Worth talking to the teacher?

Ashley had her end of quarter reading test this past week. It's more than just reading as it included reading short stories and answering questions, grammar questions (such as possessive nouns), and more.

During a portion of the test, they had to write a descriptive paragraph about a pet. If they did not have a pet, then they were to write about a pet that they would like to have and describe how the pet looks, acts, and sounds. We don't have any pets, so Ashley chose to write about her pet stuffed animal. I thought that was pretty creative and her paragraph was cute. She even worked in a few similes (they're learning about similes right now in school).

The teacher did not take off a single point for sentence structure, grammar, punctuation, but she scored Ashley a 2/10 on this section for not following directions as a stuffed animal is not a pet. This brought Ashley's score down for the entire test to a 93% which makes it a B+ instead of an A. Ok, I know the grade is not the important thing here, but it really upset Ashley. And, I don't want her creativity to be stiffled by this. Do you think it is worth discussing it with the teacher? I really don't think it would change anything, so maybe it is not worth even mentioning it to the teacher. I did have a talk with Ashley about how I thought her paragraph was creative and sometimes other people (including teachers) don't have the same sense of creativity.

What is the difference between a stuffed pet and an imaginary one if she does not own a pet. I would say something and just point out that you are concerned about her creativity. Maybe the teacher did not see it that way. Can you e-mail her?

I would talk to the teacher.

I want to preface this by saying this is JMO and the following should be treated solely as such and nothing more and also that what I say in the following is what I mean and if I didn't say it then it is NOT what I mean.
I think the issue here is that when you are asked to describe how a pet looks, acts, and sounds, the description of a stuffed animal falls short because a stuffed animal does not act and sound like anything.
Most likely, the teacher wanted them to be able to describe something that is more three dimensional, like an animal that has its own personality, language, and physical characteristics. The teacher found that the assignment contained no technical errors but did not follow what the teacher asked and maybe the teacher feels that what she was asking was more technically difficult in that the children had to describe more than just appearance and perhaps the value of the stuffed animal to Ashley, etc.
Now if she described the stuffed animal as if it were alive--attributing to it, actions, sounds, movements, etc, then I'd say she followed the instructions and I would likely say something to the teacher.
But if the description was clearly that of an inanimate object, however creative the writing, I'd say she did not follow the assignment and the teacher was probably right her in her assertion. This does not mean that Ashley did a bad job but rather that she did not fully follow what the assignment's intention was. And if that is the case, I'd not talk to the teacher because in all likelihood, that is what she'll tell you.
At any rate, without seeing/reading her description, it's hard to know if her description of the stuff animal is what the teacher intended or not.
I suspect, from having taken several developmental psychology classes to get my degree that the idea here was to get the children to describe things in a more three dimensional manner as opposed to just describing what something is and what it looks like but rather being able to see and describe its personal characteristics as children generally take a self centered approach to things, assuming that everyone sees what they see and that when they don't see it, it's not happening, kwim? Ashley is a couple of years past that age but she is at the age where she is finally able to write, learn grammar and organize ideas coherently.
Again, jmo, take it for what it is and nothing more.

I think the teacher is being punitive and ridiculous, and I can't believe she would mark her down like that. In my perfect world, second graders wouldn't be getting a quantitative grade in the first place. She should get constructive comments like "great job with the similes" or "try using periods at the ends of sentences." If the teacher really felt like it was imperative that her directions be followed to the letter, she could have deducted a few points, but not 8 out of 10. I'd approach her and politely ask her to explain her reasoning.
And I think you did the right thing by discussing it with Ashley--it's liberating for kids to know that teachers aren't the last word all the time. I encourage my students to challenge both the texts we read and me--it shows they're thinking critically and independently.

I agree.

I'm floored at how teachers are grading. Kylie's in 1st grade and they mark you down for everything if your writing isn't 100% perfect. Come on, they are in 1st grade, seriously!

That's completely ridiculous. I could understand if this happened when Ashley was 12 years old, but she's not. I'd talk to the teacher.

ITA!

jade just got a low mark on a test that imho she should never have taken. she was absent with possible swine flu for 4 days and was given the test the day she got back. she was really sad about it and said she can't make A's anymore. way to kill a kid's morale.

Honestly, having gotten a teaching degree, the biggest thing about school, especially in the younger grades, is following directions. It doesn't matter how good a job a child does on something, if they don't follow directions, it's wrong. School is a system and you have to follow the rules of the system.

