English teacher who can't spell?

[Anonymous]

I've noticed that my child's assignments are graded well, but the teacher is missing corrections of spelling and grammar. When I compare my child's work to that of others at his grade level, he seems to be below grade level. Nevertheless, he is getting As in the class. My child told me that the teacher put an example up on the Promethean Board to show the students what their final assignment should look like, and it was riddled with spelling and grammar mistakes. The kids apparently snickered and talked amongst themselves, but no one said anything to the teacher.

Meanwhile, the grade-level teachers in other subjects do take the time to circle his spelling and grammar mistakes, which are truly awful. Lack of capitalization. No punctuation. Rampant misspellings. This is in ADVANCED English, by the way.

I am concerned that my child is going to have a wasted year with this teacher.

Any thoughts on how to proceed? Would the school act on this if many parents complained? Can the school remove a teacher if she doesn't know the subject matter she is supposed to be teaching?
She is also very hard to understand. At Back to School Night, her presentation was the only one that was nearly unintelligible.

This is in a very good MCPS school, by the way. High performers, active PTA, etc. Thanks in advance.

[Anonymous]

I have seen that for some assignments the English teachers are not correcting the spelling mistakes, especially when it is creative writing. I think that is because they do not want to confuse creativity and reading comprehension, with ability to spell correctly.

Furthermore - for many assignments - the grading is based on a MCPS rubric, which may not include grammar and spelling.

I agree with you that grammar, punctuation and spelling, should be checked at all times.

I think you can ask the teacher tactfully why the grammar and spelling is not being checked?

At the same time - I would take this opportunity to work with your student so that they know how to proofread their work and improve. Good writing requires a few drafts at least and you can point that out to your child.

[Anonymous]

You need to bring proof to the head of the department and the assistant principal. God help you if she IS the head of the department.

[Anonymous]

A couple of years ago, my child's English teacher distributed a major assignment sheet that the kids carried around for a month and one of the words in bold capital letters was misspelled. When I brought it to her attention, she just ignored it, without apology, same with the Principal. Was kind of shocked but equally shocked that others had not noticed or complained.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have seen that for some assignments the English teachers are not correcting the spelling mistakes, especially when it is creative writing. I think that is because they do not want to confuse creativity and reading comprehension, with ability to spell correctly.

Furthermore - for many assignments - the grading is based on a MCPS rubric, which may not include grammar and spelling.

I agree with you that grammar, punctuation and spelling, should be checked at all times.

I think you can ask the teacher tactfully why the grammar and spelling is not being checked?

At the same time - I would take this opportunity to work with your student so that they know how to proofread their work and improve. Good writing requires a few drafts at least and you can point that out to your child.

Thank you... I have asked the teacher and she said she would work on it but I haven't seen any change.
I don't understand the reference to the rubric. If a child is not learning spelling and grammar in English class, and is heading toward middle school, when will the child learn?
I am trying to work with the child, but he HATES my interference and tells me to butt out since he is getting As, that it doesn't matter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Thank you... I have asked the teacher and she said she would work on it but I haven't seen any change.
I don't understand the reference to the rubric. If a child is not learning spelling and grammar in English class, and is heading toward middle school, when will the child learn?
I am trying to work with the child, but he HATES my interference and tells me to butt out since he is getting As, that it doesn't matter.

Are you the OP? Because if so, I am confused. Your child is in MCPS, has multiple subject teachers, is getting As, and is in elementary school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Thank you... I have asked the teacher and she said she would work on it but I haven't seen any change.
I don't understand the reference to the rubric. If a child is not learning spelling and grammar in English class, and is heading toward middle school, when will the child learn?
I am trying to work with the child, but he HATES my interference and tells me to butt out since he is getting As, that it doesn't matter.

Are you the OP? Because if so, I am confused. Your child is in MCPS, has multiple subject teachers, is getting As, and is in elementary school?

OP here -- yes, that's right. I don't want to say more as I don't want to ID the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Thank you... I have asked the teacher and she said she would work on it but I haven't seen any change.
I don't understand the reference to the rubric. If a child is not learning spelling and grammar in English class, and is heading toward middle school, when will the child learn?
I am trying to work with the child, but he HATES my interference and tells me to butt out since he is getting As, that it doesn't matter.

Are you the OP? Because if so, I am confused. Your child is in MCPS, has multiple subject teachers, is getting As, and is in elementary school?

I'm confused by this also. Do you mean English as in ESOL? And aren't As a thing of the past in MCPS now? OP won't identify, but does anyone else know of an MCPS elementary school with separate "English" classes and teachers?

