5.26.2016

#MTBos30: Homework Debacle Brainstorm


So I've been debacling about homework for a while now...

At our end of year meetings, our principal basically challenged us to increase the rigor in our courses. He showed grades of students in the same classes with high grades where one student missed 25-30 days and the other missed 1-3. How can student miss so much and still do so well? He also showed the grade distribution of our elementary, middle school, and high school. We have 30-39% with A's which shows a lot of inflation in our grades.

Simultaneously, I felt convicted for not giving homework but also indignant that I don't want to inflate grades with work they may or may not have done.

This is what I've come up with so far:

I'm going to give homework.
I'm going to post answers.
I'm not going to grade it.
I am going to record it.

This makes me feel the best overall. I am giving students extra practice. I am giving the students extra opportunities for learning. I am holding students accountable. I am preparing students for college.

I am not giving points for copying. I am not hassling students to finish or turn in papers. I am not spending hours grading. I am not inflating grades.

I remember reading someone's rule where they ask students to set the timer for 15 minutes. Work hard on homework for 15 minutes and then stop. I also like that. I do not want students sitting at home frustrated or crying over math.

I asked twitter for some advice on when to post answers to homework and here's some responses:


I'm thinking I will post them daily at 3:15.

Here's where I would like some help. The middle school math teacher does something similar. Homework is not graded but the next day there is a homework quiz over the exact same problems. So if a students does the homework, they are prepared for the quiz. If a student doesn't need to do the homework, they aren't punished for that and they can still do well on the quiz.

I hate grading. So I'm thinking only one problem for the quiz and still have regular quizzes? Or should I do those on a daily basis and eliminate other quizzes?

Maybe even have students answer it in Google Classroom once I figure out how to make it grade it for me?

What benefits and advantages do you see to this method?

20 comments:

  1. This is a similar dilemma with me, us, our school. Our department agrees on what percent to assign homework by course, and it decreases as you get higher in math. I love the idea of the daily quizzes, where it works if you need the practice or don't. We had a teacher that rolled a die, odd it wasn't graded but recorded, even it was collected, graded, recorded.
    I still don't have the magic bullet for practice vs. me doing ALL that paper managing and reporting. Will keep checking back for good ideas!

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    1. I had a college professor who had students draw a card out of a deck and face cards meant it got graded.

      I'm just not ever going to grade homework. I do want to provide extra practice. This is my compromise.

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    2. I used Khan Academy for homework. I assigned sections that would give students practice on topics we worked on in class. I could recommend topics then look at how much time they spent on them and whether they were struggling. I required 15 min per night and graded them based on how much time they spent. Since they have to get the correct answer and get 5 correct to move on, I don't have to worry about grading them but can focus instead on where they are struggling or how I can help them with more advanced topics when they understand the material easily. I work at an international school and most of my students don't speak English well and aren't fluent with math terms. Khan Academy has captions on all their videos which helps my students understand how to use the words and what they mean. I think I'll continue using this next year.

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  2. Next year if I give math homework that will be graded it will be a written assignment. It will allow me to tap into student thinking and hopefully prevent copying since it is one's thoughts.

    I like the idea of giving practice problems that won't be graded with solutions posted. I plan to use Schoology next year so I can post solutions there.

    The quizzes based on homework questions is also a great idea because it eliminates the need to create a question bank with thousands of questions.

    On another note: How do you allow absent students to make up assignments for in class activities? Do you grades those type of assignments or are they exploration type activities?

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    1. The thing about written homework is that you definitely have to read it. That takes up more time. I'm wanting to offer extra practice to hopefully make class practice go a little faster.

      I only grade quizzes and tests. In class activities are practice and are for learning. They miss out on that practice but can copy it from others so they have something to look back at. They can come in on my plan period if they want me to explain things to them. If we are taking a quiz that day, I will go to their desk and practice some problems individually while others have already started the quiz. I highly recommend students not miss my class. =)

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  3. Thank you so much for posting this! I am struggling with some of the very same issues. I think that grades where I teach are way too inflated. I counted HW as 15% this year, but I am only doing 5% next year. However, I have a question. What do you mean by grade vs. record? Maybe I'm overthinking this. We are also going to Google Classroom next year, so please let us know if you figure out for Google Classroom to grade it. :) Thanks!

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    1. By record I just mean marking if they did it or not. By grade I mean checking the work and assigning points to it. I do not want to give points for work students may or may not have done.

      By keeping a record of how often they did the homework, I can hold them accountable and have something to show parents/students who complain about not enough practice or low grades. See this great post about homework accountability: https://t.co/XcLMBy2UY1

      Apparently the Flubaroo add-on is the most popular way to grade things though Google Classroom. I'm also looking forward to experimenting with goformative.com

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    2. I made the same switch this year--giving but not grading HW because I felt like they were missing the purpose of it. I have them staple whatever practice they did to the quiz (and I don't grade the HW). Then it requires no class time at all to record if it was done or not. But it's still there for documentation for parents if we need to see if they were studying or not.

      As a side note, if they want to do a retake, I MAKE them turn in a completed set of practice problems before they can retake.

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    3. Great idea about retakes! Maybe I will steal that.

      Do you mean staple the homework to the quiz when you say practice? If a quiz spans 3 hw assignments would they staple all 3?

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    4. I experimented with goformative.com this year. I really liked it. So many good features!

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  4. I don't usually call it homework though. I call it practice problems for the quiz. Because there are times when I ask them to do it in class and homework carries a different connotation.

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  5. My team is going to try like you are, no grades for HW and giving 1-2 problem quizzes as the do now every class. But kids will complete the quizzes in a blue book so we won't put a grade on it until the end of the week. Regular length quiz, split up over a few days!

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    1. Will this replace 'regular' quizzes?

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    2. Yes. There will still be regular tests but all quizzes will be broken into small bits and given at the start of class. Fingers crossed we can make it work!

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    3. I'm sure it won't be. Guess: definitely not on test day. Probably almost all other days. But we have class 90 minutes every other day so that's only 2-3 days per week, so 2-6 questions per week. That seems reasonable. Hopefully?

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  6. I basically give out homework every day Monday through Thursday, then give my students a Homework Quiz on Fridays that they can use their homework on, and turn everything in all at once. My quizzes consist of questions very similar to the homework just a couple numbers changed. I still give credit for completing homework assignments, but it's not worth much. Also, it's nice that I don't have to worry about grading during the week, and it's just limited to weekends so that I can focus on planning during the week. It's also nice that the kids have some freedom for when they complete the homework, since they're very busy outside of school with extracurriculars (sports is a major part of this small school). Still tweaking it to figure out the best way for this, but it worked out pretty well this year!

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    1. I like the idea of only giving quizzes once a week. How did you incorporate test days? How many questions were on the quiz?

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    2. I generally would give tests on Fridays as well, so at the end of the unit I would review Wednesday and give them their review assignment that is due Friday when they walk in the door, and then take the test. The quizzes would have less than 10 questions, normally only about 5. I try to give one question per type of problem they had on their homework.

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