Error management

                          

In this entry I want to focus on the error management - how a teacher responds to error and how the pupils react to being corrected.

First two lessons I observed were Math lessons conducted in the first grade. They were connected with practicing ones and tens. Teacher asked children some questions, they made a worksheet and played a board game in pairs. Nevertheless these were not English lessons, they were carried out in this language so teacher had opportunities to correct students' linguistic mistakes. These were mostly vocabulary errors. F.ex. one girl was supposed to read the number 31 - she said "thirteen one" instead of "thirty one". Teacher reacted immediately and corrected the student by saying this number properly. After that pupil was supposed to repeat the appropriate version. Of course, students were making mathematical mistakes - some of them did not differentiate ones from tens. What is interesting, in such situations corrections came not only from the teacher but also from peers.

During the Phonics children did a few exercises concerning labels. I think that due to the fact that this class is mostly about the pronunciation, teacher focuses on mistakes within this area. When student mispronounces a word, he corrects him/her by giving the right model. Moreover child is supposed to repeat after teacher several times - sometimes whole class has to do this.

While observing another English class I have noticed that teacher who conducts it also reacts immediately when it comes to correcting pupils' mistakes. I want to describe two situations that took place during this lesson. In the first one, boy made the grammar mistake. He wanted to create past sentence but instead of saying "went" he said "was go". Teacher corrected him right away by changing the verb form into "went". Just as in case of Phonics teacher, child also had to repeat the appropriate version. Regarding the girl, she put the parts of the sentence in the wrong order. Teachers's reaction surprised me because it was different than in previous situation. He rearranged the sentence in order to make it correct and asked the pupil whether it is what she meant.

In my opinion correcting students' errors is very important in teachers' job. It is necessary that it is done immediately. On the other hand the correcting process should not be ostentatious so as not to discourage children. Teachers have to remember that everyone has the right to make mistakes and cannot be humiliated because of this. I will definitely adhere to these rules during my own practice.