What to do about homework...

There is an interesting post and series of comments about homework at The Daily Grind.

I agree that homework needs to be assigned every class period. But, like every teacher, I've struggled with how to best hold students accountable for not just completing it, but understanding it. In our freshmen math courses (Algebra 1, Numeracy), we give students full credit on an assignment if it is completed and turned in on time (we don't assess it for correctness at all). We also don't accept late work, unless students have an excused absence. The purpose of this is to build the ethic of doing homework and turning it in - as many students seem to come to high school with out having done much - if any - homework in the past. We are pretty successful at getting students to turn in their work by the end of freshman year. Getting them to really think about it, try hard on questions they don't understand, and seek help when they have difficulties is another thing altogether.

In my Algebra 2 course last year, I began the policy of assessing homework by spot grading 2 or 3 random problems daily, and giving that grade to the entire homework. I always made sure to include at least one of the more challenging problems. That way, if a student skipped a hard one (or did not put much effort into it), they would at best get half credit on the assignment. Overall, it seemed to work pretty well, and I often had students come in before class to get help on problems they didn't understand. This did, however, take a lot of time (about 15 - 20 minutes of my time per class); I would give them a self-paced Do Now at the beginning of each class and grade the assignments while they worked. I liked that this forced them to be more self-sufficient, because I refused to provide any help during that time. I was able to get immediate feedback on their progress from the previous class, and I was also able to give them immediate feedback (i.e. re-teaching a specific concept that many students had trouble with). While this was nice, it was also a stressful way to start each class. And sometimes, if the Do Now assignment was more difficult than I anticipated (or if I was feeling lazy), I wouldn't grade the homework right away - and then it would usually sit in my pile until I recycled it.

In my current summer Geometry course, I am trying a different tactic altogether. I am not grading (or even checking) their daily homework. Instead, I am giving a quiz first thing each day, where the questions are either identical to ones assigned for homework, or very closely related. It is a multiple choice quiz, and they take it on Scantrons - during their break, I grade them quickly, and this is a great way to provide us all with immediate feedback. It also will hopefully help prepare them for the high-stakes multiple choice tests that they will be plagued with (ACT, ELM, STAR, etc.). Now, I know I have some students who are not doing their homework, and yet are doing fine on the quizzes. I wonder if this is ok... if they are able to do it with out completing the homework, maybe that's fine... or maybe they are not getting important practice that will reinforce their understanding... I'm not really sure. My hope is that, if they see they do poorly on a quiz, that they will have enough ganas to go and complete the homework, with the understanding that the coming test will target those same skills, and will be worth many more points.

At the end of the summer, I plan on surveying the students and getting their feedback as to what was more effective for them (most of these students were in my Algebra 2 class last year). I hope to get some honest and useful answers from them. I'll post the results.

If anyone has other strategies they like for dealing with homework, please comment.