put in the effort for Arabic? I’d probably spend the money if he were completely on board. </p>

<p>I don’t think one D with extenuating circumstances burns all that many bridges. I don’t think I’d worry about what a hypothetical college might do about a 9th grade D three years from now I’d do what’s going to get your kid the best high school experience. </p>

<p>Good Luck!</p>

3

<p>I know that many mid level state schools are quite forgiving of applicants having Ds in 9th grade. Some don’t even use 9th grade transcripts in their GPA calculations. Even good public schools like UC Davis are known for accepting students with one D in 10th-11th grade. </p>

<p>As for what to do, foreign languages are notorious for being difficult to catch up on. The safer route is to place more emphasis on the other subjects, but not give up entirely on Arabic.</p>

4

<p>If the school will give him a medical withdrawal-Pass, drop the class and try again next year. IMO, this is a no-brainer. If the school will allow the drop, why take the GPA hit on Day 1?</p>

<p>(The withdrawal-passing is important since it won’t hit the GPA. A withdrawl-failing maybe counted as a F for GPA.)</p>

5

<p>With 35 missed days, consider asking for a medical leave for the term, get private tutoring to continue the year, and repeat 9th grade.</p>

6

<p>[Arabic</a> Language, Basic, Part I | JHU CTY](<a href=“http://cty.jhu.edu/ctyonline/courses/world_languages/arabic_basic_AR11.html]Arabic”>Arabic Language, Basic, Part I (NCAA Approved) | Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth (CTY))</p>

<p>If you are interested in paying for it and do it online to catch up and going back next year to the second year.</p>

7

<p>Arabic is one of the most difficult languages to learn for an English speaker. It can’t be overemphasized how very, very hard it is. If he missed the unit on the alphabet, it’s not going to work - he will NOT get to a C even with tutoring unless he spends all his time on it at the expense of the other classes: it’s that hard.
Ask for a medical withdrawal (or a withdrew/passing) - he shouldn’t have to take a D because he got sick. The D doesn’t reflect his performance, it reflects his health.
He can’t reasonably be expected to take tests in a language where he doesn’t even know the alphabet… especially since he’s been so ill!</p>

<p>In addition if he was a B student in middle school, I assume he signed up for Arabic as a way to stretch himself but it really became undoable when he got sick and he should have dropped it earlier. It’s as if he took up juggling because he had coordination problems, then broke two fingers. I actually feel pretty bad for him :s </p>

<p>He doesn’t need to “skip” a language this year: You could register him for an online foreign language course. I think French is probably the easiest to learn (about 50% words similar to English, fewer conjugations than Spanish, no “cases” like in Latin and German; an alternative is Italian) but really he can pick anything. Then, if you can afford it, register him for that language’s concordia language village this summer, and have him continue with Level 2 in that language next year. An alternative would be for him to complete Level1 French/Spanish/German/Latin/Italian online, then take Arabic1 at Concordia Language Villages before he starts with Arabic again next Fall.
If the medical problems continue, do consider a medical withdrawal for the year, with online courses as appropriate - especially if his school is not flexible on missed days, missed work, making up lessons, etc.</p>

8

<p>If it were my DS I would pick option 3. I would start back up with a different language next fall. Try an “easier” one. 3 years of language should be enough for most colleges. I have a 9th grader and he is planning on taking only 3 years of Latin. Also there are some colleges that don’t even look at grades from 9th grade.</p>

9

<p>I would pick option #3.</p>

10

<p>I’m just curious- were his absences consecutive? As in- did he have one huge long extended absence? Our schools send a visiting teacher if a student is going to be out more than a week. I don’t see how anybody could keep up in any of their classes missing that much. I agree with option 4 as someone else presented- see if there can be some kind of medical withdrawal. </p>

<p>Three years of language is definitely enough for most colleges.</p>

11

<p>Medical excuse to drop the class at this point, is it possible? And yes, Arabic is one of the MOST difficult languages. Maybe why the academies prize it so highly. That and where they can send you with a mastery of it!</p>

