kitchen table math, the sequel: survey

Friday, June 1, 2007

survey

How many teachers collect and correct math homework these days?

Do we know?
Posted by at

27 comments:

concernedCTparent said...

I was just discussing this only recently. I haven't seen very many corrections come home or work that needs to be redone this year as I would expect. I am particularly concerned with this as it applies to the teaching of writing.

I clearly recall having to submit multiple drafts that came back with corrections, required further details or clarifications or sometimes even needed to be scrapped altogether only to start over again. This process started early in my education and carried on even at the university level. It made me a better writer.

My daughter, on the other hand, had an important report due that the students were to work on entirely at school and typed up in the computer lab during the time allotted for the class. I don't believe any drafts were ever submitted to the teacher for review, no proofreading was done by a second party, and that whole editing, rewriting process was skipped altogether. A really good opportunity to teach was lost.

The school year is almost over, and I haven't seen any writing come back with proofreading marks or requiring rewriting. For most of the year they are satisfied to ask multiple choice questions with short answers and canned responses which are similar to those they would need to write on a standardized exam. As long as you fill in the correct bubble and "restate the question" in your response, it's proficient enough, apparently.

Even when it comes to math, I recall, for example, teachers going through the equation to find out exactly where the breakdown in application occurred. Because it is important to know when a student understands the concept but merely made a "silly error" as compared to when a student really does not understand. Sometimes a wrong answer can say so much about how much a student does or does not understand.

So while homework is still collected and homework "notices" sent home for missed assignments, it is corrected mostly when it's a job easily done by an aide. When it comes to correcting a problem that requires deeper analysis, however, I don't see the level of constructive comments that I recall seeing when I was in elementary school.

June 1, 2007 at 1:38 PM
Catherine Johnson said...

oh gosh, writing!

that's another whole realm....

June 1, 2007 at 1:47 PM
Catherine Johnson said...

One of the kids here had a paper come back with the comment "Not bad" on it.

June 1, 2007 at 1:47 PM
Catherine Johnson said...

So while homework is still collected and homework "notices" sent home for missed assignments, it is corrected mostly when it's a job easily done by an aide. When it comes to correcting a problem that requires deeper analysis, however, I don't see the level of constructive comments that I recall seeing when I was in elementary school.

That's what I see, and C. is in 7th grade.

We're meeting with the asst superintendent in charge of curriculum next week.

June 1, 2007 at 1:49 PM
Catherine Johnson said...

Love your blog!!

June 1, 2007 at 1:49 PM
Karen A said...

concernedctparent--

I love your blog as well! Keep it up! Today's post about "work ethic" is excellent!

June 1, 2007 at 1:54 PM
Karen A said...

My 8th grader has been in Algebra this year and it has been a positive experience. The teacher explains the concepts and the kids also do problems in class. They quite often have homework as well.

The teacher goes over the homework the next day in class and the students are to correct their homework (in a red pen, I think).

Before every chapter test, the teacher collects and grades the homework for that chapter. If the required corrections haven't been made, you don't get full homework points.

There are online quizzes for each chapter as well; the textbook is one that Catherine has mentioned favorably before (I can't think of the name of it).

June 1, 2007 at 2:00 PM
Catherine Johnson said...

When I asked my Scarsdale friend how they teach writing in Scarsdale she said, "My kids write a paper and I go over it with them."

June 1, 2007 at 2:00 PM
Catherine Johnson said...

Glencoe, probably.

June 1, 2007 at 2:00 PM
Catherine Johnson said...

OK, we've got one parent who has homework correction; two parents (counting me) who don't.

June 1, 2007 at 2:00 PM
Karen A said...

I just checked--it is Glencoe!

June 1, 2007 at 4:18 PM
Unknown said...

I teach 3rd grade. I sit down and grade 90% of the math homework that is turned in, including showing the correct bars and method of working out the word problems.

Our school uses Singapore Math and we ability group at 4 levels. This year, I taught the highest ability group and last week had to choose who goes on to the competitive math group for fourth grade. Homework was a big factor in selecting those students.

Lest you think we are too hard on 3rd graders, I should point out that homework counts only toward a student's "effort" grade on our report cards and classwork and testing makes up the "achievement" portion.

