Proactive Teaching: Setting Expectations & Correcting Errors
A teacher recently commented that their students would often ignore strategies and tips they were given, relying solely on their memory. When they struggled or received low grades, they would complain about how hard the work was rather than recognizing that the provided strategies could have helped.
I wondered if this stems from the fact that some students have become lazy because learning has been easy. They believe they don’t need to listen or use strategies. In a way, they feel they are “too smart” for them. In our talk, I suggested that they almost need to let the students fail first—allow them to struggle without using the strategies (teaching moment) and then give them a chance to redo the assignment while following the proper steps. This helps them directly experience how much easier and more effective structured learning can be.
The conversation continued to
Preemptive Teaching of Strategies
Instead of waiting for students to fail, explicitly teach why strategies matter before they even begin. Show them how these tools will make their lives easier and improve their grades. Model common mistakes and demonstrate how using a strategy would have prevented them—for example, showing a math error that could have been caught by writing out the steps. Or highlight how much easier it is to copy from a graphic organizer rather than starting from scratch.
Compare & Evaluate Work With & Without Strategies
- Have students grade sample work:
- One version that follows the strategy/rubric
- One version that ignores it
- Discuss which is easier, more effective, and results in a better grade.
Ideally, these strategies should be introduced at the start of the school year to set clear expectations, but they can also be reinforced at the beginning of a lesson or new concept. If students continue to resist using them, revisiting the “fail first, then redo” method can serve as a powerful reminder of their importance. By shifting from reactive correction to proactive teaching, students will begin to see strategies as valuable tools that make their work easier, rather than unnecessary extra steps.
Real life example
Mrs. Lee gave students two versions of the same assignment—one completed using a graphic organizer and one without. She then asked her class to grade both and discuss which was clearer, leading them to recognize the value of structured learning.