If your child's Language Arts teacher sent home a note...

[Ciao Mickey]

Here is the most offending paragraph:

***Please note that 5th grade leveled reading books come in various sizes. They can be short novels, long, thick chapter books (Like Harry Potter) and picture books. I advise the students' to only pick a book, they are confident; they can read in the acquired time and can can comprehend.

I would send a copy to the principal and the school superintendent. She should not be teaching an English class.

The dumbing down of America's school children continues...

 

[My sister's princess]

OP, good for you for not making your child's year more difficult over a few grammatical errors! Like many posters here have said, I think it was just a matter of typing too fast. It sounds like your child has a very caring teacher, with her concern that the student not get in over their head with the reading assignment.

To the posters who said they would stop sending the notes if parents complained why on earth would you do extra work so you could be criticized, and have your ability to do your job called into question? We all make mistakes at work, but for most people these mistakes aren't things that are as noticeable as grammatical errors in an English teacher's note home.

 

[Briarmom]

I thought that I was clear. I'll try again.

I am imagining a scenario where I am a teacher who, on top of everything else I am responsible for, bangs out quick notes to parents to keep them informed as to what is going on with their children's education and to give them hints on ways to make their child more successful in class. In my rush to get this information out to parents, my notes have unfortunate typos.

In this hypothetical scenario, if a parent were to cause drama because of these typos in my hastily prepared notes that were sent out as a courtesy to the parents, I would no longer send out the notes.

It is easy to argue that the child would suffer because the parents would not be as informed as they otherwise would be, but this suffering would not be caused by me or my notes. It would be caused by parents who choose to cause drama when someone tries to do them a favor.

<Note: It is somewhat likely that this post contains typos. I typically overuse commas and spell 'the' as teh'. I'm over it. The reader should strive to get over it also.>

OK. Thanks for clarifying.

 

[luvmy3]

Since the OP has stated this is not the first time something like this has been sent home I doubt its just typos. Heck, I even proofread my posts here, I couldn't imagine not doing it for a letter I'm sending home to parents.
OP I would handle it the same way for now but if something like that comes home again, I would address it with the teacher. I'm sure she expects a higher standard from her students, shouldn't they (and their parents) expect the same from her?

 

[smiley]

I understand you not wanting to make any waves. However, in the long run you may possibly be doing your child a disservice by not confronting the issue.

My son had a similar issue with his 6th grade language arts teacher. I politely discussed my issues with her. She was a nice enough person and I granted her that but, my child was not learning in her class. On top of her grammatical errors one of her classroom activities was to have her students correct other students' papers. The students were incorrect EVERY time I looked at their corrections. The teacher politely refused to change her methods insisting that the students learned from this process.

I gathered all of my documentation and brought it to a meeting with the principal. My son was removed from her class.

My son is now currently attending college and I can say that is the only time I ever went to a principal to complain about a teacher. They are not all perfect but, sometimes they are not right for your child.

As a side note, the teacher was allowed to complete her year as a 6th grade teacher. The following year she was placed in a second grade classroom, which is what she had applied for in the first place. She is still teaching in the second grade class and I hear she's doing a bangin' job!

Good luck with whatever you do. Remember, whatever you do, your child comes first.

 

[englishteacha]

I'm shocked. I once, and only once, sent home a note with a typo, and I sent a corrected version home the next day with an apology! I'm very careful about what I send home to parents.

 

[xoprincessmomxo]

Teaching is a job. At any other job I would hope that they would not find it ok to send out any paper without a quick proof read. My daughter for the past 3 years from 3 different teachers gets a note every Friday and thus far, I have seen no noticeable errors.

 

[Boston Tea Party]

Here is the most offending paragraph:

***Please note that 5th grade leveled reading books come in various sizes. They can be short novels, long, thick chapter books (Like Harry Potter) and picture books. I advise the students' to only pick a book, they are confident; they can read in the acquired time and can can comprehend.

I do teach 5th grade, but it is not me.

 

[ZuZugal]

riddled with errors, what would you do?

This is not the first time this has happened this year.

She ONLY teaches Language Arts.

How many errors in a note from the LA teacher is too many? I don't expect her to be perfect, but I do expect her to have a grasp of the English language.

Thank you Briarmom for expecting grammatically correct notes from LA teachers. I expect grammatically correct notes from all teachers, regardless of what they teach. When did it start to be okay to "make a few errors" and not fix them before sending the note home? If that is all the teacher expects of herself then that is all she will expect from her students.

Sad.

 

[RUDisney]

I read it to be that the teacher took off points for grammar errors that were not errors...

We believe that any grade below a 90 is a failing grade in our house. When my DS got a B- on his paper, yes, I wanted to find out why. On top of his low grade, I had proof-read his paper and knew that there were no grammatical errors in it. I needed to find out why he got such a low grade.

The teacher was also shocked that I was not happy with that grade. I guess we aim high with our children and their grades. If you don't aim high, you can't achieve a lofty goal. My kids want to go to a prep HS. They won't make it into that school without earning high marks in MS. It is not something that my DH and I have forced on them. They want to go to the prep school and they want to be successful in school.

Moving on to the subject of READING COMPREHENSION, why don't you look at my post and see who I was replying to.

And FYI: I think a 7th grader should be capable of asking a teacher WHY they received a certain grade.

He did try to talk to the teacher, but she talked above him and couldn't give him any reasons why she graded the paper as she did. Remember, she didn't have a rubrik for us to review, either.

After our meeting, the only thing that changed was that she knew I was capable of helping my DS to write well and she never graded him that poorly again... even when he turned in the paper and I hadn't read it first.

