To challenge DD's teacher about this?

[ASorcererIsAWizardSquared]

DD is just 6, (last week) and she is in yr1.

The school are doing something called 'read write inc' and DD had hers sent home with her on friday because she 'refused' to do the written work based on the RWI book they were working on.

The book is this, word for word.

Three cars stood at the starting post
Three smart cars - and an old go-kart!
The man lifted his arm to start them off.
They darted off along the track.
Vroom! Vroom!
Carl was in car 1
Carla was in car 2
Mark was in car 3
and Margo was in the go-kart.
The Cars did not get far.
Car 1 ran off the track, and ended up in the car park.
So did Car 2.
Car 3 - just stopped.
But look at that old go-kart!
You are a star, Margo.

and thats it.

the work DD 'refused' to do (told me she didnt know what to write) is an A4 piece of paper with a picture of Margo (Cartoon woman in racing leathers and a helmet, no other detail) which asked "What is Margo Like"

DD has written "Margo is happy because she won the gold trophy" and nothing else.

AIBU to ask wtf the teachers expects a 5/6yo to write about when neither the book, nor the pictures actually tell you anything about what Margo is like?

I said confident as she was prepared to race against cars in an old go-kart, but you could replace that with Tiggy's 'arrogant'!

'Good driver' because she didn't crash, but could also be lucky or OK.

It's not the most stimulating of tasks, but it's to get the children to start to think beyond the literal.

lmao, i think the teacher might question the parent input if i put some of this in

loving it though.

We don't know Margo won.
We don't know know Margo was the driver (she was in the go-kart, but someone else could've been driving it.

We know from the picture, not the story that Margo is a woman. (or at least likes to be depicted as one...)
We know from the picture that she wears leathers.

We know from the story that she was in the go kart.
We know from the story that the narrator thinks she's a star.

Ludicrous work.

Is it in the national curriculum to give kids this kind of task?

I know some kids go to town & enjoy, and others are baffled because they want more information. I just wondered if it was an NC thing or a standard teaching thing.

Did none of you ever write a story based in a random title or a picture when you were at school? Struggling to see the difference or why so many are scandalised and asking if it's 'in the National Curriculum'! What odd reactions to a perfectly normal task!

Maryz I don't see anyone getting cross because the answer isn't 'right', more that there is no real effort at an answer at all! And as others have said, the teacher probably did give. More than the OPs Dd is letting on...

"Write a story about someone racing a go-kart against three cars."

Interesting task.

"What do we know about Margo?"

Stupid task when all we know is that she was in a go-kart for a race.

Dh thinks Margo is clearly a dirty player and her pit crew much have nobbled the other cars!

AIBU to think this is a relatively easy task??

Can you submit two stories, one from your dd and one from Tiggy you? I think you should.

do you have a 5yo handy to read the story too, and then ask him to write a side of A4 on 'What is Margo like"? passthewineplz?

We were once set a composition (essay) titled "A day in the life of a blade of grass" Granted we were aot older than six but not a lot to go on.

I think six year olds have very basic sentences and spelling. So five or six sentences eg, Margo went fast. Margo had a blue/ red/ yellow cart.
Margo finished the race first. Margo had fun in the race. Margo was sad her friends cars did not work.

Assuming you Dd spelling is at a four word level try and use as many words she can spell as possible. as that will build her confidence with independent sentence writing.

I think you're all being terribly unfair on the teacher. She's evidently trying to prepare the next generation of MNers!

Margo is entitled.

Sorry OP, my DD is a bit younger and not at school yet. I'm thinking I need to start her with the basics before she starts school in September after reading this...

Ask your DD to describe the picture, and what she thinks happened from the story. Also perhaps phone a school friend's parent to see if they have any idea what the teacher is wanting

Maryz there are any number of ways of answering the question - as with all creative tasks or writing about what has been read. I agree the teacher could have worded it differently, but as others have pointed out the wording on the sheet is probably a simplification/memory prompt based on much longer discussion in class.

I actually have some five year olds here. I tried it out on them. They said "nothing" when I asked them what they knew about Margo,but one, unprompted, followed that with "she didn't get stuck and she didn't stop until after she crossed the finish-line".

Hahahaha! I've just snorted very loudly coco

DS has a serious imagination deficit and in yr2 this kind of thing would stress him out because he'd be so baffled about what was the 'right' answer and end up screaming at me if I tried to suggest anything.

So that's why I wondered if it's a standard teaching thing or something driven by bureaucrats who never met a living difficult kid and wants to treat them all like little automatons.

Just spend hours and hours getting a few numbers so that DS could write 1/2 page of practical applied math work (he loves maths & is in yr6). Homework with this kid is so difficult, please don't make it any harder with unreasonable ideas of what 'every kid can do'.

I work in a school, am trained in RWI and know this book.

The teacher should have done lots of talking about the story and getting the children to act out the story, use their imagination, contribute ideas, tweaked them, and got the children to say sentences before asking the children to write.

To give you an idea, the lesson plan is 45 minutes long with the teacher's input and time for the children to write.

All that is expected is a handful of sentences like 'Margo is smart.' Or 'Margo is a star.'

Is it about using imagination chronically?

Crohnically - sorry