I have a 6th grader and an 8th grader. My experience is that very little writing was taught in ES. I hired a writing tutor for my youngest during 5th grade because I could tell that he wasn’t ready for MS. There is a lot of writing work in MS. It appears to be comprehensive and graded fairly. My older child gets As and Bs. So far my younger child is getting Cs and Ds.

Parents- maybe you can give your kid feedback and have them re-write their essays? If you’re not happy with it, then do something about it. Just a thought….

MCPS is a joke

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers are told not to leave grammatical and spelling feedback on a student’s writing. It is not best practice according to the text books and professors at the universities for these 2 reasons:
1.) Lowers confidence in students when they see their writing marked up
2.) Students are not doing the learning when the teacher revises/edits the work

I am not sure how this is supposed to work. Student hands in essay. Teacher returns essay with a completion grade. What has student learned?

Nothing. Seriously.

The kids ‘peer-review’ each other’s essays, but that is only as useful when the peer is able to give actual feedback.

Anonymous wrote:Teachers are told not to leave grammatical and spelling feedback on a student’s writing. It is not best practice according to the text books and professors at the universities for these 2 reasons:
1.) Lowers confidence in students when they see their writing marked up
2.) Students are not doing the learning when the teacher revises/edits the work

I am not sure how this is supposed to work. Student hands in essay. Teacher returns essay with a completion grade. What has student learned?

In a subject other than English, I can tell you I also do not give much feedback on work. I tell students if they would like to go over their work after seeing their grade, I am available at lunch, before or after school.

This is all due to the fact that MCPS has gotten rid of reasonable due dates and deadlines. Students have until interims and the end of the quarter to turn in late work. So, if I turn back graded work to students who turned the work in on time, it inevitably gets shared with students who haven’t done the assignment yet, then they can either copy it, or at least use it to answer things correctly in their own words. We can’t even take off more than 10% late credit anymore.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Meh. Colleges have had required remedial frosh writing courses since at least the 70s.

It would be interesting to see how many kids are required to take that class now versus in the 1970s.

Is MCPS graduating more or less competent writers than it did decades ago?

At Duke in the 80s, it was all frosh.

Anonymous wrote:Meh. Colleges have had required remedial frosh writing courses since at least the 70s.

It would be interesting to see how many kids are required to take that class now versus in the 1970s.

Is MCPS graduating more or less competent writers than it did decades ago?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers are told not to leave grammatical and spelling feedback on a student’s writing. It is not best practice according to the text books and professors at the universities for these 2 reasons:
1.) Lowers confidence in students when they see their writing marked up
2.) Students are not doing the learning when the teacher revises/edits the work

Also it’s not equitable. Different learners may use different kinds of grammar.

There aren't "different" kinds of grammar other than correct and incorrect.

Prescriptive linguist, i take it?

Just educated (not by MCPS).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers are told not to leave grammatical and spelling feedback on a student’s writing. It is not best practice according to the text books and professors at the universities for these 2 reasons:
1.) Lowers confidence in students when they see their writing marked up
2.) Students are not doing the learning when the teacher revises/edits the work

Also it’s not equitable. Different learners may use different kinds of grammar.

There aren't "different" kinds of grammar other than correct and incorrect.

Prescriptive linguist, i take it?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers are told not to leave grammatical and spelling feedback on a student’s writing. It is not best practice according to the text books and professors at the universities for these 2 reasons:
1.) Lowers confidence in students when they see their writing marked up
2.) Students are not doing the learning when the teacher revises/edits the work

Also it’s not equitable. Different learners may use different kinds of grammar.

There aren't "different" kinds of grammar other than correct and incorrect.

Meh. Colleges have had required remedial frosh writing courses since at least the 70s.

Anonymous wrote:Teachers are told not to leave grammatical and spelling feedback on a student’s writing. It is not best practice according to the text books and professors at the universities for these 2 reasons:
1.) Lowers confidence in students when they see their writing marked up
2.) Students are not doing the learning when the teacher revises/edits the work

Also it’s not equitable. Different learners may use different kinds of grammar.

Teachers are told not to leave grammatical and spelling feedback on a student’s writing. It is not best practice according to the text books and professors at the universities for these 2 reasons:
1.) Lowers confidence in students when they see their writing marked up
2.) Students are not doing the learning when the teacher revises/edits the work

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you know how long it would take to give written detailed on every essay for every student?

And yet somehow in the past it was done. Homework was also graded and corrected. Boggles the mind. Guess time was slower then.

We now know it’s no longer advised as a best practice. Teachers hold writing conferences to review but any corrections will be from the students.

So the taxpayer is paying to send students to school who cannot write a sentence or a paragraph upon graduation?

It’s basically a babysitting service. But I also sympathize the teachers, it’s not what they envisioned teaching is anymore

I definitely sympathize with the teachers. My kid’s MS English teacher is forced to teach Advanced English which is a mish mosh of kids that ranges from those who come from a CES with good writing skills to those who can barely put a sentence together. She has easily over a hundred students total to keep track of. Such a nightmare.

We need smaller class sizes and more of a focus on grammar in elementary school. And go back to differentiation in middle school. Putting kids of varying abilities all into the same MS class and labeling it ‘Advanced’ benefits no one.