Dear School Board,
I am ______________________. I am writting this letter because I am a prier student of Garfield Primary School. I will not let you close that school down absoutly will not. If they go to Trewyn they will get serisouly hurt. I will not let that happen. I will get as many people I can to keep Garfield Primary School up and running I went there for 3-4 years so I will fight evan if I am by myself I will fight.
14 comments:
Really, are there any words?
Even if Garfield wasnt up for closure....I would close it after reading that letter filled with horrible spelling and grammar.....she is NOT helping the cause by coming across nearly iliterate!
Anonymous, I'm sorry (I usually don't point out the grammatical errors of bloggers--I make them myself); however, if you are going to accuse this child of being illiterate based mostly on spelling errors, then maybe you should learn to spell illiterate and to put an apostrophe in a contraction. Also, even if it "wasn't," is incorrect--"wasn't" should be "weren't." Your comment was shorter than hers, yet you made three glaring errors. You, also, left out the word "as" in front of "nearly," just as the child left out the word "as" after "people."
The child's main problems were spelling errors; however, the sentence structure of her writing shows maturity as she used three complex sentences and one compound-complex sentence. There are a couple of grammatical errors (run-on sentences)--but not that serious. I assume the child is a fifth grader--and I can tell you that I have seen the writing of high school students that is much worse.
Besides she has had seven months at a new school--I guess it isn't performing miracles yet.
I found the sentiment of the letter, however, to be touching because she is looking out for her former school mates at Garfield--she cares what happens to them.
I would say that is a reflection on the system, that she was passed on and passed over.
Kid is in primary school (1-4). Cut the kid some slack.
The kid (1-4)in primary school is simply inserting their name in a blank spot on a response card. The card, is poorly written to say the least. No slack here at all to give.
Ahhh, the cruel irony of a post decrying someone as "nearly iliterate" (sic)...
My comment was cut for some reason. I rarely, if ever, call attention to bloggers' errors--I am guilty of them myself. But when anonymous chose to call this child illiterate, I took offense for the child. Perhaps because I called attention to Anonymous' grammatical and spelling errors: illiterate spelled incorrectly, wasn't without an apostrophe, the use of wasn't when weren't should have been used, and "as" left out in front of nearly.
As for the child's writing, if the spelling errors (which are glaring--but probably not so bad considering her age) were removed, the sentence structure of her writing is rather mature. Of course, there are two run-on sentences and a comma missing, but the child's writing does flow and the correct connecting words are used in two or three complex sentences and one compound-complex sentence.
Most of all, I appreciate the unselfish sentiments of the child--she is concerned about the welfare of classmates she left behind when she/he went to a new school.
I'd love to know how often a parent ever helped this child with her homework or read a book to her. Ask her please, Emerge, and report back. I'd really like to know!
What I'm sensing here is that many of you do not understand how far behind many students are. I know that some of you will choose to blame teachers, but, as Concerned just suggested, much of the support for the monumental task has to be shared by parents.
As a teacher, I tried to isolate the skills on which to concentrate by analyzing a child's writing. As I just said above, this child's sentence structure (connecting words, flow of words, etc.) is good--much better than many who have language problems.
If the spelling errors were corrected, many readers would not notice the more subtle errors in this child's writing.
Of course, this is the truth of the matter--I never taught primary school, so I am not an authority as to what skills are expected by fourth grade.
In this day and age of spell check on computers, teaching the child to use spell check and to select the best choice of suggested corrections might go a long way in helping her with her spelling.
All I'm saying is that if you really believe this child's writing means she is illiterate, then I believe your judgment is inaccurate. The way she puts words together and how she shows relationships with the connecting words "because, if, even if, so--shows that she does have reasoning power. There is no problem with understanding her message--in spite of the errors, she made her point quite clearly--you wouldn't find that to be true with students who have the kinds of learning problems you are attributing to this child based on these few sentences.
This eleven year old, Caucasian (for the record) child is not illiterate, nor has she been “passed on” or over.
Concerned said:
“Ask her please Emerge, and report back.”
I won’t talk about your sentence structure in your comment; however, I find it sad that you all seem to relish slamming the heartfelt words of an eleven year old child.
So “Concerned”, if you are so concerned that the child needs somebody to read to her and you want a report back, send me an e-mail at emergepeoria@comcast.net. Perhaps I can hook you up to be her reading tutor and I can report back on that.
Emerge, not all of us did!
I agree with Sharon and Emerge. The letter is touching and the meaning is clear. The few errors in spelling and sentence structure are totally age-appropriate. In fact, the missive is better written than many blog comments. (Including some of my own, LOL.)
The most important thing is that the girl is standing up for what she believes in! (or - for that in which she believes!). Good for her!!!
A-D
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