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I personally don't agree with requiring notes. Not everyone needs to take them, and those that need to but don't should have to face the consequences. I never even took notes in college. Some people have good memories. However, if students don't take them but don't remember the material it's on them. We need personal responsibility back into the world.
I personally don't agree with requiring notes. Not everyone needs to take them, and those that need to but don't should have to face the consequences. I never even took notes in college. Some people have good memories. However, if students don't take them but don't remember the material it's on them. We need personal responsibility back into the world.
The problem with this is that I'm required to get a certain percentage of my students to passing before I can move on in material. If I didn't require notes and homework to be turned in, few students would do either and many of them need to in order to pass. Today's kids have not been raised to face the consequences of their own actions. It's always someone elses fault when they fail. While I agree they should face the consequences, reality is if I don't make sure they do it, it won't get done and the kids who will suffer the most will be the ones who did the work or didn't need to as they will have to sit through a repeat of the material before we can move on.
Homework in my district counts as 10% of the marking period grade. I teach 4th grade and have always had the belief that homework should not officially be graded because some kids have nobody at home to help them and some have parents that do the entire homework assignment. Not really fair. What I've done the past few year, and it seems to be working, is to give students 20 points per night for an assignment being done. For example, I give math homework every night. If a child does their homework for the week, they get 100% for that week that is averaged into their homework grade.
I make sure I am very clear in the beginning of the year about the purpose of homework and how I don't care if everything is perfect but that it's their way of knowing if they understand the concept that was taught that day in class. We go over the homework together the next day so they can self check and ask questions. I mark in my gradebook whether it was done, but I never collect the papers. Saves a lot of time.
I like that. How do you check to see that it's done? Do you enter the grade during class or do you keep a separate list? I'd love to not collect homework. That would mean going over it with it still in their hands and they could correct their own mistakes.
I like that. How do you check to see that it's done? Do you enter the grade during class or do you keep a separate list? I'd love to not collect homework. That would mean going over it with it still in their hands and they could correct their own mistakes.
Oddly enough, my math teachers never graded homework. They collected it and marked if we turned it in or not. Of course, in my pre-calculus class, all we had to do was turn in it before the end of the semester.
Oddly enough, my math teachers never graded homework. They collected it and marked if we turned it in or not. Of course, in my pre-calculus class, all we had to do was turn in it before the end of the semester.
Sounds like what some of the AP classes do at my school. That would not work for my classes.
Sounds like what some of the AP classes do at my school. That would not work for my classes.
It didn't really work for us either. Most kids did it right before the semester was over to get the grade. Many kids just wrote the problems down since it wasn't looked at, also.
It didn't really work for us either. Most kids did it right before the semester was over to get the grade. Many kids just wrote the problems down since it wasn't looked at, also.
Unfortunately, the value of doing homework diminishes over time. Doing it after the test is less effective than doing it before the test. It's still useful if you're having a cummulative final but not if you don't actually do the problems.
One of my problems now is I don't have time to grade everything and homework just gets a check. I have students who aren't even trying and it shows on their tests then they want to tell me I need to reteach the material to them. I tell them to come see me after school but they never do. What they want is for me to keep teaching the same thing until they get it by osmosis.
Here's what I used to do about homework. I had my students do bellwork at the start of every class. When the bell rang, they had to be seated, started on their bellwork, and have their completed homework sitting out on their desk. I walked around the room with a clipboard and a roster. If they were in compliance, then they got a check mark - right then and there. If they were not in compliance, they got an "X". It also doubled as a good time to take attendance. After bellwork was over, I had them take out a red pen and correct their answers as we went over homework and bellwork. I collected it all at test time, and all I had to do was check to see if they were correcting their work and convert that initial checkmark to a grade. Having them start on something at the immediate beginning of class combined with walking around the room also worked wonders with overall classroom management.
Here's what I used to do about homework. I had my students do bellwork at the start of every class. When the bell rang, they had to be seated, started on their bellwork, and have their completed homework sitting out on their desk. I walked around the room with a clipboard and a roster. If they were in compliance, then they got a check mark - right then and there. If they were not in compliance, they got an "X". It also doubled as a good time to take attendance. After bellwork was over, I had them take out a red pen and correct their answers as we went over homework and bellwork. I collected it all at test time, and all I had to do was check to see if they were correcting their work and convert that initial checkmark to a grade. Having them start on something at the immediate beginning of class combined with walking around the room also worked wonders with overall classroom management.
I think I'm going to steal that. Thanks. That would save me handling all the papers I just give a check mark for anyway.
Because if I tell my students I'm not going to collect/grade something, they fold their hands and sit back in their seats and do nothing. They see no value in doing anything they don't get a grade for. I'm stuck and can't go on in the material until I get a high enough percentage of students passing.
Well, frankly, if the teacher doesn't care, I can absolutely see why the kids wouldn't.
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