Success!

Much to my frustration, I had to have all of those tests graded by the time I left school on Thursday.  I didn't end up leaving until 5:30.

However, when I left, I was a VERY happy camper.  Of the 97 tests I graded, 48 of them were A's.  That's almost HALF!  The students did such a good job, and I could tell they were really proud of themselves.

Some teachers give retake test or redos.  I am not one of those teachers.  I don't like students going into a test thinking "oh, I can take this again, so I won't worry about it this time."  I'd rather them study hard and learn the stuff the first time around.  However, I also don't like students being left out to dry if they do badly on a test or just weren't prepared.  So, instead of redos, I let students correct their tests/quizzes.  I do have very strict requirements, though.

1.  The corrections must be on a separate sheet of paper.
2.  The new answer must be right (obviously).
3.  They must EXPLAIN why the new answer is right or what they did wrong the first time around.  For example, there was a part on the French 1 test that was filling in the blanks with "un" or "une" (both mean a/an, but "un" is for masculine nouns, "une" is for feminine).  If a student put "un" before "fille" (girl), but the correct answer was "une", he/she would have to explain that "fille" is feminine, therefore "une" should be used.  I never accept answers like "I forgot" or "I just didn't know".  That doesn't show me that they know it now either.  I've noticed a lot that making them explain forces them to really research their answers and prevents them from just copying from a friend who got that question right.

If they meet those three expectations, they can get half credit back.  The reason I don't do whole credit is because they could all just bomb it and then take it with their notes later.  The half credit makes it worthwhile for them to fix their answers, but also doesn't just hand them an A either.

I've been doing this since I started student teaching, and it's worked very well.  I've never had any complaints or troubles with it.