Teenagers: Writing: Correction
A composition returned to a student covered in red ink is very demotivating so here are some ways to make correction more positive.
Motivate, don’t discourage
- Peer correction – in pairs students read through each others’ compositions and correct orally and discuss what might be a better version = helps students notice errors and analyze them, but this activity depends on mutual trust between students
- Do not mark anything incorrect on the students’ compositions – just praise everything good – a nice piece of vocabulary, appropriate grammatical structure, imaginative idea, etc.
- Use different colours – not just red!
- Correct only one type of error per composition and tell students that you will be doing so before they write. For example, just correct the tenses or articles.
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Readers' comments (1)
Mark 38 | Tue, 19 Jul 2011 2:15 pm
In China, it would be a little difficult to do because students feel shy to read others' composition even if it is just give some more ideas. They usually work individually because they see competition in almost everything.
But in other countries where they really feel excited to give opinions and others to listen to it is a good idea to use it like this.
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