[Anonymous]

Teachers are among those who receive the lowest SAT scores.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have seen that for some assignments the English teachers are not correcting the spelling mistakes, especially when it is creative writing. I think that is because they do not want to confuse creativity and reading comprehension, with ability to spell correctly.

Furthermore - for many assignments - the grading is based on a MCPS rubric, which may not include grammar and spelling.

I agree with you that grammar, punctuation and spelling, should be checked at all times.

I think you can ask the teacher tactfully why the grammar and spelling is not being checked?

At the same time - I would take this opportunity to work with your student so that they know how to proofread their work and improve. Good writing requires a few drafts at least and you can point that out to your child.

Thank you... I have asked the teacher and she said she would work on it but I haven't seen any change.
I don't understand the reference to the rubric. If a child is not learning spelling and grammar in English class, and is heading toward middle school, when will the child learn?
I am trying to work with the child, but he HATES my interference and tells me to butt out since he is getting As, that it doesn't matter.

Wait -- you're talking about an elementary school child? No, they are not as fussy about spelling and capitalization in the primary grades. That comes later.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Thank you... I have asked the teacher and she said she would work on it but I haven't seen any change.
I don't understand the reference to the rubric. If a child is not learning spelling and grammar in English class, and is heading toward middle school, when will the child learn?
I am trying to work with the child, but he HATES my interference and tells me to butt out since he is getting As, that it doesn't matter.

Are you the OP? Because if so, I am confused. Your child is in MCPS, has multiple subject teachers, is getting As, and is in elementary school?

I'm confused by this also. Do you mean English as in ESOL? And aren't As a thing of the past in MCPS now? OP won't identify, but does anyone else know of an MCPS elementary school with separate "English" classes and teachers?

They are no longer doing A,B, C, etc. Weird

[Anonymous]

Also, my kid goes to an MCPS elementary school & while there is accelerated math (for another year before they kill it) there are no accelerated or honors English classes. That plus the fact that as PP pointed out, we now have the dreaded 2.0 meaningless (P, I, N, ES) grading system, does make the OP's post strange indeed. However, at my child's ES I was horrified to note that her teacher last year (in 4th grade) openly humble-bragged about not be ing able to spell (and had multiple typos in her powerpoint presentation to parents at Back to School Night). Ugh....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Thank you... I have asked the teacher and she said she would work on it but I haven't seen any change.
I don't understand the reference to the rubric. If a child is not learning spelling and grammar in English class, and is heading toward middle school, when will the child learn?
I am trying to work with the child, but he HATES my interference and tells me to butt out since he is getting As, that it doesn't matter.

Are you the OP? Because if so, I am confused. Your child is in MCPS, has multiple subject teachers, is getting As, and is in elementary school?

I'm confused by this also. Do you mean English as in ESOL? And aren't As a thing of the past in MCPS now? OP won't identify, but does anyone else know of an MCPS elementary school with separate "English" classes and teachers?

And letter grades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also, my kid goes to an MCPS elementary school & while there is accelerated math (for another year before they kill it) there are no accelerated or honors English classes. That plus the fact that as PP pointed out, we now have the dreaded 2.0 meaningless (P, I, N, ES) grading system, does make the OP's post strange indeed. However, at my child's ES I was horrified to note that her teacher last year (in 4th grade) openly humble-bragged about not be ing able to spell (and had multiple typos in her powerpoint presentation to parents at Back to School Night). Ugh....

The P/I/N grading system has just as much meaning as the letter grade system, in my opinion. Not to mention the O/S/I grading system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have seen that for some assignments the English teachers are not correcting the spelling mistakes, especially when it is creative writing. I think that is because they do not want to confuse creativity and reading comprehension, with ability to spell correctly.

Furthermore - for many assignments - the grading is based on a MCPS rubric, which may not include grammar and spelling.

I agree with you that grammar, punctuation and spelling, should be checked at all times.

I think you can ask the teacher tactfully why the grammar and spelling is not being checked?

At the same time - I would take this opportunity to work with your student so that they know how to proofread their work and improve. Good writing requires a few drafts at least and you can point that out to your child.

Thank you... I have asked the teacher and she said she would work on it but I haven't seen any change.
I don't understand the reference to the rubric. If a child is not learning spelling and grammar in English class, and is heading toward middle school, when will the child learn?
I am trying to work with the child, but he HATES my interference and tells me to butt out since he is getting As, that it doesn't matter.

Wait -- you're talking about an elementary school child? No, they are not as fussy about spelling and capitalization in the primary grades. That comes later.

OP here..in 6th? 7th? Or beyond....?