So here comes this girl and asks me “Mrs. Yasmine how do you like your exams to be answered, literally or in our own words.” So I asked why the question and she says that the Mrs. Of civics likes students to answer the questions literally she is a person that if you forget a word of a definition she gets upset.
I answered to my student that in some cases is necessary to memorize but most of the time is better if they tell what they think. Know a days is very important to make the persons give their own opinion and as teachers whatever they answer make a good comment about it. And if they are totally lost with the idea focus them to get on track and give them some suggestions on how they may improve on what they have said. But never make a funny face or laugh on what they have answered. Also encourage the other students of the class not to laugh or say a bad comment or something that may offend this person. When we do not do anything about this is when this student becomes shy and is always afraid to give their opinion and begin not to think. And the years begin to pass by and this skill is not well developed. That why this particularly article caught my attention because this happens very commonly in schools and when you get to college the easiest thing to do is to look information in google and do the copy paste. Of course you do not want the teacher thinking how dumb you may me. What I am trying to say is to encourage our students to think using for example critical questions, asking them to give their opinion to think. They are several classes you can practice the critical thinking for example in Literature, Science, History. Even in math some students have a way to do a problem and others have another method to solve the same problem. The important thing is that they got to the same answer and of course they have put their mind to work.
