Jessa Dearth meant to write “government” and “people” in a recent assignment for her U.S. history class.

Instead, she put down “gvt” and “ppl.”

OMG.

“I was like, ‘Oops,’ ” said Dearth, 16, a junior at Grand Junction High School. “I had to rewrite the whole thing because I wrote it in pen.”

Dearth is a member of Orange & Black, the high school’s award-winning news magazine, and she loves to write.

JESSA DEARTH
Grand Junction High School junior
Rewrote assignment after accidently including text language.

She also loves to text message her friends on their cell phones, which may explain why the no-vowel, abbreviated language of text messaging ended up on a formal assignment — even one produced by a student who knows better.

Text message language is creeping into classrooms across School District 51, said teachers, students and administrators.

The blending of the world of technology with the classroom, where “I” must be capitalized and “you” is actually a three-letter word, has created an added lesson for district teachers. It has not reached a crisis point, but text language is trickling in on homework more often, according to teachers and administrators.

Some teachers incorporate text language into the classroom in limited ways and others are teaching to prevent students from thinking text language is acceptable in all situations.

“Does the student know the difference when they have to be formal and when they don’t?” asked Heather O’Brien, an honors English teacher at Mount Garfield Middle School. “If they don’t, then I have to teach them.”

LAURA JOHNSON
Bookcliff Middle School eighth-grade teacher
"I thought it was laziness because I wasn't aware of the level of texting going on."

Laura Johnson, an eighth-grade English teacher at Bookcliff Middle School, noticed text message language creeping into her classroom about five years ago when she picked up notes with “U” and “IDK” written in them.

“I thought it was laziness because I wasn’t aware of the level of texting going on,” Johnson said. “We had no idea what we were reading. It was like a foreign language.”

LOL.

Johnson also has noticed more and more text language on classroom assignments in the past five years.

STEPHANI SOTO
Grand Junction High School junior
"I try not to do shortcuts so it doesn't creep into my writing."

The 25-year teacher said assignments with grammatical mistakes are not prolific, but she estimates that 5 percent of her students are “really struggling” with things such as proper punctuation and capitalization. Johnson estimates another 50 percent of her students “struggle” with sentence structure for a variety of reasons, including text messaging.

“That’s huge,” Johnson said. “I don’t blame text messaging, but it makes it easier to form bad habits.”

Both O’Brien and Johnson make students complete timed writing assignments to demonstrate certain skills required on annual Colorado Student Assessment Program (CSAP) tests. But both teachers also teach writing as a process with multiple copies of rough drafts, revisions and edits.

Sporadic text language in a rough draft in O’Brien’s classroom won’t result in a bad grade.

But turning in a final paper littered with “r,” “u” or “i” instead of “are,” “you” and “I” is not acceptable in District 51 classrooms because it is not an acceptable style in the formal world post-graduation.

Tanya Smith, Central High School journalism and English teacher and a self-proclaimed “technologically challenged person,” said she has not noticed text language popping up on assignments, but she does see students texting incessantly between classes.

“I’ve never had to talk about text messaging,” Smith said. “When I’m teaching my curriculum, they all learn to write letters. We are talking about real world experiences. What are the expectations of the world? We are getting them prepared to get out in the real world and get a job. I’m very honest with my kids about what life is going to look like.”

Texting is equally popular among students at area high schools and middle schools, according to teachers or students, but high school students do have more years of formalized writing experience and tend to be more mature, which may explain why problems with capitalization, punctuation and sentence structure are more prevalent in middle school.

Johnson said some of her students like texting “because there aren’t any rules,” and at 12, 13 or 14 years old some middle school students have had limited exposure to formal or business writing. For them, texting friends and family is “real world” writing experience, Johnson said.

HEATHER HAWKINS
Mount Garfield Middle School eighth-grader
Can type "How are you doing today?" in 10 seconds without looking at her cell phone.

Take Grand Junction High School junior Stephani Soto, 17, for example. She uses her cell phone to text message, but she is aware that text language is not appropriate when sending a message to the school principal or the chief executive officer of a corporation.

“I personally try to punctuate and spell everything out in my texts,” Soto said. “I try not to do shortcuts so it doesn’t creep into my writing.”

In less than 10 seconds, Heather Hawkins, 14, an eighth-grader at Mount Garfield Middle School, typed “How are you doing today?” without looking at her cell phone.

Like Soto, Hawkins said she doesn’t use abbreviations on the approximately 8,000 to 10,000 text messages she sends every month. Hawkins has seen abbreviated text language on assignments produced by her peers, “but it’s never been a problem in my classes.”

In an effort to stay tuned to how her students are communicating, O’Brien asked Hawkins to compile a text language dictionary with up-to-date language and terminology, so O’Brien isn’t “SITD w/ what her stdnts r sayin.”

“It’s their lives,” O’Brien said. “If you want to be able to compete in an academic world, you have to know proper English, but that doesn’t make text messaging bad.”

HEATHER O'BRIEN
Mount Garfield Middle School, honors English teacher
Asked a student to compile text language dictionary for her.

Jeff Pearson, one of the school district’s three technology integrated specialists, calls text messages “the 21st century passing of classroom notes.”

Pearson envisions a time when iPods and cell phones will be viable educational tools. Part of his job is to help teachers find ways to effectively integrate technology into education and engage students in communicating ideas through technology. Pearson works with teachers to help them learn how to use technology.

“If you’ve been teaching for 30 years, this is a pretty radical change,” Pearson said. “We are asking (teachers) to change everything they know about school.”

What remains constant is that teachers have to adapt ways to teach with and about evolving technology.

The advent of the Internet has created opportunities for teachers to develop lessons about the legitimacy of Web sites, as well as how to be responsible and safe while searching the Internet. In some ways, text language has provided opportunities for teachers to better explain the difference between formal and informal writing.

“I talk about what’s appropriate,” Johnson said. “Often, if kids make a mistake (related to text message language or grammar), they don’t even realize they’ve done it. Some understand. Some don’t. I need to be persistent. Technology gives kids tools, but it’s not accessible to all kids. Our job is to give kids the tools to be successful no matter what.”

•

E-mail Melinda Mawdsley at mmawdsley@gjds.com.

TEXT TERMS
2MORO — tomorrow
2NITE — tonight
BRB — be right back
BTW — by the way
GR8 — great
IDC — i don’t care
IDK — i don’t know
ILY — i love you
JK — just kidding
L8R G8R — later gator
LOL — laughing out loud
LYLAS — love you like a sister
N — in
NP — no problem
OMG — oh my gosh
PS — by the way or and or also or in addition to
R — are or our
SITD — still in the dark
STBY — sucks to be you
THO — though
THX — thanks
TTYL — talk to you later
U — you
W/ — with
WE — whatever
Compiled by members of Grand Junction High School’s Orange & Black staffthink you’re A TEXT-PERT?
2MORO — tomorrow
2NITE — tonight
BRB — be right back
BTW — by the way
GR8 — great
IDC — i don’t care
IDK — i don’t know
ILY — i love you
JK — just kidding
L8R G8R — later gator
LOL — laughing out loud
LYLAS — love you like a sister
N — in
NP — no problem
OMG — oh my gosh
PS — also or in addition to
R — are or our
SITD — still in the dark
STBY — sucks to be you
THO — though
THX — thanks
TTYL — talk to you later
U — you
W/ — with
WE — whatever
Compiled by members of Grand Junction High School’s Orange & Black staff