SPELLINGS GRRRR

[Rosefairy]

to expect not to have to correct the spelling mistakes in the spelling list issued by the Teacher before my child learns them. They weren't copied incorrectly by her either I checked.

As you said,fallenmadonna, you're secondary science teachers so I wouldn't think it would matter as much. By the time the kids are that old they'll have some grasp of proper spelling won't they? And if not, that's not what they're in the class to learn.

It does matter if a science teacher incorrectly spells words on the blackboard, even if she does have a reason for incorrect spelling.

A science teacher will be teaching many new scientific words to the pupils, and these need to be taught with the correct spelling.

This is awful.

I would find it difficult to have any faith in what is being taught by this particular teacher.

It is lazy and unprofessional to issue a spelling list with mistakes.

I think the list should be taken to the Head so that said teacher can be monitored.

fircone - did the teacher write the 'serial box' notice?

FallenMadonna - my daughter's teacher with the wobbly spelling is dyslexic - it's an interesting one. He's a young but potentially very good teacher, but when he taught my DD he certainly hadn't worked out good enough strategies for getting round his spelling problems - the very least you'd expect would be spellchecking the spellings lists! I hope he's dealing with it, to be honest, as he was excellent in other ways.

I did wonder at the time whether dyslexia should be a bar to teaching primary children, or whether it can simply be managed with support from other staff and careful lesson preparation, but I don't know enough about it. As parents, if we hadn't heard that he was dyslexic through a staffroom mole, we'd have been much ruder about him...

Like you, I'd be interested in hearing what other people think, because I'm not sure what I think.

As a primary school teacher I would definately suggest that you take the list back to the teacher and if you get no help there then take it to the head of year before going straight to the head. Giving out spelling lists of keywords is vital and any mistake is not acceptable as children will learn the incorrect patterns and they are far harder to correct once embedded in the brain. Sort it asap but please don't think that all teachers are so careless and blase about spelling, punctuation or grammar.

OMG Harri1 - it's DEFINITELY...and you're a teacher?! There's no hope ~sob~

God, how depressing.

So many people get 'definitely' wrong, it pisses me off esp as dd (10) can spell it.

Helps if you remember it's connected to the word 'finite', I think

It's appalling. DW knows deputy heads who can't spell. How has this happened?

dd doubted herself even after she had learned the word, as 90% of what she sees on the internet/messages from friends etc use the wrong spelling!

fallenmadonna: i would have hoped that the dyslexic teacher would have planned their lesson to such an extent that any queries they had with spellings would be clearly marked beforehand. or that whatever they were to write on the board they had written out longhand when planning so that they could just copy it out onto the board. and get someone else to check it (because spellchecker just doesn't work!)

i was looking through oh's old english books from 2nd year senior (he went to a non-selective school in the 70s)(as opposed to a grammar) and his compositions were lazily marke,d if at all. The ones I read had several grammar and spelling mistakes and yet there would be ticks next to mistakes and only one or two mistakes corrected in each piece (at most). this man is actually intelligent, but has spent his whole life believing he isn't, and i firmly believe it's his school experience that's led him to think that. It's awful that schools just seem to write-off some children, and it obviously perpetuates into the teachers, who don't know themselves or don't care.

"do you honestly expect me to check 30 lists?" WTF??? why be a teacher if you're not willing to mark all the work??? TEACH!! and part of teaching is correcting mistakes!

marked, obviously

I was in the reception room while the teacher was teaching them the 'ai' sound 'AS IN FAIRY ' (she said)!!!

There's no excuse for this - teachers should give out spellings to children to learn in a format produced on the computer so they can spell check first, and so that every child brings home the correct spellings (just in case some copy them down incorrectly).

I would definitely go to the teacher and point out the mistakes which are in words which are obviously being given to children who are better spellers than her

Crazy!
I'm dyslexic and I could honestly say I would never contemplate teaching little ones how to spell, and I don't have it as severe as some.
I know when I am writting a write my way around words I can't spell iyswim so heavens knows how I'd be able to check spelling if I cant't even spell it correctly.

'teachers should give out spellings to children to learn in a format produced on the computer so they can spell check first'

Spell check won't pick up many errors, serial boxes for example.
I tend to use a dictionary.

School's are designed to create passive workers... the teacher's themselves are also these passive workers, so in one sense, you can't blame them as they are a part of the same machine. You don't want too many people discovering their potential.

picks self up off floor after visual assault by excessive apostrophes

Passive workers? If only.
Then they'd follow all the rules I teach them and not produce deviant spellings and punctuation.
Quick fantasy about the Good Old Days with cape and gown and cane

And when I wrote with a quill and remembered the difference between cap and cape!

@ 'excessive apostrophes'

I was sitting on my hands trying not to comment

my DD's class need their PE kits on Monday's and Thursday's

I kid you not

Local estate agent advertising a 4-bed detached in the paper this week, "Near to reputable local school's." That would be reputable local schools where you will learn to fucking punctuate properly and get a better job than an estate agent, one hopes.

Oh Unquiet, MrsDanvers & Goblin can I please join your apostrophe group?! Awful when they're missed too - used to be a shop in town called Kays Kiosk

There have been plenty of MN threads about this... what sticks in my memory is the teacher who defended not correcting spelling mistakes on the grounds that some child's work would be covered in red pen and it would be 'discouraging'.

How on earth was that poor child supposed to learn the correct spellings if the teacher didn't point out his or her mistakes? Appalling.

Dyslexic teachers usually have strategies to overcome their own poor spelling - IME they are less likely to make mistakes because they recognise their weakness and work on it. It's the lazy brigade who 'don't think spelling is important' who make errors.

And I'm sorry, but I don't think someone who can't be bothered to learn the correct spelling, or check in a dictionary if they there is a word they always get wrong, should be working in education. They may well be great teachers in other ways, but they are falling down on a pretty fundamental part of the job. You wouldn't qualify as a doctor if you didn't make the effort to remember all the bones of the body, however brilliant your bedside manner or diagnostic skills.