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Message board > WS and mistakes
WS and mistakes
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roneydirt
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WS and mistakes
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I understand sometimes we are in a rush like right now I am definitly in a rush getting exams ready, giving speech exams, having special guests at my schools, giving tutor lessons, getting people ready for graduation so they can go home with all that my regular classes. So I do understand about being busy and having hard time saying thank you to all those whose worksheets I downloaded recently. But here is what gets my goat or at least makes me worry about some. Posting worksheets with mistakes such as misspelling, missing words, incomplete sentences in places there is not suppose to be incomplete sentences. For example knew one of my guests today was going to be late so I had downloaded several word search and cross word puzzles in the last few days to use one to take up the time while we wait for the guest speaker. I try to work out the puzzles first so I would know the outline of where the answers are. Of 7 puzzles I worked on last night it wasn �t 1 but 5 of them with mistakes. Two had mispellings of vocabulary words, one was missing words in the word search, one was missing a letter in the unscramble and a missing word in the word search, the last had a couple incomplete sentences. One of these even had an answer key to go with it. Can we please check our work before posting? I would go to the different individuals to let them know but not certain when I can to show what I saw as a mistake. So thanks for letting me download and some of us need to go back to fix some mistakes on ws. And yes not certain which puzzles went with who, have to look it up; using the break time to type this up. |
12 Jun 2009
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tommy11
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I feel the same. Mistakes are easily maked and in the short time that I �ve been a member of site I �ve noticed a fair few: pillow instead of cushion, homonyms for homophones. I think that the worksheets should be more thoroughly looked at before being allowed on the site. This would ensure that the material is correct, worth downloading, and more importantly, someone �s own creation, not a copy from MES or a list of random words that have absolutely no relevance to teaching English.
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12 Jun 2009
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Logos
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You point out a problem that has existed since the site was established. But please remember that many of the contributors to this site, even though they may be English teachers, are not so �confident � or �erudite � in being able to write and compose materials in accurate English. I am not belittling contributors who are not native speakers, indeed I applaud all contributors whose first language is not English for their efforts and work.
There is no way that Victor or anyone else for that matter would be able to vet or edit every contribution that was submitted for minor grammatical inaccuracies. There is already a reporting procedure for worksheets that are unsuitable and there is a whole army of contributors who are scanning new worksheets for their suitability on the site. But they are not editing or correcting anything - this would be too much
So the answer is, if you download anything then check it yourself. Do not complain that there are mistakes, but say thank you that the contributor has given you an idea and a worksheet that you can change or adapt as you see fit. If you think that a worksheet has too many mistakes then you can write a polite comment on the comments facility or send the contributor a private message, but basically if you don �t like it, then don �t use it.
So I am afraid no one is going to look at worksheets for grammatical errors. That is the responsibility of the individuals who download them. |
12 Jun 2009
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Spagman63
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Logos,
Do not complain that there are mistakes, but say thank you that the contributor has given you an idea and a worksheet that you can change or adapt as you see fit.
You don �t see this as being rude or impolite?
Maybe a more diplomatic and polite way to say it would be "It doesn �t help to complain." |
12 Jun 2009
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susiebelle
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Well said-Logos!
It is our own responsibility to check for errors. Sometimes, I have sent a kind PM letting the person know about mistakes (if the worksheet was not editable) and I have always received a positive response with the contributor happily willing to correct their mistakes and send a new corrected version via email. |
12 Jun 2009
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Missfrancisca
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It happened to me the same, I know it may happen that is why I try to upload the worksheet I have already used with my students. That helps a lot. Regardless we thank everybody for their contributions. |
12 Jun 2009
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alien boy
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As roneydirt says...
Thank you for your contributions everyone!
It may be a good idea if everyone checks their own worksheet if they use it with a class too... that way you won �t be embarrassed in front of your own students with something you �ve created yourself.
If you are creating something specifically to post on this site but haven �t used it yourself already, thank you again for your hard work! It might be worthwhile, for yourself as much as anyone else, to double check it to make sure it �s correct & complete before you use it.
From me:
As a teacher I always check everything that I use in class - even some textbooks can be quite inconsistent - so it goes without saying that I will check any downloads from here too.
If a member notices a problem or error, or has a suggestion about how to improve an available worksheet or powerpoint, why not add that as a �comment � on the download page for it? I know that when I have posted such comments (which are the ones I usually make, but I won �t go further into that...) the contributors are usually very pleased & may even update their contribution with a correction!
Cheers,
AB
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12 Jun 2009
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libertybelle
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Some mistakes are sloppy ones and others are not.
We always need to check materials before handing them out.
I think worksearches and crosswords should always have a key
to save "us" teachers time. Most wordsearch programs have a key
incorporated in the program - mine does.
I save all WS by author name - for example:
Adverbs by Mena (just an example)
That way if there is a mistake when I look it through, I can send
Mena a personal message making her aware of the problem.
L
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12 Jun 2009
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manonski (f)
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Nobody is perfect. I know that I spend a lot of time on my printables and that after a certain time, I can �t see the text anymore. If I received a comment or a pm about a mistake on my printable, I would not feel insulted. It can happen. I �d give me a chance to update my work and make it better for whoever wanted to download it later. |
12 Jun 2009
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verybouncyperson
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First of all, thanks for all the great contributions!
I believe though, that it is our job when we download a worksheet to check it through - not to check for mistakes, but to see if the material is suitable for our classes. For example, I teach in Spain and so when I make a worksheet it often has things related to Spain as I like my students to identify with the activity. I try to remember to write in the worksheet blurb when things need changing...but sometimes I forget!
Secondly, I always like to check the worksheet as it may use expressions which my students aren �t familiar with, or sometimes they use American English, whereas we teach British English. So I go through and change anything necessary.
I agree with roneydirt that it is annoying to find simple mistakes, but as libertybelle says, why not just send the author a quick message so they can coorect the worksheet ready for when other people download it?
T :)
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12 Jun 2009
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douglas
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I agree with AB, Logos, and Manonski! (Well said you three) |
12 Jun 2009
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