Answering Practice

1. Identify the writing task(s) to be undertaken.  Ideally these are drawn from past examinations if examination practice is the primary goal

2. Choose several short questions or one long question.  Create a rubric  (refer to resources\technology) identifying any or all of the following criteria:

• Relevance

• Accuracy

• Legibility

• Clarity

3. In a tutorial, lecture or online, explain to students that the Answering Practice Activity is intended to develop their writing and editing skills. The process will also improve their writing skills through peer and self-reflection

4. In pairs, ask students to draft an answer to a written assignment. The tasks should take less than half of the available time

5. At the end of the half hour, ask students to exchange their answers with another pair 

6. Ask students to mark the activity according to the criteria and returned the marked assessment to the original pair  

7. In groups of four, ask students to compare notes to identify common shortcomings

8. Call students together and develop a checklist on common errors that students have collated in this activity.

EXTENSION

To further motivate students and encourage self-study groups, you can ask students to develop their own rubric with a “buddy”.

1. Ask the students to select from previous examination papers a question each

2. Ask the students to create a rubric using one of the genre specific rubrics (refer to Resources/Technology) from the Learning Lab site (refer to Resources/Technology) and adapt the rubric to reflect their question

3. Ask each student to plan and answer their buddy’s question

4. Ask the students to reverse their roles and give feedback on the question they answered

5. Ask each student to develop a checklist on common errors and discuss the checklist

6. In class, compare and discuss the checklists on common errors with all students.