As I grade the kids' work, I sometimes find a page where they have utterly bombed the page. I often ask these kids to stay in at recess for just a few minutes so we can figure out what happened. Sometimes it is as simple as "I thought all the D's, S's, C's and A's had to be lined up! I didn't know I had to write down the first sound of the word!" Once, after I helped a student, he looked at me and said "Thank you for pointing that out, Mrs. Maatman, I appreciate it!" With a totally straight face I replied "You are welcome, you know mistakes aren't bad." "Yes, I know," he said " I really learned from that mistake."
Love these kids.
Love these kids.