[ High School and Self-Education Board ]
Posted by Laurie4b on 13:15 Jun 17
In Reply to: I think you're both right.... posted by Nicole
It really helped my son to know that these kinds of mistakes were NORMAL for beginners in algebra. I think his self-confidence was hit heavily by the errors, and it did hit him differently than, say, correcting his punctuation. My confidence was also shaken--were there holes in his foundation? Was he not ready for this level of abstract thinking? etc. I think my angst was conveyed to him. I think things would have cleared up more quickly and gone more smoothly if I had known to treat those types of errors as a normal part of the learning process.
I totally agree with giving partial credit at this stage, even if one doesn't give it at a more advanced level. I don't think it teaches them bad habits at all. Being more stringent with grades does not eliminate what we refer to as "careless" errors because I think that the term is a misnomer. I don't really think they are careless so much as the result of brain overload--much the same as when I first started driving the car, it seemed impossible to think of everything at once---that was why we had to have a parent in the car with us. Once some parts of the process became automatic, and we acquired some experience, we were okay on our own. I think the beginning of algebra is like that. I will be less strict, not more, on the second ds for mistakes like that.