Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Doing "Corrections"

Doing correctons - reviewing one's work and correcting one's mistakes - is a common practice in Singapore schools. But do teachers often get students to do exactly those things? Are students simply taking doen the correct answers without reviewing their work and correcting their previous errors?

Many teachers I observed get students to put the correct response in (                 ) near the incorrect response. 

To inculcate independence, I may want to make it part of the students' habit of mind that each time we write (                 ), we will try our best to get the right answer, ourselves.

I definitely do not want students to develop the habit of waiting for the teacher to provide a correct answer.

At the end of this, say, 20-minute segment, I will put up copies of the correct answers at the back of the room for students to self-check and write down the correct answers, if theirs is still wrong.

That is done in the same amount of time as a teacher dishing out correct answers and providing ad-hoc, impromptu explanation.

This strategy provides them with a second chance to do the task and, at the same time, the correct answers still get copied down for future reference.