The culture of teaching demands that you correct every wrong answer for every student for every assignment AND ensure they understand what they did wrong.
It’s on you.
This is, of course, time-consuming. It’s also stressful and frustrating given that most students don’t seem to care one way or the other.
Furthermore, and most critically, because it comes from you and thus is forced upon them, it doesn’t stick. They don’t learn from their wrong answers.
If it’s corrected homework, for example, that you return to them, it’s unlikely they’ll even look at it.
In other words, you’re wasting time on something that doesn’t move the needle on academic skill, motivation, or ownership.
In fact, it does the opposite. When students aren’t required to have skin in the game, then it doesn’t matter to them. This isn’t their fault. It’s human nature.
So what’s the solution?
Stop doing it. No, this doesn’t mean that you won’t provide answers. But the corrections and thinking through mistakes must come from them. Otherwise, you’re just wasting time.
They can check their own work. They can ask questions. They can request explanation, guidance, or direction. In fact, this is an essential part of learning and being a successful student.
It’s also a way of providing feedback to the teacher, who must provide the steps and skills for them to be successful.
But won’t students just sit there?
If you don’t change the culture of responsibility in your classroom, then yes, they’ll just sit there. But making this change isn’t difficult, and the results can be life-changing for students.
Here at SCM, we believe strongly in the power of shifting responsibility for listening, learning, and behaving over to students in toto. Anything and everything they can do for themselves—which initially takes detailed teaching from you—you must require them to do.
The more weight on their shoulders, the more purpose and motivation they have and the better they do. Therefore, the more you’re able to give them, defined by how well you prepare them, the more they’ll eagerly take on.
In regard to assigned work, they must correct it. They must figure out their mistakes. They must ask for clarification.
If you’re doing your job setting and pushing hard your expectations, and teaching the precise skills and content needed to be successful, then this is a quick and efficient process.
The methods through which you review finished work, be it in partners or answers simply displayed on a smart board, will have to wait for a future article.
But the responsibility must be continually pushed back on them.
“How did you arrive at your answer?”
“Why do you think you got it wrong?”
“Go back and look through your work.”
“Redo the problem and prove it.”
“Circle where you went wrong.”
“Show me where your mistake was.”
“Check it again, then again.”
They must do it.
Otherwise, they won’t pay attention to your lessons. They won’t take responsibility for their learning. They won’t develop grit or ownership or want-to.
They just won’t care.
So you must shift, shift, and shift some more. Every day.
Setting students up for success with great lessons is your responsibility. Doing the work, which includes correcting, dissecting, and learning from their mistakes, is theirs.
PS – Check out my new book Unstressed: How to Teach Without Worry, Fear, and Anxiety.
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