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It's sad, isn't it? I remember my daughter bringing home an English paper in grade school that she got an A on, and it had spelling errors and incorrect usage of "there" and "their" and I asked her how she got an A with those errors. She said the teacher grades on content, not spelling and grammar. WHAT?! I said OH NO YOU DON'T! YOU will learn to spell and use grammar correctly even if the teacher doesn't require it. Do some teachers just not care or what? We have excellent schools in our district - in fact, I specifically wanted to raise my kids here because of the schools. But if there was something the school wasn't teaching then I taught it to my kids myself. I mean, just because the teacher THIS year is going to let them get by with that, doesn't mean it's going to be okay next year or in college!
Luzianne,
It's not that teachers don't care about writing, but it's that when we look at papers now, we have to look at the paper as a whole. What if a child really writes a good paper, but she has minor spelling errors in it. As long as those errors don't take away from the content, or the clarity of her writing, then teachers don't ding her for it. My district uses a rubric and depending on the writing topic, for example summary writing, writing to persuade, and or responding to literature, we have to use a different criteria to score that paper. We don't even use letter grades anymore because what does an A truely mean or a B or a C paper truely mean when every teacher may not grade the paper the same.
So what many districts have come up with is a rubric score, and my district uses a 4 point scale. Each scale explains what the paper as a whole should be. A paper that still has spelling errors, but covers the content within that rubric can be a highly scored paper just because that child stuck to the topic or wrote about that topic within that rubric's score. If there are spelling mistakes, then the paper just simply needs to be edited.
I tell my 4th graders that Editing means to check for spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors, and that they are making their paper correct. When we get to revision, I tell my 4th graders that revision means to make the paper better. This is when they can go to the thesaurus and use a better synonym for a word or add an adjective etc.
It's not that teachers don't care about writing, but it's that when we look at papers now, we have to look at the paper as a whole. What if a child really writes a good paper, but she has minor spelling errors in it. As long as those errors don't take away from the content, or the clarity of her writing, then teachers don't ding her for it. My district uses a rubric and depending on the writing topic, for example summary writing, writing to persuade, and or responding to literature, we have to use a different criteria to score that paper. We don't even use letter grades anymore because what does an A truely mean or a B or a C paper truely mean when every teacher may not grade the paper the same.
So what many districts have come up with is a rubric score, and my district uses a 4 point scale. Each scale explains what the paper as a whole should be. A paper that still has spelling errors, but covers the content within that rubric can be a highly scored paper just because that child stuck to the topic or wrote about that topic within that rubric's score. If there are spelling mistakes, then the paper just simply needs to be edited.
I tell my 4th graders that Editing means to check for spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors, and that they are making their paper correct. When we get to revision, I tell my 4th graders that revision means to make the paper better. This is when they can go to the thesaurus and use a better synonym for a word or add an adjective etc.
Thanks for explaining. It's just so different from the way that I was taught in grade school in the 60s. Thank goodness there are people like you who are willing teach our children. That's a job I would never be able to you. My hat's off to you!
you are a a** I am and always will be a John Mcain fan. Lets see if you talk that way after a year in office. All you have to talk on is race, nothing else when white people helped him get elected so swallow that down while i finish lol. I respect him and will follow him til the end whole hearted because he is the president. But Everyone who voted for him will get whats coming, Because how can you create jobs if you are taxing the hellout of the ones creating them.
It's not that teachers don't care about writing, but it's that when we look at papers now, we have to look at the paper as a whole. What if a child really writes a good paper, but she has minor spelling errors in it. As long as those errors don't take away from the content, or the clarity of her writing, then teachers don't ding her for it. My district uses a rubric and depending on the writing topic, for example summary writing, writing to persuade, and or responding to literature, we have to use a different criteria to score that paper. We don't even use letter grades anymore because what does an A truely mean or a B or a C paper truely mean when every teacher may not grade the paper the same.
So what many districts have come up with is a rubric score, and my district uses a 4 point scale. Each scale explains what the paper as a whole should be. A paper that still has spelling errors, but covers the content within that rubric can be a highly scored paper just because that child stuck to the topic or wrote about that topic within that rubric's score. If there are spelling mistakes, then the paper just simply needs to be edited.
I tell my 4th graders that Editing means to check for spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors, and that they are making their paper correct. When we get to revision, I tell my 4th graders that revision means to make the paper better. This is when they can go to the thesaurus and use a better synonym for a word or add an adjective etc.
we will look back on this election 10 years from now and see americans making one of the smartest moves so far. we have already regained the confidence of the world and soon will stop the war and have a stable economy again.
You have to love watching the paranoid right wing kooks blow a fuse after their bigoted, hateful world view comes crashing down. They're flailing around with all kinds of paranoid hysteria. HIDE YOUR CHILDREN, HIDE YOUR GUNS, HIDE YOUR WIVES, OBAMA'S AND HIS BLACK SOCIALIST ARMY IS COMING TO GET YOU!
A black man is president. THE END IS NEAR! THE UN IS TAKING OVER! APOCALYPSE! RAPTURE! GRAB YOUR GUNS AND RUN FOR THE HILLS!
Yes, they are quite pathetic and absolutely irrelevant. The world has passed them by. They're still stuck in 1908, not 2008.
Thanks for explaining. It's just so different from the way that I was taught in grade school in the 60s. Thank goodness there are people like you who are willing teach our children. That's a job I would never be able to you. My hat's off to you!
Luzi,why aren't you correcting her/his spelling,as you always are w/ mine? At least I am not on here rambling about educating children,I am on CD posting for fun/entertainment. When posting on an internet message board,we generally aren't trying too hard to watch our Ps & Qs. Unless it is totally illegible ,most people can forgive a few misspelled words here & there,as we are all (mostly) adults,and we're not in 3rd grade English anymore.
You follow ME all around this board,looking for extra commas,typos,etc. But when YOU do it,or someone you agree with, you don't say a word. What is up with that?
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THE END IS NEAR! THE UN IS TAKING OVER! APOCALYPSE! RAPTURE! GRAB YOUR GUNS AND RUN FOR THE HILLS!
