josan (![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} josan) wrote,@ 2008-02-06 17:22:00 |
 |
|||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Calling all parents.
Okay, so your kid's got an assignment due the next day and he (sorry, will be using the masculine due to the fact that the example I will be using is a masculine one) is freaking out.
Hasn't mentioned that he's had many, many days (since before Christmas) to work on his assignment, due February 4th: a book report for example.
Parent decides to do ... cough, cough, sorry. Parent decides to "help" the kid with his assignment.
HOW TO DO...'HELP' YOUR KID WITH AN ASSIGNMENT
1. HANDWRITING.
Try to conform to the kid's handwriting so that it is not so obvious that he didn't do the work. Why? Well, teachers are real bitches, you know. They often have samples of their students' handwriting to compare.
So, if your kid prints only, don't write his work out in cursive. Or if he's really messy, don't hand in a clean copy. If his letters are all different sizes in a word and irregular, don't do it in your best handwriting. If his letters are all straight up, then slanted printing is a no-no.
Better yet, dictate the responses so that the assignment is at least in the kid's own handwriting.
2. SENTENCE STRUCTURE.
Kids do not write sentences the way adults do. For example, a student who, still after all this time, can't use auxiliaries properly, nor negatives, NEVER EVER writes compound-complex sentences...well, you, as a parent 'helping', needs to be aware that proper usage would then be a real give-away.
For example: This from a kid who can't write a seven-word sentence correctly.
Because it's (Spelt correctly, which the kid still can't do) the culmination (Yeah, sure...he uses this word every day, eh!) point of the story,(proper comma) where (proper relative pronoun) he finally knows (a correct present tense! No way!) why he got cursed, what were the intentions (plural verb for a plural subject...not one of his strong points, even when the S comes before the V!) of the gypsy and how to get back his normal life.
3. VOCABULARY.
Again, know the kind of language your kid uses. A student who never ever looks a word up in the dictionary and will invent words (Oh, forgot to mention that this is an enriched ESL class...) from French, like dropping accents and the like, would NEVER EVER use words like "culmination".
Learn his quirky errors, like I is always i, there is used for their, i not understand for I don't understand.
BTW: Never spell WHICH properly when your kid regularly gets it wrong (wich) in the weekly dictations I now hold (He's had to write it out correctly 3 X 25 times so far and he still spelt it wrong again this week.) Ditto WITH (whit) and WHAT (waht). (No, he is NOT dyslexic. He's been tested...they all have been at one time or another these days!)
Do more than sign your kid's homework; take a look at it as well. This is how you will know these things.
4. PUNCTUATION
The proper use of punctuation, such as commas and periods, is another give-away when your kid is forever losing marks for NOT using punctuation. If capitalisation of the first word in a sentence is something else he doesn't do on a regular basis, then don't begin each sentence (which you ended with a period) with a capital letter.
Hope this helps.
Oh, and my kid: I left a message on his home answering machine that I want to see him in my office at 12:25 (lunch) tomorrow, to discuss his book report.
I sincerely hope he read the book (Thinner, by Stephen King -- his choice, not mine!) because his oral mark interview is based on the book (In cases where I suspect a student hasn't read his/her book, I tend to ask for details about the secondary characters, not the main ones, 'cause I am a bitch!) and 50% of the writing component this term will be his writing a resume of the story (with guidelines to follow).
This is a kid who got 46% on his mid-term reading exam. That's worth 50% of the reading component for this term, with the book report the other 50%.
Let me see: 46 + 100 = 146/200 = 73% and therefore a pass.
Hmmmmm, I think not.
I shall present my lad with two options: ZERO for this work OR he can spend his study periods and his lunch periods with me over the next four days and redo it. No, I most certainly will not allow him the 'original' work.
I wonder which he will chose?
Okay, so your kid's got an assignment due the next day and he (sorry, will be using the masculine due to the fact that the example I will be using is a masculine one) is freaking out.
Hasn't mentioned that he's had many, many days (since before Christmas) to work on his assignment, due February 4th: a book report for example.
Parent decides to do ... cough, cough, sorry. Parent decides to "help" the kid with his assignment.
1. HANDWRITING.
Try to conform to the kid's handwriting so that it is not so obvious that he didn't do the work. Why? Well, teachers are real bitches, you know. They often have samples of their students' handwriting to compare.
So, if your kid prints only, don't write his work out in cursive. Or if he's really messy, don't hand in a clean copy. If his letters are all different sizes in a word and irregular, don't do it in your best handwriting. If his letters are all straight up, then slanted printing is a no-no.
Better yet, dictate the responses so that the assignment is at least in the kid's own handwriting.
2. SENTENCE STRUCTURE.
Kids do not write sentences the way adults do. For example, a student who, still after all this time, can't use auxiliaries properly, nor negatives, NEVER EVER writes compound-complex sentences...well, you, as a parent 'helping', needs to be aware that proper usage would then be a real give-away.
For example: This from a kid who can't write a seven-word sentence correctly.
Because it's (Spelt correctly, which the kid still can't do) the culmination (Yeah, sure...he uses this word every day, eh!) point of the story,(proper comma) where (proper relative pronoun) he finally knows (a correct present tense! No way!) why he got cursed, what were the intentions (plural verb for a plural subject...not one of his strong points, even when the S comes before the V!) of the gypsy and how to get back his normal life.
3. VOCABULARY.
Again, know the kind of language your kid uses. A student who never ever looks a word up in the dictionary and will invent words (Oh, forgot to mention that this is an enriched ESL class...) from French, like dropping accents and the like, would NEVER EVER use words like "culmination".
Learn his quirky errors, like I is always i, there is used for their, i not understand for I don't understand.
BTW: Never spell WHICH properly when your kid regularly gets it wrong (wich) in the weekly dictations I now hold (He's had to write it out correctly 3 X 25 times so far and he still spelt it wrong again this week.) Ditto WITH (whit) and WHAT (waht). (No, he is NOT dyslexic. He's been tested...they all have been at one time or another these days!)
Do more than sign your kid's homework; take a look at it as well. This is how you will know these things.
4. PUNCTUATION
The proper use of punctuation, such as commas and periods, is another give-away when your kid is forever losing marks for NOT using punctuation. If capitalisation of the first word in a sentence is something else he doesn't do on a regular basis, then don't begin each sentence (which you ended with a period) with a capital letter.
Hope this helps.
Oh, and my kid: I left a message on his home answering machine that I want to see him in my office at 12:25 (lunch) tomorrow, to discuss his book report.
I sincerely hope he read the book (Thinner, by Stephen King -- his choice, not mine!) because his oral mark interview is based on the book (In cases where I suspect a student hasn't read his/her book, I tend to ask for details about the secondary characters, not the main ones, 'cause I am a bitch!) and 50% of the writing component this term will be his writing a resume of the story (with guidelines to follow).
This is a kid who got 46% on his mid-term reading exam. That's worth 50% of the reading component for this term, with the book report the other 50%.
Let me see: 46 + 100 = 146/200 = 73% and therefore a pass.
Hmmmmm, I think not.
I shall present my lad with two options: ZERO for this work OR he can spend his study periods and his lunch periods with me over the next four days and redo it. No, I most certainly will not allow him the 'original' work.
I wonder which he will chose?