Homework
I used to complain about having to grade homework to students.
Wrong audience.
Their standard response, "Well, why do you assign it then?"
Why, indeed....
I used to give a lot of homework. I shudder at the trees I killed with the packets I handed out to students to practice what we'd been doing in class. And I graded everything.
EVERYTHING.
- Five points for bringing a sheet back with a parent signature.
- Ten points for writing a paragraph with active nouns
- Complete the crossword puzzle with vocab words...twenty five points
- Extra credit for bringing tissues to class (just what standard did that cover?)
How overwhelmed some of them must have been.
What a joke their grade was.
I also used to give lots and lots of completion points. Finish a practice introduction? Five points. It didn't have to be well done, just "finished". Next day, five points for the conclusion. And worse...sometimes I gave points for turning in a sheet I had no intention of grading.
If it wasn't important enough for me to grade, why the heck was I assigning it AND expecting it to be turned in.
I'm hanging my head in shame.
I'm not sure what brought about the change in my philosophy. Maybe it was looking closer at the standards I'm teaching and realizing that many of the points I so proudly gave didn't have anything to do with a standard. But more than likely, it's conversations with the Libby. We've talked many times about homework. How some rely so heavily on it. On whether or not you have to grade everything. On the cheating we know that students do when it's assigned.
Another thing that got me thinking about this...my contest speech kids...
Tuesdays and Thursdays after school, my room fills up with my improv kids. November throughFebruary, the routine doesn’t change much.
We warm up, we work on skills, we perform improv situations in a contest situation. We practice. I try to make this a safe, comfortable environment for kids to fail in.
FAIL?????
Yep, fail.
Improv is hard. It’s even harder to do well. Groups of four or five pick three situations. They have two minutes to plan out what they will do and five minutes to perform. In that time, they need distinct characters, a decent beginning, middle and ending, and it needs to be funny.
Kids fail at it all the time. And they know when they fail. But they learn from their failures and move on. It's practice after all.I don't grade them. I critique, I praise, I make them do it over sometimes. But I don't grade it.
Now, this is not my term, not my idea. But it makes sense.
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From Libby:
I don't do homework. I haven't for two years. I won't again.
Yes, like Deb, I hated grading homework. But that's exactly what I did....assigned it and graded it.
8 out of 10.
5 out of 10.
0 out of 10.
Just numbers. And I did many of the same things Deb admitted to doing. Because bringing a box of Kleenex really relates to Spanish. (that was sarcasm)
The numbers at the top of the page meant nothing. When a student looks at the numbers and then asks if he can throw the paper away, there's a problem. Part of the reason I graded everything was because I thought I had to if I wanted students to complete it in order to learn it.
After I had been teaching Spanish for a year (taught English for 9 years and now in 3rd year of teaching Spanish), I noticed that I had numerous students who had an A in Spanish, but who in all actuality had retained only little amounts of knowledge.
This troubled me. It troubled me deeply.
So, I was pissed for awhile. I cried....thinking I was not good enough. Then I got over it. And I restructured my class....new ideas, new activities. (For the record, I still have improvements to make. Don't we all? I constantly make changes and try new things, new ways.)
And I really thought about what I wanted a student's grade to be. Really. thought. about. it.
I wanted students' grades to reflect how much of the content they learned during that unit and how well they could apply it. I stopped grading homework. I only graded assessments and I allowed students to reassess any activity in the assessment category. Literally, my gradebook has two categories: 100% assessment and 0% practice.
Let's discuss the 0% practice category. I still ask students to complete practice. These are writing, listening, reading, and speaking activities that are completed throughout the unit of study. I keep track of if students completed them, not how well students completed them. I give FEEDBACK on this practice: words of praise, words of correction, words of improvement, words of encouragement. Hopefully this feedback means more than silly numbers at the top of a page. The feedback during learning should be the purpose and reason for practice or homework. My theory: If I ask students to complete something, it had better be worthwhile and meaningful and they will receive feedback. If it isn't worthwhile and meaningful, then why are they doing it? But I don't grade it....ever....period. It's practice. I want students to try things, to be okay with not being perfect, or being confused initially. I want them to work through it without fear of punishment. I want students to ask questions. Reason #1.
Reason #2. Were the activities I was putting points on before really that meaningful and worthwhile that I needed to steal students' time outside of class? 99% of the time....nope. Let's face it....teenagers are busy. Heck kids of all ages are busy. They don't need to be spending 7+ hours at school only to go home and do endless hours of work that more often than not isn't meaningful. Some students are involved in activities or volunteering or work or have responsibilities at home and don't have the time and shouldn't have to make the time. And bottom line, kids deserve to be kids and have the time to do kid-things. My oldest daughter is a first grader. When she gets home at night, the last thing I want her doing is homework. I want to talk to her. I want her to relax and play and do things she loves. (Note this doesn't mean that she doesn't do homework if she has it. I just dislike it when she does....not that I tell her that.)
Reason #3: I teach Spanish in northeast, mainly Caucasian, Iowa. If I assign homework and students have questions or don't understand the concept, there is no one to help them at home. So they get frustrated and just simply don't do it...and receive 0 out of 10. Again, if the activities are meaningful and worthwhile, then they are worth class time where students can collaborate with each other and receive my guidance...you know the thing I'm getting paid to do. I would argue this is true about any subject at any grade level.
Last point: Remember I said I ask students to complete practice. I don't require it. Occasionally there comes a student who doesn't think she needs to do the practice, or only some of it. She picks and chooses. And that's fine. That's her choice. Legitimately some students don't need as much practice as others. There are those students who never do practice and still complete the summative assessment extremely well. Some students don't think they need to do the practice and will learn that it really will benefit them. But I firmly believe that is something students need to figure out themselves. Is it more meaningful to them to discover that on their own or to have me harping on them, breathing down their necks, and telling them so?
What is the purpose of homework in your room? Why do you give it...if you do? We would love to hear from you.
