Advice for Young Teachers: Donuts

When a baseball player awaits his turn at the plate, he stands in the on-deck circle, frequently swinging a bat to loosen up.  Sometimes, the batter places a donut-shaped weight on the bat.  By swinging a heavier bat in practice, the hitter can swing the comparatively lighter bat much faster when facing the pitcher: Greater speed means more power and a greater likelihood of success.

When it comes to assignments, teachers should place "donuts" on their students.  That is,when possible, teachers should assign their students work that is more difficult, more challenging, than the work they will have to produce on an exam. 

When we teach our students how to write an essay, we have them do quite a bit of practice in class.  But we don't just let them write an essay.  We place various hurdles in their path.  For example, the students must write an introduction without using any form of the verb "to be."  They may not use the words "it" or "they" in their essays.  In their body paragraphs, the students must provide three supporting details for each main idea, and each supporting detail must not only be supported by evidence, but each must be supported with a different kind of evidence: If a student uses a personal example to "prove" the first supporting detail, he must then use facts or statistics to support the second supporting detail, and then an appeal to emotion for the third.

We hear more than a little grumbling.

The grumbling disappears, however, when students realize that, on the test, they CAN use forms of the verb "to be."  They can use the same kind of evidence more than once within a body paragraph.  They can even get away with writing fewer than three major supporting details per body paragraph (as long as what they do include has sufficient detail).  We still encourage them to avoid "it" and "they" (which usually pretty much eliminates pronoun errors), but aside from that, most hurdles are removed.  The donuts come off the bat.

Not only do students find the tests comparatively easy; they are also usually able to finish the exams quicker, which leaves them more time to review their work and make sure they've said what they wanted to say in the way they wanted to say it.  They also feel such relief that some of their test anxiety dissipates.

When your students do well on their exams, then, you should arrange a little celebration.  Maybe you can bring donuts.