The paper also recommends a do-over if many people did poorly, with a review, practice questions, and homework before the repeated exam. This last week I offered a do-over, but not on an exam.
The students wrote a research paper. I graded it, returned it, and had them rewrite it. Some of the students made excellent grades on their rewrites, but everyone should have.
So, with their newly written second research papers in hand, I went over every point that someone in the class had trouble with on the rewrite. I had gone over almost all of these beforehand, but it is different to listen to a teacher tell you things when you don’t know what you’re going to be needing and to have that same teacher explain how you should have done something when you have it to hand.
I made them take notes and I graded their notes.
And I spent an hour writing on the board and re-covering the points they had missed.
Then I told them to change papers and mark the problems with someone else’s paper. (Some didn’t change. They were too embarrassed. I didn’t make them. But they marked their own.)
After that I told them that they had the long weekend to re-write their papers and that we weren’t going to do the assigned homework for the weekend.
So they got a break on what they needed to do and, hopefully, their second papers will be significantly better than their first.
I’ll find out tomorrow.