Kids allowed to write slang in exams

I personaly think that if you are too lazy to write correctly, you should have to retake tests.

Every so often I will get papers written in IM-speak... "thru," "tho," "ur," etc. I also frequently get 's at the end of sentences. I make my students re-submit the papers with recognizable English.

The only time, IMO, that it appropriate to write slang in school is when a student is writing a report about slang, and uses those words in quotes. Another example is where they are writing a story, and the characters talk in slang. Any other use of slang in school writing is atrocious.

This is a hot debate in teaching (though not the MOST hot debate). And the consensus seems to be "Usually not ok, but sometimes it just sort of depends." If you are querying a mixed group of 4th graders on geometry content, it is most important to see what geometry they know, not how they spell.

Possibly, although it would be inaccurate to call the slang issue a matter of "spelling." It's about communication and how one presents oneself. When I tell students not to use the words "thru" and "ur," it's not because I care about their spelling; it's because I want them to know that if they ever used IM-speak in cover letters to potential employers, rightly or wrongly their applications would go straight to the waste basket. Better that they learn that in a protected environment like school rather than in the real world, where it will count.

Littlek, my daughter's teachers felt that way (that spelling wasn't important except during the spelling lesson)... The result is an 18-year-old who can't spell.

She leaves me notes telling me she's gone to the wods with a grope of her firends. She'll be back latter.

Nobody emphasized spelling except in the weekly lists in grades 1-4, so the kids don't carry it over into other parts of their work.

"When I was a youngster" (oh, god, am i that old?) a half-point was taken from the total score for every i dotted with a little circle (a feminine affectation not taken lightly by my teacher) rather than a round little dot. Let's not even mention misspellings!

My sister is a college professor, and doesn't offer spelling correction either, even though the collegians she's instructing can't spell either. She says it's the job of their elementary teachers to get them to spell correctly, and if they've not bothered, she can't help it. She's right, but how do you get the elementary teachers to teach it?

oh, we emphasize spelling in all written assignments. But, during tests, we don't take points off unless the test is testing spelling (and writing).

But, I get what you're saying, Wy. That's why it's a hot topic. And, to be fair, many people my age are crappy spellers and we did have to spell things correctly.

Mainstream students should at least appear to be trying to spell, though the emphasis is more on knowledge retention, rather than spelling accuracy.

No slang allowed except for the conditions stated above in Phoenix's post.

I was teaching indigenous students, and actually had to learn Kriol, and translate some of the English words into Kriol for the aural tests, (these kids were illiterate, despite nine or ten years of schooling).

Sad, really, but when I was at Darwin University, studying my advanced dip in adult education, the senior lecturer claimed that literacy and numeracy were no longer important with the computer taking the onus for accuracy and spelling.

I guess that's why I didn't last too long in the education field.

I'd be a little concerned if my daughter was going with a grope of friends.

Hehehehe, but did you see my intended gaffe? Aural, in place of oral?

Tehn tehre is teh shcool of tohgut taht as lnog as the frist and lsat ltetres are in teh rghit palce it's sitll radelbae.

I was reminded of this thread after reading this interesting article in the NY Times:


Informal Style of Electronic Messages Is Showing Up in Schoolwork, Study Finds
By TAMAR LEWIN

As e-mail messages, text messages and social network postings become nearly ubiquitous in the lives of teenagers, the informality of electronic communications is seeping into their schoolwork, a new study says.

Nearly two-thirds of 700 students surveyed said their e-communication style sometimes bled into school assignments, according to the study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, in partnership with the College Board's National Commission on Writing. About half said they sometimes omitted proper punctuation and capitalization in schoolwork. A quarter said they had used emoticons like smiley faces. About a third said they had used text shortcuts like "LOL" for "laugh out loud."

"I think this is not a worrying issue at all," said Richard Sterling, emeritus executive director of the National Writing Project, which aims to improve the teaching of writing.

When e-mail shorthand ?- or for that matter, slang ?- appears in academic assignments, Professor Sterling said, it is an opportunity for teachers to explain that while such usages are acceptable in some contexts, they do not belong in schoolwork. And as the English language evolves, he said, some e-mail conventions, like starting sentences without a capital letter, may well become accepted practice.

"I think in the future, capitalization will disappear," said Professor Sterling, who teaches at the University of California, Berkeley. In fact, he said, when his teenage son asked what the presence of the capital letter added to what the period at the end of the sentence signified, he had no answer.

The study is based on eight focus groups and the survey of 700 nationally representative children, ages 12 to 17, and their parents, conducted in 2007. The survey has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus five percentage points.

Schools are grappling with the language of electronic communication. At the Bank Street School for Children in Manhattan, Stanlee Brimberg has set up an electronic message board for his class. On it he posts nightly questions, assigning students to respond to one of the questions and then to respond to another student's response.

"After the first night, we had to talk about whether they had to write the way they do in class, or whether it could be the way they do online," said Mr. Brimberg, who is Bank Street's upper school coordinator. "We decided that their response to the question should be in standard English, proofread, with capital letters, but their response to the other kid could be informal. And that worked."

Most teenagers do not think of their e-mail messages, text messages and social network postings as "real writing," the study found.

More than half of the teenagers surveyed had a profile on a social networking site like Facebook or MySpace, 27 percent had an online journal or blog and 11 percent had a personal Web site. Generally, girls dominated the teenage blogosphere and social networks.

Most teenagers write for school nearly every day, the study found, but most assignments are short. And many write outside school, on their own, although that varies significantly by race and sex. Almost half of black teenagers said they wrote a personal journal, compared with 3 in 10 whites. And nearly half of the girls keep a journal, compared with only 3 in 10 boys.