Making a Worksheet
That Actually Works

A worksheet does not fail at the difficult question near the bottom. It fails in the first ninety seconds, when half the room does not know what to do and puts a hand up — and both teachers spend the rest of the period doing crowd control instead of teaching.

一張學習單不是敗在下面那道難題，而是敗在最初的九十秒——半個班不知道要做什麼、手舉起來， 然後兩位老師整節課都在處理秩序，而不是在教。

Section 01The ninety-second test

Here is the only measure that matters, and you can apply it to any sheet in ten seconds: can a child in the middle of your class start work without asking a question? Not finish. Start.

唯一重要的判準就這一個，任何一張學習單十秒鐘就能檢查： 班上程度中等的孩子，能不能不必發問就開始動筆？不是做完，是開始。

If they cannot, everything downstream is wasted: your beautiful task, your clever context, your co-teacher's twelve minutes at the station. And in a co-taught class the cost doubles, because now two adults are answering the same question twenty-five times instead of one.

如果不能，後面所有東西都白費了：你精心設計的任務、巧妙的情境、協同老師在那一站的十二分鐘。 而在協同課堂裡代價還加倍，因為現在是兩個大人各自回答同一個問題二十五次，而不是一個。

Section 02Instructions a second-language reader can follow

Your instructions are not a preamble. For your students, the instructions are themselves a reading comprehension task in a foreign language — often the hardest text on the page. Four rules:

你的指令不是開場白。對你的學生來說，指令本身就是一項外語閱讀理解任務—— 而且往往是整張紙上最難的一段文字。四條規則：

1. One instruction per line, and start with the verb. "Write the missing word." Not "In this activity, students should try to think about which word might be missing and then write it in the blank space provided." 一行一個指令，動詞開頭。「Write the missing word.」而不是「在這個活動中，同學們應該試著想想看哪一個字可能不見了，然後把它寫在下方提供的空白處」。
2. Give a worked example — this is the single highest-value element on any worksheet. Do question zero for them, in full, printed on the page. One example removes more confusion than three paragraphs of explanation, and it works regardless of reading level. 給一個做好的示範——這是任何學習單上單一價值最高的元素。把第 0 題完整做給他們看，直接印在紙上。一個示範消除的困惑，比三段解釋還多，而且不受閱讀能力影響。
3. Say how many answers you want. "Write three sentences" ends the negotiation that "write some sentences" starts. 說清楚你要幾個答案。「Write three sentences」直接結束了「write some sentences」會引發的那場討價還價。
4. Put the Chinese where it removes friction, not where it removes the challenge. Task instructions in both languages is sensible; the vocabulary you are actually testing is not. If the answer is in the gloss, you have written a copying exercise. 中文要放在能消除摩擦的地方，不是消除挑戰的地方。作答指令雙語是合理的；你正在測驗的那些字彙則不是。如果答案就寫在註解裡，你做的是一張抄寫練習。

Section 03The fastest child and the slowest child are in the same room

This is what differentiated instruction actually means on a Tuesday, stripped of the terminology. Someone will finish in four minutes. Someone else will still be on question two when the bell goes. You need both of those outcomes to be acceptable.

這就是「差異化教學」在一個星期二的實際意思，把術語拿掉之後。 有人四分鐘就寫完了，也有人到下課鐘響還在第二題。你需要讓這兩種結果都是可以接受的。

One sheet, three difficulty levels down the page, is almost always better than three different sheets. Three versions triples your preparation, triples your marking, and tells every child in the room exactly which version they were given.

一張紙、由上到下三個難度層次，幾乎總是比三張不同的紙好。 三個版本讓你的備課量、批改量都變三倍，而且會讓教室裡每個孩子都清楚知道自己拿到的是哪一版。

Section 04Layout that does not fight the learner

• Make the answer space the size of the answer. A one-centimeter line says "one word". Four ruled lines say "a paragraph". Students read the space before they read the question. 作答空間要跟答案一樣大。一公分的線代表「一個字」，四行橫線代表「一段」。學生看空格的速度比看題目快。
• One task per box. Two tasks sharing a box become one task in a child's mind, and the second half goes unanswered. 一個框一個任務。兩個任務共用一個框，在孩子腦中就變成一個任務，後半段不會被寫。
• Number everything. You cannot say "look at the third one" across a noisy room otherwise, and neither can your co-teacher. 每一題都要編號。否則你在吵雜的教室裡沒辦法說「看第三題」，協同老師也沒辦法。
• Leave white space. A dense page reads as difficult before a single word is decoded, and the students who most need to start are the ones most discouraged by it. 留白。密密麻麻的一頁在任何一個字被讀懂之前就已經「看起來很難」，而最需要開始動筆的學生，正是最容易被它嚇退的那些。
• Cut the decorative clip art. Pictures that carry meaning help; pictures that fill space compete with the text for attention. 拿掉裝飾性的插圖。帶有意義的圖有幫助；只是填滿空間的圖會跟文字搶注意力。

Section 05Design it to be marked in thirty seconds

You do not teach one class. Twenty-five sheets times several classes is a stack you will either mark badly or not at all, and an unmarked worksheet teaches the students that it did not matter.

你不是只教一個班。二十五張乘上好幾個班，是一疊你要嘛草草改完、要嘛根本不改的東西； 而一張沒有被批改的學習單，等於在教學生「這件事不重要」。

• Put the answers you check in one column, down one edge. Your eye runs down a column in seconds; it cannot hunt across a page. 把你要檢查的答案排成一欄、靠一側。眼睛掃一欄只要幾秒；在整頁上搜尋則不行。
• Decide before printing what you are actually looking for. If you are checking one target structure, you do not need to read every word — and knowing that in advance is what makes the stack survivable. 印之前就決定你到底要看什麼。如果你只檢查一個目標句型，就不必逐字讀——事先知道這件事，那疊紙才撐得過去。
• Or stop using paper for the checking part. Which is chapter 3. 或者，檢查的部分乾脆別用紙。那就是第三章。

Section 06Test it on yourself, with a pen

Before it goes to the photocopier, sit down and do your own worksheet as if you were a student, writing every answer out by hand, and time it. Two things will happen, every time:

送去影印之前，坐下來把自己的學習單當成學生做一遍，每個答案都用手寫出來，並計時。 每一次都會發生兩件事：

1. It takes them roughly four times as long as it takes you. Your three minutes is their twelve. That is the number to plan the period around. 他們花的時間大約是你的四倍。你的三分鐘就是他們的十二分鐘。要用這個數字來排這一節課。
2. You will find at least one instruction that is ambiguous. You wrote it, so you cannot see it until you are holding a pen and trying to obey it. 你至少會找到一個有歧義的指令。因為那是你寫的，所以你要真的拿著筆試著照做，才看得見它。

Section 07Three sentences to take into next week

1. Can a middle student start without asking? If not, nothing else on the sheet matters. 程度中等的學生能不能不必發問就開始？不能的話，紙上其他東西都不重要。
2. A worked example beats any amount of explanation. Do question zero for them, printed on the page. 一個做好的示範勝過任何份量的解釋。把第 0 題做給他們看，直接印上去。
3. A floor everybody reaches, a ceiling nobody hits — on one sheet. 每個人都到得了的底線、沒有人碰得到的天花板——在同一張紙上。