Those Three Dreaded Letters - B C R

A Brief Constructed Response. Sometimes hearing those words or their initials creates fear in the hearts of students. However, it doesn't have to be this way. BCR's are a great opportunity to display your knowledge and creativity.

Grading last week's BCR homework, I was impressed with how many scores of 2 I was able to give. These students not only found the correct answer to the problem, but they also explained how they arrived at their answer. Here are some tips for excellent BCR answers:

• Label everything. Make sure the reader knows what every number is.
• Explain every step. Don't assume that the reader understands you. Break down your strategy into small, simple steps that can be easily explained.
• Use complete sentences whenever possible. Again, we want to make life easy for our reader. A complete sentence gets your idea across.
• Write neatly. Ask any adult who has spent hours grading papers, and they will tell you that the neat papers make it easier for them to focus and find good things in your work.
• Don't be afraid to draw if you can clearly show your idea.

KF