too many choices...
(warning: this blog is intended more to clarrify my own thoughts about procedures than to provide interesting reading for you guys when you probably have something better to do. so if you aren't my mom, you can stop reading now. love you mom.)
we've gotten so much advice in the last two months, from professors, second years, ben, veteran teachers, books and articles, that no matter what one person may have said, you'll be sure that someone has said the opposite. exactly the opposite. which is fine, and which is why everyone makes sure to stress that what he or she is telling us is simply what worked for them (or if they are telling you something not to do, it's just what didn't work for them). Sometimes, it makes life very difficult, but I wouldn't choose to have missed out on any of the advice, because there are so many good ideas, even if I end up faced with too many choices.
For example, while trying to come up with my procedures, I've run aground when trying to determine what is going to be handed in, how it will be handed in, what will be graded and how it will be graded. I'm talking primarily about DoNow problems, classwork, and homework. Some people don't give homework. They teach english, and math is a whole different beast. I plan on assigning homework almost every night (I'll give them Friday's off). For me, it is an issue of high expectations. Everyone drills into you that high expectations are important, and so I expect students to do homework every night. It's unthinkable, to me, that a math teacher back home would not assign homework and so I'll assign homework here, for sure. but i really don't want to grade it all. and i'm lucky. because of the block setup, i'll only have at most 90 kids, more realistically 75 or 80; some people will have twice that.
but what am i going to do with the homework? when and how will i collect it, what assignments will i grade, how will i grade them (for completion, for accuracy? checks, ABC's, percents?)
My first thought was that I would have bins or folders, and when students entered the room, they'd just drop the homework in the bin for their class. Fine, but what do I do will all the homework? Just check for completion and hand it back? Grade one for accuracy?
Ms. Cornelius has a great system, in which she rolls a die at the end of the week, and whatever the die lands on, 1-4, that is the day's homework they have to turn in, and then she'll grade it. if it's a 5 she rolls again, and if it's a six, they get a freebie. That seems like a decent idea.
Ben doesn't give homework at all, but he has a great folder system. Even though I think we have very dfferent teaching styles, I think I could steal his folder. Wouldn't it be great if everyone got a folder at the begining of class that had any worksheets that they were going to do that day in it, and they put their homework from the night before in it before they left class. then, the next day, when they got their folders back, the homework would be in the back, with either a check for completion or a grade for accuracy, with the other homeworks. this folder could even, and should, include the DoNow problems, all on a seperate sheet of paper.
Hmm. Ms. Cornelius' system could have all my students waiting until Thursday night to do all the homework, which I don't want. I want a way to check so that my kids know I'll know whether they're keeping up or not. of course, i'll be able to tell in class, but they don't know that. The folder system, though, if I adapted it for homework, would give kids the chance to be working on their homework during class, while I was lecturing or while we were doing something else. If the folders were only the homework and the DoNow problems, then I could collect them after the DoNow problems were finished, but that might be really disruptive. And what about studying? I want students to be able to study from their homework. I could let them take the folders home... Thursday night to study for Friday quizzes and tests, but I don't want to send the message that you only study the night before a test, even though that's all i ever did.
Keep is Simple, Stupid.
If they actually do all their homework thursday night, fine. they'll have done it before the test/quiz. so after talking to a few other teachers in the hall (one of the only good things about living in the dorm, here's the idea. go back to the basic idea of binders, and keep the dice. don't give them any freebies. 1-4 will be monday - thursday, 5 will be the week's DoNows, and 6 will be roll again. Maybe a pair of sixes will be a freebie. that's 1/36, so probably it would happen once for one of my classes per nine weeks.
So now, my kids have binders. this was what I had been thinking about a few weeks ago. Binders. One section for notes. One section for DoNow problems. One section for homework. One section for tests/quizzes (those that I don't keep on file). One for handouts (good call dave). So, notes, handouts, DoNow, homework, quizzes. Five sections. Not unrealistic. This way, I'll only be grading, at most, 90 homework assignments per week. Should I check for completion of the rest of them? Someone suggested checking them during the quiz. Every week give them a grade for completion (20 points for each assignment completed) and a grade for accuracy, based on the one homework I take?
What about if a student is absent? This seems really tricky. But if everything is in their binders, they can get both the homework and the DoNow from someone else in the class. Handouts from me (maybe hang them on the wall under a sign (yesterday's handouts). This is fine if a student misses any day but a thursday or a friday. If Orangejello misses a Thurday, he won't have had a chance to figure out what he was supposed to do for Friday, so if a DoNow or Thursday's homework gets called, what does he do? And if he misses Friday? He has to make up the quiz or test before or after school, or during my planning period. Alright, sounds like a plan. If anyone actually reads this garbage, just stop and think of what you might have been able to accomplish during that time. You could have made your own classroom management plan.
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2 comments:
With the folder system anytime someone missed a day his folder was still passed out and any worksheets would be put in his folder. When he came back all of the material he missed was right there.
What are you going to do if half the kids don't do their homework?
Homework - oh the memories! I used to give homework to my students, and some of it was really graded, and some of it was just checked off that the student attempted every question/problem and turned it in (on time). Other times, I would assign 20 problems (let's say units conversions or something similar), but only grade half of them as part of the grade and the other half were graded based on attempted/not attempted, or things like that. I never let them know which assignments would be graded which way, so there was always incentive to do it.
I also had a policy of no late work, but that was really bunk - if a student didn't turn his/her work in but took the time to come explain to me why, I would always consider taking the late work at a 10% per day penalty with a cap of 50%, but after one week, no late work was allowed. It was sort of fun to let the kids think they were pulling something over on me.
And remember that kids love grading papers - it's always fun to let them grade their own work or trade papers with a classmate, if you have a class that will cooperate (not always the case), and once they have marked right/wrong, it is easier to go back and give partial credit if/when necessary/desired.
Anyway, Good Luck!
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