Day 34 - Redo

Ben had a Math problem that he needed to prepare on paper and then present on the board today. He had the same task yesterday and his presentation had been OK but the written work was not very good. I told him to redo it for today after modeling what I was looking for.

The written work today was again subpar. He had not redone the problem from yesterday and today’s problem was not presented well on paper. Furthermore the answer – though correct – was not presented the way it was told to be presented (in scientific notation).

Ben was not happy when I told him that he needed to do both problems again, this time in the form that I had asked him to. He was indignant that I would ask him to redo something where the answer was right.

“But the answer was not right.”
“Yes it was."
“No it was not. The problem called for the answer in scientific notation. You did not present it that way.”

I understood that his complaining was mostly excuses masking the central issue – he simply did not want to do them again.

I provided the same thought I always do – “You would save yourself a lot of time if you slowed down a little and did things correctly the first time.”

I did not sense him immediately taking it to heart.