Meet-The-Parents Session
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Japhys,
My sis never thought she’d be one of those parents who would approach a teacher on how her kid’s papers are marked, but she became one, with valid reasons.
The question went something like ‘A boy has 11 candies, he passed 5 to his friends, how many does he have left’? The correct working answer should be ‘11-5=6’, answer is 6, but her daughter wrote ‘5+6=11’, answer is 6.
She debated to herself for quite sometime. Her daughter was given only 1 mark out of 4 (or 5 can’t remember exactly). To her, it wasn’t the fact that the marks were deducted, but the issue of 'what message are we giving our kids? Aren’t they being taught in school to think creatively and be flexible in giving the answers? Ultimately, the answer is correct.
She finally stuck a sticky note onto her daughter’s papers before passing them back to the school. The note went something like this: ‘May I suggest that the marks given to this question be reassessed? Ultimately, our children are being taught that ‘5+6=11’ and ‘11-5=6’ is the same’. (She tried not to sound too pushy)
Sure enough, the teacher called to inform her that after assessing with the principal, the full marks to the question be given back to the child!!! -
I had a colleague’s daughter who was in Pri 1 two years back. In the exam, there was a question which had a girl’s name (let’s say "Danielle") and there was no other reference in the question that you could possibly tell that it was a gir’s name. Her daughter, when replying the question, use "he" instead of "she". She was deducted marks for that. My colleague provided feedback to her teacher during PTM on this; she felt that he daughter was unfairly penalised : a Pri 1 student cannot possibly know all the names in the world and the gender associated with the names.
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concern2:
...The question went something like 'A boy has 11 candies, he passed 5 to his friends, how many does he have left'? The correct working answer should be '11-5=6', answer is 6, but her daughter wrote '5+6=11', answer is 6...
It really depends on the intent of the question, and the issue of creativity should not be brought into play here.
In this case, I believe the intent is to test the ability of the child to transform a problem in English into a mathematical model, then strictly speaking, the teacher is correct in giving only 1 mark, because the question is testing the concept of attrition, and NOT the concept of aggregation. It is important that the differences between the concepts be clearly understood by the young child - it is not a matter of getting the right answer, but rather, whether the answer is derived in the proper logical steps. The child may have understood the question, but he/she is clearly trying to solve the problem using a model that he/she is more familiar with, which happened to work in this case.
Personally, I feel the teacher should have stood his/her ground on this. -
Miracle Child:
I had a colleague's daughter who was in Pri 1 two years back. In the exam, there was a question which had a girl's name (let's say \"Danielle\") and there was no other reference in the question that you could possibly tell that it was a gir's name. Her daughter, when replying the question, use \"he\" instead of \"she\". She was deducted marks for that. My colleague provided feedback to her teacher during PTM on this; she felt that he daughter was unfairly penalised : a Pri 1 student cannot possibly know all the names in the world and the gender associated with the names.
For this particular case, I do agree with your colleague, because it is testing the child based on what is available in her database of names, which is limited to what she has been exposed to.
Then again, most English tests are unfair. Have you taken the American SAT or GRE tests? There is no way you can have a good score if you are not immersed in that culture because of the heavy contextual element embedded in the tests. -
ChiefKiasu:
Agree. Almost thought I am a square person by insisting that my boycan only use the numbers in the problem sums to derive at the answer after the equal sign.
It really depends on the intent of the question, and the issue of creativity should not be brought into play here.
Personally, I feel the teacher should have stood his/her ground on this.
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jedamum:
:lol: I join you in being square about this.
Agree. Almost thought I am a square person by insisting that my boycan only use the numbers in the problem sums to derive at the answer after the equal sign.ChiefKiasu:
It really depends on the intent of the question, and the issue of creativity should not be brought into play here.
Personally, I feel the teacher should have stood his/her ground on this.
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Meet with the teacher yesterday. This is the 2nd meeting session, she has a notebook and each page is the student name. There’s a lot of thing written on every page, and she take down some points that we mentioned. All the parents have her email address and mobile no, and parents that fetch their chn from school will see her everyday at the gate. I know some parents talked to her almost everyday at the gate or msg her. But all parents including myself will still spend about 20 – 30 mins talking to her on the session.
My boy did not score well for his written test reason : he did not finish his paper. She think that my boy got no urgency of work, and do not have the competing mindset, so he juz do thing in his way or maybe his ‘comfort’ way – She is right. That’s my boy ‘bo chap ‘character. Overall score add up the oral, listening, Show and tell, weekly spelling is ok. I am quite thankful to the teacher, she is very good and we discuss what we shall do to this matter. She is very positive about him and let us feels confident as well. She will also want us to get him involve in creative writing as she think he is ready from the diary he wrote to her. She gets all chn to write diary to her everyday and she will reply to them. Only she will know what the chn write and it is like secret between the teacher and student.
Very fruitful meeting. -
ctcc:
Wow!! this teacher works with passion for the children! Many parents I know told me they would not be attending the PTM. StrangeMeet with the teacher yesterday. This is the 2nd meeting session, she has a notebook and each page is the student name. There’s a lot of thing written on every page, and she take down some points that we mentioned. All the parents have her email address and mobile no, and parents that fetch their chn from school will see her everyday at the gate. I know some parents talked to her almost everyday at the gate or msg her. But all parents including myself will still spend about 20 – 30 mins talking to her on the session.
My boy did not score well for his written test reason : he did not finish his paper. She think that my boy got no urgency of work, and do not have the competing mindset, so he juz do thing in his way or maybe his ‘comfort’ way – She is right. That’s my boy ‘bo chap ‘character. Overall score add up the oral, listening, Show and tell, weekly spelling is ok. I am quite thankful to the teacher, she is very good and we discuss what we shall do to this matter. She is very positive about him and let us feels confident as well. She will also want us to get him involve in creative writing as she think he is ready from the diary he wrote to her. She gets all chn to write diary to her everyday and she will reply to them. Only she will know what the chn write and it is like secret between the teacher and student.
Very fruitful meeting.
I thought.
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My sis did not attend her p3 and p2 boys PTM (other school), cos she say the teacher will always say ok, well, nothing much to discuss during the session. But actually from the result, they do not really do well as compare to the past….
Some of my boy classmate’s parents will msg the teacher like : the chn cough do not let them drink cold water, etc… When my boy is absent from school (1 day), the teacher will ask me to meet her same time at the gate if possible so to get the homework from her. -
Wonder if all the good teacher is actually from those "good" school. It takes a lot of effort for the teacher to be so involved especially when there is 30 students in each class.
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