If I were her teacher, I would have told her she did a good job but needed to rewrite it and give her another chance. Obviously she tried, she just needed to correct that one part.

Talking to the teacher probably won't do you a lot of good because you can't really argue with drections.

In Ashley's eyes, she did follow instructions. No where in the directions did it say that your pet can't be a stuffed animal. LOL

I think the teacher was being a bit picky, but I am just going to let it go. It won't bring down her overall grade for the quarter. And, most importantly, I talked to Ashley about it.

If the directions weren't clear and didn't state anything about stuffed animals, maybe you would have a chance. But if you've made her feel good about the job she did, that's really all that matters. You're her best teacher anyway

Must be the week for it. O got an "N"(not meeting the standard) on her vocabulary section this week. It was matching words to definitions. She mixed the definitions of suprised and shocked so she got 6 out of 8. That's an N? I told Olivia that sometimes grades just don't reflect what you really know or do and this was one of those times. She was fine with that but before we talked she was pretty upset.

Glad Ashley felt better after you talked.

I think teachers and schools are absolutely rediculas now a days. I remember playing in school and learning while i played. Now it's like babies learn to eat, lift their heads up and spell supercalifragalisticexpialidocious, and then crawl..it's dumb.

that being said.
ITA with what jennifer was saying a bout what the teacher was trying to get out of the kids. In regards to discriptions and so on. When asking for that, then no, a stuffed animal doesnt count.
BUT Ashley isnt in higher learning which is when i would expect that (4,5,6th grade so I think what the teacher was asking for was too much.
with kids that age you still have tp be fairly simple.
asking such a complex question would cause confusion.

I would think that suprised and shocked would be synonyms?

Yeah, I don't get how mixing up two very close definitions would constitute an "N"?

School in general just seems so demanding. Even the grading scale is higher. To get an A, you have to get a 94%!! So if there are 20 questions, you can only miss one and still get an A. That just seems a bit demanding. When I was in school, 90% was still and A. And,4.0 was an awesome grade point average. Now a 4.0 doesn't even get you in the top 10% of the class. Not that grades are the most important thing, but it just goes to show the pressure we are putting on kids.

I would encourage Ashley to talk to the teacher. Give her guidance about being respectful and giving her side of the issue. The teacher may stick to her guns or she may change her mind but it give Ashley experience on how to deal with this kind of thing. There will likely be more of these, and teachers are just people who can make mistakes and not see every side of the story, so if she has the confidence to respectfully fight her battles it will help later, maybe even this time.

JMHO

I also have a teaching degree, and though ita that school is a system, I believe the over-emphasis on blindly following directions to the exclusion of all else is why our education system is woefully behind those of other developing nations. When business leaders are asked what qualities are most desirable in new employees, creative thinking and problem solving are always at the top of the list. These traits are completely absent from most state standards, which means they will also be absent from classroom curriculum. Creativity isn't the sort of thing that can be easily measured on a multiple choice, standardized test, but that doesn't mean it isn't critical to a well-rounded liberal arts education. Following directions alone does not reflect intelligence, though it seems that is what's most valued by our schools. I teach my own kids to be respectful, but to understand that their opinions and unique approaches have their own merits, whether the schools choose to recognize them or not.

I kind of see where the teacher is coming from, since she specified that if the child didn't have a pet they were to write about one they would like to have. However, I think in general, the point of writing especially at this age is to encourage expressing thoughts and being creative. Our teachers all really stress that they're more concerned with the kids learning to form cohesive thoughts and follow through on a topic than the technical side. I love that they give constructive criticism ("I wish you had written about such and such, but what you did write was well said and creative") and really encourage creative thinking. Colt's teacher is especially open minded and willing to change a grade if the student can make a good case for it.

It would be hard for me personally not to ask the teacher on this one but I think your answer would simply be that Ashley did not do what the teacher asked so it's probably a good thing you let it go since you probably wouldn't have gotten anywhere, not worth the blood pressure

My thoughts on this are like Monica.

Ashley did think she was following the directions, but really she wasn't, so I can understand where this is coming from, albeit a bit harsh for grade 2.

I am sure it is hard for you because she is a great student and very intelligent, but I would not say anything and PERHAPS encourage her to ask the teacher if she isn't 100% clear on the assignment!

Tell me to be quiet and back off if this sounds rude, not meant to at all