Spelling tests/penmanship

Do you think writing and penmanship should be graded on a spelling test? Ashley studies hard for every spelling test, she has never mispelled a word but yet she always gets points marked off for penmanship. Every now and then she will make a letter backwards when she is in a hurry, so I can see marking off for that. But, there have been times that she has been marked off because the letter was not written well (for example, the letter "b" did not go all the way up to the top of the line but yet it was obvious it was a "b"). I am not sure why I am even asking this as it won't really change her grade or how her teacher does things. But, I am just wondering if this is the norm? Is it a bit too strict for first grade in your opinion? I personally think spellign tests should be graded on spelling alone, and if they want to grade penmanship that should be a separate grade. But, in the end, I suppose it doesn't matter as the goal is to help her have a well-rounded education... penmanship and all.

Yes. Maddie's school was very strict about this in first grade. I thought it was just her teacher being overly anal about it. Guess not.

I dont think they should be graded on that. Lexi's teacher just corrects it on the page but they dont get points taken away for it.

same with my kids' school. they do not lose points for penmanship. they are more concerned that they have learned the word than how perfect the writing was.

it's kinda funny because Jacob has horrible penmanship and all his teacher's laugh and remind me that some of the most brilliant attorneys and doctors can't write or spell and that from high school forward everything is typed anyway so he'll just have to master the keyboard and use spell check lol.

In 1st grade, penmanship errors were corrected but not counted as a spelling error (unless the teacher can't read it, I suppose). In O's school, good penmanship is stressed but they aren't crazed about it. Her teacher has demanded better penmanship in 2nd and it was stressed much more than in 1st. It sounds like much more emphasis is placed on this in Ashley's school than O's.

ETA: If the penmanship standard is not applied throught the board (in every subject) I might be tempted to point that out to the teacher and ask for the reasoning behind it only being an issue in spelling. It's not like spelling and penmanship have anything remotely to do with each other. Seems like if it's such an issue, it should be a part of the grade in each subject~like language arts, math, science, etc.

This post has been edited by mom21kid2dogs on Nov 6 2008, 11:51 AM

I agree with this DeeDee
Maybe the teacher could grade the test with two grades...spelling/penmanship...
or do a whole seperate penmanship test.

The twins aren't graded on penmanship, but their teacher will make them erase and re-write things. Kylie is notorious for writing perfectly when she wants to and very sloppily when she doesn't....she spends a lot of time redoing homework

Jamison's teacher has never marked off for penmanship. It is not really stressed as far as I can tell. She will correct reversals but nothing else.

I agree with this

Yes, I believe it is too strict. Kids are still fine tuning their small motor skills at that age. I think it's ok to point out a sloppily drawn letter so they have a standard to aspire toward, but not to deduct points--they're 6! I think penmanship in general is a relic in the era of keyboarding- how many adults even use or know correct cursive--I don't, and I went to Catholic school (a million years ago). Personally, I think kids should be learning keyboarding by 3rd or 4th grade, and the time spent on penmanship should be drastically reduced to a basic working knowledge.
Speaking of Catholic school, doesn't Ashley attend a parochial school of some sort? This is a very unscientific opinion, but I have a feeling penmanship is emphasized much more in parochial schools for reasons unknown to me--maybe it's tradition, idk. My niece attended a Catholic school, and she was hounded for poor penmanship. Corey's teacher will circle a poorly written letter, draw the correct form next to it, but will not deduct points from a spelling test for handwriting. That may be more appropriate in the later years, but not now.

I spend every day in the public elementary and I hear lots of handwriting discussions so I know it's stressed there, too. It does seem pretty over the top at Ashley's school, though. Most of the publics (and O's Catholic school) give seperate marks for penmanship. Still seems to be a big deal in this part of the nation. I always thought it was one of those funny things~it's not like after school anyone really cares what your handwriting looks like!

A P/T conference funny (because she goes to Catholic school)~ when the teacher was mentioning O's strengths the top of her list was O's beautiful handwriting! I had a flasback of Sr. Marie and her metal ruler when I was in Catholic school

it started in grade K with my kids school

Ha ha- mine was Sister Anne, and she was positively EVIL! In addition to the metal ruler, she used to pull us by our ears, twist our wrists, and berate us mercilessly. I can laugh about it now, but she totally traumatized us.

Since I homeschool Will I can decide things like this myself, so I try not to stress over penmanship too much yet. There is a lifetime to work on that, IMHO.
Not including the fact that MANY adults can hardly write legibly, and there are so many styles of print and cursive, it's just crazy.
If I can read it, I think it's fine. Of course I'd love for him to write neatly, but it's not something I'm stressing over at this point. There are too many other things they should be learning (such as how to read, and just to love learning in and of itself).
I know my nephew has had many problems with teachers being different each year. One year he was told not to make a letter a certain way, the next year it was a number, though in all the previous years the ways he wrote them were fine. It's just one of those things, I guess, that changes from year-to-year and/or teacher-to-teacher.

Ha ha- mine was Sister Anne, and she was positively EVIL! In addition to the metal ruler, she used to pull us by our ears, twist our wrists, and berate us mercilessly. I can laugh about it now, but she totally traumatized us.

I traveled a lot a child as my father was in the service. I went to a public school in Louisiana that allowed the teachers to smack the kids on the hand with rulers and I think they could be sent to the office to be spanked too. My Mom yanked me out of that school so fast. I was a pretty shy kid anyways, and I am glad that my Mom removed me from that siutation as it was pretty intimidating.

Ashley's school has some things that I think they are a bit over-obsessive on such as their uniform policy and now this focus on the handwriting. But, the overall atmosphere is kind, caring, and encourages respect for one another. Ashley is a really good kid and has never gotten into trouble in school, but I still would not send her to an environment that was threatening and intimidating. I am not Catholic, so I considered and looked into another private Christian school. But the kids in that school seemed like little soldiers all filed in line. Their art class even told them what color to color each object in the picture. When I visited the school Ashley attends, the kids were smiling, they were allowed to be individuals in their work, they'd run up and hug the principal when she walked down the hall. I am only saying this because I don't want everyone to get the wrong idea about Catholic schools... there are good ones and bad ones, just like any other school system. Overall I am very pleased with her school... I just think the focus on handwriting is a bit much, especially after hearing your experiences and having something to compare it to. Maybe just like the uniform thing, it is something that the Catholic school system chooses to focus on for some reason. I don't think it really hurts anything. It annoys me a little that she doesn't get 100% because of this. But, Ashley is a lefty and certainly has room to improve the neatness of her writing.