Amethyst

** Discussion Boards **

** Chat **

** Asynchronous Communication **

** Synchronous Communication **
 * Are emoticons and acronyms appropriate for students to use with their teacher in an academic setting?


 * Will you allow invented spellings, or will you expect students to always use correct grammar and punctuation whenever they are communicating in an academic environment?


 * Should the expectations be different for discussion boards, email or chat? In what ways can they differ and to what extent?

I believe that emoticons and acronyms (unless used to represented a legitimate title and previously identified) have no place in an academic setting. Students should be encouraged to use proper writing when working on assignments for their classes.

Aggie - I actually do a unit in my third grade on acronyms and the students love it. For homework one night they have to go home and find as many acronyms as they can find on signs in town. The next day we list what we have found. The list gets quite long and we add to it for the next few weeks. I am careful to tell them that when they use acronyms they have to make sure everyone involved in the conversation knows the acronym. If the student and I are having a discussion and the acronym is relevant to what we are discussing, then I think that is just fine. Here are some examples: I tell Sam to go to the MPR to get his backpack that his mom just dropped off. Sam knows at school the MPR is the MultiPurposeRoom. On my daily class agenda the students see we are doing DEAR / AR for 30 minutes after lunch. They know that means Drop Everything And Read accompanied by Accelerated Reading which means they are going to have silent reading and they may use the computers for reading quizzes if they have finished reading a book. A stranger would not have a clue to what I meant on my agenda list for they missed the teaching of DEAR /AR. If I was teaching online and we were reviewing homework and a student typed to me, " I have a question on my HW." I would not be offended.

Daniel-I think Aggie hit the nail on the head. I like the way you actually incorporate the acronyms into the curriculum, forcing the student to see the difference. I am constantly surprised at how many students have adjusted so much to text language that they don't realize they are not properly spelling certain words. I also agree with you, Aggie that we cannot go overboard on restricting acronyms, because those will always be a part of their life, especially in the business realm. As far as emoticons go, I think they are alright in communication, but not official student work. The nice thing about emoticons is that they help convey the voice that a student intends when they send an email. Going back to the business realm though, emoticons will not be good for resumes or business documents, so students do need to learn that these should only be included in less formal communication, and even then kept to a minimum.

Allison - I agree with both Aggie, and Daniel that emoticons and acronyms have their time and place in educational usage. I teach acronyms as well, and write them on the board in my daily schedule. Student's learn them quickly inclusive of the English Language Learners, and the full inclusion students. Typical acronyms that I use are a few of the same as Aggie: AR, MPR, and HW. In addition, I use SSR (Silent, Sustained, Reading) for quiet reading time, RTI (Response to Intervention), SS(Social Studies), and VPA (Visual, Performing Arts). The students also come up with their own acronyms. These are tools that they will use into adulthood, and they will find that many industries utilize acronyms. When I was student teaching, and I was invited to a SST(Student Study Team). I had no idea what that meant. I was then handed a list of typical acronyms used in education. I was amazed at how many acronyms I didn't know. As far as emoticons, I fee that they are appropriate for casual conversations, and informal threads in the academic world. We tend to use humor at my school in order to keep things light in financially difficult times.
 * Will you allow invented spellings, or will you expect students to always use correct grammar and punctuation whenever they are communicating in an academic environment?

The rubric must identify the role that grammar plays in a given assignment. It is important to let the students know what weight grammar plays in their grade prior to asking for submission.

Aggie - I teach third grade. For the first half of the year I see quite a lot of invented spelling. I teach the kids that the invented spelling must make sense. The beginning, middle, and ending sounds must be present. As the year goes on and they learn how to spell better I will not take invented spelling any longer. If I were teaching older students whom I knew how to spell correctly I would not take invented spelling at all. I think they should have to spell correctly all the time once they are capable. The same goes for grammar. Once they know the proper usage they should always use it. This past year I have been wondering if any group would formally challenge spelling and change some of the words in the English language. Example change you to u, see to c, and so forth.

Daniel-I agree wholeheartedly with both of you. As a high school teacher, I find it is important up front to tell students that proper grammar and spelling is always expected. The only rare occurance when a made up spelling could possibly be permitted is if a student was using a complex word with little variance and adding a Latin suffix or prefix to slightly adjust the usage of the word in a sentence, and even then, it would not be a grammatical impropriety. I find that my students rarely do this though.

Allison - I agree with all of you in that students should spell, use grammar and punctuation correctly, but I approach it a bit differently since I teach second grade. I encourage inventive spelling when students are writing their rough drafts. When young students learn to use dictionaries, they tend to worry about them way to much while they are writing. It really slows down their creative thoughts and writing in general. I encourage inventive spelling throughout the year, and model how to edit during the editing process of writing. I also teach the students how to spell check using word. This really helps with their writing confidence. The English Language Learners would never write anything if they felt they had to worry about the spelling every time that they wrote. I'm more focused in their voice than their spelling. They feel empowered when they are able to use their voice in their writing. Students will focus on the correct spelling to their best ability before turning in their final writing pieces.


 * Should the expectations be different for discussion boards, email or chat? In what ways can they differ and to what extent?

Chat rooms need to be articulate, while spelling and grammar are important for comprehension, often, speed is paramount in that type of communication. This is especially the case when multiple students are online simultaneously. Allowing room for students to express themselves, and encouraging communication might often trump the need for being a stickler about grammar.

Aggie - I agree completely with the above statement and expect students to be articulate, use proper spelling and grammar when they are communicating with a teacher or peer in an educational setting. How they communicate with their friends and family is their own choice.

Daniel- This is a good question. All three of these scenarios have different standards in my opinion. Of course in their spare time, I will not worry about their grammar with their peers. In the case of school chat, I am very lenient with grammar because of the speed in which the communication is entered. Email, as I mentioned before is slightly informal, so a few emoticons are definitely permissible, but I do think it should be proofread before it is sent since it is not a synchronous communication. The same is true of message boards. All posts should be proofread. As far as the relaxed vs. strict stance on grammar in discussion boards, I would say it depends on the situation. If students are starting threads meant for other students to see, it doesn't need strict monitoring. If the discussion board is being used for a specific project, I do think that it should be treated like any other school assignment in terms of grammar and spelling. I should add that I do find though that students seem to realize when they are on school discussion boards or school chat rooms their posts will be seen by their fellow classmates, and they actually tend to use better grammar and spelling than when they are sending me an email.

Allison - I feel that when It's a casual conversation spelling errors are fine in informal chat rooms. As far as discussion boards, and e-mail, I feel that there should not be spelling errors. As a primary teacher, I'm always editing everyone's writing. I'm pretty good at telling young primary students to ignore the spelling errors until later. But, when I read adult writing I have a problem getting passed the content when the writing has errors in spelling. It's a real problem, when my own adult children ask me to read their writing for content evaluation, and I'm stuck on the syntax and spelling errors. I guess it's an occupational hazard.