Wednesday, August 31, 2005

lesson the first: reading directions carefully


When teaching exam preparation last year at Guelph, one of the things that I emphasized to my students was the importance of reading directions over carefully and determining exactly what the question was asking. I even had a really good example to go along with it:

During her literacy testing, my youngest sister (sorry, Ais) wrote a short essay that answered the question "Why Should Canada Join the US?" When she had finished writing, she went back to the start and realized that the question actually read "Should Canada Join the US?" and that she had just written an essay decrying Canada as a nation and would probably fail and be marked by the RCMP for being a bad patriot.**

In the end, she did pass, but it could have been much worse.

So to relate the anecdote back to myself...I came to school on the 7:30 bus, thiking that I would have a nice morning of relaxation before starting school at 8:30...school apparently starts at 9. I could have slept in! Off to class.

**the RCMP doesn't do this anymore. I don't think.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Tell Ais she's safe from the RCMP but might have to abandon all hopes of hooking up with CSIS (although if she wants to double agent for the CIA or have a sorrid fling with Conrad Black she's in good position to do both... *shiver*).

- R.