Teach Fzx Tuesday - Teacher's Do It Best

A good review is tough to engineer.  Especially for a big test.

Since our students need ownership of the review, teachers often resort to handouts and independent work at final exam time.  We give periodic instructions and reminders during class.  We individually encourage slackers to work and remind them of the consequences of a poor grade.

But we fail our students when we stop there.

The best students succeed in spite of what we do.  They'll complete our handouts and use time in and out of class to study the book and the materials that we have provided thoughout the semester.  They'll even check out our videos and tutorials online.

But all students benefit significantly from a fast-paced, teacher-directed review of the major concepts in addition to written or online review materials.  I've tried it several ways.

Now I combine the following:
A - in class and out of class expectations
B - independent and group work
C - available online and print materials
D - highly organized and energetic class review with forced participation - questions encouraged

But there are reasons why we ignore that last item.  Everybody, teachers and students alike, is tired at the end of a long year together.  We sometimes don't think that we can do much for our students.  Or we just don't have the strength for it because it takes a LOT of energy to do it well at a highly stressful time of the year.

So let's do right by our students and put together a solid review on these important days.  They'll do better when we put out that effort and we'll feel better having done a good job.