Posted by Teachaustin on 1/22/09

I am a high school teacher with illiterate students in her
class. These students have somehow made it into my 11th
grade English class without learning to write sentences!
I am not exaggerating. Here are some examples of students'
work:
We just be chillin in everthing all Saturday

I have a good personality to keep the relationship going.

I no what I wont form a relacionschip.

I can be mean but I can be nice when I want if I like some
body or not it depens on the people cause if I like you I am
nice and if I dont then I am not.

These are 16-17 year old students in a Junior level class.
My question is not if I should help them. That is an
obvious YES. My question is: how on earth did they progress
to the 11th grade without learning how to write simple
sentences?
10 teachers before me had many opportunities to help these
students. If they did not learn the skills they were
supposed to learn, why did they pass that grade level?!
If a student in the 5th grade does not master 5th grade
level skills, why are they passed to 6th grade?
This had to have happened to my students, because here they
are, Juniors in high school and they cannot even write
sentences.

I would love for someone to please explain to me how my
students reached the 11th grade without the skills they
should have learned in the lower grades?

Are they now passing my 11th grade class? NO!
They are not passing because they cannot correctly complete
11th grade level work! You do not pass an 11th grade class
because you show up or because you write a string of
meaningless words down on paper and try to pass it off as an
essay.

Can someone, anyone, please tell me what happened? What is
happening now? Where do we expect these teenagers to end
up if they cannot even write a sentence correctly? If they
do not know words such as appeal, ingrain, deliberately,
convey, and govern by the time they are 17?

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