On the QT

Sunday, August 09, 2009


TAKEOFF
When I was a teacher of students I would invariably get two questions when I assigned an essay or theme as we called them when I sat on the other side of the desk. "Are you going to take off for spelling?" "Does neatness count?"
"Just do your best," was not my response.
"Of course I'm going to take off for spelling errors. Otherwise you could jumble letters to disguise meaning. Or just to frustrate me. When math teachers stop taking off for misusing the number 4, then I'll no longer take off for spelling."
Ok, I never said the last one. But it makes as much sense. I did point out that communication is broken when a misspelling occurs and that I would give them help in spelling a word they had trouble with. Sometimes I would give them something a little goofy to help them remember. For instance--embarrass has the double r because when we become embarrassed we get red--really red. I know how corny that is, but still today I think of that when I write or type the word. Other times I would have them get a dictionary and I would help them from there. I don't think I ever told anyone to look it up, because if you don't know how to spell it, then how can you look it up?
"Of course, I expect a neat paper. Who wants to read something sloppy? With scratch outs all over it, it looks just like what it is. Done hurriedly, haphazardly with little thought or little pride in the work produced. Would you send a love letter to someone with all kinds of smudges on it?"
Again, I never used the last example, but I wish I had. I wasn't all that tough a grader. I could be swayed by weak support as long as the student knew he needed to back up what he said. But I did emphasize appearance. That's the only way I got by, because most of the time I never knew very much that I was writing about.

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