Meeting Students Where They Live by Curwin Richard L.;

Author:Curwin, Richard L.; [Curwin, Richard L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Education
ISBN: 564141
Publisher: Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development
Published: 2010-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Offer Real Choices

Choices give students a feeling of control over the lesson and over the evaluation of their performance. For those students with control issues or a strong need for more control over their lives, having choices can effectively boost motivation. When assigning homework or class projects, picking reading material, or composing quiz and test questions, keep in mind that the more choices students have, the more likely they are to find something that they can connect with and that will motivate them.

Be sure to give enough variety and quantity of choices. Letting students choose any 14 homework problems out of 15 is not a real choice. Make sure the ratio is at least one-third to one-half; for example, allowing students to choose 10 out of 15 questions is adequate. For a highly motivational option, invite students to create their own alternatives, be they test questions, projects, or in-class activities.

Offering choices as a part of quizzes or tests has three great benefits. First is the sense of student control and empowerment I've already mentioned. Second is that students end up answering all the questions anyway. How else can they decide on which to officially answer on the test? Third, and perhaps the best benefit for the teacher, is the dramatic decrease in the amount of correcting. If students only have to answer half of the questions on a test, that's a 50 percent decrease in the answers that need to be read, evaluated, and commented on. For many teachers, that's like getting a second life.

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