File Cabinet Friday

What an exciting week I have had!  This past Tuesday, it was announced that I was named "Hillsborough County High School Reading Teacher of the Year."  I have to say, I'm quite honored, and think I'm pretty deserving if I do say so myself!  Today's File Cabinet Friday, only serves to support my latest claim to fame. 

Recently, my students read a non-fiction book called,  Getting Away with Murder:  The True Story of Emmett Till, by Chris Crowe.

My students really enjoy reading this true story about a 14 year old African American boy who travels from Chicago to Mississippi to visit family, only to be kidnapped, tortured, and murdered by two white men because he broke a Jim Crow Law in August of 1955.  For the most part, my students are shocked and angered by the events that occurred, and the sham trial that was held, resulting in the two men walking away free, only serves to further there disgust of the ideals of segregation.

After reading this book, I gave my students a quiz that consisted of 10 multiple choice questions, and 9 sentence completions.  Several of the sentence completions asked for students to describe certain characters, or give me their opinions of them, with support from their readings.  For the most part, the students did very well, giving me well thought out, concise answers.  And then I came to the following paper:

Look closely at number 14.  It reads:  "Roy Bryant and J. W. Milam can be described as ___________."  My student filled the blank with:  "buttnugest becuse they are stupid."  Now, spelling aside, the use of the term "buttnuggets" was enough to make me stop for a double take.  Then, I noticed 2 questions down, on number 16, the student decided to use the word again:

The question says, "I think Sheriff Strider ________ because _________."  This student responded "is a buttnugnet to because he locked away whintess." 

Many things went through my head at first, here's just a few:

1. I can't believe he/she wrote "buttnugget" on their paper.
2. I can't believe he/she wrote it TWICE.
3. If you're going to use the word "buttnugget" then you should figure out how to spell it right!
4. Well, he/she kinda makes a point.....they were buttnuggets.
5. Should I mark this right because I'm starting to convince myself he/she has a point?
6. I can't believe he/she wrote "buttnuggets."  TWICE.

Before deciding how to handle the situation, I looked up the "official" definition for "buttnugget."  According to http://www.urbandictionary.com/, buttnugget means: 

1. A piece of poop
2. Someone really mean or stupid
3. A word to replace a noun when no other word is suitable.

After looking up the definition, and carefully weighing my options, I marked both the answers wrong.  My reasoning was, that even though this student had a point, and I agree that all three of these men are "buttnuggets," stating so on a quiz was not appropriate and therefore, they were wrong.  As a courtesy, I did pull aside the student to let him/her know why I marked both of the answers as incorrect.  Surprisingly enough, the student completely understood, but made sure that I understood that they really were "buttnuggets." 

High School.....what fun!