"Working towards" and "I can" targets - huh?

[PassTheTwiglets]

Have got a list of what DD's teacher called her targets. It's written as "Writing - working towards 3a" and then a list of things like "I can use an adverb opener" and so on. Firstly, are these things that she can already do (which the "I can" implies) or things that she can't do but is aiming for (as calling it 'her targets' implies).

Also, if she is working towards 3a does that mean that she is currently a 3b?

I would say that those are the "I can" statements for 3A, so when she has met them then, in theory, she will be a 3A! That would probably put her as a 3B now.

Which year is she in OP?

She's Y4.

Do they need to fulfill all the criteria to reach the next level? Seems a little unfair to me that her dreadful handwriting is holding her back because she can do the rest of the targets easily. So I feel a bit like she isn't going to be seen as making progress as she'll probably stay at that level til Y6, because her writing is so dreadful, despite being one of the best in the class for the actual content of her writing.

There is a "heirarchy" of assessment areas for each level, handwriting comes bottom in importance. I certainly wouldn't penalise a good writer because their handwriting is poor, some of my best writers have AWFUL handwriting. Obviously I would prefer both, but give me a good "writer" every time!

I wish my DD had you as her teacher then, Snowball! Her teacher was apparently "shocked" to see how good the content of her writing was, bearing in mind how awful her handwriting is. It doesn't seem to have occurred to the teacher that these are two completely different skills

Is your daughter ever scribed for? I have 3 groups of children whose work is, on occasion, scribed for them, those with severe dyslexia which makes their work unreadable, those children with some motor difficulties who find the actual process of writing hard work and those who just have really bad handwriting! Of course we still aim to improve the writing and spelling of all these groups but I find scribing at times means the children can show what they can really do without having to worry about the mechanics of writing, the difference can be huge and the rise in self esteem and belief immeasurable!

No, she hasn't been - in fact I've never heard of that before! The writing is perfectly legibile it's just really messy, letters all different sizes etc.

Does your school do much handwriting practise Twiglets? Has she been taught cursive script etc?

Does she complain of pain/tiredness etc when writing?

Might be worth seeing if there's any specific reason for the messy writing!

I don't think there's any reason for her bad writing - she just takes after her mother is all :)

I don't think handwriting matters much in the long run. My brother was given pages of one letter at a time to pracise in junior school as his writing was atrocious. This put him off completely and he utterly refused to put pen to paper for 2 years aged around 8-10. It hasn't held him back. He's a very successful investment banker now!

I'm not bothered about her handwriting tbh, it's only her teacher who is. I was really cross though that she expected her content to be dreadful just because of how badly presented it is.