Los Angeles Doesn't Exist
So do you remember when I talked about how Mister Man's teacher didn't do the best job correcting his math homework? I let it go because Mister Man needs to learn that people in authority aren't always right, and really... in the grand scheme of things, it isn't that big a deal. He was fine with it, and I chalked it up to a bad teacher book, though it wasn't the first time it happened.
Last night, we received his Daily Five (little bits of practice work students spend 5 minutes working on each day in school) for the past week. As always, I looked through it to see what I need to work on with Mister Man. And my jaw dropped.
The possessive correction? Meh. Yes, it should be "Mr. Tyler's" but it was a little hard to see where he put the apostrophe. It almost looks like a comma for the sentence above instead of an apostrophe in the sentence he wrote. He needs to work on his penmanship, but fine motor skills are one of his challenges common amongst those with autism. That's part of why he's in private OT once a week.
Ditto with the correction of "two." I can see that he wrote two with a "w" and not just to, but the "w" is half into the o, so it's hard to see what he wrote unless you're really looking closely. Again, he needs to do a better job writing, and that's fine.
Sock? I totally get why he circled that answer. It's something that goes on your foot. It makes sense, but it's wrong. They're really looking for the more specific "footwear" answer, so sock was out. Categorization is also something that he struggles with sometimes due to his autism.
But ummm Los AngelOs? That's the one that threw me for a loop. Actually, it had me questioning my own spelling abilities. Maybe I've been spelling Los Angeles wrong for more than three decades (hush, I learned to write early).
Oh. Wait. I googled it. I haven't been spelling it wrong.
Less than two months left in the school year. Less than two months remaining. It's the mantra I keep repeating as I wait to hear whether or not Mister Man's petition to attend Little Miss's school is approved.
What are the words that throw you for a loop when you're writing?
9 comments:
That old rule 'i' before 'e' gets me all the time, especially when it doesn't apply.
I agree with Tara, thats a tricky rule. Even in Los Angeles...that was funny!
When I first saw Los AngelOs, I really thought I'd been wrong.
Before I worked at KFC the word Colonel never came easy to me. Considering Colonel Sanders was the creator of KFC, I learned very quick. LOL
On another note, I tagged you on my recent blog post. Play along if you'd like.
I thought the right answer was sock, too. oops. I thought it was supposed to be foot things that start with s.
Wow, I have to say this is reminding me, very unpleasantly, of the worst teacher either of my boys even had. My blood pressure rises even now, years later thinking of her. Here's to better teachers in the years to come!
(Maybe she's better at things other than spelling?)
this is one of the reasons I homeschool - that is all
I sometimes have to look up words that end in -ent/-ant. Usually my gut feeling about the spelling is correct.
It is shocking to me that a teacher would misspell "Los Angeles." I have seen teachers make grammar/spelling punctuation mistakes also. One of my sons' teachers had written "the cat drug the rat into the house" on the board for the kids to correct. When she went over it with them, she only corrected the capitalization and the punctuation (period at the end), but not the word "drug." I was a parent volunteer that day and I mentioned to her that the past tense of "drag" is "dragged" and she was totally surprised. A lot of people use the wrong past tense of drag, and also say, "I haven't drank any water." I guess they don't want to use the correct word, "drunk," "I haven't drunk any water."
I'm keeping my mouth shut about our horrible principal, just to get through the school year, because I know we'll be elsewhere next year. But the temptation to set things straight is there!
Your son's teacher seriously needs to go to a Teachers' Boot Camp or something.
Tara - You aren't the only one. But hey, English is the language of exceptions, right?
Patty - Well, yeah. Athough maybe the teacher was tryin to apply the rule when she mis-corrected "Angelos" - maybe?
Tami - I know! That's me, too. It had me completely doubting myself for a minute or two. And no, Colonel doesn't really make sense in ANY language I can think of, does it?
Jen - Well ok, that's another way of looking at it. When you have questions that leave so many things open to interpretation....
Kim - Ummmm. I'm going to plead the Fifth on that one.
Teresa - Yeah, but one teacher doesn't mean they're all like this. We'll see what the next year brings. In the meantime, 22 more days of school.
Pat - Yep, the ent/ant words are my bane, too. I have to write them down to look at them sometimes. And YES the past tense drives me nuts that people refuse to recognize the irregular form that is correct. It's a minor pet peeve of mine.
Laural - Ohhhh, I'm so sorry, Laural. It's really hard when the principal isn't good. I'm glad oyu'll be somewhere else next year and hopefully very happy there!
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