Our first 'F' on a spelling test

Michael is SO upset, he was crying. They had their spelling test today and got them back, he missed every single word! I feel so bad for him, he's never gotten an F before. There were about 12 words and they were all like: caught, bought, brought, thought, etc, etc...words with either 'au' or 'ou' in them and he forgot to put the 'u' in every word. Right now he's sitting at the table writing out each word 3-5 times, which is what we usually have them do when they miss a word on a spelling test. He just looks so pitiful, crying b/c he got an F...he even said he cried in class when he got the test back.

 

AWWWWW!
The first one always hurts the most. Hopefully it will help him learn to work harder on what he has trouble with.

 

Sorry he was so upset!

I bet he will study every night and get a 100 on the next one! Sometimes they need a bit of failure to remind them that they need to pay more attention. Marcus is doing the same after doing poorly on his last science test. The test is next week, and he is already studying!

 

Poor Michael was so upset when DH came home early from work, he was terrified of telling him he got an F. He ran upstairs to the apt to tell me that Daddy was home and then ran back outside and was hiding behind a tree when DH came up. LOL I told Ant about it and told him that I'd made him write out all the words and that I'd sent an email to his teacher asking what he could do to counter the grade. Then, during dinner, he talked to Michael about it and Michael just cried and cried, he was so upset...he's the more sensitive of the two. Ant then went fishing and didn't take them with, that was part of his 'punishment' was not being able to go fishing with Daddy. Michael cried thru the rest of his dinner. I just felt so bad for him. I tried to get him to calm down and told him that Daddy didn't yell at him, he was just talking to him and that he needs to pay more attention and always do his best. Your heart just breaks for them and you don't want them to have to go thru any sort of failure but we all have to at one point in our lives. I just wanted to hug him and cuddle him but of course he's not having that b/c he's a 'big boy' but he did want one quick hug. LOL

 

Spelling tests are archaic. People do not learn to love writing by memorizing lists, we do not teach that way here. No one who is 10 years old should get an "F" and be punished or feel disappointed. English is a strange language. More progressive school systems teach "whole language" and focus on spelling in real writing situations, meaning the children write, invented spellings are OK, and we help them focus on words that they misspell regularly. I'm sorry but I don't think that working harder is helpful, learning for the sake of learning is important, not grades, especially in elementary school.

 

QUOTE(winwin @ Mar 21 2009, 07:46 PM) [snapback]1238702[/snapback]
Spelling tests are archaic. People do not learn to love writing by memorizing lists, we do not teach that way here. No one who is 10 years old should get an "F" and be punished or feel disappointed. English is a strange language. More progressive school systems teach "whole language" and focus on spelling in real writing situations, meaning the children write, invented spellings are OK, and we help them focus on words that they misspell regularly. I'm sorry but I don't think that working harder is helpful, learning for the sake of learning is important, not grades, especially in elementary school.



I almost have to play devil's advocate and agree, although I think progress assessments are important to know where children's strengths are. But I agree wholeheartedly with "learning for the sake of learning is important".

 

Poor thing!

 

QUOTE
Spelling tests are archaic. People do not learn to love writing by memorizing lists, we do not teach that way here. No one who is 10 years old should get an "F" and be punished or feel disappointed. English is a strange language. More progressive school systems teach "whole language" and focus on spelling in real writing situations, meaning the children write, invented spellings are OK, and we help them focus on words that they misspell regularly. I'm sorry but I don't think that working harder is helpful, learning for the sake of learning is important, not grades, especially in elementary school.



I don't know where you are, but here they are finally moving away from whole language, which as a teacher, I am glad! Whole language is good as PART of the learning process. Children do need to learn to spell correctly, and inventive spelling is OK through 1st or 2nd grade where children don't have the knowledge base for spelling bigger words. It is horrible to go to High Schools and Middle Schools and see kids who have no idea how to spell as a result of the "whole language movement". Fortunately in education, everything is cyclical, and the good stuff does come back!

