by Yeasir Ahmed Milan
Checking students’ writing scripts is one of the
major aspects of evaluation of teaching as well as learning. Be they the scripts
of any competitive tests like IELTS/TOEFL, BCS or admission test scripts like
BBA/MBA or even academic exam scripts, checking them properly for learners’
error correction is an assigned responsibility and professional accountability of
the teachers. It is usually seen that a student makes the same mistakes again
and again and if corrected properly, the probability of recurrence is less. The
students of Mentors’ expect more from us than from their academic institutions.
They have a very firm belief about us that after doing a course, everything
will go smoothly. They will get chance in their desired institutions. They will
maintain better IELTS scores. They really forget about their level of
competence. We have to prepare them within stipulated time duration. Our
accountability is more noticeable. Our success is determined by the success of
our students. So, it is ever challenging.
Why do we
check students’ scripts?
We want to see how much our students learnt and
retained. In Bangladesh
the main objective of checking scripts is never achieved. The teachers just
circle the wrong production and the students just see the marks or scores. They
never think of learning from the checked scripts. This happens because we have
taught the students that way. And again when a student gets a checked script,
s/he believes that the script is error-free because it has been checked by
his/her teacher. Is it the reality? No. We teachers are usually careless about
this because CHECKING STUDENTS’ WRITING SCRIIPTS IS THE MOST BORING PART OF
TEACHING. For this, we have a tendency to give an unnecessary TICK mark hastily
just to unburden the tedious liability. By doing this, we help stablish a
student’s mistakes permanently. We close all the doors of learner’s
self-correction because s/he believes the script is error-free as it checked by
his/her trustworthy teacher.
Are Only the
Teachers Responsible?
Yes and No. Yes—because the teachers have taken the
entire burden on their shoulders. No—because the teachers do not know how
should unburden the load of checking and they are not properly trained for that.
What is the
objective of checking students’ scripts?
To give the students an opportunity for
self-correction. We teachers really do not know what to do with thousands of scripts.
Limited time to check the scripts is a major downside and the teachers are held
responsible without considering this matter.
What to do to
get the best out of Checking Scripts?
Give the students a chance for self-correction. Do
not just skim through the scripts and overlook the mistakes. Consider the mark
distribution for organization, grammar,
vocabulary, punctuation, relevance, coherence etc. Tell the students to
come twice with the scripts—once after first check and then after learner’s
self-correction. While you check for the first time, do not correct in the
complete form rather give some clues to the mistakes. You can underline the
mistakes and write down an abbreviated form of the type of mistakes. For
example, if a student makes a mistake in using correct form of a word, write
‘WF’—Wrong Form and tell the student
to correct the mistake by himself/herself and then come again. Motivate the
learner to use dictionary, grammar book, or even take help from the elders to
correct the mistakes. And again the student can take help from his/her class
teacher—(Sir, I wrote ‘He is one of the good boy in our class’—please
tell me about my mistakes). If s/he can really correct the mistakes—better. If
not, correct the mistakes before the student and make him/her understand why
they were mistakes. Some 5/6 students may join you in this correction process.
Our students usually make similar types of
mistakes. The teacher who checks the scripts can accumulate the wrong sentences
(or any kind of mistakes in writing) and in the form of a booklet, he can
supply it to the students. Some example sentences can be of great help. The
same thing can also be done in speaking test.
The Teacher Checked this Script and Gave Band Score 4.
It is nothing but the avoidance of responsibility of
checking scripts by giving only one or two TICK MARKS. Will this present way of
checking scripts help students anyway? No. If the above system is followed,
less time will be needed. The students will get the opportunity for
self-correction. Other students will also get the chance to know from this
students who made mistakes if the teacher initiates something for
error-correction in the class.
Quality speaks. To make Mentors’ an unparalleled
institute, we must ensure quality teaching and quality checking. Some good initiatives
can bring a very good result. It’s TIME for change.
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