I truly believe that it was his subject matter that caused the grade. As I said before, he wrote about his uncle whom people either love or hate. He learned his lesson and will not be writing about his uncle again.

OP, sorry that this wound up affecting your thread. I loved the suggestion to have your child correct the teacher's note as a homework assignment. Even though I have a lot of guts when dealing with teachers, even I wouldn't follow through on that suggestion. It did make me lol, though.

 

[sbell111]

I would send a copy to the principal and the school superintendent. She should not be teaching an English class.

The dumbing down of America's school children continues...

Please explain how typos on a note to a parent makes any child dumber.

I can agree that typos can make the teacher appear to be dumber than she is and make a parent feel smarter than he/she may be, but I don't understand how it would adjust a child's intelligence in any way.

Interestingly, this note was sent home to assist in the child's education. In other words, to make the child 'smarter'.

 

[BeachGirlFLA]

MTE. A quick search shows the OP to be living abroad. I would cut the teacher some slack.

I wouldn't....she shouldn't be teaching ENGLISH language arts if she doesn't have better ENGLISH language arts skills than that. As far as the possibility of having typed it in a hurry, it should have been proofread before it went out to the parents.

 

[sbell111]

I wouldn't....she shouldn't be teaching ENGLISH language arts if she doesn't have better ENGLISH language arts skills than that. As far as the possibility of having typed it in a hurry, it should have been proofread before it went out to the parents.

Woulda, coulda, shoulda.

I should proof my posts before I submit them, but I don't. It doesn't mean I am dumb and it doesn't make any reader of my posts less smart.

(Also, it's often a good idea to read further into the thread to see if the issue you are commenting on has already been addressed. The teacher and child both live in the US.)

 

[wvjules]

Please explain how typos on a note to a parent makes any child dumber.

I can agree that typos can make the teacher appear to be dumber than she is and make a parent feel smarter than he/she may be, but I don't understand how it would adjust a child's intelligence in any way.

Interestingly, this note was sent home to assist in the child's education. In other words, to make the child 'smarter'.

They don't appear to be typos to me especially since the OP stated that she had received notes like that before.

Personally, I would see if it happens again and if it does then confront her about it. How can one teach something they can't master themselves?

 

[nuttylawprofessor]

Here is the most offending paragraph:

***Please note that 5th grade leveled reading books come in various sizes. They can be short novels, long, thick chapter books (Like Harry Potter) and picture books. I advise the students' to only pick a book, they are confident; they can read in the acquired time and can can comprehend.

You know, another way to look at it is that the teacher cares enough to try to communicate important information with the parents. Frankly, if a parent got all bendy because I made a few typos, you would never receive another helpful message from me. You child would, therefore, suffer because you felt the need to correct my typos.

Those aren't typos. As Sr. Natalie would say, "[The teacher's] composition makes baby Jesus cry."

OP, I would lend you my avatar bat, but I think you're taking a much more sensible approach.

 

[xoprincessmomxo]

Woulda, coulda, shoulda.

I should proof my posts before I submit them, but I don't. It doesn't mean I am dumb and it doesn't make any reader of my posts less smart.

(Also, it's often a good idea to read further into the thread to see if the issue you are commenting on has already been addressed. The teacher and child both live in the US.)

True, but I assume that posting on the DIS is not your job. Teaching is her job. I know that anything that I have written, e-mailed, sent from my job is proofread and sent out in a professional manner. A typo is one thing. IMO the part of the note that she posted was not simply a typo or two.

 

[BeachGirlFLA]

Woulda, coulda, shoulda.

I should proof my posts before I submit them, but I don't. It doesn't mean I am dumb and it doesn't make any reader of my posts less smart.

(Also, it's often a good idea to read further into the thread to see if the issue you are commenting on has already been addressed. The teacher and child both live in the US.)

I saw that later. However, it would be very unprofessional to send home a note with those errors and it would reflect badly upon you as a teacher. There is a huge difference between what you post on the DIS (where I notice grammatical errors, but am not going to point them out unless the person who makes them is at the same time attempting to correct someone else's grammar) and something that you prepare in a professional capacity. I also don't think that the use of acquired vs. required is simply a typo.

 

[sbell111]

I saw that later. However, it would be very unprofessional to send home a note with those errors and it would reflect badly upon you as a teacher. There is a huge difference between what you post on the DIS (where I notice grammatical errors, but am not going to point them out unless the person who makes them is at the same time attempting to correct someone else's grammar) and something that you prepare in a professional capacity. I also don't think that the use of acquired vs. required is simply a typo.

Please see post # 60.

 

[BeachGirlFLA]

I saw post #60. As I said, it's no big deal if you make mistakes on the DIS (I notice them, but that's just because I've had correct grammar, etc. drilled into my head from too many years in Catholic school.) However, there is no excuse for a teacher to be unprofessional when sending notes home to parents. I don't care how rushed she may be. I can be rushed when I'm doing a job for either the newspaper I work for or for one of my other clients; however, I make sure that there are no spelling or grammatical errors before I send them the completed job. That said, I wouldn't say anything to the teacher or a school administrator about it. I would just think that it was a shame that the teacher was either unprofessional or not very educated herself and would do my best to teach my child to write properly.

 

[lovetoscrap]

Bomb, I just thought of you! DD's 4th grade teacher sent out a short email this morning--nothing important, basically just testing to see if her email list is correct. I skimmed it and forgot about.

We just got another email from her apologizing profusely for the spelling error in her earlier email! Not sure if anyone pointed it out to her or if she found it herself. I skimmed it so fast I didn't notice it the first time.

I have a feeling we won't be seeing many mistakes from her!