Brother facing school suspension

Kilroyss

My brother is in 6th year. He isn't a confident reader at all. Today in English he was asked to read out loud in class, he said he didn't want to. The teacher took him outside and gave out to him and several other teachers gave out to him as well for it. He is now being threatened with a suspension from school if he doesn't read out loud in his next English class. He is cheeky or bold in school and has never been suspended from school before. I'm just wondering If it's normal to punish someone like this because they are too nervous and not confident enough to read out loud in front if a class.

TheChizler

He's not being punished for being nervous, he's being punished for refusing to do as the teacher asked. It would have been better if he asked to talk to the teacher and explained how he was feeling instead of point blank refusing and potentially diminishing the teacher's authority in front of the rest of the class.

paddybarry

Kilroyss wrote: »

My brother is in 6th year. He isn't a confident reader at all. Today in English he was asked to read out loud in class, he said he didn't want to. The teacher took him outside and gave out to him and several other teachers gave out to him as well for it. He is now being threatened with a suspension from school if he doesn't read out loud in his next English class. He is cheeky or bold in school and has never been suspended from school before. I'm just wondering If it's normal to punish someone like this because they are too nervous and not confident enough to read out loud in front if a class.

Get parents/guardians to contact school and state that your brother is not to be made read out load in class. Common enough occurrence.

LC2017

The teacher most likely thinks that he is just being cheeky or is trying to get a laugh out of the class. Getting a parent to contact the school or talking to the teacher in private is the best thing to do.

Kilroyss

TheChizler wrote: »

He's not being punished for being nervous, he's being punished for refusing to do as the teacher asked. It would have been better if he asked to talk to the teacher and explained how he was feeling instead of point blank refusing and potentially diminishing the teacher's authority in front of the rest of the class.

Sorry I didn't explain what exactly he said very well. According to him he said "miss would it be OK not to read, I don't feel to well" then she said it wasn't OK, and told him to read again, then he said "miss I can't" that's when she brought him outside. He told her he wasn't confident enough to read infront of the class. Then other teachers walking by started getting involved.

Kilroyss

LC2017 wrote: »

The teacher most likely thinks that he is just being cheeky or is trying to get a laugh out of the class. Getting a parent to contact the school or talking to the teacher in private is the best thing to do.

A good assumption but he's actually fairly quiet in school! And the teacher has had him for last year as well so she'd know him fairly well.

Kilroyss

paddybarry wrote: »

Get parents/guardians to contact school and state that your brother is not to be made read out load in class. Common enough occurrence.

That's what's happening tomorrow I think!

spurious

Why has it taken the school til 6th year to find this out about him?

Is he not good at reading, or is it the out loud part that bothers him more?
Either way, the school have had him for at least the last four years, what the fiddle faddle have they been doing that they did not notice?

carefulnowted

Not wanting to read aloud is fairly common in students and it usually isn't a big deal once the student speaks privately to their teacher. I find the school's reaction very strange to be honest.

Kilroyss

spurious wrote: »

Why has it taken the school til 6th year to find this out about him?

Is he not good at reading, or is it the out loud part that bothers him more?
Either way, the school have had him for at least the last four years, what the fiddle faddle have they been doing that they did not notice?

For the first 3 years he had another English teacher, she didn't mind that he didn't want to read. Last year, with the teacher he has now, they weren't reading a novel so there was no reading out loud. They are starting the novel now, and his turn to read came today. He's not terrible at reading, he's just not that confident and the fact that it's infront of the whole class doesn't help!

Kilroyss

carefulnowted wrote: »

Not wanting to read aloud is fairly common in students and it usually isn't a big deal once the student speaks privately to their teacher. I find the school's reaction very strange to be honest.

That teacher is new from when I was there but from what I hear she's not the nicest person in the world. And the other teachers and principle would never go against a teacher who was punishing a student, no matter how stupid the situation. There was a lot of strange reactions in that school when I was there!

spurious

Kilroyss wrote: »

That teacher is new from when I was there but from what I hear she's not the nicest person in the world. And the other teachers and principle would never go against a teacher who was punishing a student, no matter how stupid the situation. There was a lot of strange reactions in that school when I was there!

There may have been other things going on in the class that meant she took his refusal as disobedience. Hopefully the meeting will make sure it doesn't happen again. While it's a useful skill to have, reading/speaking in public is not AFAIK on the LC English syllabus (yet).

I'm glad it's not a reading issue, but a confidence one. That is easier deal with. The secret to a lot of teenage confidence problems is to realise that the other people in your class or group are really more interested in and obsessed with themselves than they are with you. Later in life you learn to really not care what anyone thinks about you. This is why you see little old ladies in hotpants with pink dye in their hair.

JC43

My lads felt ill when asked to read aloud. Turns out they were dyslexic - one found out a couple of days before his leaving cert and the other was at the end of fifth year. Your brother should speak privately to the teacher, or ask the school to assess him for dyslexia,

evolving_doors

A word from a parent should sort it.
We get it on rare occasions with our students. Basically, all teachers informed by year head 'student doesn't like being asked to read in class', no more info given unless a teacher asks, but really it's no big deal. You get a few teachers rolling their eyes about generation snowflake and all that but that's their problem. The parent is the primary educator of the child (it's in the constitution!) so as long as the student isn't breaking any school rules then what the parent wants should be respected.

In a way it's changed my mindset of obliging students to read to 'inviting' students to read with a little bit of coaxing. If they still said no then I move on and maybe keep it in mind if there's something going on (dyslexia, bullying etc).

mtoutlemonde

Gebgbegb wrote: »

In a way it's changed my mindset of obliging students to read to 'inviting' students to read with a little bit of coaxing. If they still said no then I move on and maybe keep it in mind if there's something going on (dyslexia, bullying etc).

+1 on this. If we are doing some reading comprehension, I will say that if students really don't want to read to tell me. I don't see it as major disobedience because some students just don't like to read and I teach a language and kids love to laugh at others mistakes. I think the teacher was having a bad day and not overly sympathetic either. Now I must say, if someone doesn't read a few times, I will talk to him/her and as Gebgbegb says I will coax them to read in the next class and sometimes it happens. Now on the other hand - if someone laughs at someone's else's attempt then I'll devour them

icebergiceberg

We have a number of issues with students who are unable to read aloud and participate fully in class. In their cases it relates to huge anxiety problems and they get counselling. It leads to absence from school among other things. It is stressful for the child and the parents.

Good communication between all parties is the key and practical plans and strategies need to be put in place to ensure child doesn't suffer.

Wanderer78

Feel for this student, dyslexic myself, reading was a dreadful experience in school. At almost 40, I was only diagnosed couple of years ago. Please get advice on this, early detection is best. Sadly it looks like our educational system is still not up to scratch with these complex issues, students behaviour should be a red flag for something more complex.

Teyla Emmagan

He doesn't appear to be dyslexic. Just shy. He'd be much better off trying to overcome this than hiding from it OP. As someone else said his peers will be far too busy daydreaming to even notice his reading.

randylonghorn

Teyla Emmagan wrote: »

He doesn't appear to be dyslexic. Just shy. He'd be much better off trying to overcome this than hiding from it OP.

In principle, I agree, but baby steps tend to work far better than being thrown in at the deep end (or what he obviously sees as the deep end).

I really can't see the school's current attitude helping much ...