Replica of student work: Discussion:

Student: “Mr. Harmon, can you check this?”

Teacher: “Do you think you did it correctly?”

Student: "I’m not sure, I didn’t get the same thing

as my classmate.”

Teacher: “ Ok, let’s take a look. What did you do

first?”

Student: “I distributed the three to the x and the

negative ten.”

Teacher: “Great, are your calculations correct?

If so, what did you do next?”

Student: ”Yes, next I combined the like terms, -30

and 4.”

Teacher: “And what did you get when you did

that?”

Student:”34. Oh I see, I used 30 instead of -30.”

Teacher: “Great catch! Do you think you can

finish it from here?”

Student: “Yes, I got it! Thanks!”

In the above example, instead of just pointing out my student’s mistake, I lead them through each
step of their work, in attempt to model what they should do on their own in the future. Luckily they did see
their mistake, this does not always happen. If they do not see it, I try to emphasize what they have written,
versus what they have put in the calculator to help them see the difference in the two. The students
sometimes find it annoying that I won’t just tell them what is wrong, but I think they eventually see the
importance of them finding their own mistake with a little guidance.