Spellings year one would you speak to the teacher?

[madmum04]

My 6 yr old little girl regularly mixes up b and d, however their seems to be an inconsistent marking system in her book, a few weeks ago she wrote the words with the d as b and got them marked correct, a couple of weeks later they did some other spellings with b and ds and she again did the same but they marked them wrong. Last week she got 3 out of 8 in her spellings but the three she got right were mend, send and bend, which she had wrote as menb, senb and benb the teacher marked them correct, this week she again got 3 out of 8 and one of the words she had was dish she wrote bish and they marked it wrong. It just seems so inconsistent and im not sure whether they should be mentioning it to them as it seems unfair to tell her one week its correct and the following week its wrong when she writes that way. Would you mention it?

Maybe they have recently changed her individual target to get b/d the right way round?
You could mention it to the teacher by way of asking them about her target and how you can help your DD get the the right way round perhaps?

Maybe the teacher didn't want her to have zero the mend/send/bend week? Maybe he/she doesn't want to discourage her and only marks them wrong if she has a few others right. But go in and ask if it's bothering you or dd.

Im not so sure as it was only last week they marked it right and this week marked it wrong?

We've tried everything to get these letters the right way and she tries so hard to remember, weve tried all the b has a big belly, d has a big bum, d has a tail like a dog, b doesnt have a tail lol we try anything

Maybe LeeCoakley it just seems a bit inconsistent, i might just ask :)

Scale this down and have as a memory aide? I've done this in school with a couple of children.

Thanks :) Thats great we'll give anything a try lol

It's all very well trying to help a child stay positive and encourage them, but inconsistent marking really doesn't help at all.
Go and ask what her target is and what the thinking behind the marking is.

I was going to say the "bed" thing. If she makes the two letters with her hands, by curling the index finger and thumb (like an ok sign), she cam actually make the bed with her two hands. Then left is b and right is d and she will see how to form them. Many of my year ones do this as they're writing!

I personally would mark reversals wrong in this case because they are wrong; however I do agree that the teacher is prob trying not to destroy her confidence by giving her zero! By all means have a word with her/him.