IDK

Another issue close to my heart was raised at our meeting today: grading writing. I have not been grading my students’ writing for spelling and grammar. This (apparently) is a horrible atrocity for an English teacher. I have been trying to get my students to write ANYTHING down. I have been exposed to the idea that marking kids’ papers up excessively only reinforces the idea that they are failures and encourages them to not turn anything in and ditch class. I want to support my budding writers. I think that understanding concepts is much more important than being able to spell them. (Although it is amusing when I get "IDK" for "I don't know," "cus" for "because," and "usto" for "used to.") This may be because my father is a wonderful engineer and cannot spell to save his life. He has been successful in his life because of his critical thinking skills, not his grammatical skills. But as an English teacher, I feel like I am failing my students by not teaching them basic English. Teachers in other fields shared how they mark down for poor writing, and wondered why I was not doing the same. Another reason is that I want my students to write more than I have time to correct. I want them to write everyday and I do not have time to pick apart their writing. Hopefully, I can figure this one out soon…