Home | How It Works | Stats Login | Register         Case: Creative Writing This has been going on for some time. Some of the students in my 7th grade English class cannot distinguish between school writing and everyday speaking. They write like they speak. A lot of my students are African American, and they tend to use Ebonics in their writing. I have been trying to correct their writing errors since the beginning of the school, which was three months ago, but they still continue writing like they are speaking. I talked to the other English teacher at school to see how she deals with this issue if she has it. She said she did not pay attention to the writing errors if students were doing creative writing. I disagree with her. Even in creative writing, students should follow the rules of the language closely. The main problem is almost all of my African American students are failing my class while that is not the case with the other English teacher. Should I reconsider my position on this issue? I feel like my position shows high expectations; but I am not sure any more. Solution: (Rates are posted for this solution!) I agree with the way you are grading and I would not change it. I would however, restructure the assignment schedule to allow the students to turn a rough draft and do a peer review and then you as the teacher review it. After the reviews, have students correct any errors based on the comments of their peers and the teacher and then turn in for a grade. I feel like this will allow them to learn from the experience of writing the paper and see that there is a difference between conversational language and academic language.