Search

Homework...the eternal question...

Homework - I feel like math students need homework - they need to practice things I have taught them.  They need to try it on their own without watching me do it.  How many of us have had students say - I totally get it when you do it, but I am really stuck on my own.

But, for most students, in order for them to do it, I need to grade it - at least somehow.  I suppose that's fair enough - they put in the effort, I should reinforce their effort by recognizing it.  But, they hate doing it...they copy...they do just enough to get by.  How do I get kids to recognize that practice is important and give it their all like this...


and not like this...



And the truth is...I hate going over homework.  I don't mind explaining things that kids that really tried didn't get, but I hate reading all the answers and then doing problems for people that didn't try anyway. Ughh...it's a struggle.

What I usually do is walk around the room and give students 5 points for having an attempt at every problem in front of them.  If they don't do their homework at all, I give them 0 out of 5 points.  They can earn somewhere between 0 and 5 points by having some of their homework.  I like this method because it rewards kids for doing it without me having to collect a whole bunch of papers that I don't really have a lot of time to deal with every single day.  However, it also doesn't separate out the kids that copied and the kids that actually did everything.  I have always figured that the kids that actually do  the homework will do better on test day and it will all get separated out in the end.

So, I put the question to you blog readers...help me get the year started right.  How do you encourage and deal with homework in your middle or high school math classroom?

No comments

Post a Comment