Pre-referral obstacles

Yesterday in one of my teaching courses, the instructor assigned the class to construct a "pre-referral" for a struggling student. What this means: the teacher is concerned that the student may have a learning disability and may need extra help... may fit in Section 504 or need an IEP (individual education plan). Well, the professor went over what was supposed to be 6 lectures and condensed it into one. Needless to say 99.9% of us in the class are a little confused of how to go about this. Here is my pre-referral that you can read. I am not sure if it contains all of the components or not, we will find out tomorrow...

Jack is a fifteen year old boy who is in 10th grade and a boy who has a positive attitude towards his elders and peers around. It is a month into the first semester and showing signs of struggling with basic tenth grade level comprehensive reading. Two weeks ago the class started reading Lord of the Flies. For in class reading the students work in pairs to read the text and analyze the text to interpret and synthesize information and ideas. In observation, Jack is able to clearly read out-loud to his partner. The worksheets that are taken home to expand demonstration of comprehension it is shown that Jack is struggling with the overall ideas/theme of the book. For the students to demonstrate comprehension the worksheets contain close-ended questions to find out what the text says and Jack is unable to answer those questions correctly 50% of the time. To analyze and critically think of language, style, purpose, and perspective, open-ended questions are provided since proof is needed to answer the questions. Jack does identify character perspective and purpose; however, he is unable to provide proof 40% of the time to back up his statements. The last intent of the worksheets is to understand the theme or main idea of the reading in which core questions are provided. In his answers, Jack is ventures answers; however, he is unable to identify the main theme or idea 50% of the time. During whole-class discussions of the book, Jack is listening intently to what his peers have to offer about the book, but over 60% of the time, when a question is prompted Jack is unable to answer the question about the book or is silent during discussion.
I have met with Jack outside of class time, the first time to see what I can do to help him. On a daily basis I meet with Jack when a reading and worksheet is assigned. For this past week, I give Jack the assigned reading the day before; he spends his time after school in the classroom to read the selection, I give Jack the worksheet before the reading so he can look for the answers while reading. Jack is able to go home that night to work on the worksheet, the next day during study hall Jack and I go over the worksheet. Questions I have about Jack: are there after school programs that he is able to attend to successfully improve his comprehensive skills? Also, is Jack struggling in comprehending text in other areas such as Science or History?

Moving onto the next topic: SNOW! As you can see we were blessed with more snow last night... Pullman was so close to be completely free of snow-- it was almost all melted! I went to my last class at 6pm and it is about 3 hours long, when Danielle and I walked outside, little to our suprise, it was snowing. Okay, I lied, it wasn't exactly snow, it was more like slushy snow. It was the nasty type of snow, we "trotted" back to her house which isn't far away and to my car so I could finish driving home. By the time we arrived, my glasses I could not see out of, our hair was literally covered in snow, our bags were covered and my shoes and socks were drenched. I should have taken a picture last night, but I decided not to. Needless to say the bottom portion of the road was completely ice and the top part was some-what snow. It was so hard to drive in that, I could barely get into the drive way to park the car. Forunately, it was sunny today.

Next topic, roommate stuff again. As you can see, Stephanie is able to put the trash next to the door, but unable to walk outside to the dumpster to put it in.

Since the picture is smaller you might not be able to guess what is wrong with the picture and why I am upset. Good news, I will tell you!! The top shelf is Stephanie's items, mine are the middle and well, Megan, she doesn't have any. If you look to the right side, you can see a red figure towards the front of the fridge. What is that? It is steak, yes steak that is on the top shelf, only in a Ziploc baggie that could drip down to my fresh fruit and vegetables. Sanitary? I think not! Also the bottom shelf has drinks and milk. Grrr... I have to remember the grace to forgive.