P.C. gone mad...AGAIN!

[wunt be druv]

I think being told not to win at sports in case the other team gets upset is pretty Politically correct.

 

[The_Viper]

I've never seen Stephen King publishing a book with spelling mistakes because the story is the important thing...

 

[CheeseRolls]

What will his Dad tell him the day he comes home upset because the defenders were too good for him and he couldn't just dribble past them all and score ?

Maybe someone should tell Gus Why is Harper messing about passing the ball to our players ? He fancies himself as a striker so he just needs to bloody dribble it around all the opposition and score like they used to teach us in school before political correctness went mad.

 

[Reinelt12]

I understand your take on this but as a teacher I can tell you there are good reasons why we do not correct every single spelling mistake in every single piece of work. There is a learning objective for every piece of writing a child does, and the work is marked with this in mind. Learning objectives are structured so that a child learns all the writing skills that you and I take for granted, i.e. structure (story openings for example), grammar, use of imaginative vocabulary, being able to write in different styles, e.g. diary entries or factual writing. You can imagine that if we marked all work for all aspects of writing, the child would not know what to concentrate on. It would be a bit like your driving instructor teaching you about road positioning, use of the clutch, reading road signs etc all in your first lesson.

I understand that approach, but surely the basics should be the priority (spelling/grammar) and therefore should be concentrated on at all times and marked accordingly - and any piece of work should have a focus (structure, imaginitive writing etc.) and that one focus also marked on. Therefore the child focuses on the basics and one other writing aspect with each piece of work? Or am I being too simplistic?

 

[rool]

What would have happened in my day, if a game was so one sided, is the teacher would switch a good player or two to the other side.
At least that way the better ones can still play to the best of their capabilities.

 

[JCL666]

We're going to hell in a handcart! I blame Communists/Gang culture/the selling of sports fields/computer games/Eastern Europeans/Films/Travellers/Rap music/Anyone a bit foreign looking..................

 

[PILTDOWN MAN]

f***ing hell your right on the money there. Ive been saying why do people spell Lose like Loose now I know. My son will be privately tutored by an ex teacher I know after school so in about 30 years he will be running this country full of numpties.

You read it here first.

Make sure it is by an ex-teacher (or do you mean a retired teacher) and not by you! Your, should be you're or you are!

 

[brightn'ove]

This is quite strange, when i was around 10 or 11 we had a mock 'world cup' tournament and my team (ENGLAND, no other) got to the final. It was a gritty affair, two footed tackles, pushing and shoving, the other team's keeper was one of their mums so i think they had a bit of an advantage considering she was at least 5'6 and we were all around 4'6 ... but anyway, to the point, in the closing minutes of the game, the atmosphere was pretty tense, i dived for a penalty (as any right thinking english footballer would do), and proceeded to take the penalty myself. I slotted it past the mum in goal, and proceeded to celebrate with a cartwheel (after feigning a leg injury). i bloody got sent off for unsporting behaviour and lost 10 minutes of my bloody golden time.

Actually come to think of it that was probably the right decision...

 

[Pevenseagull]

when I was playing cricket at school in the early 80s those of us who had any ability in cricket were not allowed to bowl at our full pace and boundaries didn't count - made the whole thing a bit pointless really

 

[Murray 17]

Isn't spelling correctly important when telling a story (at least a story that is meant to be read), important with some forms of grammar (their, there, they're for example)? Isn't it such a basic skill it should be taught before story structure and different styles of writing. Isn't learning different prose forms before spelling a case of running before you can walk?

In my original post I explained that we do not correct all spellings in all pieces of writing. As a rule I would correct 4 or 5 in a medium length text, and chose words that I would think the child would be able to learn once the correct spelling had been pointed out. Would I penalise a child who found spelling difficult but had used a technically correct and adventurous word by writing all over it? No, I would praise them. Remember they could then use this word in conversation, the biggest form of communication that we use.

Without wanting to sound patronising, the people who have responded to my point are clearly articulate and have good writing skills. What you have to remember is that you could teach spelling all day every day to some children (and adults) and they would still not come up to a standard that you would believe is acceptable. Would you keep going until they were 15/16 years old, doing the same old things day-in, day-out? At some stage you have to accept that there are other aspects to a child's writing which are important and probably more achievable. Someone could try to teach me astro-physics, but however long they spent I wouldn't be able to understand it. If they told me that as a result of me not understanding it I had to do it all again next year, and the following year... well.

I'm not some 'liberal-minded' teacher that people like to have a pop at, just an ordinary chap who has been doing this job for 18 years and can speak from experience.

 

[brightn'ove]

sometimes i think about the way i was educated and can't work out for the life of me how the f*** i am now at university.

 

[tgretton87]

Make sure it is by an ex-teacher (or do you mean a retired teacher) and not by you! Your, should be you're or you are!

Im or I am at work need to rush to post before my boss comes out and realises Ive or I have not made him enough money.

She is retired I couldnt teach thats why I am going to pay somebody else to do it. I will teach him how to get the ball down and give it easy, the Gus Poyet way.

 

[Murray 17]

I understand that approach, but surely the basics should be the priority (spelling/grammar) and therefore should be concentrated on at all times and marked accordingly - and any piece of work should have a focus (structure, imaginitive writing etc.) and that one focus also marked on. Therefore the child focuses on the basics and one other writing aspect with each piece of work? Or am I being too simplistic?

Something tells me you may be in the same profession?? If you're not, a lot of schools use a version of this approach.

What some people fail to realise, and I have mentioned it in the quote above, is that some people find spelling so hard you would end up correcting virtually every word they write.

 

[brightn'ove]

I will teach him how to get the ball down and give it easy

that's standard practice at catholic private schools.

 

[tgretton87]

that's standard practice at catholic private schools.

I just choked on my bloody tea. Very quick response.

Bravo

 

[brightn'ove]

I just choked on my bloody tea. Very quick response.

Bravo

 

[Storer 68]

I understand your take on this but as a teacher I can tell you there are good reasons why we do not correct every single spelling mistake in every single piece of work. There is a learning objective for every piece of writing a child does, and the work is marked with this in mind. Learning objectives are structured so that a child learns all the writing skills that you and I take for granted, i.e. structure (story openings for example), grammar, use of imaginative vocabulary, being able to write in different styles, e.g. diary entries or factual writing. You can imagine that if we marked all work for all aspects of writing, the child would not know what to concentrate on. It would be a bit like your driving instructor teaching you about road positioning, use of the clutch, reading road signs etc all in your first lesson.

Bet this doesn't work for the maths and science subjects??

 

[Storer 68]

Something tells me you may be in the same profession?? If you're not, a lot of schools use a version of this approach.

What some people fail to realise, and I have mentioned it in the quote above, is that some people find spelling so hard you would end up correcting virtually every word they write.

So how do you tell them that they've spelt a word incorrectly?

 

[Chesney Christ]

I think being told not to win at sports in case the other team gets upset is pretty Politically correct.

Yep.

If thats what happened.

Keep us posted.

 

[JCL - the new kid in town]

So how do you tell them that they've spelt a word incorrectly?

i think the point is you correct some but not all otherwise it becomes a mass of red ink (are you still allowed to use red or is that banned for being inflammatory) and the pupils might not learn anything as they see everything wrong and the pupil might feel like giving up. Its based on the principle of telling them they may have done three things wrong but they got one good thing right rather than 20 wrong and one right. If there are a lot of spelling mistakes surely its best to tackle them a few at a time. When you're washing up do you put all the dishes in the sink in one go or do you work through one by one?