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Forum -> Chinuch, Education & Schooling

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amother

Sun, Nov 27 2022, 8:44 pm

I have a second grader dd who has a scheduled spelling test every week. The test consists of 10 spelling words 2 frequently misspelled words 5 fill-ins and 3 sentences. The teacher marks it as a quiz form/ 20.
The first test she brought home she had a 19/20. When I checked what she had wrong , I saw the teacher made an x by one of the fill-ins, not because she had the ex wrong but she spelled the word incorrectly. I let it slide.
The next test she brought home she had a 18/ 20. Again I checked what her mistakes were and saw that by the sentences she misspelled the word yet the sentence was a complete sentence where the word was used the right way ,but the teacher just made an x and counted it as wrong. The second sentence she marked her wrong was a complete correct sentence where the word and usage were correct yet she gave it wrong cause she used a word from the frequently misspelled words and not from the spelling unit.
I was getting more and more confused by the way the teacher marks the tests, so I wrote her a very respectful note how I appreciate her work yet I’m having trouble understanding how she marks the tests. She sent a note back saying that this is the way she marks, that if a student misspells a word by any of the work, even if the answer is correct then she counts it as wrong.
I was not impressed with this answer but I let it slide. My daughter brought home another few tests and all were 100 so I didn’t care.
This week my dd brought home a spelling test which was marked 13/20. Understandably I checked what her mistakes were and saw she got 4 spelling words wrong. All 4 were basically same concept wrong ex. Hill, pill,bill she spelled them all with 1 l only. Then she had 3 Perfectly correct sentences yet she used these same words in her sentence so instead of just correcting the spelling for her the teacher marked her all 3 sentences wrong. Am I missing something or is something not fair with the way the teacher marks the tests.

amother

Foxglove

Sun, Nov 27 2022, 8:49 pm

If there's two ways to get the answer wrong then the question should be worth two points each.

amother

Peachpuff

Sun, Nov 27 2022, 8:52 pm

Some teachers are just power hungry and nothing we try to say to them will help. It's crazy that she's doing this to 2nd graders. They won't learn anything from this.

amother

Sun, Nov 27 2022, 8:52 pm

I called the teacher tonight to discuss it again, and whoa did I get attitude! First she started off by saying how disrespectful it was of me to send a note to school, I should’ve rather discussed it over the phone. I was really taken aback cause I reread the note a couple of times before sending cause I really didn’t want to come across as critical. I was just genuinely confused. Of course I apologized and told her it was totally not meant to be that way and ... then she went on and btw I counsel the new teachers and this is the way everyone marks their tests. She finished off by saying btw somehow these mistakes only happen by your daughter. If you really want I’ll mark her the ex as half correct. I put down the phone feeling less then a penny....

amother

White

Sun, Nov 27 2022, 8:54 pm

As a former second grade English teacher, this seems reasonable to me. It is a spelling test.

Previous poster’s idea is a good one, but this still sounds normal to me.

amother

Sun, Nov 27 2022, 8:55 pm

amother Foxglove wrote:

If there's two ways to get the answer wrong then the question should be worth two points each.

That’s what I told her... she wasn’t getting any of it... how can she make a big x by my daughters sentence when it’s technically correct.?
And I don’t even care about the mark, the attitude with how she answered me ...

amother

Peachpuff

Sun, Nov 27 2022, 8:56 pm

amother OP wrote:

This is not ok. This teacher seems really immature and power hungry. I would bring it up with the principal.

amother

Peachpuff

Sun, Nov 27 2022, 8:58 pm

amother White wrote:

As a former second grade English teacher, this seems reasonable to me. It is a spelling test.

Previous poster’s idea is a good one, but this still sounds normal to me.

Yes, it's a spelling test. But the sentence part of the test is about using the word correctly in a sentence. If the sentence is correct, it is unfair to mark it wrong just because a word is misspelled. What do you as a teacher gain from it? It doesn't teach the student anything. They're 2nd graders that are just starting out. They're not high school girls.

amother

Bellflower

Sun, Nov 27 2022, 9:02 pm

amother OP wrote:

Wow. I had no opinion on the method of marking the spelling test, but boy do I have an opinion now on this teacher!
Don't feel less than a penny, it sounds like you were very respectful.
Even if she was right, she had no right to speak to you like this.
There's nothing disrespectful about sending a note to the teacher.
And "somehow these mistakes only happen by your daughter"??? Wow. Just wow.
I'm sure others will disagree, but I would speak to the principal. Not about the spelling test, about her attitude.

amother

Sun, Nov 27 2022, 9:04 pm

I was thinking of reaching out t to the principal just because I’m a former teacher myself and am familiar with how a test needs to be marked, however I decided I’m not gonna gain anything. If anything this teacher is gonna become even angrier at me and then she’ll give it out to my daughter which I really don’t want. So for now I’m choosing to stay quiet and let it go,yet I’m having a hard time falling asleep cause of the way our conversation went, and was wondering what you imas would say.

