Would you mark this correct?

amother ↓

Mon, Mar 30 2009, 5:51 pm

My daughter had an assignment to create sentences and circle the verb in the sentence. One sentence she used was "Go to sleep." She circled sleep as the verb and her teacher marked it as correct. I am not expecting her to learn infinitive phrases in second grade, but I am bothered when she is taught incorrectly, especially since the topic is parts of speech. Not that my grammar is near perfect, but I am not an English teacher.

This is probably not what this forum is meant for, so I hope it is okay to ask the teachers here. Should I say anything to the teacher? If this was a paper you were grading, would you mark it as correct?

Anon b/c I don't want to reveal the grade level of my daughter under my own screen name, but I think the grade and gender are integral to the question.

GetReal

Mon, Mar 30 2009, 6:00 pm

I wasn't an English teacher, so I can't comment on the grammar aspect, but I would have been really annoyed if a parent commented on a mistake I made, if it was a one-time thing. I worked very hard as a teacher, but I'm human. If it's a constant thing maybe, but why pick on the teacher for one little mistake?

louche

Mon, Mar 30 2009, 7:59 pm

bgs wrote:

I am not an english teache. I am a math teacher. However, it seems it was marked incorrectly. I agree with the others that if it is a one time mistake, let it go.

Agreed. Just tell dd that her answer was wrong but don't make a big deal to the teach unless she marks things incorrectly all the time. Teachers are human, too, you know.

leomom ↓

Mon, Mar 30 2009, 9:08 pm

It's also likely that the teacher knew that "sleep" was not the answer she was looking for, but that for a second grader, it's a reasonable guess. (The teacher may also have realized that the sentence was not a great choice to include as part of the worksheet for that reason.) Rather than mark it wrong and try to explain to a child why in THAT context "sleep" is not being used as a verb, the teacher simply marked it correct.

If it had been a middle-grade English class, the teacher may have written "OK" but also noted that it was not the answer she was looking for.

If it had been a high school class, the teacher may well have corrected it with an appropriate explanation of the mistake.

bubby

Tue, Mar 31 2009, 3:19 am

Whether or not the teacher is wrong, it is inappropriate & disrespectful to correct something that is very confusing (I'm a former grammar teacher & I want to double check so I'll look it up embarrassed

), unless the teacher is really incompetent & habitually wrong. I can see why she marked it correct, but I am going to get back to you after I have trolled through my grammar books & consulted Miriam, my grammar buddy. She doesn't wake up till late.

You could always send a very nice note asking her why it's correct, but I think it will still make her hackles rise. Why would you want to upset the teacher? It's not a terrible faux pas (especially when everyone makes constant pronoun errors); as I said, before I give an academic answer I want to double check MY reasoning.

NotInNJMommy

Tue, Mar 31 2009, 11:43 am

dainty diva wrote:

"to sleep" is an infinitive phrase, not a verb. In this case, it's an adverb, explaining what the "go" is doing. In sentences that start with a verb, "you" is the silent Subject.

So, [You]-subject, pronoun; go-action verb; to sleep-infinitive acting as adverb.

I agree.

↑ dainty diva

Tue, Mar 31 2009, 11:46 am

NotInNJMommy wrote:

dainty diva wrote:

I agree.

YAY!! You literally made my day now!
I was just testing myself here, hoping I'm making sense. I didn't open a grammar book in some 16 years now, and never taught english. English isn't even my primary language! I just wanted to challenge myself, to see if I remember my stuff.
To all my teachers, I sure make you all proud!

Fox

Tue, Mar 31 2009, 12:42 pm

yy wrote:

I taught college-level writing and rhetoric for about 16 years, and I agree completely with yy!

I'd hate to think the number of times that I made mistakes in formulating a question on a worksheet, quiz, etc.! I can actually remember one occasion when I told a class of 100 students to "Disregard question #7!" I realized after writing and copying the test that there was no way to answer the question without far, far more knowledge than was consistent with the goals of the course.

You may want to count your blessings! I'd be pleased if the limudei chol teachers at my DDs' schools would stop sending home notes and announcements with bloopers such as "alot" and similar word errors (e.g., "there" versus "their" versus "they're"). I finally mentioned the problem as tactfully as I could to one of the worst offenders, and she told me that spell-check hadn't caught anything wrong. Recognizing a lost cause, I just said "okay" and slunk away!

↑ amother ↓

Tue, Mar 31 2009, 2:56 pm

I'm replying anon because I don't want to be indentified and have what to say. As a teacher, I see two types of schools/administrations/parents (they are all the same because parents are the clients and admin is afraid parents will go elsewhere if they don't get what they want). So, one type of school hires whatever teachers they can (for limudei chol, I mean) and I see both teachers and kids having a lousy command of the English language because it is just not important. OTH, there are the more "modern" schools, even the not-mixed ones, that have just lost focus of what is important and they try to be perfect and cater to kids and parents. As a seasoned teacher,I see an administration that has lost its focus. The fear they have of losing a child to another school (to the tune of more than $10,00) peters down to both the teachers and kids.

So, yes, I do believe teachers should have standards and be role models. However, loook at the bigger picture. Don't make a big deal out of every little thing. Teachers always try their best. I can say there are many days I spend eight or twelve hours working at my three-hour a day job. I care about each kid. No matter what I do, there are always parents that will go over my head and complain about the minutest thing. Now, if it happens time and time again, then further steps need to be taken. Please ease up on the teachers. Focus on what is important.

bbmom

Tue, Mar 31 2009, 3:04 pm

yy wrote:

Agree 100%

↑ amother

Tue, Mar 31 2009, 3:42 pm

As a 6th grade English teacher (and a parent of a 4th grader in my school), if it's not a consistent error, I'd mention it to my child but not say anything to the teacher. When my dd was in 2nd grade, she had a lot of English papers that were marked incorrectly and spelling mistakes that were routinely ignored. I used to sign her papers, make the corrections in red and send them back. I wanted to make sure my dd learned what was correct and what wasn't.

Also as a 6th grade English teacher, who is very into grammar, I find it extremely frustrating to have to deal with students (and often parents) who constantly say "but I don't talk that way." As far as I'm concerned, it doesn't matter that you (or your parents) speak incorrectly, but you need to learn to read and write AND SPEAK proper English. End.of.story.

Anon, just in case some of my parents or students or former students are around.

↑ leomom

Tue, Mar 31 2009, 6:56 pm

NotInNJMommy wrote:

dainty diva wrote:

I agree.

Just to be picky... I agree with the part about "to sleep" being used as an adverbial phrase.

But the verb "go" is not used with an infinitive afterwards. We don't say, for example, "Go to tell your sister it's dinner time," or "Go to play." We say, "Go tell your sister" or "Go play."

So in this sentence, the word "sleep" is being used as a noun, and the word "to" is a preposition. It's the same structure as "go to bed" or "go to town" or "go to your room" -- in this case, the "place" you are going is "sleep."

And a second-grader doesn't need to know all that. But you can tell a second-grader that the word "sleep" can be used as a verb or a noun, depending on the sentence, and give some easy examples.