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(E) PRE-CORRECT: what is it and why enable or disable?

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Enable Pre-Correct to ensure errorless learning.

In your dashboard you can see whether or not students have PRE-CORRECT enabled or disabled.  If it is enabled you’ll see it listed in bold as Pre-correct enabled.   If Pre-correct is disabled, you won’t see it listed at all under the student.  We have it enabled by default because it is a good thing.  You are ensuring that students do not need to make errors to be told the correct answer.

What is a Pre-correct?

The short answer is that a pre-correct is to do what you would do to correct an error, but do it before there’s an error.  This excellent teaching technique is useful in many teaching situations including teenagers and reluctant spouses.  By pre-correcting you remind them of what you’d like them to do, just before they are to do it, so they can’t forget. Then you can be positive and thank them for doing what you wanted them to do.

In the Online Game our pre-correct only applies to the Take-Off phase.  That’s the phase where we are teaching the student four new problems to learn.  We don’t use Pre-correct in any other phase.

So with pre-correct enabled the system will tell students the answer to the four new problems in the take-off phase. Mission Control says the problems and the answers and shows the answer.  Then Mission Control clears the answer and says “Your turn.” Mission Control waits for the student to enter the correct answer.  It does this for all four new problems.  Once through those four, then the game goes back to normal procedures.  It will go on to ask students the answers without telling them ahead of time.  In the Take-Off phase students have to do 12 in a row correct and quickly in the Take Off phase to pass the phase and move on to Orbit. If they make a mistake or answer too slowly, the count starts over to get the 12 in a row.  If they require 3 corrections because of being too slow or incorrect, they will do a “Start-Over.” Students who have to start over will get the pre-correct again, for the first four.

Here’s a link to a video of pre-correct enabled in equivalent fractions:

 

Disable Pre-correct only if students are insulted

Most of the time, students will find the pre-correct helpful, even just to re-assure them of the answer they were pretty sure that they knew.  In some instances, with older students who are going through very basic facts, they may be insulted by being told the answer. They say to themselves, “What do they think I’m stupid and I don’t know what nine times seven is?”  If students come to you with complaints about Pre-correct when they are in the most basic Learning Tracks you can turn it off.  However, when they get up into the pre-algebra tracks, (13 through 16) it would be helpful to turn it back on again.  Even Dr. Don benefits from the pre-correct in those upper levels.

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