September 19, 2011

Partners in Parenting

Mi Riting Ain't So Gud!

If you can decipher that title, you might be thinking, "What kind of knuckleheaded principal do we have around here."  The title is actually, "My writing is not very good."  That's if I write using proper English.  I share this with you, parents, because my eyes were opened to the writing habits of our kids the other day.  With Mr. Brown gone to outdoor education, I taught 7th Grade math on Wednesday through Friday.  The students had to write a story problem based on the information provided to them.  They did a great job with the math concept, but I had to do either minor or major editing to each student's three sentences.  I helped with capital letters, punctuation, run on sentences, inverted word order, misspelled words, etc.  I informed the class that writing is important for getting into college, but many times, it is also a requirement of getting into high school.  I also let them know that I sit on a committee that gives awards of over $125,000 each year to individuals who must write an application for the money.  The poor writers never get the money.  The texting world has given us all lots of freedom to condense our words to create meaning, so it must be textings fault, right?  Wrong!  Did any of you take shorthand in high school?  I did not, but all my brothers and sisters did.  They still had to write properly on their assignments whether they knew shorthand or not.  The truth is we are not requiring it, and the kids know it.  I want to have you join the teachers and me in helping our kids be successful in every way with better writing habits and abilities.  When they put their name on their writing, it should represent their thoughts well.  Even the apostle Paul recognized the importance of placing his name on his own writing in Colossians 4:18:  "I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand."

Family Discussion Points!

Have the whole family work together to edit this sentence (or is it two sentences): 

i want to really go to the store to buys some candie then i will ete it fast, and

i won't share none with my bruthers.

Work on this together, and see how you do based on the answer below.  The way I did it is not the only way to correct it. 

Discuss texting habits that transfer into our daily writing.  Where does it happen?

Discuss the difference between formal writing and just getting information down (grocery list is just information, letter writing is more formal)

These are all things we are teaching at school, and we'll continue to teach it.  Any help at home will be a benefit to the students.  Thanks.

     A possible answer:  I really want to go to the store to buy some candy.  I will eat it quickly, and I won't share any of the candy with my brothers. 

(underlined words denote a correction made - I also excluded the word "then" as it has no value in the sentence)