Branching - An Aid to Reteaching

Thanks to an awesome teacher at Clute Intermediate that told one of my team teachers and I about Branching, we have been going Branching CrAzY!!

Branching is a way for students to self-check their answers on passages and/or Unit Tests. 

Branching is a way to reteach ALL students when they get answers incorrect and to reassure them on correct answers. 

Branching is a way for students to correct their assignments without the teacher having to repeat herself 4 or more times a day. 

Branching is a way for students to go back for better understanding when they may be too embarrassed to ask out loud in front of their classmates.

Branching is AMAZING!!

It can be a little time-consuming to get started, but once you get into the rhythm of it, it's a breeze. My team teacher and I have worked it out to where I set up the Google Form for Branching, add the questions, and the "go to" for each answer choice. During this time, my team teacher starts adding in the explanations. The process works without a hitch and we can usually knock one out fairly quickly!

Before students can complete Branching, they need to have completed the assignment. We use this mostly with reading passages. Students will complete the reading passage and submit their answers using a Google Form. We then write their grade at the top of the paper, but we do not mark their incorrect answers. While completing Branching, students can see what they missed and mark it on their papers.

In Branching, you start out with the question. If students answer correctly, it sends them to the next question. If students answer incorrectly, it sends them to the explanation.

Teacher View of a Question in Branching

 The next section will be an Explanation section. We duplicate this question and add it to the Explanation. Above the duplicated question, we will add an explanation for the question. If students answer the question incorrectly a second time, it will take them back to the same Explanation before letting them continue to the next question. Some examples of Explanations are shown below:

Explanation with highlighted text evidence

The highlighted text evidence is created by taking a screenshot of parts of the passage and highlighting them. I love using my teacher laptop for this part because the Snipping Tool that is preloaded is amazing. If using a Chromebook, there are various extensions that work just as well.

Explanation with Video

Another great thing that can be added for an explanation to the questions is videos. We use this summary one to remind students of what a summary is and help them in choosing the best summary of the story.

Explanation with Anchor Charts

Images can also be used for Explanations. In the example above, we used an Anchor Chart to remind students of the differences between 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person Point of View.

Student View of Beginning of Branching

 Upon clicking "Next", students will be directed to the first question for the passage. Here, they will input their answer on the previously completed passage.

Student View of a Question in Branching

After inputting their answers, students will either be directed to the next question or the explanation for this question. This is how they determine if their answer on the passage was correct or incorrect.

Correct Answer → Next Question

Incorrect Answer → Explanation

When they finish, students will come to a section that says "Way to Go". Here they will type their name, select their teacher's name, and their class period before clicking "Submit".