Using Writing to Improve Your Teaching

Teachers often ask the question, "How do I improve my teaching?" It's not hard. it just takes a slight change in assignment types.

Using strictly a multiple-choice curriculum is a cop out for many reasons. For one, teachers are able to run items through a scantron machine and that machine grades each assignment. Scantron machines will not only mark those items that are wrong but will even place the numeric score that the student earned on the scantron.

Another problem is that a scantron does not offer any advice as to why a specific answer is wrong, and if students want to see what questions they missed, they have to ask the teacher for a copy of the worksheet, if teachers do no pass back both the graded scantron and test packet.

Yes, such methods improve the speed at which teachers can grade an assessment, but teaching is ultimately about students.

I suggest that you make your students write. If you give a multiple choice assessment, that is fine but use some reinforcement in which students must explain how to make singular subjects and singular verbs agree. Doing so makes students think and rationalize, and as a result, they retain information for a longer period of time. Once students write about a topic, it becomes locked in their long-term memory.

There is more to life than marking A or B; students need to develop the skills that lead them to rationalize why the answer is A or B. I have learned that if they are forced to write, they are more likely to retain the information for a longer period of time, and it is easier for them to recall it when they are prompted.

Most teachers worry about the amount of time needed to assess student writing. Be creative. Teachers do not have to assess every piece of writing. Students can grade rough drafts, premade assesments can be utilized, and rubrics save time and arguments.