This is a journal prompt I had my son do this summer. I want to know if he's where he should be. He is entering the 9th grade. I will type this exactly as he's written it.

If I Had Ten Minions
If I got ten minions for a weak I would be really excited. Just because minions are probably the best friends you could ever get I mean they'll do a lot for you like build a roctcet, make you desert, or build you a house. Minions are just like dogs but with 2 legs and 2 arms like a human. If I were to get minions for one week I wouldn't have them build anything but I would go to every country possible with them and just concrate havig es in doing awesome like
Flying to diving in the ocean. Then I would want to go to The main contonents that I'm most interested about like Europe and maybe Asia. Most likely Europe just because I really want to see how different everything is from there to America. So I would want to go with them not only because they would be good friends
But because I'm pretty sure they could get me to really anywhere I would want to go. Whenever we get to go to these countrys and do the fun things that they have in store I wouldn't really even be afraid of what people think just because that would make it that much more interesting. So That is what I would do if I had minions for one week.

Ask me help desk automatically corrected the spelling errors

Week was spelled w e a k
Rocket- r o c t c t e t
Continents- c of n t o n e n t s
Countries- c o u n t r y s

I've been a school teacher/principal for 32 years, just to give a little background. I think he did a fairly good job with the content. His use of grammar, however, leaves a lot to be desired, but he probably looked at it as a simple journal assignment for just the two of you to read. For that reason, I would think that was not his best work. Still, if I had even a sixth grader hand that in to me, I would be concerned if I thought that was his/her best effort.

Circle his errors and give the journal back and tell him to correct his mistakes, rewrite, and resubmit it to you. Leave him notes about paragraphs and grammar.

He could have done better, and will if you have clear instruction.

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Originally Posted by talaniman

Circle his errors and give the journal back and tell him to correct his mistakes, rewrite, and resubmit it to you. Leave him notes about paragraphs and grammar.

He could have done better, and will if you have clear instruction.

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And sentence structure and punctuation and capitalization.

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If I got ten minions for a weak I would be really excited. Just because minions are probably the best friends you could ever get I mean they'll do a lot for you like build a roctcet, make you desert, or build you a house. Minions are just like dogs but with 2 legs and 2 arms like a human. If I were to get minions for one week I wouldn't have them build anything but I would go to every country possible with them and just concrate havig es in doing awesome like

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Circling the errors on that would be an undertaking.

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Originally Posted by jlisenbe

Circling the errors on that would be an undertaking.

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Take one bite at a time. First, spelling....

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Originally Posted by Wondergirl

Take one bite at a time. First, spelling....

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I would think his spelling is a problem but not his biggest problem. He is really struggling with how to write a coherent sentence, and if this is truly his best work, then for a ninth grader, he's in big trouble. I still suspect this is a product designed to get mom's assignment done in as rapid and painless a manner as possible. At least, for his sake, I hope that is the case.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jlisenbe

I would think his spelling is a problem but not his biggest problem. He is really struggling with how to write a coherent sentence, and if this is truly his best work, then for a ninth grader, he's in big trouble. I still suspect this is a product designed to get mom's assignment done in as rapid and painless a manner as possible. At least, for his sake, I hope that is the case.

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He misspelled words he should know by now. Get those fixed first. Then sentences (read it out loud). Then punctuation. Then grammar. Inch by inch, step by step.

As a veteran teacher, I'd say this is written at 5th grade level, at best. Spelling is an issue, along with grammatical and punctuation errors. My concern is whether there was any effort on making corrections, or why this was not written in paragraph form. I'd definitely purchase a writing book to help your child.