Every school morning when I drop the Kiddo off at school I stand around and wait until he goes INTO the classroom. I like to be sure he’s safely in his teachers hands before I go home, it’s the only way I can avoid worrying about him while he’s there. Usually there are a couple other moms that wait with me. The other day one of the mothers mentioned that she had a problem with our kids teacher, she said that she doesn’t think it’s okay that Mrs. H actually grads the kids with a letter and percentage grade.
She turned to me and said “of course you probably don’t really care because your Kiddo is so smart and doesn’t have problems spelling or reading.”
First thing I wanted to say is… I beg to differ
He HAS been doing very well with his spelling tests, 100% up until last week. That’s when he bombed big time. Bonus words in the wrong spot, and one wrong word in the ‘real list’. The missed points on the sentence (non capital first word and no period) are a bit my fault I think, I had NO idea she graded on stuff like that so I hadn’t been drilling him on it.
Second thing I wanted to say is… if first grade is to “early” to grade kids work, when is it the right time? I am of the opinion that grading like this is fine. I feel like it gives me direction on what to work with him on. It’s hard because he doesn’t always focus and will lose points on things that he KNOWS but I feel like it’s a lesson he needs to learn; you don’t get to slide past just because you know it, you also have to do the work correctly and prove that you know it.
What do you think??
1 comment:
I'm sure I've told you before about how un-helpful it was to have your oldest sib's teacher tell me at P/T conference that G was the top reader in his group ... only to find out much later that G's group was the bottom one in the class. So, yes, they should give the kids concrete grades on an objective scale, so the parents can know how much of the material their child is learning and retaining.
If some kids get their feelings hurt, it is because their parents go along with the idea that grades compare one kid to another instead of one kid to the material the kid is intended to learn. That is a parenting problem, not a grading one.
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