grammar mistakes on school newsletters - Page 3

[Rose-Roget]

Originally Posted by BCFD

It's a pet peeve of mine, but I still get mixed up on punctuation all the time. I do cringe when I see it coming from a school (as opposed to online). And I overuse parentheses like you wouldn't believe!!

Online isn't a professional, nor an educational, atmosphere. I am a lot looser with hyphens and parentheses and such online (as well as spelling and more subtle grammatical errors). It's the really gross errors - like misuse of apostrophes, misspellings, or overuse of commas - that are just not okay from a school, imo.

[blessedwithboys]

Originally Posted by journeymom

This is one of those things that tolls the end of civilization, in my book.

I totally agree! haha

[blizzard_babe]

Originally Posted by A_Random_Phrase

\
Perhaps it was a Bizarre Bazaar.

Honestly, I think an Annual Bizarre sounds like WAY more fun than an Annual Bazaar.

I'm picturing insane costumes and complete... uh... WEIRDNESS in an elementary school gym. So much more fun than a table sale .

[loraxc]

I totally want to go to the Annual Bizarre, too.

Misspellings, and especially typos, don't bother me too much. (DD's teacher had "separate" spelled wrong on the board when we had back-to-school night. Slightly cringeworthy, but it's a word people often get wrong.) Incorrect apostrophes, run-ons and fragments, and things like they're/their/there confusion do bother me, since those are grammar fundamentals my kid needs to learn at school.

However, in general, unless a teacher was incorrectly marking my child's work, I would definitely let it go.

[ollyoxenfree]

Originally Posted by Rose-Roget

Online isn't a professional, nor an educational, atmosphere. I am a lot looser with hyphens and parentheses and such online (as well as spelling and more subtle grammatical errors). It's the really gross errors - like misuse of apostrophes, misspellings, or overuse of commas - that are just not okay from a school, imo.

So much of the school information now comes to me online. I can check the teacher's website for homework and class updates, get the principal's weekly e-mail with school updates, reminders and forms (fleld trip consent, instrumental rentals etc.) and get a monthly school council newsletter, aside from looking at school website information, library notices etc. etc.

I agree that school communications ought to have good spelling and grammar, but I've had much bigger school issues to manage.

[A_Random_Phrase]

A Bizarre could very well be extremely interesting.

I suppose one could go to this school's (whatever) and ask, "What's so bizarre about this bazaar? It's totally boring. I want a real bizarre."

[LynnS6]

Originally Posted by GuildJenn

Straight out basic grammatical errors (like it's instead of its) do really erk me if they're repeated.

They erk you? Well, straight out spelling errors like irk me as well.

Consistent misuse of the apostrophe as a plural marker, it's/its, their/they're and other commonly misspelled homonyms drives me batty. I'd probably gently point them out to the teacher, just because if they're teaching they should get it right.

The occasional one, however, I let slide because it could be simply a proof-reading error or a brain fart. I KNOW the rule, but when I'm thinking and typing, sometimes my fingers have a mind of their own.

Stylistic 'errors' such as starting a sentence with an "and" I don't bat an eye at.

Originally Posted by GuildJenn

But it's also not my job to patrol the world's grammar.

In my professional capacity, it is my job, and it's hard for me to turn it off.

Originally Posted by GuildJenn

I do worry that this will be increasingly common as teachers don't to my knowledge have to pass a grammar or copy editing course anywhere, and since formal grammar instruction has been out of vogue for a while I suspect there will be a cohort of teachers who have not received any.

They're already teaching. A lot of current teachers never had to take basic descriptive grammar of English. Most of my current students (many of whom wish to teach) haven't either, unless they've taken foreign languages. And then, they often know Spanish grammar better than English!

It's really really painful for me to give basic prescriptive grammar lessons to college juniors and seniors who should have had this stuff in 4th grade! In fact, I brought in one of ds' 4th grade worksheets to scan and make part of a file. On this, they'd had the students underline the subjects and the predicates, and then identify sentence fragments. I was rudimentary, not at all hard. And my 4th grader got it. So why do my college students persist in writing fragments?

(I suspect I intimidate a few of my kids' teachers. It's a bit awkward to have them ask "So what do you teach?" "Linguistics" and then have them respond, "oh my gosh, that was the HARDEST class I ever had to take!")

