"Bryan-TGWWW" > wrote in message
...
> On Monday, February 16, 2015 at 6:45:36 PM UTC-6, Jean B. wrote:
>> Dave Smith wrote:
>> > On 2015-02-05 18:02, Becca EmaNymton wrote:
>> >
>> >> One of my nieces is in 1st grade and during a spelling test, her
>> >> spelling was 100% correct, but the teacher gave her a 77 because of
>> >> her
>> >> poor penmanship. She is also writing in cursive. Her mom is miffed,
>> >> because the child is discouraged and she feels like she is stupid.
>> >
>> > What does penmanship have to do with spelling? When my son was in
>> > highschool he has a horrible English teacher who once gave him an F on
>> > an assignment. Her only comment was to the effect that he had to start
>> > behaving in class. My friend was an English teacher and said he would
>> > have given him an A.
>> >
>>
>> I hate all such things! Becca, I hope this girl can regain her
>> self-esteem. Dave, what was your son's reaction?
>>
>> My daughter taught herself to read by age 3. She was a bookworm. Her
>> second-grade teacher insisted that she read books at grade level, and
>> that killed her love of reading.
>
> I taught myself to read at 4, and when my 3rd grade teacher insisted that
> I
> do the reading comprehension work that was far below my reading level, I
> tried to work out a compromise, but she was unreasonable. She made me
> stay
> in for recess for weeks in a row, and I told her that it was worth it to
> me
> knowing that she too was having to stay inside when the weather was
> beautiful
> outside.
>
> I didn't like my first or fourth grade teachers, but I hated my third
> grade
> teacher. My second and fifth grade teachers were as great at the third
> grade
> one was lousy.
>
> By the time I started school, I had already learned that adults didn't
> deserve
> respect just because they were adults. One of my son's teachers pulled
> that
> age appropriate thing, and my wife (the town children's librarian)
> convinced
> her otherwise. The teacher is lucky that she responded to my wife,
> because
> otherwise she'd have had to deal with me, and you know what I'm like here.
> I'm just as vicious in real life.
>
> --Bryan

We had to do something in 2nd grade called SRAs. They were color coded and
I think that the brown ones were the highest level. We were supposed to
start with the easiest ones and work our way up. We would read and then
take the test. The whole process was supposed to take the better part of
the year. Because there were only so many different ones, we would take
turns doing them, fitting them in when we had finished our work and had some
time to spare. But my friend and I were super fast readers as well as
getting the rest of our work done super fast so we whipped through that
whole box in a matter of days.

Then when Angela was in about the same grade, I signed up to be the reading
assistant. They had something very much like the SRAs but not everyone had
to do them. Only those who needed help with reading. And some only had to
do it once. They may have not tested well the first time. But if I tested
them once and they passed with flying colors, I didn't have to work with
them again.

There were others though who probably are still not reading today. This one
girl totally baffled me. I don't know if she was dyslexic or what. I
wasn't taught to look for that. Only to assess using specific parameters.
And part of the assignment was having *me* read the story to them first.
That didn't even help her. She clearly wasn't listening to a word that I
said. She struggled over the words. She could clearly make out the first
letter of the word and she would say a word that started with that letter
but it wouldn't be anything remotely close to what the real word was.