Presentation Guidelines Pens: Use of pen is to be a privilege - PDF document

Presentation Guidelines Pens:  Use of pen is to be a privilege earned, not a right.  Pen licences are to be issued from Term 3 of Grade 4, through Grades 5/6.  By Grade 7 all children should aim to have a pen licence.  Pen licences are to be ‘awarded’ at teacher’s discretion based on: Consistently neat work. Neat/accurate letter formation and pencil control. Frequency of rubbing out/number of errors made.  Only blue or black pen is to be used in books. No pink or bright blue.  Biros are to be used, not gel pens as some ‘bleed’ through the paper. Recommended brands: Bic, Staedtler  All drawings are to be done in pencil, not pen. Mistakes:  No Twink /correction fluid/tape to be used.  Mistakes using pen are to be crossed out with one line. No scribbling.  Children should be discouraged from rubbing out large chunks of writing.  Mistakes involving a whole sentence or number of lines should not be crossed out. These errors can be indicated by: 1) using square brackets and a cross in the margin. 2) ruling off above and below the mistake. Page set-up:  Full date is to be written on all work. Quick date may be used in Maths books.  All titles are to be written neatly and underlined using a ruler.  Children are to be taught to write from the margin.  Children are to be reminded to write on the lines.  Children are to be taught to put question numbers in the margin.  Children in G1-3 are to leave a line when they are writing to accommodate larger letters and to allow for corrections to be written above words.  Children are to be taught to miss a line to indicate a new paragraph. Do not indent.

 ‘The End’ or messages to the teacher are not to be written in big letters at the end of a piece of work. Books:  Book covers are not to be written on. Scrap paper or ‘working pages’ should be provided.  Children are to be taught to open their books (the right way up!!) and to find the last piece of work before they begin to write!  Books are to be placed flat on the table, not folded back as this breaks the spine. Use of colour:  Pencil crayon is to be used in books. [NB. Textas ‘bleed’ through the paper and wax crayon transfers between pages.]  Felt pens/textas may be used on posters etc. which are on separate pieces of paper.  Scientific diagrams are not to be coloured, unless this serves a specific purpose. Colour should be used for information, not decoration.  Children should be given the option of whether or not to colour drawings, unless colouring serves a particular and justifiable purpose. Maths:  All work must be neat and clearly set out.  Children are to draw margins. G1 = 4 boxes wide (ie. ruler width) G2 = 3 boxes wide G3 = 3 boxes wide at beginning of year; 2 boxes from Term 3. G4 - 8 = 2 boxes wide  Questions must be clearly numbered, using the margin.  The number of a question is to be indicated by use of the number and a dot, or the number written inside a circle, ie. 1. or 1  One square should be left between the number of the question and the sum itself.

 One digit, one square is to be used for column addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.  Children are to show all working.  Recommendation: Working and calculations are to be done in pencil to allow for easy correction of mistakes.  Sums and equations should be written vertically. ie. H T U 1 3 4 134 + 14 = 148 [incorrect layout] + 1 4 [correct layout] 1 4 8 Sums and equations presented in a horizontal format should be converted to the vertical format, before working on a solution. NB. This rule does not apply if the solution to the problem is to be found using mental maths skills.  In cases where a number of stages are required to solve a particular equation/problem, these stages should be recorded vertically and the final answer clearly underlined. eg. 7 + 3 x 2 or 3 ( 7 + 3) – 2 ( 7 + 1 ) = 7 + ( 3 x 2 ) = 3 ( 10 ) – 2 ( 8 ) = 7 + 6 = ( 3 x 10 ) – ( 2 x 8 ) = 13 = 30 - 16 = 14 Language:  Words must be written in full. No ‘text’ language to be used or accepted, eg. thru.  Children are not to write out questions and then answer with sentence fragments. eg. Why did Jone go to town? To do the shopping.  Children must be taught to use the words in the question to frame the answer. ie. Jone went to town to do the shopping.  Numbers (eg. 4) are only used in maths and for addresses. Numbers which appear in a piece of written work must be written in words (ie. four).

 Children must be taught strategies to enable them to make neat additions and alterations to existing pieces of work. These might include the use of insertion marks (^), asterisks (*) or symbols. Children should be discouraged from rubbing out complete sentences in order to add a word/idea.  In cases where some editing is required, this should be done in discussion with the child. The child’s original work should not be erased. The edited version should be written underneath the original to enable comparison and further editing. Effective as of 21/7/14

Earning a PEN LICENCE. [Based on process of acquiring a driving licence!] Step 1: Child works hard on their handwriting and presentation. Step 2: Child asks to be considered for a Pen Licence. NB. The teacher may recommend they try for it. Step 3: A laminated L is taped to the corner of their desk. The child uses a pen for a one week trial. Step 4: At the end of the week the teacher decides whether or not to award a Provisional Pen Licence. If the licence is granted, the L plate is removed and replaced with a P and the child is allowed to continue using a pen. If not, the child goes back to pencil for a week and try again for the P. Step 5: Once the child has their P plate, they are on probation. If, during this time, they are found guilty of ‘reckless writing’(!), they will be given a demerit point - a red dot sticker stuck onto their P plate. If they get 3 demerit points, they clearly need more practice. They will go back to their L plate for a week. At the end of that week, they will either have their P plate returned or go back to using pencil. NB. Reckless Writing: - untidy/illegible handwriting - too many ‘accidents’ requiring Twink or crossing out. - use of illegal pens, eg. green, pink, bright blue, purple. Step 6: The teacher decides to award a FULL PEN LICENCE. This is stuck to the corner of the desk. Well Done! NB. Demerit points still apply to this licence. 3 demerit points means a return to P plates or total loss of licence for a serious offence eg. using pen to write graffiti on desk! NB. Teacher will be provided with a stock of laminated licences and tape!