<p>Drop the class, add a different language…kiddos’ found Spanish the most useful but son enjoyed Greek all through college as did daughter in addition to Latin. Again all 5 of mine have found Spanish to be the most beneficial in all their respective career paths, medicine, healthcare, engineering, and restaurant biz.</p>

<p>Kat</p>

12

<p>With 35 absences, Arabic should be the least of the problems. Next to such non-essential and obviously ill-advised subject, the REST of the grades are of greater concern. Dropping Arabic in 9th grade should have NO impact on college applications. A low overall GPA is a different story.</p>

<p>Walk away from the non-sensical choice to jump into Arabic with looming health issue, and never look back. Refocus on the basic demands of high school and move onto the more important subjects with greater attention.</p>

13

<p>Another vote for option #3. Not even a question in my mind.</p>

14

<p>Unless he’s dying to learn Arabic, I think he’s in a really poor position now. Not knowing the alphabet is just the beginning. It’s not like there are 26 letters - there are different ways of writing the letters depending on where they appear in a word. There are sounds that have no corresponding sound in English - and that I can barely hear the difference when my son (who is taking his fourth year of college Arabic including a year in Jordan) demonstrates them to me. </p>

<p>FWIW the Foreign Service considers French, Italian, Spanish and Dutch relatively easy for an English speaker. German a little harder. And Arabic, along with Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese and Korean are listed as the most difficult.</p>

<p>I’m a fan of four years of high school languages, but not at the expense of the other high school grades. From my son’s college experience Arabic can be a huge time sink. My son’s college grades, not just in Arabic suffered. He persevered because he’s stubborn and got interested, but the jury is still out whether it was worth it. (He’s a college senior now.) I’d suggest your son regroup. Fix his other grades - and if it were me take up Spanish next year - a language which is enormously useful in this country right now.</p>

15

<p>If your son was out 35 days with health issues, he has some legal rights. Are you aware of this? Is your school aware of this?</p>

<p>One thing you might do is spend $150-200 on an hour with a lawyer who specializes in educational issues. That would be the quickest route to solving your problem.</p>

<p>Did the school offer any services to your son while ill? Is he better now or is this a chronic issue?</p>

<p>The school should wipe the Arabic and any other class he did not do well in due to health, off the record, unless they provided adequate services, class notes, extensions, incompletes and so on.</p>

<p>If your son becomes healthy again, or has a better plan, he can tackle any language he likes. This can also be done in the summer or through community or other colleges at some point. </p>

<p>One of my kids has health issues. The school could not figure out how to serve her, even if they were willing. A lawyer gave us a plan that made it easy on the school overall. Every day, every teacher filled out a form with what was done in class, homework assignment, attached notes, any grades missing, tests/quizzes that she could take at home and so on. She took exams at home too.</p>

<p>Honestly, she was too sick for tutoring: it would have been hard to predict that she would be up to it at a scheduled time, so she did work when she could. She also participated in music after school when she could. Some days she was home, other days she was in and out, going to one class, coming home, going up for another, and so on.</p>

<p>Using online classes helped in the following two semesters. This reduced the impact of missing school and lent flexibility to her schedule.</p>

<p>You might now want to follow the same plan but this gives you an idea of what can be done and should be done. (She is about to graduate from a top college, where she also had some accommodations at times, which she hated to use but did when needed).</p>

16

<p>How much longer do you have to decide? If his school has a particularly lengthy winter break, I might suggest devoting the time to studying the alphabet. I personally find the basics of alphabets pretty easy to get down in about a week and have done so in Korean and a version of the Arabic alphabet (not to say that I don’t read slowly or spend a great deal of time after the initial learning getting similar letters confused- like <code>n’ and</code>k’ in Korean or <code>b’ and</code>n’ in the Arabic-based script for a language Uyghur). Generally, at least at the college level where I’ve taken such courses, we were given about 3 weeks to work towards learning the alphabet, during which homework could be submitted in Roman letters, and after that everything had to be submitted in the language’s own script. If he has time during winter break to get the alphabet down and a tutor is within your budget (also - is a tutor definitely necessary?), I would consider option 1. Note that medical absences can be explained in college applications.</p>