I would never punish a child for a failed test, especially if they tried. Forgetting a single letter in every word sounds more of a mental block, then he didn't even try. I would make him do as you said, and practice the words again, but that would be the end of it.

Yes, people and children should learn for the sake of learning, but there are also skill that need to be learned, spelling and math fact, although boring, are skill that need to be practiced and learned!

 

QUOTE(winwin @ Mar 21 2009, 07:46 PM) [snapback]1238702[/snapback]
Spelling tests are archaic. People do not learn to love writing by memorizing lists, we do not teach that way here. No one who is 10 years old should get an "F" and be punished or feel disappointed. English is a strange language. More progressive school systems teach "whole language" and focus on spelling in real writing situations, meaning the children write, invented spellings are OK, and we help them focus on words that they misspell regularly. I'm sorry but I don't think that working harder is helpful, learning for the sake of learning is important, not grades, especially in elementary school.


Wow, I am sorry, but that entire post sounds pretty archaic to me. Not only am I a teacher and a Mom of elementary school students, but I am also a linguist. Whole language does not work. Studies have shown that teaching children with that method does not allow them the opportunity to see the structure and the phonetic distribution of the English language. It is now rarely used in US schools due to the atrocious outcome. My parents were college profs during the hey day of whole language and were shocked at the inability of incoming freshman to write a sentence without at least one spelling error. My 14 year old nephew and 12 year old neice both were taught that way, and their spelling is appalling. My 3rd grade son spells better than they do. Just because a method of teaching a language has been used for a long time, does not make it archaic. It means it has been tried and it has worked. As a public school teacher, I became so frustrated with every new method that was introduced evey year during the first in-service. Learning languages, any language, does require memorization. It is a valuable skill that is necessary for many aspects of life, not only spelling. Teaching structure, patterns and rules of grammar is not old fashioned, but rather shows children the relationship that exists between sounds and letters.

Anyway, I am so sorry about Michael. Joel got a low grade once, and it upset him. We do not make a big deal about grades, but knowing he had done so poorly was bad enough for him. He is an amazing speller and always gets 100%. This one time he just bombed, and couldn't believe it. I felt so sorry for him, but by the next day he was fine and went off to school as if nothing had happened. Kids are pretty resilient that way! I figured he needed to learn his lesson, and never said anything to the teacher. It really did not affect his grade at all. I hope he is feeling better by now! :hug:

 

QUOTE(krysn2ants @ Mar 20 2009, 01:52 PM) [snapback]1237371[/snapback]
Michael is SO upset, he was crying. They had their spelling test today and got them back, he missed every single word! I feel so bad for him, he's never gotten an F before. There were about 12 words and they were all like: caught, bought, brought, thought, etc, etc...words with either 'au' or 'ou' in them and he forgot to put the 'u' in every word. Right now he's sitting at the table writing out each word 3-5 times, which is what we usually have them do when they miss a word on a spelling test. He just looks so pitiful, crying b/c he got an F...he even said he cried in class when he got the test back.


I am so sorry he was so upset. A perfect learning opportunity though! I bet he does great on his next test!

QUOTE(winwin @ Mar 21 2009, 04:46 PM) [snapback]1238702[/snapback]
Spelling tests are archaic. People do not learn to love writing by memorizing lists, we do not teach that way here. No one who is 10 years old should get an "F" and be punished or feel disappointed. English is a strange language. More progressive school systems teach "whole language" and focus on spelling in real writing situations, meaning the children write, invented spellings are OK, and we help them focus on words that they misspell regularly. I'm sorry but I don't think that working harder is helpful, learning for the sake of learning is important, not grades, especially in elementary school.

I must say that the school our kids go to use this theory and it is awful! It is humiliating for my kids that my 4th grader can't spell basic things when she writes cards to family etc. Knowing HOW to write and loving it, has nothing to do with having the knowledge of basic spelling principals and knowing how to spell. Learning how to spell is not going to make you dislike writing. My kid's school doesn't even give out letter grades until 6th grade and it is so frustrating. I want my child to feel disappointed when they don't do something correctly. Where's their pride in doing things correctly? I want them to WANT to do it right. I really think we are doing our children a disservice with this kind of approach to education. It is not teaching them the coping skills they will need to live life outside this bubble that so many want to create around our kids for no reason.

