OK, now this one (from my faithful askee from One More Equals Four) is a good question, and well, not so sure I have a good answer for it. So, I am asking for my fellow bloggie pals for some assistance. Please, if you have anything to offer up-leave a comment for all to read.
Here is her question:
In the past, I have traditionally graded papers as my kids have completed them and we immediately correct them. Today, our first day of all out "workboxing", the kids are turning in their papers in our basket. When I get to them, I am correcting them, but I am not sure how to deal with mistakes. By the time I have found the mistakes, the kids have moved on to another subject and I don't feel like I should break in to that subject, however, I have also promised them that when they are done, they are done. I hate to wait until tomorrow to correct the mistakes because I think the correction is good reinforcement and eliminates bad habits starting to form. What do you do?
My answer:
I have two different situations regarding the need for correcting papers-
First off, my second grader and I work on the more "challenging material" together, or within close proximity of each other-so I see any mistakes almost immediately. We correct on the spot. So I have yet to encounter the above issue.
But for my teen-that is a whole 'nother situation. I learned long ago [with my test subjects-kid 1 and kid 2] that they preferred to "correct" their work themselves. Now since "cheating" is unheard of here-no need or reason to-I would hand the TG to them to go thru their work, and correct as necessary. This little Test Project of mine proved quite valuable-since they saw the correct method, within moments of finishing their assignment, and they were able to make the necessary changes immediately. It also saved me a lot of work! On some things-I would go thru the work (such as tests or essays/research papers) but on the subjects that were more black and white-such as math-they could correct. So I am continuing this method with kid3 and in the future-kid4. Right now-my 10th grader has to turn in her science to the lady who teaches it at the HS group we partake in. The same goes for the Film Analysis course, and the Finance 101 class. So, I am off the hook there. As for history, Home Ec and various other things we are doing-I do not necessarily have to "rush" or quickly correct-it simply isn't necessary. I will just put it in a "correct this stuff" file for the next day-after the Bible lesson. She knows she needs to go thru the notes I made and fix the boo-boos. Easy as pie.
When and if I get to a situation where they need to have something correctly immediately, I guess I will simply ask the other student to hold off on what we are doing (if we are working on it together) or ask them to move to a box that they can work on alone-so I can go thru the material and hand it back for any corrections (meaning that that student will need to wait patiently whilst I do so-before they can move along to the next box).
I am actually looking forward to reading what others do-as I am just a bit unsure myself what is the best method. So dear friends-do tell!
Thanks!
My thoughts (we don't have any of this really yet) would be to do your corrections and put into a first box of the day(corrections box) and make it a work with mom box to go over the missed concepts at one time.
ReplyDeleteThe other way I could see doing it is putting the work that needs corrected into the box for that subject, and the student would do the corrections from the previous day before moving on to today's work in a box.
I don't grade at all, since mine are in Kinder and Preschool, but I was thinking, why don't you just have one workbox be a "grading/correction box". They could put finished work in there, you correct it while they are doing independent work, and then at the end of the school day the last box would be going over any mistakes from corrected work from that day. Not sure if this is even a good idea, but just throwing it out there!
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of a "corrections" box! I'm still working this out. Generally, if we have time, I make dd come back to correct in the afternoon--I just put the items back on her desk. If I get something graded immediately, I may just hand it to her then. Some days, I have added the items to the workboxes for the next day.
ReplyDeleteYou mean we are supposed to actually check their work? (lol) Seriously, when they have corrections to make, they make them right away. If I don't catch them until later, they go back in the box for the next day.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of a correction box too!
Thanks for all the suggestions! We definitely don't have all the kinks worked out yet, but I appreciate all the help from you all!
ReplyDeleteI started a "fix-it" box as the last box for my daughter. It usually just contains maybe a copywork paper to do better or maybe a missed math problem-she's just in first grade, and I attach a sticky note to it to show her what needs to be fixed. It has worked nicely so far.
ReplyDeleteWe do a mix of things here. For my younger children, I do something similar to you and check it as they are working as it works best for them (esp if there are learning issues). For my older children, it may wait until later in the day and they are alright with checking it later or even the following day.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of having your teens check their own work! I'm behind in that area!
Blessings
Leslie