7th grade special ed English. They had a really easy assignment. Or, at least I thought it was easy.
It was an assignment on capitalization. There were a dozen or so sentences with no capitals, and the students had to identify where the capitals were to go. So, they indicated the first word of each sentence and figured they were done with it.
And then they went crazy.
Well, that took way too short a time. So, I picked up one of their papers and perused it. And started counting.
"You missed 24 capitals. Find them."
As I went to each student and counted, I could see them wince. The higher the numbers went, the more they looked at me like, "I couldn't have missed that many." Well, yeah, they did.
They had missed names. Places. Nationalities.
Half the sentences contained quotes. And every single one of them missed capitalizing the first words of those.
This would have been a great opportunity to take the time and go over the capitalization rules with them. Unfortunately, I was using all my energy just trying to keep them under some semblance of control. And failing.
I was so glad to see the end of that day.
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Did any of them ever find all of the letters to capitalize?
ReplyDeleteI admit, I had a hard time with this in my early English classes. Wasn't until I started to write stories that figured it out. :)
ReplyDeleteIt takes time to learn.
DeleteI do sometimes forget to capitalize the start of a quote in the middle of a sentence :) Seems like the class wanted to do anything and everything other than be in class that day :)
ReplyDeleteMy day is going good so far; found out there won't be mandatory overtime at least for today so for today I'm a happy camper!
betty
Yep, I'm sure that's what they wanted to do (or rather not do).
DeleteEtsy went public the other day on Wall Street. I thought of you.
ReplyDeleteTeaching capitals and punctuation can be difficult for special ed students...all students.
ReplyDeleteYes, it can be.
DeleteYou said this was a special Ed English class. Does that mean handicapped kids?? That is what we used to called Special Ed.
ReplyDeleteNo, they were RSP, which means they may have processing issues, but otherwise can be mostly mainstreamed. Many of them I met in other regular classes.
DeleteA lot of people don't seem to understand capitalization.
ReplyDeleteI have less than an hour left at work, so my day is looking better, especially since I have plans for a sushi dinner with my best friend after work.
Sounds like a great day.
DeleteToo bad that you had to spend more time managing the kids than imparting wisdom. It's their loss.
ReplyDeleteAs a parent of a child with mental disabilities and processing issues I applaud your efforts and your 'coolness' lolol. Sometimes my kid baffles me completely. "Um kiddo it's RIGHT THERE->" (I still don't think she sees it at the end of my finger O.o) lolol I love her to pieces ;)
ReplyDeleteYou've gained a follower (I also love your little knitted pouches lol!)
Thanks. Have you entered the giveaway? It's still open.
DeleteThat’s why I have Grammar Girl’s web page bookmarked.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a rough day! Here's hoping that tomorrow is better.
ReplyDeleteYvonne
Thanks. This was actually Friday. You'll hear about this week in subbing next week. (I think I can make today's day fit W.)
DeleteI'll say it again...I could not do your job. I would want to kill them
ReplyDeleteOh dear. Shame they weren't in the right frame of mind to hear the rules explained.
ReplyDeleteI second Birgit's comment. The best thing that happened to me today is... My husband traded his raffle winning at his bowling league end of year party for a six pack of a local IPA. He drinks wimpy light beers, I rarely drink so it will last me a month. He probably could have traded for something he liked.
ReplyDeleteThe best thing that happened to me today was my son's 6th birthday :)
ReplyDeleteYou can find me here:
ClarabelleRant
Happy birthday to your son. A day late.
DeleteI have the opposite problem with my students capitalising unnecessarily in the middle of sentences!
ReplyDeleteI'm sure we would have had similar issues if they were writing their own stuff.
DeleteI TOTALLY understand. My youngest alone is the equivalent of about 3 unruly kids. Seriously. He's 8 and I still can't take my eyes off him unless I'm inviting disaster. (Think knives, spilled food, writing on places like furniture or walls...you might think I was a bad parent. Nope. He's just that "challenging.")
ReplyDeleteI wonder if they were ever taught the rules or if they just seriously had forgotten them?? I just loved it when kids would finish with an assignment in like three seconds flat.
ReplyDeleteThey might not have gotten all the rules. And yes, sometimes they rush though things just so they can spend the rest of the period in play.
DeleteI know adults who still don't capital the names of places. I had to point it out to someone I was beta reading for and respectfully told them I couldn't read anymore of their book (I read the first two pages) until they fixed these things I pointed out. It was a disaster!
ReplyDeleteThat would be a major red flag. Certain rules are a bit more obscure, but capitalizing places? Yeah, total disaster.
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