Three Ways to Correct Effectively

In our series, Testing 101, I started with some suggestions on how to prepare your child for a successful test experience. I followed that up with some articles that explained how to understand and use the scores found on the Basic Report. In this article, I’ll make a suggestion about how to communicate and use the results of the test with your child.

Many parents, after first looking over the results of their student’s achievement test, decide to review them with their child. Whether or not you choose to do this, at some point you’re going to want to re-teach or at least go over what they missed. The way you’ll know this is by ordering the Performance Evaluation Report. While optional, this report is really helpful in pinpointing what was missed as well as what was answered correctly. I’d like to take a moment and talk about the “tone” in which this is done. This isn’t about personalities, or parental teaching styles, but about acting intentionally with the goal of promoting accountability in your student’s learning.

Some students, who seem to embody a “What, me worry?” attitude, need more than a gentle tone to get their attention. Likewise, students who soak up your every word don’t need you to follow the advice of a noted child psychologist who suggested, when speaking to a group of classroom teachers, they “not smile until Thanksgiving.” When correcting, there are at least three “tones” you may employ to effectively get your message across.

Correcting with a soft tone

Like I mentioned before, some children seem to soak up your every word. They’re out of bed early. They get started in the morning without you having to say anything. Their work is neat, legible and organized. Children like these get along fine with simple explanations. They can be corrected or re-directed with just a “Let’s try this again,” or “Here’s another way to approach this problem that might help you see the solution.”

Correcting with a medium tone

This approach is appropriate with children who have interests that are equal too, or hold a higher priority than, the assignments you want them to finish. For them, a medium tone is conveyed by explaining the concept again or redirecting them to a page that explains the concept and re-doing what was missed. Adding the caveat that you or Dad will “quiz them” over this material tomorrow morning typically increases the likelihood they will learn the material.

Correcting with a firm tone

Some students take a “Whatever…” approach to learning. Parents with such children often look at families with “compliant” or consistently agreeable children and wonder what their secret is. And, you don’t have to look too far to find any number of home-school seminars or workshops that will tell you that if you just follow their system of steps, ways, or principles, you too can “mint” obedient children and make it to home-school magazine cover status. If only it were that simple…

Next week, I’ll relate a story in which a firm tone made a huge difference in the life of an elementary student.

Thanks for reading!
Curt Bumcrot, MRE

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