June 1, 2007 at 4:34 PM
Anonymous said...

Not only is my son's math homework ungraded/uncorrected, but there's almost none of it in the first place. I just went through his assignment notebook (judiciously maintained by order of the teacher) and noted a total of four math homework assignments during the entire school year. Catherine, your mantra, "it's always worse than you think," comes to mind.

Cheryl vT

June 1, 2007 at 6:01 PM
concernedCTparent said...

Okay Cassy, I'm sending my kids to your school! Singapore Math, grouping by ability and graded homework. Oh my! It's amzing that such a place actually exists.

June 1, 2007 at 6:20 PM
SteveH said...

"Okay Cassy, I'm sending my kids to your school!"

We're on our way too.

There was a lot of self-correcting in my son's Everyday Math class. I think the teacher only graded the tests.

June 1, 2007 at 6:56 PM
Anonymous said...

my son corrected his first grade teacher ...

made me laugh when he told me the story

best part was his little grin when he told it

especially when he said "she was wrong"

June 1, 2007 at 9:34 PM
Dan Wekselgreene said...

Hi Catherine,

I got your email - thanks for checking out my blog. It's true that we don't expect parents to help students with homework at DCP - almost none have gone to college, and a large percent did not finish high school or elementary school. Students come in at 9th grade without having had to do much homework in middle school - they don't value it, and they don't know how to do it (or why they should). As a school, we believe that learning to do homework is a critical part in our students' road to becoming actual college prep students. We have also learned that changing such ingrained behavior requires systematic, sustained efforts. All teachers in every subject are expected to assign homework in every class. We are also mandated to assess homework (though it is up to the teacher to figure out how that is best to be done for each class). Students have homework checkers that we sign off on each time an assignment is not completed; when 2 homeworks are missed the family receives a post card notice; when more are missed there are phone calls home and parent meetings. We have had a lot of success in getting our students to start doing homework.

That being said, I can see why teachers in other schools avoid checking and correcting homework. Doing this in class eats away at the precious time needed to develop and practice concepts. Additionally, because turn-in rates are so low, reviewing homework is difficult. Those who did do it probably don't need to review it, and those who didn't aren't getting much out of it. Then, the lesson is rushed, the new concept is not learned, and the cycle continues.

Actually grading work is not sustainable given class sizes. Think about it - if you see 100 students a day, even spending 1 minute per assignment is over an hour and a half - time you'd spend on top of grading assessments, planning lessons, making phone calls, having meetings, and so on.. I start the day at 8 am and never leave school before 6 - and often am at work until 7 or 8.. and this is true for many of my colleagues (part of the reason is that our school day ends at 5). So these realities have forced me to really think about what homework is and how it should be used.

I developed a new system this year which has worked pretty well. My students come into class, and the first thing they must do is check their homework (only right or wrong) against the answers I have on the overhead. (Sometimes, I give a solution key with worked out problems instead, if I think the assignment warrants it.) They have about 3 or 4 minutes to do this. As that is happening, I pass around a tally sheet where students indicate what problems they really need help on. When they are done checking, I collect the tally sheet, look to see which problems have the most marks, and present 2 or 3 of them, depending on time. After this, I select 5 problems to be scored (students don't know which ahead of time) - they get 2 points for each problem that is completely correct, and 0 otherwise. To encourage them to go back and review their work, they earn back any lost points on the assignment if they show me the corrections during the following class. This whole process lasts from 10 - 15 minutes (out of an 80 minute block), and then I check their scores and corrections while they are working on the warm-up activity that follows. So far, this is the most efficient way I've found to successfully deal with homework.

Additionally, students know that they can come to see me before school, during tutorial, or during pair work time if they still need more help on a particular problem. This is critical for many students; this is also what separates the regular from the honors students at DCP. Honors students seek me out for extra help in much greater proportions. But I guess that would be true anywhere.

I hope that answers some of your questions. Let me know if there's anything else I can tell you. And, feel free to email me if you need any tips on teaching Algebra 2 concepts.

June 1, 2007 at 10:07 PM
Tex said...

