Students make mistakes. Let's face it, teachers and parents do to. But in my class it is what you do with those mistakes that matters. I have tried to build a classroom environment where mistakes are ok and even celebrated (through song!) IF you take the time to fix your thinking. In my mind, school should be about learning and understanding the material not about penalizing students with poor grades for trying to learn. The only real mistake you can make in my classroom is not taking the time to fix your own thinking. Sometimes you can do that on your own or you need to "phone a friend" or you need intervention with the teacher, no matter the method, building better brain pathways for long-term learning is my goal for students' learning.
To help facilitate that philosophy of learning and fixing, I have a policy for fixing and finishing work. As part of my job, I take grades as a form of assessment to determine who is understanding and who needs more time or help. However, students are allowed to fix any assignment for a better grade. I ask that they do it promptly while the learning experience is fresh. I ask that they fix it with a pen so I can see the changes they make. I then give them back half of the percentage points they missed. (I joke with them that I did half the work finding your mistakes so I get to keep half of the points for my effort.) This goes for students who only missed one question to those that might have received a D or (gasp!) an F. Students are allowed to fix and finish mad minutes, homework, quizzes, and even tests. My only other restriction is that fix and finish work is all due the week before the quarter ends so I can finalize report cards for the classroom teachers. Made a mistake?
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Tracey BeanWerner Elementary Archives
May 2018
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