Fixer Upper

Purpose

Students analyze the reason they missed an assessment question.

Materials

• Graded assessment
• Fixer Upper handout (printed or projected)
• Fixer Upper template (English/Spanish)
• Notebook paper (if handout is projected)

Instructions

1. Return a graded assessment to students.
2. Organize students into thinking partners.
3. Working together, partners use the Fixer Upper template to organize their ideas for correcting 1-2 test questions they missed by analyzing the following:
   • Foundation: What is the foundational topic of the question?
   • Stimuli/Visuals: Why is the stimulus/visual (or genre) in the question important?
   • Words: What are the important 3-5 words in the question and what do they mean?
   • Learning/Thinking Mistake: What mistake did you make (guessed, stopped too early, mixed up concepts, careless mistake, etc.)?
   • Fixer Upper Plan: How will you correct your mistake next time?
4. Using a movement and discourse strategy like Rise and Shine, students find a new partner, describe their fixer mistake, and explain how they corrected it.
5. Observe students’ thinking and clarify/verify as appropriate.
6. Students summarize in writing what they learned and note how to avoid mistakes in the future.

Classroom Management

• Model the strategy using a think-aloud.
• Consider using the activity as a learning station.
• Students who had a perfect score on the assessment may select 1-2 questions they thought were the most difficult for the activity and predict potential mistakes others may have made.
• Remind students there will be no harm or humiliation for incorrect answers because correcting mistakes is a sign of intelligence!

Differentiation

• Promote access by providing the Fixer Upper graphic.
• Promote access by allowing students to select the 2 questions to “fix up” with a supportive peer/adult and/or allowing students to dictate their responses to a scribe.

Think It Up!

• Have students think more deeply about the concept by responding to a Think It Up prompt as an exit ticket or journal entry:
  • Apply the mistakes others made to your own work. Explain how you made similar mistakes or how you avoided those errors.
  • Justify the correct answer.
• Encourage students to use lead4ward’s Thinking Stems (English/Spanish) to frame their responses, if needed.