Make exams worth more than the grade: Using
exam wrappers to promote metacognition.
In addition to distributing
exam wrappers, Xikes also devotes class time to going over the graded exam, question by question — feedback that helps students develop the crucial capacity of «metacognitive monitoring,» that is, keeping tabs on what they know and what they still need to learn.
In 2013 Lovett published a study of
exam wrappers as a chapter in the edited volume Using Reflection and Metacognition to Improve Student Learning.
It reported that the metacognitive skills of students in classes that used
exam wrappers increased more across the semester than those of students in courses that did not employ
exam wrappers.
Lorie Xikes teaches at Riverdale High School in Fort Myers, Fla., and has used
exam wrappers in her AP Biology class.
They hand out
exam wrappers with graded exams, collect the wrappers once they are completed, and — cleverest of all — they hand back the wrappers at the time when students are preparing for the next test.
When she hands back graded tests,
the exam wrapper includes such questions as:
Not exact matches
The
wrapper that Lovett designed for a math
exam includes such questions as: