Share Your Thinking
From the desk of Carol C…
Soon teachers will begin reviewing for the end of the year tests. Some of the review will include using multiple choice practice tests. Assigning the work and then checking the answers leaves many students still in the dark about how to find the correct answer. Here’s a way you can bump up the level of students’ thinking when examining the “right” answers.
1. Choose quality multiple choice reading passages or math problems your students have already completed independently. Make sure what you choose is challenging and fits the objectives you are interested in.
2. Once you have chosen the passage or problem, divide your class into groups of 3 or 4. How you group your students will depend on your class makeup, how well particular students work together, and if you feel your groups should be homogeneous or heterogeneous.
3. Give each group the passage/problem along with the multiple choice questions. Each student in the group should have a copy.
4. Assign the groups to reread their passages/problems.
5. Have your students discuss what they found easy, difficult, and/or confusing (and why) about what they read. Have someone in the group list the responses under one of the three columns (easy, difficult, confusing) on a piece of chart or notebook paper.
*Note: Although it may seem obvious, your students need to be well versed in how to accept the responses of others without being judgmental. Telling their peers what they found challenging can be a risk for some students. Everybody in the class needs to feel safe to give their honest feedback.
6. Ask the students in each group to compare their answers. If they disagree on any answer, all of the students in the group must give and support their answers.
7. Next the group decides on the correct answer and writes it down along with their thinking on the chart/notebook paper.
8. As the groups finish, give them the correct answers. Send them back to discuss again any question(s) they missed.
What’s the benefit of using this type of method? Students are interested in how their peers come up with answers. “Share Your Thinking” is a great strategy to use to tap into that curiosity. Explaining and justifying answers requires students to organize and clarify their thinking. It allows students a chance to recognize and correct their own misconceptions. You, as the teacher, are better able to identify an individual student’s level of understanding and see where the breakdown in comprehension occurs. Lastly, students are able to learn different ways to solve the same problem.
As we start to wind down school and the instructional time is limited, be as strategic as possible with your end of year test prepping. The more thinking you see from your students, the more you can meet their needs before the assessment!