Tutor Tip

Best Practice: More Strategies for Error Correction

May 2012

Audience

Staff

Topic

Teaching Techniques

1. Snowballing. The tutor or teacher corrects the work of the first student to finish. That student then helps another student make corrections. Those two students continue to help others, and so forth. When a learner comes to you for corrections, you simply say, “Go ask Victor. He has the answers.”
2. After completing an assignment, ask students to write their answers on the board. Ask, “Who wants to do #1?” and hold out a marker to the first volunteer. Since students seem to be more comfortable working at the board in small groups, call up four or five at a time. Then look at the answers together and ask everyone if they agree with what is written. Correct any errors together. This works well with student-led dictations, too, where students take turns reading the sentences to their classmates, then correcting their work by writing the sentences on the board.
3. If you’re running out of time, write the answers on the board yourself and ask students to correct their own work.
4. Collect students’ work and choose a few examples to write on the board. Correct them together. Pass the papers back out to the students and give them time to correct their own work.

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