Originally Posted by Tigerchild

For me, I allow myself a set amount of Freak Out Time for school issues.

Ooooh, I like this concept. I think I'll have to introduce it to a few people I know. Their Freak Out Time is taking over the life.

Originally Posted by EmmaJane

But I do think it's an issue of professionalism. When it's part of your job to teach the basics of spelling and grammar, you should be able to get both right, without too much difficulty, on documents that you're preparing for a wide audience.

I agree totally. I don't care how they spell or punctuate in their personal communication, but professional communication needs to look, well, like it's been done by a professional.

Originally Posted by blessedwithboys

Last year, ds2's teacher used a form for her newsletter, so every week we got to look at "Remember to check their agenda's daily!"

OK, that would have given me apoplexy if I'd seen it more than once. I could not have stopped myself from telling the teacher ASAP.

Originally Posted by blizzard_babe

N

This MIGHT be a case of institutional language. For some reason, in our district, we refer to our kindergarten students as "kinders." Why? I have no clue.

In our school it's because that's apparently the accepted Spanish word for Kindergarten in our Spanish speaking community. We've got a heavy Spanish speaking population at our school, and I think it's bled over. It's also a very common word formation process in English -- we like to clip off parts of words. When was the last time you answered a telephone?

[blizzard_babe]

Originally Posted by LynnS6

In our school it's because that's apparently the accepted Spanish word for Kindergarten in our Spanish speaking community. We've got a heavy Spanish speaking population at our school, and I think it's bled over. It's also a very common word formation process in English -- we like to clip off parts of words. When was the last time you answered a telephone?

I think it's just shortening. We have a TINY SPIDEY (DS's word for very, very small... yet another oddity in my vocabulary ) Spanish-speaking population. Just one of those weird things that becomes the norm for who-knows-what reason.

[eepster]

Originally Posted by blizzard_babe

I think it's just shortening. We have a TINY SPIDEY (DS's word for very, very small... yet another oddity in my vocabulary ) Spanish-speaking population. Just one of those weird things that becomes the norm for who-knows-what reason.

I wonder if it might have been started by someone (probably the teacher or principal, not necessarily the current one,) who knew that "kindergarten" is a German compound word, that means child's garden. Kinder=child garten=garden. So they called the students "kinders" as in children.

[lilyka]

Originally Posted by nwatt

I am going to play devil's advocate here....

The teacher most likely has very limited planning time. What would you rather have her commit that time to, planning excellent lessons or repeatedly proofreading her newsletter? Writing a newsletter every week can be stressful and time consuming. As long as they are mistakes that are obviously from rushing/not proofreading rather than overall lack of knowledge or ability then I would let it slide.

I agree. It is a quick newsletter. If she were teaching them wrong it would be a very bad thing but really, I am thinking out teachers spend about three minutes on the newsletter. They are there and hour before school, an hour after school, they do who knows how much prep and grading outside of school hours. I will not hold it against them if they make a few typos/sloppy mistakes. I really consider the whole newsletter thing to be gravy anyway. I had no idea teachers did this and none of my older dds teachers have.

[lilyka]

Originally Posted by nwatt

I am going to play devil's advocate here....

The teacher most likely has very limited planning time. What would you rather have her commit that time to, planning excellent lessons or repeatedly proofreading her newsletter? Writing a newsletter every week can be stressful and time consuming. As long as they are mistakes that are obviously from rushing/not proofreading rather than overall lack of knowledge or ability then I would let it slide.

I agree. It is a quick newsletter. If she were teaching them wrong it would be a very bad thing but really, I am thinking out teachers spend about three minutes on the newsletter. They are there and hour before school, an hour after school, they do who knows how much prep and grading outside of school hours. I will not hold it against them if they make a few typos/sloppy mistakes. I really consider the whole newsletter thing to be gravy anyway. I had no idea teachers did this and none of my older dds teachers have.

Our teachers are super loving, excited about learning, enthusiastic about spending time with my kids. I will take that over perfect grammar on a newsletter any day of the year.

[SunshineJ]

Lynns's post brought back memories of my AP senior English class. On day in the middle of the year, we were expecting to get back reports that had been turned in. Instead we got a thick packet of remedial work on grammer and punctuation! Talk about a fast way to humble a group of 17-18 year old kids! Looking back it was kind of funny though.

