Another product of the Hooked on Phonics generation

[Hawkmoon]

FAIL!

http://my.att.net/s/editorial.dll?fromspage=ch/c.htm&categoryid=&only=y&bfromind=7775&eeid=6388945&_sitecat=1522&dcatid=0&eetype=article&render=y&ac=4&ck=&ch=ne

Error on test spotted by Kan. student 1 year later
Published: 2/14/09, 6:46 PM EDT

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) - A high school student's keen eye has caught a state test error that managed to slip past teachers, test coordinators and other students for almost a year.

Geoffrey Stanford, 17, discovered during a Kansas writing test last week that an essay question concerning greenhouse gases incorrectly used the word "omission" for the word "emission," prompting the Wichita East High School junior to point out the error.

"I thought, `Surely they're not talking about leaving out carbon dioxide altogether.' It just didn't make sense," Stanford said. "It had to be a mistake."

The state Department of Education has e-mailed a corrected version of the essay question to test coordinators around the state, but the incident already has caused a lot of red faces at the department, which used a committee of more than 30 state teachers to develop the test almost two years ago.

The questions had been tested in 50 high schools last spring.

"You hate that sort of thing to happen, but it happens," said Karla Denny, an Education Department spokeswoman and former English teacher. "We're human."

No one before Stanford had reported the error, Denny said.

Stanford said he is careful with his written work and called himself a "stickler for grammar and vocabulary and the correct use of words."

"It annoys me when I see mistakes," he said.

Stanford's discovery has caught national attention, even earning him an appearance Sunday on the Fox News Channel's "Fox and Friends" morning show.

"It's been hilarious, because I just never thought it would get to this point," he said. "Some people are saying, `Good job,' and some are giving me a little grief about it."

[Devonai]

My friends have often chastised me for lies of emission, especially in close quarters.

[Perd Hapley]

So, the guy that caught the error is hooked on phonics, or the one that made the error? 

As I understand it, phonics is the traditional method of instruction.  We are in the sight-reading generation. 

[Standing Wolf]

We are in the sight-reading generation.

I believe I'd be more inclined to say the non-reading generation is of an age to take charge now.

[Don't care]

.

[Perd Hapley]

I believe I'd be more inclined to say the non-reading generation is of an age to take charge now.

I reckon so.  However, I think a lot of people who would have watched the news twenty years ago, are now reading the news, thanks to the interwebs.  'Course, at the same time, VCR and DVD have replaced the novel with the film. 

[Uncle Bubba]

I hate to admit something like this.......

but my own school's website is riddled with spelling and grammatical errors.

So much for higher education.

I'm constantly appalled by the spelling and grammar in the memos, notes, and announcements my oldest daughter brings home from elementary school. I'm even more appalled by it when I consider that the teachers and administrators are required to have no less than a Bachelor's degree. If it's something that's to be signed and returned, I'll correct the errors with a red pen before sending it back.

[Uncle Bubba]

In the vein...

I live in the city where I grew up (in fact, in the house I spent most of my childhhood in) and pass by my high school alma mater fairly frequently. One day a few years ago as I was passing by it I saw that the message board out front read, "September Word Of The Month: School Pride". D'you have any idea how hard it is to drive when you've got your face in your palm?

[Perd Hapley]

If it's something that's to be signed and returned, I'll correct the errors with a red pen before sending it back.

You our my hero now. 

Spelling/grammatical errors suppled for you're enjoyment.

[Hawkmoon]

So, the guy that caught the error is hooked on phonics, or the one that made the error? 

The latter, of course.

[Perd Hapley]

You're saying that being "Hooked on Phonics" indicates poor spelling?  Not sure how that follows. 

And like I said, my understanding was that elementary schools had de-emphasized phonics in the past few decades, and are now mixing phonics with sight-reading.  So, not sure how the person writing the test is in "Hooked on Phonics generation." 

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

Eh, why sweat the small stuff?  Most of my favorite books  contain at least one typo, spelling mistake, or grammatical error.  That doesn't make 'em bad books. 

The fact that a mandatory standardized test contains a reading essay on greenhouse gases worries me more than the spelling error.

[Antibubba]

If you really are hooked on phonics, is there a rehab program for that?  I'll bet relapses are high, because, man, there are words everywhere you go!

[Azrael256]

I've begun using the rather crude, but effective, line about linguistics from one of my favorite movies.  I use it every time somebody forgets how to use "effect" and "affect," or perhaps "to," "two," and "two."

Oh, and my personal favorite: Less is qualitative, fewer is quantitative. 

Anyway, since you're all wondering:
"ENGLISH, &$@#^* %@&$*#!  Do you speak it?!"

[KD5NRH]

Eh, why sweat the small stuff?  Most of my favorite books  contain at least one typo, spelling mistake, or grammatical error.  That doesn't make 'em bad books.

Proofreading a book of several thousand words is a bit larger task than proofreading a couple of paragraphs.

A couple of grammatical or spelling errors per hundred pages would also represent a much higher standard of proofreading than what I see frequently in business letters, which often contain three or more in a single-page letter.

[makattak]

I reckon so.  However, I think a lot of people who would have watched the news twenty years ago, are now reading the news, thanks to the interwebs.  'Course, at the same time, VCR and DVD have replaced the novel with the film. 

This may be true.

Fortunately for me, there are more classics written than I will be able to read in my lifetime.

Novel dying? Oh well, I'll grab another Dostoyevsky or Dumas or Melleville or....

[Perd Hapley]

I wasn't talking about a lack of novels being written or produced, so much as fewer people entertaining themselves thereby. 

[Tuco]

"ENGLISH, &$@#^* %@&$*#!  Do you speak it?!"

What?

[Uncle Bubba]

You our my hero now. 

Spelling/grammatical errors suppled for you're enjoyment.

You used sentence fragments and your paragraphs are too short.

 

.............

Honestly, it vexes me to no end to read the dreck Sweetie Pie brings home. I have a high school diploma and have set foot on a university campus maybe three times in my life. I'm better-spoken, better-read, and have better penmanship than almost everyone of the teachers and administrators at her school. They ought to be ashamed.

[Perd Hapley]

"everyone"?  U R rong. 

My pappy is like that.  'Course, he went to a technical school, to be a grease monkey.  I guess they must of taught him to speak and write perty.  He's certainly more articulate than a lot of people who make their living at a desk. 

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

What?

Say "what" again, mother $%^&er!

:D

[280plus]

That sounds like a spellcheck error. I have a book here a friend wrote, he relied on spellcheck to proofread and while all the words were certainly spelled correctly, usage left a lot to be desired. 

I ended up proofreading it for him. I went through it and marked it up. Twice. I still found a few errors the second time through that I had missed. Can't say for sure I caught them all either, but I wasn't reading it again. 

[Don't care]

.

[280plus]

The problem with Ebonics is that it evolves minute to minute so there was no real way to put something down in a dictionary and have it mean the same thing two weeks later. Can't blame Oakland for that.   

 

[Uncle Bubba]

"everyone"?  U R rong. 

My pappy is like that.  'Course, he went to a technical school, to be a grease monkey.  I guess they must of taught him to speak and write perty.  He's certainly more articulate than a lot of people who make their living at a desk. 

Dang! I hate when I do that. *bangs head on desk*

"Must of" is one of my personal unfavorites, right up there with "I could care less."


As for pappy's articulateness, in his day as in mine if you mushmouthed in class the teacher corrected you and told you the proper way to speak. Nowadays the teachers don't bother correcting, they're all about letting the children express themselves.