You are Wrong, but you Don't Know that you Are?

I am having issues with my students. Don't worry, they're still respectful, quiet (for the most part), and hard working (again, for the most part). But I'm having issues communicating to them that they are wrong and do not actually know everything.

It has hit that point in the year when they can't rely on what they have learned in previous math classes anymore to get them by. New material is getting harder and my expectations have risen since the students are progressing through that material. Yet almost all of my classes stare at me blankly when I ask if there are any question on the homework problems each day in class. It honestly baffles me because I put the answers on the overhead and I see them looking at them, but they don't actually check to see if their answers are correct. I have to literally say "Jeffrey, did you get #7 correct?" When Jeffrey undoubtably says "Oh, uh, no...." I just shake my head. Why do you think I put those answers up there?!

When I was a student, I remember checking my answers against the solutions my teacher would give on the board because it is just what you do. I also remember trying to figure out where I went wrong if I didn't get the same thing. However, my students seem to have no concept of this process. I don't know how to get them to understand they are getting problems wrong and THEN it would be nice to get them to pay attention to the right way to do it. But we'll just take it one step at a time here, I'm going to focus on making them realize they are wrong first.

We'll just see if I can accomplish that goal first, I'm getting close to resorting to public humiliation to make them aware of their flaws but I won't pull that card if I don't have to. However, it would be sort of fun to make public humiliation a daily part of Ms. Pint's math class so maybe I'll try that tomorrow! "You're wrong! You're Wrong! You're REALLY wrong!"