a_mothers_story in booju_mooju

teaching your child after they come home from school

Mar 03, 2010 23:51

I am new to posting and this site. I found this site only after trying to find a site I could cut and paste a story I started writing over 10 years ago, and did not want to take a chance in ever losing it. I am glad to see a site with questioning parents! So here is mine.
Does it seem crazy to anyone else that when your child comes home from ( ... )

Comments (59)

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nightfun

It's called lazy teachers. Kids need to be taught the proper way and not the "internet" way to write and spell. They reported on the news ages ago about how today's children are abbreviating things and writing in a way that is not of the norm yet teachers do nothing.

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impeccablyme

OMG, I have a 13 year old brother who always spells "come" as "cum" on his facebook statuses. I'm like...dude...do you KNOW what that spelling refers to? Because our MOM is your facebook friend, yo.

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nightfun

I've seen other people do that and I just can't believe it. Not that I am a perfect speller or writer but still, common sense.

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impeccablyme

I find it especially disturbing when it is in reference to my infant daughter. As in "My niece is cumming today! I can't wait!" It's just....WRONG.

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megalicious

Well, I think it depends where you live, the subject and/or material, and what grade the students are in. I'm a teacher, and when I taught 5th grade I definitely marked things wrong if a word was misspelled in Spelling (obviously...) or took off points in a final copy of an essay, but if they spelled something wrong when writing an answer for a Social Studies question or Science packet, the spelling wasn't as important. The only time I would mark something wrong for a subject other than Spelling was if the word was in a word bank at the top of the page, for example, and the student was just lazy and copied it wrong.

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a_mothers_story

Where I live the elementary all the way up to high school in all subjects they do not correct spelling. They gave spelling tests in the elementary grades and only then did they correct a misspelled word. When I started questioning this and obviously complaining I was told that the children did eventually learn to spell through reading. My question to them was if they do not know how to spell how can they read? My 1st grader brought home a paper with three sentences written the teacher marked one mistake and gave her a smiley face and wrote great job. However she had two more mistakes like the one she corrected and one sentence read "I yousto pack my lunch" and it was not marked wrong or corrected in any way. My teenager is a senior in high school, she brought home an english paper with a score of 98%, three paragraphs and 15 misspelled words, she still got an A?

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megalicious

For 1st grade, I can understand why the teacher left it that way. At such a young age, it's important for the student to try their best on their own with spelling, to gain the independence and confidence. They do eventually learn how to spell the word(s), because "yousto" sounds just like "used to" (I'm assuming that's what it was supposed to be...), and when they read the words "used to" they will realize that is the correct way to spell it. It's all about sounding it out and learning what sounds each letter can make.

The high schooler, however.... that seems crazy to me. That many misspelled words definitely should have brought down the grade, especially because of Spell Check! Unless it was handwritten. But even then, if it is a final paper, spelling should definitely count.

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onemoreparadise

I think it is bad teaching. I mean in Kindergarten kids aren't going to spell perfectly, neither are first graders. I think in the lower grades (kindergarten through second), points should not be taken off for misspelled words unless it's a spelling test BUT it should still be pointed out that the spelling is wrong. The teacher should definitely spell over the word in red pen and make it clear that the spelling is wrong.
How are kids ever supposed to learn the right spelling is they are never told it's wrong? My teachers marked over my misspelled words in red pen all the time all throughout my schooling and it's honestly how I learned how to spell, since I hated bringing home papers marked up with red pen. I learned the words that were misspelled so that the papers would look pretty up on the fridge.

I would definitely bring that issue up to the teacher and let them know, or point out the mistakes to your kids yourself.

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a_mothers_story

onemoreparadise, you are so right that is exactly how I learned. When my 1st grader came home with that paper she was so proud, but she also thought it was all spelled correctly. I agree with you the teacher should at least mark them or as my teacher would do she would write the correct spelling above the wrong one, this helped me to learn not only that is was wrong but what it should be. Then by the 4th grade I was in spelling bees and excited about spelling. I have talked to the teachers & principals for my oldest daughter for many years, you see she ended up starting the 6th grade unable to read except at a 1st grade level and now I am so frustrated it is happening again with my little one.

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micchi

This, pretty much exactly. We were never specifically told "this word is spelled wrong", it was just marked with a red pen and the word written correctly.

And it works. Oh man, does it work. I still have journals from first and second grade that were marked that way...there's tons of corrections in the first few books, but as time went on, there started being less and less, even as I started including bigger words.

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yume_aria

Well, there's always the chance that your children have dyslexia. *~ducks~* Even if they have straight As, it's possible they could have a reading problem of some sort. I had a 6th grade teacher say that she thought I might be dyslexic, but I was in the gifted program, so no one took it seriously... And I only *just* realized that et cetera isn't ect, but rather etc. If it's laziness and they're writing "leik txt speak w/lotsa abbv. &stuff" then that should be corrected... but if they're spelling "baeutiful" instead of beautiful, then it's possible it's a learning thing. Besides, they'll have a word-processor that will fix the majority of mistakes they make when they get to college.

If it's just assignments, then it makes sense for teachers to let it slide- unless it's text/internet speak. But if it's just little things- it's fine. Eventually- if their word-processor doesn't have autocorrect, then they'll learn it. If it's in *essays* then that's a problem. That's just my opinion though.

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a_mothers_story

yume aria, My oldest does have a learning disability but the schools would not take me seriously either. When I saw that my daughter had problems in 2nd grade and then could not read going into the 3rd grade, the schools were telling me that she was fine and right where she should be, telling me she would catch on in spelling, reading with time, Would make me crazy too.
I think it is even more important, if it can be more important, that children with disabilities get the right, correct fundamentals to begin with and continued throughout their entire time in school. When you have a learning disability and your teachers do not show the correct way I think it makes it so much worse. It makes it that much harder for those students to ever catch on, depending on the learning disability of course. My youngest is in the 1st grade and the teachers tell me she is at 2nd grade level, very smart, but is she??? Or can she grow in a system like this?

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yume_aria

Actually, I think after reading further comments, you're right to say that. You're absolutely right. I was going to argue, and say I'm a 2nd year college student that has a junior standing credit wise, and a 3.8, with an A in a literature class (in which she didn't mark off for spelling on handwritten papers...) and so on ( ... )

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rikkicarey

I agree that spell should always be fixed/marked up by the teachers no matter what the subject is. I also agree with the philosophy that spell should only "count" on spelling tests, English essays and possibly as part of a "final presentation" score on larger reports (eg poor spelling could be the difference between an A and an A+) However, as someone that has struggled my entire life with poor spelling, I don't think it should be THE important part of every lesson. Same with cursive writing. I think content and thought process are much more important ( ... )

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Thread (5)

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a_mothers_story in booju_mooju

teaching your child after they come home from school

Comments (59)

nightfun

impeccablyme

nightfun

impeccablyme

megalicious

a_mothers_story

megalicious

onemoreparadise

a_mothers_story

micchi

yume_aria

a_mothers_story

yume_aria

rikkicarey

rikkicarey

kittyface

rikkicarey

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