This type of approach does not work. Our school's test grades in writing PROVE that! Our district's scores just tested at 71% met standards!! 71%!!!!!!!!!!!!! Talk about setting our kids up for failure!!!

QUOTE(sharongl @ Mar 22 2009, 02:51 AM) [snapback]1238932[/snapback]
I don't know where you are, but here they are finally moving away from whole language, which as a teacher, I am glad! Whole language is good as PART of the learning process. Children do need to learn to spell correctly, and inventive spelling is OK through 1st or 2nd grade where children don't have the knowledge base for spelling bigger words. It is horrible to go to High Schools and Middle Schools and see kids who have no idea how to spell as a result of the "whole language movement". Fortunately in education, everything is cyclical, and the good stuff does come back!

I would never punish a child for a failed test, especially if they tried. Forgetting a single letter in every word sounds more of a mental block, then he didn't even try. I would make him do as you said, and practice the words again, but that would be the end of it.

Yes, people and children should learn for the sake of learning, but there are also skill that need to be learned, spelling and math fact, although boring, are skill that need to be practiced and learned!


QUOTE(Cristina @ Mar 22 2009, 06:21 AM) [snapback]1239096[/snapback]
Wow, I am sorry, but that entire post sounds pretty archaic to me. Not only am I a teacher and a Mom of elementary school students, but I am also a linguist. Whole language does not work. Studies have shown that teaching children with that method does not allow them the opportunity to see the structure and the phonetic distribution of the English language. It is now rarely used in US schools due to the atrocious outcome. My parents were college profs during the hey day of whole language and were shocked at the inability of incoming freshman to write a sentence without at least one spelling error. My 14 year old nephew and 12 year old neice both were taught that way, and their spelling is appalling. My 3rd grade son spells better than they do. Just because a method of teaching a language has been used for a long time, does not make it archaic. It means it has been tried and it has worked. As a public school teacher, I became so frustrated with every new method that was introduced evey year during the first in-service. Learning languages, any language, does require memorization. It is a valuable skill that is necessary for many aspects of life, not only spelling. Teaching structure, patterns and rules of grammar is not old fashioned, but rather shows children the relationship that exists between sounds and letters.

Anyway, I am so sorry about Michael. Joel got a low grade once, and it upset him. We do not make a big deal about grades, but knowing he had done so poorly was bad enough for him. He is an amazing speller and always gets 100%. This one time he just bombed, and couldn't believe it. I felt so sorry for him, but by the next day he was fine and went off to school as if nothing had happened. Kids are pretty resilient that way! I figured he needed to learn his lesson, and never said anything to the teacher. It really did not affect his grade at all. I hope he is feeling better by now! :hug:


I want Sharon or Cristina to teach my kids!! PLEASE!!!!! I love what you guys both said.

 

Awww, I'm sorry he got an F.

Not to take this too far off-topic, but I really hope our school teaches spelling. I hope my kids have to memorize multiplication tables. I hope they have to learn how to multiply and divide with out a calculator (I've already taught them + and -). I am writing the kids' class material for church and I'm including memory verses. I want my kids to have a good foundation in language and the basics of math, and to me, that includes spelling.

Marissa

 

Well, I gave Michael (and Isiah) a practice spelling test using all his words from Friday's test...and he only missed 3! He was so happy!! I talked to him about actually studying when he's having trouble learning something new, I told him that if he has trouble with something at school, he needs to do more than just the assigned homework and be done with it. I told him he can always ask for help, which he of course already knew but I just wanted to reiterate it with him. I told him that I knew he did his best on the test Friday and that's all we ask. He was so proud of his 'home' spelling test that he wants to take it to school and show his teacher...I sent her another email explaining all of this too so I'm not even going to worry about it anymore, esp since he always does so good in school.

 

Sounds like he learned. Good for him. And good for you for sticking with him and helping him through.

Marissa