<p>If he’ll be back in school in short time, I would go with option 2 over 3. The grade of D strikes me as much worse than the grade of C, which is why I wouldn’t suggest option 3. Go for at least the C with options 1 or 2, and depending on how his catching up is going, decide between them. If he can get the alphabet down in no time thanks to the tutor or just to his own success, option 1 might be best. But if getting the C takes all of his effort, I wouldn’t continue with Arabic in the second semester. </p>

<p>As for taking Arabic vs. starting anew with an <code>easier’ language, I would stick with Arabic. It stands out, and depending on what field he may someday study, it may be required to learn a non-Indo European language. Also, as an approximately fluent French speaker who started learning French in 10th grade and has studied much more</code>difficult’ languages since then, I think the difference in difficulty of learning is often exaggerated. I do, however, second the recommendation for Concordia Language Villages with great enthusiasm. Though I’ve not personally participated, I’ve known both teachers and students, and I generally consider immersive learning vastly superior to traditional styles of language learning.</p>

17

<p>I also vote for option 3. If this kid is dying to learn Arabic, find some way for him to do this OUTSIDE of school. There are plenty of other languages he can use to fulfill his college application requirements that are not as complicated.</p>

<p>If these were health related absences that the school was informed about, it is possible that they will delete the Arabic course from his record. Did you request any home bound tutoring for this student, or we’re these 35 absences not consecutive. In many districts, homebound is only provided when a student has been absent for a certain number of consecutive days, with an anticipation that this will continue. Call the school guidance office when school resumes. You might also want to discuss,this with the 504 coordinator at the school if there is an anticipation these absences will continue. They should be able to help with an accommodation plan.</p>

18

<p>I completely agree with thumper’s recommendations, especially to pursue a 504 if you believe the illness will continue impacting learning. I would get the school nurse involved. We found the nurse very helpful in advocating about health concerns.</p>

19

<p>I meant “might not want to follow this plan,” rather than “might now”- typo.</p>

<p>Meet with the 504 coordinator of your school. The guidance counselor is unbelievably ignorant in this situation. If you don’t want to do a lawyer, you can also call the federal dept. of education’s office of civil rights. It doesn’t have to be a complaint. They can inform you of the accommodations that are appropriate to the situation and they can also tell the school- for free.</p>

<p>I agree with getting the school nurse involved: it was the school nurse who gathered the teachers’ info sheets for my child each day and packaged them.</p>

<p>Someone should be providing notes from each class as well. The school can get a volunteer student in each class to provide notes, or provide a staff member for that purpose. SPED staff often cannot do this for a kid with a 504 due to contractual terms.</p>

<p>Languages are the toughest kind of class to miss.</p>

<p>If your son is able, he should be able to go up to class, then come home and rest, then go up to class. Our plan (described above) enabled our child to go in and out as she could and maximized her involvement in school, at school, as much as possible each day. For emotional and social development, the 504 should also spell out that your son can do extracurricular clubs and activities even if he wasn’t in school that day.</p>

<p>You have a right to home tutoring but we did not exercise that right. If a kid is sick, it can be hard to schedule tutoring because you never know when the child will be able to work.</p>

<p>I PM’ed you.</p>

20

<p>Just a reminder to consider overall health as well as academics. I’m sure you already are putting health first. D1 experienced serious health issues her junior year which affected her grades. She developed a noncontagious chronic illness which caused persistent vomiting and weight loss to under 100 pounds. She kept trying to go to school and would frequently have to leave when the vomiting showed up, often continuing for hours on end, so it wasn’t like she could just do the work at home. I was in favor of removing her from school for health reasons, then continuing when she got a diagnosis and had her health issues under control. She and her father refused. Her dad was convinced that psychologically she needed to keep trying. It turned out they were right. She got some mediocre grades and didn’t fet any scholarships, but it was important to her to graduate with her class. She has learned to manage the health issues and is very successful academically in college at a flagship uni. </p>

<p>I guess my point is that academics are important and so are physical and mental health so consider them all. We don’t know all there is to know about your child so I am not advising what to do, just what to consider.</p>