Learning From Mistakes in Math

Thursday, June 7, 2018
I do a lot with growth mindset in my classroom - constantly encouraging my students to learn from their mistakes instead of getting frustrated. I find this is a lot easier to teach with Math than most other subjects.

I have this poster set up in my classroom from Really Good Stuff (sadly, I don't think they make it anymore...). I love how it groups the types of mistakes students often make in math, so I took these ideas and used them to help my students learn from their mistakes.



About 2 months before state testing, we start doing daily mini-quizzes to practice all of the standards, starting way back at the beginning of the year. I use the "High Stakes Testing" book that comes with our math series (GOMath), but this could be used with any math test, quiz, or worksheet. 

We complete one quiz a day (usually about 4-8 questions) and I grade them right away while my students are working on other things. As I grade them, I staple this page to the front of each quiz:


For homework, my students are to correct their mistakes and indicate which type of mistake they made. Many, many times, they discover that they did not read carefully or do all of what the question was asking. This is a big lesson for them and causes them to be more careful as time goes on (because they don't want homework!). 

I also give out buttons for 100%s on these quizzes, so there is that incentive as well. 😊

Give this a try with your students and let me know in the comments how it goes!

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