When a QUIZ Makes You Feel NOTICED

I’m preparing my third lesson for my class of 38 adult students.

Photo by Omri Epstein

They had their first quiz in the previous lesson. As the topic of their online exercises (this course has an e-learning component) and our first lesson dealt with the information to be gained by reading the title, names, numbers, etc., the quiz had a short and very simple text with facts about the CN Tower in Toronto, Canada. The questions were designed to have short answers too.

I’ve checked all the quizzes.

I know these students were placed in this group (weakest) based on an exam they took, which I hadn’t checked. I don’t check the exercises they do online either. While some students participate actively during the lessons and make themselves noticed right away others do not. Some place themselves at the far end of those long rows of desks that cannot be moved. I can’t even look over their shoulders to see what they’ve written when they sit there.

Now I know which are the ones (only three!) that tried to answer a rhetorical question inside the text itself as if it were another question. Now I know how many students didn’t notice the only question that had two parts. Now I can show the students why we’re going to be spending some time on grammar this lesson – not only is on the syllabus but it is related to mistakes they made.

I still can’t conjure the face behind each of the 38 names. But now that the list of names is connected to things they have written (or the manner in which they wrote them, how they organized their answers on the page) I’m hoping to have made great strides in remembering their names by the end of lesson three.

This lesson’s quiz is just a vocabulary quiz – much shorter. It will be easier to check too, not much to comment on. But that’s fine, its already the second quiz.

At the end of the first lesson a few students came to me to ask if I check their online exercises too. I think the question was based on their desire to know who is “noticing” the effort they are making. They have exercises, a reader to read and flashcards on Quizlet to practice.

It seems that even a quiz with a grade provides “a human touch”, saying “I see you”!

2 thoughts on “When a QUIZ Makes You Feel NOTICED”

  1. Thank you Lizzie!
    I don’t know if it is my background in Special Ed. or not but its an issue that I’m very much aware of.
    Naomi

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