Jazmin Carranza
T O P I C :
Teacher, Help!
Jazmin Poses the Question. . . .
October 19, 2007
How much should a teacher help a student on a test?
Adam Bumstead answers....
October 29, 2007
The truth is, for me at least, that it depends on the student. No teacher should blatantly give the student an inappropriate amount of help during a test. A formal assessment is supposed to gauge how well that the students know the material, and by helping a student out you would be taking away from that. However, as I said, it depends on the student. I have kids who do not pay attention in class and then when it comes time to take a test they want to ask for help on every problem. I have no problem telling them that they should have studied better or better yet paid attention in class. Nevertheless, I have helped most students one way or another on a test. Let me clarify that I have never given any answers away but more just reminded the students what the question was asking. The majority of questions I get deal with a student asking me if they did a problem right. I never tell them if they have the right answer, but I do tell them that they are on the right track. Now to answer your question: I am more than willing to give a little more help to a student who has done the homework, asked many questions during class, and has tried to find the answer on their test at first. This happens for my inclusion class because those kids need a little reminder every once and awhile to help them answer the questions. Also, with the word problems in the math test, I will use synonyms with my ELL students in case they are not sure what a word means. So overall, it is up to each individual teacher how much help is appropriate on a test. A teacher should never give a student the answer but rather say a few words to help lead them in the right direction. For me it works best to gauge the amount of help on a student-by-student basis.
Chase Caldwell answers....
November 5, 2007
A teacher should only assist with words that are not understood. Under no circumstances should a teacher eliminate possible answers. I believe that it is acceptable for the teacher to help remind a student about what they already have learned. For example, "Remember when we talked about X?"
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