3rd Grade Grammar: Fill & Download for Free

“Teachers, what is the most appalling thing about students nowadays that they don't even realize themselves?”I am a retired teacher (last taught in 2015.) I think my experience still qualifies as “nowadays” so I’m going to take a stab at this question.I taught 7th grade science and (a couple years of) 8th grade science/history. What I found most appalling was the lack of basic knowledge in the students who entered my 7th grade classes. The worst part was they were just realizing that they didn’t know anything. When they figured out that they were not prepared for the level of rigor in the 7th grade classes at the junior high where I taught, it was actually heartbreaking to watch.It sucks to be ignorant, and it is worse to know that you’re ignorant.But the upside is that ignorance can be cured. It takes motivation and hard work on the part of the student, and too many, unfortunately, aren’t up to the task by the time they reach 7th grade. They see the task as too overwhelming and simply give up. They become the entitled, “give me everything” types. They become the young men robbing the local 7-11 and the welfare queen popping out babies at 14.Studies show that a child who doesn’t read at 3rd grade level by 3rd grade will struggle throughout the remainder of his/her education years. I’m not talking about reading that just says the words. Students could do that easily enough. The problem was they didn’t comprehend what they were reading. The words held no meaning for them; they were simply parroting what they saw on the paper. When I would then ask them to summarize what they just read, they could not do it. They didn’t know the meaning of the words they just read. That’s when I could see in their eyes that they just had their “ah-ha!” moment, and it sank in that they don’t actually know anything.I can tell you from experience that a child who comes into the 7th grade reading on a 3rd grade level is almost so deep in the hole already that he/she has little to no hope of digging themselves out.In that case, all the special programs, in-school and after-school tutoring, after-school programs and Saturday school isn’t going to help. Not only do you have to get the child up to speed on reading, you then have to bring him up to speed in math skills, historical knowledge, ability to write a coherent sentence with proper spelling and grammar and technology skills (using keyboard, standard word processing, spreadsheets, etc.)And none of this extra work and money will help without the child’s motivation to catch up. Unfortunately, by the time they hit 7th grade, they’ve pretty much given up already by that point.The ability to read and comprehend the written word is the base on which all learning stands. If that foundation isn’t strong, it all crumbles down into a pile of useless debris.EDIT: Here’s a link to a study on the importance of reading at grade level by 3rd grade: https://www.aecf.org/m/resourcedoc/AECF-Early_Warning_Full_Report-2010.pdf~Bobbie

,Slimy. Oh wait…i”m not done, is it ok if I include a few more? if not, please excuse me.Greasy.Moronic.PatheticDangerous.Dangerously slimy, pathetic, moronic and greasy. Oh, and gross.Hopefully these are adverbs, not so sure, it’s been a while since I had 3rd grade grammar.

Under the category of “if you are a hammer, everything you see is a nail”… My youngest son was in about 3rd grade and was given a number sequence problem as homework that I could not answer. BTW I got thru n dimensional calculus at Yale. So I sent back a question, which I had seen one of my friends use to torture a math PhD candidate during undergraduate years. I sent an anonymous question in response to the teacher’s mailbox. Pretty soon all the students in this grammar school were bringing my question home as a school wide contest to solve it, including my son’s older sister and brother. My question simply was what is the next number in this sequence. (I am doing this from memory so forgive me for any error.) 4,14,23,28,34,42,51,59,68,76,86. This contest went on for a couple of weeks until an assistant coach, who lived in Manhattan looked at the sequence and said, that’s obvious the answer is 96, the next stop on the Lexington Ave subway. I had phrased my question properly - it was not a number sequence problem. Sometimes everything is not a nail.