BrisketBoss

Sun, Nov 27 2022, 9:07 pm

amother Peachpuff wrote:

I'm not really sure what a teacher 'gains' by grading any student of any age, in general. It's the system, but the system is of questionable value.

Leaving that point aside, a spelling test is a spelling test. Presumably you would mark off for spelling mistakes. I don't know why a test of grammar/syntax would be included in a spelling test. I never had that in school. I would expect a spelling test to be a spelling test the whole way through. In other words, maybe that section shouldn't be included, but if it is, it's still essentially a spelling test. Otherwise it should be called something else.

On a real writing assignment, a teacher would also mark misspellings, and it would hurt the grade--a little bit. In my experience.

amother

Garnet

Sun, Nov 27 2022, 9:09 pm

It is a spelling test. If it was a vocab test, I would agree with you. The point is they are spelling it in the sentence and using the word, spelled correctly.

Sorry but I agree with the teacher.

amother

Bellflower

Sun, Nov 27 2022, 9:09 pm

amother OP wrote:

I would reach out to the principal, not as a teacher, but as a mother who was treated very poorly. I would explain that this was your thought about the test, you brought it up respectfully, and this is how the teacher responded. You can make it clear that you don't want to upset the teacher further, but it's not so much about the mark anymore.
If your principal is kind and reasonable, hopefully she'll see that this was not ok.

amother

Sienna

Sun, Nov 27 2022, 9:18 pm

amother OP wrote:

I find it sad that you can't speak up. I totally understand though, cause she'll take it out on your daughter. But I'm wondering how many other kids will be suffering through her classes because no one can speak up.

FTR, the teacher is totally wrong. If a kid obviously misspelled a word in an earlier part of the test, she'll most likely spell it incorrectly again. If the point of a writing a sentence is to see if the student can use the word properly in a sentence, then the kid gets credit for that. At the very least, partial credit should be granted - especially for a second grader. The way the teacher is currently grading the test is penalizing the student twice for the same mistake.

Taking full credit off is inappropriate even in high school. Teachers often take partial credit off for misspelled words in other sections of tests, but they don't take full credit off if you've demonstrated the conceptual answer of the question.

It's even inappropriate in college. I've gone through four years of college and I've never lost full credit for something based on another error that wasn't directly related to the question. I've lost plenty of points for incorrect grammar, or inappropriate use of words, but never full credit. Even in math courses, if you did a silly mistake in your calculations early on and that let to a wrong final answer, the professors took that into account and deducted only minor points.

amother

Sienna

Sun, Nov 27 2022, 9:24 pm

BrisketBoss wrote:

But would you mark off twice for the same mistake? If you've misspelled a word once on the test, isn't it highly likely that you'll misspell the word when you use it in a sentence? Other than a careless mistake, if you don't know how to spell a word the first time around, you don't know it the second or third time either.

Almost all teachers from Pre-k through college take that into consideration. What does this teacher expect from second graders?

amother

Aquamarine

Sun, Nov 27 2022, 9:28 pm

She’s wrong it should be half a point off. And she’s rude. Nothing wrong with sending a note.

amother

Sun, Nov 27 2022, 9:30 pm

Feeling better now, and validated! Thank you all for taking the time to respond.

amother

Dimgray

Sun, Nov 27 2022, 9:41 pm

My son is in 6th grade. If he spells the word wrong in the sentence it's marked right, as long as the sentence makes sense.

That being said I agree that you're probably better off letting it go, for the sake of your daughter's year.

I would tell your daughter that marks don't matter, as long as she did her best which you know she did.

amother

Butterscotch

Sun, Nov 27 2022, 10:47 pm

amother OP wrote:

This is the problem part. You are a teacher and see the teacher‘s mistakes. I have the same and am miserable because my kids‘ school is a disaster. Yet many of their teachers are convinced that it’s the parents who are nitpicky

ShishKabob

Mon, Nov 28 2022, 7:46 am

The teacher sounds unsure of herself and insecure that's why she couldn't handle explaining very calmly how and why she does it. She wouldn't get all defensive.
Hugs op

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