In my daughter’s 4th grade class, they check homework consistently. She gets help with incorrect answers.

In my son’s 9th grade honors math class, most (not all) homework is checked in class. Answers are reviewed and students get explanations on troublesome problems. Also, teacher is available 4 days a week for after-school help.

June 2, 2007 at 4:25 AM
? said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
June 2, 2007 at 7:30 AM
? said...

I started this year using the Gambill method. For one class, I was their Ms. K.

After one too many phone calls suggesting I should learn how to teach, I threw in the towel and went back to the "traditional" method of teaching. Mark yesterday's work, teach the concept, provide examples, and given them their homework. The kids who were doing poorly instantly improved. It was truly a miracle, 30% quiz averages became 95% homework averages.

Along comes the unit test and the class average takes a nose dive. I used the same test from last year and I am still scrating my head over the 23% drop in class average.

When I compared the quiz marks from last year to the homework marks of this group, they are very similar.

I started using the Gambill Method with one of the two classes for our current unit. The homework average and the quiz average between the two classes are similar. It shall be interesting to see the test results.

June 2, 2007 at 7:34 AM
Catherine Johnson said...

Dan! Thanks!!

Smartest Tractor Can you tell us more about why parents complained??

(Dan - have you seen Carol Gambill's method? I would be thrilled if my school would use that. I don't care what they do with homework AS LONG AS THE KIDS CAN CHECK THEIR WORK. My school doesn't collect homework, doesn't correct homework, AND WON'T ALLOW KIDS TO HAVE AN ANSWER KEY.)

June 2, 2007 at 7:36 AM
Catherine Johnson said...

CASSY

WE'RE MOVING.

June 2, 2007 at 7:36 AM
Unknown said...

Before anyone starts checking with movers - I should let you know that my charter school has a wait list 60+ students long through 4th grade. We had parents lining up 5 days before registration. And yet, many parents complain when we assign ANY homework!

I'm off to Singapore next month on a math summer program with our school math coach who trains teachers across the world on using the Singapore curriculum. We're visiting elementary & secondary schools and the National Institute of Education. I'll ask those teachers how they handle homework and let you know.

June 2, 2007 at 9:15 AM
VickyS said...

Before anyone starts checking with movers - I should let you know that my charter school has a wait list 60+ students long through 4th grade.

We have a charter school like that in my neck of the woods, too. It's a math and science school, and in addition to the great math, the science is taught using the approach Exo described (given/equation/solution/answer).

It has a waiting list of over 120 kids for the 50 spots in the entering class (6th grade)...

June 2, 2007 at 10:07 PM
Catherine Johnson said...

Cassy---Can you write some posts for us about teaching Singapore Math?

Or anything else??

June 3, 2007 at 7:10 AM
? said...

Can you tell us more about why parents complained??

Math was too boring and the students couldn't talk to each other while they worked.

The complaint I enjoyed the most was about the daily quiz was too difficult. You know, the daily quiz taken from the problems they had the night before with the solutions provided on the Internet. I must mention some of these grade eight kids are still adding using their fingers and they have difficulty multiplying single digit numbers.

I ran the numbers by the boss and she gave the thumbs up to teach and assess the classes in different ways. I guess I will see the results in a week when they write their ratios and rates unit test.

June 3, 2007 at 7:40 AM
Anonymous said...

I started teaching calculus in January - the teacher who taught the first semester decided to leave the island. I collected and graded homework, but I allowed my students to turn in the homework after I had solved the problems on the board. I had been warned about senior-itis and I wanted to have the students at least pay attention to the methods I used for solving each problem. So I thought that the carrot of an easy A on the homework portion would keep them interested.

I had the goal of getting them to an AP Calculus BC level by the end of the year (I like to aim high) and we got to everything but Taylor and Maclaurin series. The class was not AP, but I thought the students could do that level of work.

With the benefit of experience, I will make next year's students do the homework and hand it in before I show them the solutions, but I will definitely work each problem on the board. They need to see the solutions to get the appropriate feedback if homework is to have its biggest value. As my daughter's Tae Kwan Do instructors say, "It's not just practice that makes perfect, it's perfect practice that make perfect."

June 4, 2007 at 8:53 PM

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