The White Out Effect

My students love to copy. It is not in a malicious or sneaky way, but in a collective lets all be the same way. As I wrote before one of my peer teacher's has a rule that states : "You must work in groups on in-class assignments." I tried to fight this concept at first, and I still do when I think it is hindering my students from thinking on their own, but I am not as adiment as I once was.

However, My grandmother sent me a quote today that really synthesized the problem with all the collective copying: Mediocre ideas enjoy copying what happens to be working right this minute.

I find that my students will white out some great idea they had because it is not exaclty as the person next to them had, and then copy their peer's work. For example last week we were learning about "MY SCHOOL". I had the students draw in groups a brian web of differnt ways to describe their school ( I used groups because I don't have enough paper for all my studenst, and they are often more confident with vocab with others). When I was checking the brain webs I noticed that several of the groups had whited out great things they had written just because it was not one of the main concepts I had covered. For example, I had one group white out "garden" and other group white out "44 teachers". I want my students to be creative and think beyond what is working right now, but it is a hard concept for them to grasp especially with the readily avialilble white out pen.

For now I will contine to say "OK, OK, Good" and maybe overtime the white out pens will slowly disappear from my class. It is not that I have a problem with them correcting grammar and spelling with pens, but I feel that erasing good ideas is draining individual thinking. I would reather my students try and make mistakes then not try at all.