Practise/Practice

[redskyatnight]

DS's weekly spelling sheet reads: "Please encourage your child to practice the spellings listed below".

It's been annoying me every week, but I have said nothing in the hope that it might be corrected on the following week's sheet. I have now come to the conclusion that they must just cut and paste the instruction bit each week. Do I say something to the teacher (and if so how to I phrase it nicely) or will I just come across as smug and annoying?

How old is your DS? Is he old enough to know the difference himself? IF so, I would write on the sheet and hand it back. if not, I'd probably just leave it.

ahem, I did say something about this to our HT when the literacy coordinator sent home a letter encouraging our children to "practice their spellings" ...

it's a basic, but unfortunately very common, spelling mistake and really shouldn't be perpetuated week after week - especially not on a spellings sheet ...

YOu could ask the teacher if they will be teaching the children about nouns and verbs and cite practice/practise as a good example.

I would write "I am sure you mean 'practise the spelling'!" on a sticky note and put it on the spelling sheet or in the homework jotter.

That means the teacher will get the message AND be able to remove the note to spare his/her blushes!

I think that it is important to appreciate that some teachers may be dyslexic and struggle with spelling. I would hope that we, as a society, would not deny the full range of career opportunities to people in this group. There are plenty of high-flying professionals who admit to not being able to spell for peanuts.

Cut your teacher some slack. She might be doing her best, and it is always a big vague as to how you spell practice/practise. I know for me, I always check it by thinking advice/advise where the different pronounciation is a guide. Also, I do believe in American English there is only one spelling, which I think is practise.

I think I am a fairly good speller and typist. The only time I have both practice and practise in the same writing is when I do school reports, and I will very often have opted for the wrong one (without thinking about it). I would say that if I get it wrong, then it is a fairly forgiveable error.

Back to dyslexia, my headteacher claims to be dyslexic but it doesn't show. Everything she produces is proofread by one or two people, as well as the automated checking on Word. I would imagine that this would be an unimagineable luxury in a nursery setting.

"I think that it is important to appreciate that some teachers may be dyslexic and struggle with spelling."

In which case, don't put them in charge of spelling tests. If the teacher gave them times-tables to learn which said 2x3=7 would you let that pass?

I've had this before from ds's teacher, I just wrote "ds has practised his spellings as requested" in his diary.

But if it's a primary teacher, then spelling tests are only part of their job. Should someone else be draughted in to administer these?

If you have a dyslexic child, would you want doors closed to them, when they are otherwise 90% suited to the job?

Walk a mile in the other person's shoes before casting judgment.

Mme Blackberry, it is only practice in the US. And it's 'drafted' in.

I disagree with you completely - teaching spelling is an extremely important part of a primary school teacher's job, and they should be up to it. And to the practice/practise rule being 'a bit vague'. Sheesh!

I totally agree with you, Senua - it's not acceptable for Maths answers to be slightly wrong, but serious spelling errors are to be ignored, apparently.

Incidentally, Mme Blueberry (please accept apologies for misnaming your berry in my previous post ), the teacher would be expected to teach that 'vague' rule, so her understanding of it would need to be thorough.

Mme Blackberry, it is only practice in the US.

Umm - practice is the noun, practise, the verb - nothing to do with the US. See? that's the trouble when we get indignant about errors - we end up making one ourselves...

While I don't like spelling errors, I am with Mme Blueberry on this. I don't consider confusion over noun and verb as in practic/practise to be an unusual one and not really an issue for an early years teacher (though nice if he or she can spell of course.)

I would point it out gently in conversation to avoid further humiliation for the teacher. I don't lke the ideas of correcting and sending back as it can feel unsympathetic to the offending teacher.

The trouble is, few people have very good English, almost all of us are ignorant of a great many rules of spelling and grammar - it's just a question of degrees of ignorance.

jem44 - try reading the thread more carefully. Mme Blueberry said "Also, I do believe in American English there is only one spelling, which I think is practise."

I corrected her, and told her that in the USA it is practice only, no variation.

I am well aware of the grammatical rules surrounding practice/practise inthe UK, thanks, and was surprised Mme Blueberry and the teacher were at all confused. I am in full sympathy with the OP - the teacher has to teach this rule, and therefore needs to be clear on it.

See? that's the trouble when we get indignant about errors - we end up making one ourselves...

Oops. I am very sorry.

Apology accepted!

I don't think I'm particularly confused. I know the difference between practice and practise, and do generally put out final documents with the correct usage.

I am perhaps a little muddled as to whether the single use of the homophone is practice or practise in the USA, but the key thing is I knew they had a preference. I am fairly bilingual USA/UK English, but it is more on the oral side.

I'm glad you are feeling the oneupmanship, Feenie. Enjoy your reward in full.

That was a trifle unnecessary, Mme Blueberry - or would you prefer your mistakes uncorrected? I wasn't unpleasant or smug when I pointed it out to you.

I don't think I made any significant mistakes (I didn't claim to be an authority on US spelling).

However, if it gave you a thrill to correct me, then I am happy that you are happy. Let's be happy all round. Group hug.

ps: I don't actually give a toss about the spelling of practice/practise. The context will usually make it clear.

Jeez, sort it out, will you. I didn't say you claimed to be an authority - you said you thought it was on thing, on a public board, and I told you, not at all unpleasantly, that it was another - which it was! Get over yourself, fgs.

touche

Oh, and never use 'sheesh' if you are being polite.

I agree with Feenie, although having said that I might not say anything to the teacher if it was me - would save it for mistakes in the actual spelling list which I've learned from MN is a horrible possibility.

Might explain the rule to ds though and point out that it's such a common error that even really clever people like teachers get it wrong sometimes or some such.

Teachers should be able to spell and if poor spelling is their only failing they need to improve it quickly. Anything that is being sent home should be proof read if spelling is an issue.

I say that as a teacher who does not have the best spelling in the world. I worked on it and continued to do so. If I am corrected it I accept it gracefully and learn from it.

It's 'practice' always in Canada too. And very little awareness that there exists a difference in the UK. I was aware that there was a general tendency to use 'ise' at the end of a lot of words that normally end 'ize', and when I saw 'practise', I assumed that it was also something that was done for 'ice' words. As a result, I hyper-corrected when I first moved to the UK, and used 'practise' everywhere, trying hard to follow the right rules here. I used it on documents that I fear now would have been judged very harshly, even though my spelling/grammar was generally very good, enough that I was very sensitive at spotting and adapting to differences that other North Americans might have taken a lot longer to notice. Practice/practise is certainly one of the homophone pairs whose existence is much less familiar out of the UK; things like color/colour, center/centre many people are aware of, but practice/practise is not something I'd really ever come across before. I hope I was not judged horrendously by parents in those first years.

I'll say what I like on a public forum, thanks. I have no idea what your problem is, Mme Blueberry. You are coming across as ever so slightly deranged - nothing I have said to you here is inflammatory. Go and pick a fight somewhere else.