Happy February All!

[Pookybear66]

Hi ev1,
I haven't been on this site in a few months. The holidays usually are so busy for me and my family that I don't get much time to myself. I hope ev1 is doing okay. I have not taken the time to read up on any of the past posts so feel free to PM me and catch me up.

We are doing rather well here. We have had the occasional tantrum and attitude, but with guidance from The Explosive Child, I believe my husband and I are able to handle these better than in the past. My difficult child is doing rather well in 3rd grade(considering). We just got report cards and he is pretty much holding his own. Question though: If a child does well (like gets 100% on modified spelling tests) but does not use the proper spellings for those words in writing assignments, should he/she be receiving an A in spelling?? I don't think so. Anyone care to post thoughts?

 

[TerryJ2]

Hi, nice to see you!

In my son's school, writing assignments are in English or Composition. Spelling is Spelling. They are separate.
Having said that, he still gets points taken off if he doesn't follow the rules on an assignment.
If it's a journal entry, something personal, like "What I did this weekend," she does not take off points for spelling.
I hope that helps.

 

[Andy]

I look at the grade for spelling as the actual spelling tests and assignments that surround those words for the week. It would be too difficult to apply all spelling within assignments to the spelling grade especially if you have different teachers teaching the actual spelling curriculum and the language arts curriculum or the other classes such as social studies reports,etc. The teachers wouldn't remember which words were spelling words already "learned". Sometimes a teacher will dock a writing assignment for misspelled words but that will be reflected in that assignment, not the spelling class. Good point though - I never thought of it as you see it. I think it would be most helpful to give the student an ongoing list of the words that are to be spelled correctly and let him/her use the list to write (not have to memorize). It may help reinforce the correct spelling.

I am very much looking forward to February! Tomorrow is February 1st and on my agenda is: 1. Sunday School preparation, 2. Helping if and as I can with the day school subsandwich fund raiser 3. Taking my kids to another day school's fund raiser - lots of games, raffles, food, and 4. Going into work for about 4 - 6 hours late afternoon through night to do my 1st day of the month duty so I can spend Monday finishing packing the office and moving to the new facility.

On Friday, Feb 6 and Friday, Feb 20, I am setting up workshops for the day school kids. On Feb 6th, all kids will go through all four workstations (making Valentine craft, Valentine Box, Valentine Card(s), and individual pizza). On Feb 20th, the students get to choose 2 long, 1 long and 2 short, or 2 short activities from: Woodwork for 3rd - 6th (long), Black Bear presentation (long), Horsedrawn wagon ride (long), making brownies (short), 1st aide with school nurse (short), table games (short), legos (short), an art project (short), painting a wood craft (short). The short ones may change if I get people to lead other things.

My daughter is planning a 6 hour solo drive the middle of Feb which I am a little nervous about but I know Feb can bring Spring like days.

I am taking a Sign Language class 1hr per week on Tuesday nights.

I think February will be a good month. I hope it is for you also.

 

[DaisyFace]

Hello--

At the children's old school--spelling grades and writing grades were completely separate....which, personally, I think is a little dumb...but that policy does allow children that are poor spellers to get good writing grades of they write well.

Now in this new school, the weekly spelling words are pulled directly from mistakes that the kids made on assignments during the week. So if you write an essay on Christopher COLOMBOS....you may get a good score on your writing...but you will find the word COLUMBUS on next week's spelling test.

To me, that makes much more sense...AND the children try really hard not to misspell anything....because then the weekly spelling test will be shorter.



--DaisyF