Ms Mamta

Teacher of 25+ years in Ontario. Math, reading and the learning conditions that help every child think. Free tools for teachers and families at the link.

[Ms Mamta @TheMsMamta]

Before you correct a wrong answer, ask this

A wrong answer gives us a choice.

We can correct the answer, or first find the thinking behind it.

One question helps:

“Walk me through how you got that.”

The quick, kind thing is to steer a child to the right answer. We all do it. There are twenty other children waiting and a lesson to finish.

But the quick fix has a cost we rarely see.

When we correct straight away, we fix the answer and miss the thinking. The child learns that wrong answers get taken off their hands. Next time they're unsure, they wait for us, or they guess and watch our face.

Over a term, the room learns something bigger: being wrong is something to hide. And a room where children hide their thinking is a room where we can't see what they understand.

Ask the question instead, and often one of three things happens.

1. They find the mistake themselves, halfway through explaining. The correction belongs to them.
2. They show you a rule used in the wrong place. Now you know exactly what to reteach, and it's one small thing.
3. They show you they understood something different from what you taught. That one is the easiest to miss, because explaining it again the same way might not have reached it.

A wrong answer isn't the end of the thinking. It's a window into it.

A few things that make the question work:

- Ask it after right answers too, so it never means “you're wrong.”
- Keep your face and voice the same either way.
- Wait. Give them the quiet to get there.
- If a child has no starting point at all, teach first. The question needs something to look at.

I've taught for 25+ years, from Mumbai to a Grade 2 room in Ontario. If I could keep only one question, it would be this one.

This is what I mean when I say adults create conditions and children do the growing. The question is small. What it builds is a room where it's safe to think out loud. In The Learning Conditions I call that Cultivate Safety, and most of the rest grows from it.

Each week I share one small question like this, to help us hear what children are thinking.

Try it tomorrow with one child, and do let me know what you notice.

Ms Mamta

[Ms Mamta @TheMsMamta]

@Kensetsu6 They really do learn the strategies from us. How we handle frustration teaches more than anything we say about it, so staying calm in the hard moment is the lesson that sticks.

[Ms Mamta @TheMsMamta]

@sburtrisd @canyoncreek Little hands moving letters is where reading begins.

[Ms Mamta @TheMsMamta]

@MerriweatherEDU @apsupdate Open doors are how schools grow. Lovely to see.

[Ms Mamta @TheMsMamta]

@UpperMerionSD Fraction circles are perfect for this. Holding a third next to a fourth and asking which is bigger clears up the idea that a bigger number means a bigger piece.

[Ms Mamta @TheMsMamta]

@usofiahowad Stories without books matter just as much. A child who hears a story with no pictures has to build the pictures in their own head, and that is real reading work.

[Ms Mamta @TheMsMamta]

@FeminaStudiosa When the adult apologizes first, even to a child, the child learns what a sincere sorry sounds like.

[Ms Mamta @TheMsMamta]

@davidihuang Processing time is the one I would protect first. A few quiet minutes to think before anyone answers tells a child their thinking is worth waiting for.

[Ms Mamta @TheMsMamta]

@BayNormandy A parent reading aloud in class is a memory children often keep for years. A warm way to honour military families.

[Ms Mamta @TheMsMamta]

@BiltonSchool Well done, Theo! History homework nobody will forget.

[Ms Mamta @TheMsMamta]

When every upset gets the same big adult response, children can't tell a big problem from a small one.
Teach them to sort it 👇

[Ms Mamta @TheMsMamta]

@GreatGraceB Children often forgive one broken promise, but a pattern of them sticks. Fewer promises, kept every time, teach more than any talk about honesty.

[Ms Mamta @TheMsMamta]

@francisxyzk Children often carry heavy labels quietly. One adult who notices and says something kind can lighten them for years.

[Ms Mamta @TheMsMamta]

@lauralurns Asking works best when the adult then waits. A few quiet seconds after a question is often where a child's own thinking happens.

[Ms Mamta @TheMsMamta]

@MarcelFounder Clapping syllables is the right start. I spy with first sounds, like mmm for moon, makes a gentle next step.

[Ms Mamta @TheMsMamta]

@BealValePrimary Love the reading buddies! Cosy stories are the best.

[Ms Mamta @TheMsMamta]

@arabanera @hechingerreport Starting from what a child is already good at changes how they meet the hard parts. A program can find the gaps, but it takes someone who knows the child to see the strengths.

[Ms Mamta @TheMsMamta]

@kritikandhari Asking a question back is what a good tutor does. Students remember what they worked out themselves.

[Ms Mamta @TheMsMamta]

@KabojjaSchool A supermarket trip makes money math real. Comparing prices and counting change with a basket in hand is the kind of practice children remember long after the worksheet.

[Ms Mamta @TheMsMamta]

@DrHarryWoodward Getting close works in the classroom too. Say the name, pause until they look up, then give the instruction once.

[Ms Mamta @TheMsMamta]

@AJMicieli @PoincianaCCPS When support staff stay in step with every lesson, students hear one clear message from every adult in the room.