Reflections On Homework
May 14
I have been grading journals almost all weekend. I am realizing that this is not going to work if I am going to be a teacher. It takes so much time! But at the same time, there are positives too:
For Journals
Keeps students work
Running log
Reference
Gives students ownership
No daily homework correcting
Less likely to throw away work
Against
Grading a hassle
No daily turned in work
Students forget to include some papers
Students forget to bring journals
Stamping a hassle
So if I decide not to do journals, I guess I would either create worksheets (not going to work next year because we will have a class set of CMP) or have them turn in separate sheets of paper. Daily turned in work would also give me a chance to check out the misconceptions that may need to be addressed. Or I could just stamp them with no turn in, but that is going too far I think.
May 18
I thought third and fourth periods were going well, but when I went through their homework, I realized that we had to review some things. We needed to discuss how to find the base and then the height of triangles. I did not realize how hard it was for them to determine the base on rotated shapes, so we talked about how the base had to be a side. We also discussed the strategy in choosing which side should be the base. It was good that I noticed this difficulty when I was grading homework, because they really needed that discussion. Just another great reason to actually grade homework and not just stamp/check them off.
June
I have learned that the constant paper work is a pain. The choice of collecting daily work versus weekly journals was a tough one, but I think that daily homework is best, with more general reflection questions going in the journal. I think that the journal should not be a graded assignment, but more of a reference that they can use for quizzes. This also lets the kids turn in the homework that they worked on the night before to get credit, allowing me to see their progress and assess their understanding. How to grade these is a completely different problem. Completeness or correctness? I usually did completeness, but looked over a few problems for correctness too. I still have not decided on a good way to do this yet.
September 28
I am still debating about the math reflection questions. I assigned them as homework last time, but they never got their answers checked before the quiz, so what is the point? I think if I make them homework, they should be gone over. I liked the jigsaw activity that we tried a while ago, because they actually got to discuss the right answers. Then I do not have to worry about having their misconceptions continue through quizzes.
My CT thought about having the kids keep all their homework until the end of each investigation. They would then have it all to help complete other homeworks and use on the quiz. After the quiz, they would staple it all together and turn it in. To make sure they did the work, we would stamp for completeness everyday. This gives us less paper to handle and only one pass in time.
This idea would involve redoing our organization technique. We would have to scrap the dividers in our math notebook, so that all current work stays together. We would also get rid of the multiple assignment sheets. But the kids are using them so well, we thought we would wait until the end of the unit to try it.
November 19
My CT suggested that I work on a system where I would not have to grade any papers this week. I do not see that happening though! I have written some keys for the TA's, but there are some things I simply have to grade myself! I have even been feeling a little out of it since she had been grading the eighth graders' work. I feel like I have no idea how they are doing. I did get a good picture from looking at the quizzes though.
The daily grind of teaching is growing on me. It is hard to get through Thursdays and Fridays sometimes. I am so sleep-deprived by then that I need to sleep in a lot on Saturday morning. But even then, I would like to go in to the school to get some work done for next week. These things, these little tasks, never end. The piles of work needing grading, or the assignment sheet in the back of the room needing updates, or the file system needing to be organized, or the photocopying - they never end! It is a constant struggle to get through it all sometimes, but somehow I do - and I keep on coming back for more… sometimes earlier the next day than the day before.
December 5
Grading papers has gone smoother lately, because I have found a pretty efficient technique. I have the TA's check the easy answers (numbers), mark those that are wrong, and write the correct answers in. Then I can take all the work, glance over the corrected answers, and check the more complicated responses. It makes life so much easier to not have to deal with the grunt work. I need to remind myself that I cannot and should not do it all!
Entry Slip #8
Portfolio Index