2014-02-27_1149I have had problems getting students motivated to get involved with lectures and their grades showed signs of needing improvement. I assigned my students  a take-home quiz where they fill in the correct wording to make a statement correct.If they passed the quiz, they would receive extra credit.

I corrected these the quizzes with a red pen. I would put a line through their wrong answer with a red pen and then wrote the correct answer next to it. I did not tell them that randomly, I would mark the answer wrong without using the red line and write an answer that was close to correct next to it for some.

After returning the quizzes everyone exploded in debate and challenges. They all were involved in the discussions. After a short time, I did explain that they all received credit just by taking the test. This allowed them to have the correct information that they would need to know.

At the break, I had four students come up and say they loved this and that they would like more of these types of exercises. All of them seemed more excited to get involved.

Sometimes unconventional methods get dramatic results. Go figure. This turned out to be a great adventure for me as well. I feel as though I have really made a solid connection with them. I will try to keep you posted on the future results.