In 100 words or more, comment on the following:
Since adopting standards-based grading, the author has stopped grading homework. She was surprised to find that homework completion rates have remained steady. What is your philosophy on grading homework? What do you do to motivate students to complete homework assignments?
Don’t forget to comment (in 50 words or more) on another participant’s comment on this question.
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12 comments:
Homework…the question is often how much and how often? I agree with the author of this article to give students a small collection of problems with each directly linked to a learning objective. If they know it, they are successful. If they are struggling they know that they are accountable for their learning and will continue to practice/remediate their work until they master the concept. So often kids are forced to do 20 problems with the same standard connected to it. So the kids do 8 and know it, why do they need to prove it with 20? So the kids do 8 and they are all wrong, we make them do 20 that they don’t understand and get wrong? As a kindergarten teacher my philosophy on homework is to foster in children the love of learning, the ability to work with their parents, and the responsibility of taking work home….and bringing it back to return it, all the while checking their mastery on a previously taught skill. I motivate my students with a “great job, I am proud of you” and an extrinsic motivator of a reward for all those that complete their homework on a quarterly basis.
Honestly, I don’t assign homework. I teach 7th and 8th grade special ed students and for students who struggle with reading and don’t have support at home, homework is such a no-win situation for them. When I used to teach high school and I assigned homework, I did always grade the work and then go over the assignment in class as I think of homework as being a supplement to what goes on in class. I have always thought it is important for me to grade all my student’s work personally so if the whole class did terribly on one question or if a particular student really struggled, I know what things I need to reteach. The author of the article mentioned revising work, and that is something I like to do with students. I also always grade late or missing work. I went to a team conference for a student once and told the parent that I would accept late/missing work from the student. The members of the core team told me that I was just enabling the student, but how else do I know if the student has learned anything if I don’t accept and grade work?
A: response to Sheri
The type of homework I remember having in elementary was reading homework. Our parents were supposed to sign in the back of the book saying we read the assigned pages to them. My sister got caught forging their names because she hated homework early on and didn't see the point of reading at home, since the teacher should already have known she could read in school : )
I agree with the author’s viewpoint on homework grading, though I feel like students should have some structured accountability in that area. Though their participation would be apparent on tests, many students wouldn’t do the homework if it were not required, even though they might need it. Motivating students to do homework that is not graded is the toughest type of motivation. It’s the intrinsic rewards of learning the material, and the goal of doing well on assessments later that would have to be the driving factor to motivate students to do the homework. The author found that students still did their homework, and thus became more responsible for and cognizant of their own learning by monitoring their own understanding and adjusting their amount of practice accordingly.
A:Response to dstark
NO SUPPORT AT HOME! The true homework nightmare for teacher and students nationwide. So many times we send our kiddos home to environments that are not able to help/supervise/encourge them to get their work done, then what happens...the cycle continues...the student is punished, they dislike school and lose the initiative to become a lifelong learner. We all wish we could break this cycle!
In response to Sheri and dstark;
I see the home support issue as a serious problem too. But I also think that homework can be a problem even for kids who do have support at home. Especially if they are struggling. It seems unfair to penalize kids for not doing homework if they are struggling all day at school, who would want to go home and struggle through more difficult work at home?
My approach to assigning and grading homework is to use it as a way to measure student understanding of key concepts. I always try to make sure that the homework is relevant and reinforces my lessons. I do find that homework completion is a weak area,and have noticed that unless I provide class time, it rarely gets done by an acceptable amount of my students. I have also noticed that my low performing students routinely take solidarity in the fact that their friends are not completing their homework either. Even more distressing a trend is that usually responsible students are caring less and less about turning assignments in on time. All this is with the understanding that homework is graded! For these reasons, I would find it hard to believe that a typical response to not grading homework would be that students continued to do it on their own in spite of not receiving credit.
response to Amanda
I agree, it would be quite difficult to motivate students if there were no grades involved. I know that even some parents would not see the need to support homework completion if there were no reward beyond personal satisfaction. Many of our students simply haven't reached this level of self-awareness yet. I also find that many students are motivated by grades and feedback on homework. They want to know how well they did and are very concerned if they do not do well and want me to explain why they did not get all the points, which provides me another opportunity to re-teach.
Initial Response to Question 4C
I have always been irritated when teachers have not graded my homework. If I took the time to complete it, at least they could take the time to grade it. Besides that, if they didn't grade it, how would I know if I was doing the work correctly? One of my son's teachers has their students grade their own homework assignments. The students then report their percentages orally to the teacher. Randomly, students are asked to pass in their assignments. If a student has been dishonest, all point will be lost. I guess this is one way of combining the traditional grading of homework with a less time-consuming approach. On the rare occasion that I ask my students to complete homework, it is usually in the form of extra credit, as they will have an entire week between classes.
Responding to Lela,
I wholeheartedly agree with you. I believe that if students were not held accountable for homework through grades, most would not complete it. It is unfortunate that many students are becoming too complacent about turning in their work on time. I believe that homework teaches much more than the work on the page. It also teaches personal responsibility, and the consequences that follow if the students do not meet their deadlines.
4C
As Scriffiny noted, homework assignments are opportunities to practice an already learned skill, and help develop connections between learning objectives and homework. What she found was that homework was a means for students who knew how to “play school” could succeed without actually needing to know the content.
In my high school experiences, I do not recall very many tasks that helped me obtain a higher level of thinking, nor did it tie in the task of work completion to learning objectives. As long as a teacher can assess the learning objectives, homework should be a tool only, not a major part of assessment and grades.
Comment:
I appreciated Amanda's comment about intrisic motivation. This motivations seems to be the most challenging to accomplish, and yet the most meaningful. It is also interesting that by not grading the homework, the author increased the intrisic value on the homework. Meaning, value, and accountability are three great lessons in a homework assignment.
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