My grandson is beginning to walk. He takes about ten steps and then falls down. He crawls over to the nearest table/chair and gets up again. He does not get discouraged about failing to walk many steps. He walks some more and falls down again.
How do we help our students to not get discouraged about their failures? Do we use the “fail forward” mentality that a failure is simply an indication that we tried something that did not work and now we can try something that can work? A mistake is an opportunity to learn. When students see their answers and work as work in progress, they are more willing to take chances and move forward. When we do not criticize them but help them to see how to improve, we encourage them to see failures as stepping stones as opposed to stop signs.
How do you show your students that learning from mistakes is a sign of growth?
My book, Formative Assessment: Responding to Students, is available through Eye-on-Education.
Education with Technology Harry G. Tuttle 
Responding to students: Our Real Emotional Message
Published January 15, 2009 Achievement , Answer , Assessment , assessment for learning , Correct , Diagnostic , Edublogger , Education , Error , Evaluate , Feedback , Formative , Formative assessment , formative feedback , Help , Impact , Reponse Leave a CommentTags: Answer, Comment, Correcting, Edublogger, Emotion, Feedback, Formative, Formative assessment, Reaction, response, Teacher
In a previous post, I emphasized that students need an abundance of positive comments before they really believe that what they have done is good.
Likewise, when we examine our comments to students in the margins and at the end of their papers, we may discover that the messages that we think are positive or neutral appear to the students as negative ones. For example, in “Good topic sentence. Follow it up with more evidence” the message seems to us to be a positive; however, the second sentence deflats the praise. The previous examples strikes students as a “set up and slap down” comment.
Students may see our statements or questions as direct commands rather than suggestions. “Can you think of other possibilities?” can easily be translated as “You dummy, why can’t you get a good answer?”
When we write on students’ papers, we have to promote a positive tone since many students will read any non-positive statement as a negative one.
If you are interested in implementing formative assessment in the classroom, my book,
Formative Assessment: Responding to Students is available through Eye-on-Education.