I teach 2nd grade, and for a recent writing assignment, two of my students turned in what were to me nearly unintelligible paragraphs about something they both called "hich hiper." All I got out of the paragraphs were that they are "cute pets that you have to keep at home" because they are "weak" or "sensitive," you can get them online, and something about being from California. It sounds like they are writing about some kind of character they are familiar with, but I can't seem to track it down. I am trying to help these students improve their paragraphs, but I feel like I need to be more familiar with the subject matter in order to do that. I have tried googling it with various spellings, and looked for it in lists of shopkins and webkinz, but no luck. My 13 year old daughter and 8 year old son couldn't identify it. Can any of you mamas help me out?
no clue.
i mean.......
why not ask them?
?
if their writing is nearly unintelligible, why do you need to be 'familiar with the subject matter' in order to help them?
khairete
S.
A.,
Why have you NOT asked the student to tell you about it?
Maybe it's a made up story??
If you can't read his writing? Maybe you need to work with him on his writing - even the whole class? Writing is STILL an important part of life...even with technology. We MUST teach our kids how to write.
Go to the child and ask the story writer what it is!
I don't understand why you simply don't just ASK your students what they are referring to. I was an aide in first grade for three years and talking with students about their writing was something we did pretty much every day...oh, this is interesting, what does this mean? tell me more, etc.
Don't you talk to them, ask them questions?
Are you REALLY a teacher?
Sorry but why wouldn't you simply communicate with your students directly, as others have said?
Sounds like a made up story and perhaps a misspelling of hitch hiker.
Morning :)
Never heard of it.
I would, as Mamazita suggests, ask the kids.
My kids write about all kinds of stuff I'm sure their teachers have no clue about. Half the time it's from their imagination. Usually the teachers just get them to add more detail, etc. and leave it to them to explain.
I asked my 10 yr old and she was unfamiliar with it. Good luck with trying to figure it out! I used to teach 2nd grade. Such a cute age!
Sounds almost like hitch hiker - but that's certainly not a pet.
Perhaps the first help you can give them is to ask them to write about a common familiar subject.
Weather, the beach, what they did on their summer vacation, what is their favorite thing to do during recess, etc.
You can spend forever trying to look up something on the internet but I wouldn't be using my time that way - without a proper spelling you don't have much to search on.
they could be ovipets, it's an online thing where you use genetics to create new ''pets'' like you use the genes from a cat and the genes from a dog to create a new creature
I haven't heard of it.
I remember my kids asking for a toy they saw on a tv commerical and even after several rounds of 20 questions i had no idea what they were taking about. and it wasn't for want of asking.
I can understand you not wanting to look ignorant in front of your students but it might just be that you'll have to ask them more about it. How about using some probing questions about how they take care of them, what they feed them, what they do all day when the kids are at school, etc...to try and see what they are and if they're a character in a game or something.
Well, it sounds l like the students have to do a better job at describing the subject. Perhaps add the three W's.
Are they friends? Perhaps they made up these little animals at recess and that's what they do every recess. It sounds like something I would have done and of course I would write about them.