Mistakes on a school-wide newsletter are slightly annoying, but I also realize that they're usually written by the office staff - and they simply may not have the time to nitpick over them. Classroom newsletters are a little different and have the ability to make me actually cringe. DS recently had one sent home that stated in a bold title print "We're growing are brains!". Even DH picked up on that one right away. In all honesty I'm pretty sure she's caught it by now and is probably horrified. If I really thought she didn't know the difference I'd be pretty concerned!

I've worked as an editor and proofreader, and typos and errors are just one of those things that seem to jump out at me. Online typing for things like message boards don't concern me, but for anything official or professional it does make me a little twitchy! However, I'm also at the point where I recognize that unless it's become difficult to interpret, it's not something worth getting too stressed about.

[Ellien C]

Originally Posted by blizzard_babe

Honestly, I think an Annual Bizarre sounds like WAY more fun than an Annual Bazaar.

This is like my weird friends who celebrated '50's day in school by going in 1450's clothing, which being medieval re-enactors they had lying around.

[Doodlebugsmom]

Originally Posted by LynnS6

They're already teaching. A lot of current teachers never had to take basic descriptive grammar of English. Most of my current students (many of whom wish to teach) haven't either, unless they've taken foreign languages. And then, they often know Spanish grammar better than English!

That is true, but most of the types of grammar mistakes listed in this thread are things that I learned in elementary and secondary school. I struggle to figure out how teachers who repeatedly make such mistakes were able to pass the English/grammar section of the Praxis, or other licensing exams.

[blizzard_babe]

Originally Posted by Doodlebugsmom

That is true, but most of the types of grammar mistakes listed in this thread are things that I learned in elementary and secondary school. I struggle to figure out how teachers who repeatedly make such mistakes were able to pass the English/grammar section of the Praxis, or other licensing exams.

I can say this as someone who literally ACED my content area knowledge Praxis... they're not that difficult.

However, despite being someone who clearly did very well on the test, I'll also admit that they're not a great predictor of good teaching. I recall one of the questions on the K-6 test was something to the effect of, "What percentage of the Earth's surface is covered in water?" I distinctly remember thinking that it really doesn't matter if a teacher can remember the exact ratio (I'm pretty bad at remembering numbers, so I had to think for a while on what was a pretty easy question ), but it's VERY important that they know how to quickly look it up for a refresher, and even more important to know how to say, when a student asks something they don't know the answer to, "Hmm, I don't know/remember. How can we find the answer to that?" The PPST (required for entrance into many teacher education programs) is set at a pretty low level.

Especially on the elementary content area test, if a teacher is very bad at grammar/spelling/whatever, they can make up for it in other areas. Same goes for math.

I had a woman in my teaching program who was both dyslexic and a second language learner of English. She struggled with the test, of course. She was by no means a poor teacher. She could teach circles around most of us . I think she finally passed after a few tries. I have coworkers who are stuck as aides ("associate teachers") because they aren't passing their Praxis tests... and these are teachers who will be teaching in Yup'ik language programs; who cares about their abilities at test-taking in English?

Honestly, the tests test all the wrong things. Like I said earlier, I'm not saying this as a person who struggled to pass them (well, I struggled to PAY for them, but don't get me started on the Educational Testing Service's fleecing of test-takers; that'd take things to a whole 'nother level ), but as a person who sees good teachers who barely passed them (or aren't passing them) and crappy teachers who passed them easily. Also, good teachers who rocked them and bad teachers who did poorly. I guess they show a certain minimum level of knowledge, but say nothing about a person's ability to IMPART that knowledge, which is really in many ways a more difficult skill to acquire and hone.

[Doodlebugsmom]

Originally Posted by blizzard_babe

I can say this as someone who literally ACED my content area knowledge Praxis... they're not that difficult.

I've only taken Praxis I so far, and I thought it was a piece of cake. I don't see how someone who doesn't know how to use apostrophes, commas, or other simple grammar could pass the English portion of it. In our state, the scores are not combined on the Praxis I, so you would need to do well in English even if you aced the math or reading.

I definitely agree that a standardized test can't predict good teachers, but we do have to pass them to become certified.

[blizzard_babe]

Yeah, the Praxis 1 is, I believe, the official name for the PPST.

Content area tests are more difficult, I think, but still not so bad (at least for elementary).