correcting answers
How to check students' answers | Mike McDonald | December 6th, 2002
I have a methodological question that's been bugging me since I started teaching Japanese university students: how to check their answers to tasks and exercises that we do in class in cases where there is a single correct answer. My normal method of checking answers to a quiz, for example, is to ask individual students what answers they got to individual questions: "OK, number 1, Akira? ... Right, what did you get for number 2, Jun? etc." The problem with this is that if students are unable to give the correct answer, it may be humiliating and demotivating for them. Of course, I try to guess which students were able to answer which questions correctly, but I often guess wrong.
One teacher I know says he always checks that a student knows the correct answer before asking, but with my large classes and poor eyesight this would take too long. An obvious alternative is to simply present the students with the correct answers, but this seems somehow to devalue their efforts and to remove an element of interactivity.
Does anyone have any thoughts on this?
Mike McDonald
Re: How to check students' answers | Colin Graham | December 6th, 2002
Hi Mike,
Some possibilities:
Get them to check with a partner, if there is a disagreement then they each check with a different partner. If they still can't decide, they ask you.
Put them into groups. The group has to decide on one correct answer. Make it a competition- the group with most correct answers wins something at the end of semester. Or, answer checking is done by you giving the correct answers, and one group's answers are marked by a different group.
Put them into groups. Choose a group to give the answer, instead of an individual. However, each time you return to the group, a different person must answer.
If it's multiple choice, then have each corner of the room as a different possible answer. Students run (walk, amble, sleep) to the correct corner when you say 'go'. If it's true or false, then they can run to one side of the room or the other. If there are two choices and running or moving isn't practical, then you can use 'stand up, sit down, raise your right hand, raise your left hand' for multi-choice and so on.....
Tag relay- put the class into two teams (boys v girls, kanto v kansai,...). Have the answer sheet at the front. The teams line up. The first person runs to find the answer to the first question. Comes back, tells their team, tags the next runner, and so on. You may find that getting the teams to nominate 3 or 4 people to be runners is more effective with university students or in larger classes. Younger students are more inclined to move! I've done this with adults though. If you want to encourage speaking, then the runner has to ask you for the correct answer, so the faster runner gets the answer first. Use 3 teams for interrupting practice!!!
Give 1/x answers to each of x teams and then they have to negotiate for exchange of correct answers. This works better where there are uncertainties involved and you are going to use the team-with-the-most-points-wins scenario.
With competitions, I've found that Japanese students tend to enjoy activities or participate more actively if they are doing something for a group rather than as an individual.
Good luck!
Colin
\(^_^)/
Banzai!
Re: How to check students' answers | Simon Cole | December 9th, 2002
Mike,
You raise an interesting point, and Colin, you have a lot of imaginative ideas!
In Japan you have to mitigate the culture to some extent in order to create an atmosphere that values mistakes in the classroom. It's not easy at first, but after a while my students realise that if they make a mistake they'll NEVER be made to feel embarrassed by me. I always simply say, "No, (It's good to be straight forward) does anyone else (or I ask the next student) know?" or I say "Good, but..." and point to the problem area and try to elicit the correction from them. If they still don't get it I might fish around for someone else before giving it to them. If the activity has a focus (like 3 rd person s) students take correction quite readily.
But then you saw this when you observed me I think, didn't you Mike, so maybe I'm painting a picture that isn't real?
Simon
Re: Checking students' answers | James Hobbs | December 9th, 2002
As for checking answers, I teach groups of 40, and I know I wouldn't enjoy getting something wrong in front of 40 of my peers. But while groupwork has its place, and checking answers with a partner is usually possible, usually there just isn't time to implement elaborate, risk-free answering systems, so it's better to help them overcome the fear of being wrong. I tell students that every mistake means a chance to learn something, and that I like mistakes because they give me something to do in class! After a few weeks most seem pretty comfortable with mistakes.
I try to ease them in to it at the start, which may involve;
a) Trying to choose students who I know got it right.
b) Replying to a mistake with "Ah, yes, that's a hard one. Bad luck.
Actually...." Then I'll give the answer myself rather than letting another student upstage them.
c) Come back and give the same student a second chance with another question. Of course, this can backfire if the student is wrong twice.
The exception is students who don't know the answer because they were staring out of the window/ haven't done their homework/ were sleeping, etc. I don't have as much patience with them.
James
Japan
Re: Checking answers | Dominic Marini | December 9th, 2002
I give "bonus points" to active students. If a student volunteers an answer and gives a wrong answer they still get a point because they've tried. At first they can't believe it! Some students are still worried about giving the wrong answer, but it does help open up the atmosphere.
Domninic
Re: Checking answsers | Jerry Talandis Jr. | December 9th, 2002
Hi James,
I liked your advice about getting used to making mistakes. It's easy to say, "don't be afraid of mistakes," losing sight of the intense emotions that screwing up can bring out. Learning to learn from errors is a skill that needs time to develop, just like any other. Being clear and direct with students is best, I think. Also showing that you're willing to do the same can help (one reason I like to hand out questionnaires at the end of my courses). Nothing succeeds like failure.
Jerry
with 
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