ABSTRACT
As teachers, our job is to correct errors and teach the students the correct way. This is all well and good but taken to an extreme is correction rich and motivation foolish. Supposedly efficient, this “correcting” gives little or no reinforcement for what students have done correctly. In fact, if students’ work is too accurate, they may miss their chance to talk individually to the teacher that period. A productive approach is for the teacher to comment on what is right before correcting or having students correct mistakes. “You spelled four-fifths of this word correctly; circle what you think is your best-written letter or sentence; what part of the math problem did you do correctly?” If students feel that what they do right is noticed, they will be motivated to work harder to do their best work. The same is of course true for how they conduct themselves. It is all about being noticed, is it not?
