Context is not enough. The power of sentence fragments, the need to be oh-so careful....

Was reminded again how powerful the teacher can be for evil (by mistake).  Often I talk about the need in my calculus class for students to study and make sure they treat the course like the college class it is (4 credits - is 8-12 hours per week in 1 semester, we do it over 2 semesters - so 4-6 hours per week).

But I accidentally ended a sentence with "you cannot get an A in this course."  And that is what is remembered.  Now that ending sentence fragment was part of a speech that you need to study to do well.  And the whole sentence that ended the speech was "If you do not study, you cannot get an A in this course."

But that is not what gets remembered.  I made sure to correct it and made sure students understood that everyone in the course can get an A.  And I reflected on how I talk about studying and Calculus - knowing now it would be better to say "If you do not study, it makes this course extremely difficult typically" or something like that. 

It is the details that count and we must remember the power we, teachers, have.  And even after a decade I still trip up.  That is why reflection is so important....

So to all my calculus students - studying is important and As are completely possible.

Homework questions & dilemmas --- reflections on Cathy Vatterott's Rethinking Homework

A teacher/friend/co-worker of mine is reading "Rethinking Homework: Best Practices That Support Diverse Needs" by Cathy Vatterott for a class and was asked to get some people to answer some questions for her.  I have read the book and it is one of many that has moved me from being a believer that homework is mandatory to learn math, to the idea that it is an assistance (when done in the right context), but not a necessity.

The questions are bold - my reply follows.

What is your philosophy of homework?  What do you consider the role/purpose of homework? 
It is practice.  In a perfect world it should be individualized and time based versus number of problems based.  Meaning strugglers do less problems, different problems, "easier" problems.

I also believe new material should not be practiced at home - it needs to be done under the expert (the teacher).    (Comparing homework to my previous life -- homework is low level paperwork)

At the HS level I don't think homework teaches responsibility at all (I doubt it for all grade levels), it may teach a little about consequences (And again in the real world you are not punished for skipping some "homework" - skipping some low level work can be important, and for me personally it resulted in promotion -- skip good, do great)

And finally - if homework is low level - how much time should I or my students put into it?  Until you reach a high level of math - my answer is not much.  At high level classes with a quicker pace, it is needed that students do some learning on their own (sort of like college) but for the traditional K-8, Algebra 1, Geometry, and Algebra 2 sequence I don't think asking students to learn "themselves" is a good idea.

What are your struggles with homework?
If I assign homework - I should look at it (theoretically) but that is impossible (20 problems, 100 students is 2000 problems per day, at 8 seconds per problem is over 4 hours!).  Not checking homework is my largest struggle, but checking it in class is a waste; you know 5 students watch (who got them all) and 25 are in the twilight zone.   I know there is only so much of me and it is impossible to do it all - homework's return on my investment is simply not enough.  I also struggle to do good differentiation on homework assignments -- that is why I am looking into more computer based practice programs (see below).


What do you think about grading or not grading homework?

I feel practice should not be graded for a score (I give a couple of points for "completed" work, which ends up being only about 1% of the student's grade).  But as the teacher it is important for me to know that students are learning from their mistakes and correcting when doing homework.  That is why with paper and pencil homework I always provide the solutions, which a lot of students still don't check! (Ha!)  That is why I am pushing towards more on-line, have to be correct to move on type of homework.  My plan is to use Khan Academy heavily this coming school year.  But errors must be okay and homework is where they should occur.

What do you think?  Homework is one of the hardest parts of being a math teacher - go ahead and write me a comment, or a drop me a note.

Homework - How much does it matter?

So it is final exam time at my school, we are coming into summer, so it is summative assessment time!  So I will start grading finals shortly (or my student teacher will) and it will indicate how Juda is doing with respect to math education - according to the world (I measure myself and my students by a whole different set of metrics - basically performance following HS.)

When I started teaching eight years ago, I taught how I was taught.  We reviewed homework, graded homework, introduced a concept and started homework.  I was the boss, it was their job.  And what they could recall for final was typically not good.  But that was teaching, then - now.... 

Now I never take homework problems in class, no grading, no chasing - homework has minimal value.  And if I gave 2014 finals to my students of yesteryear only a few would pass.

I get over 7000 minutes per year to teach math to a student (42 minutes/class * 170 classes).  How much time is needed to teach Algebra or Geometry?  Some practice must occur outside of class but how much?  Is 10% enough - that would be only 5 minutes per class period of homework, maybe 30% - that is only 15 minutes.  So when I hear of an hour of homework I think about how brilliant of students they must be.

But it is the summer that shows what the student has really learned, what they really know.  The first assessment on "old skills" in September with little to no review shows what they truly know and understand.

And what do they know after a summer off?

My old students doing lots of homework needed lots of review -- basically an entire quarter.  The students where I started bell-to-bell teaching, extremely limited homework and time outside of class is doing projects (essays, powerpoints, etc) - get just a couple of weeks.   And they perform well.

So I am sitting at the end of year and the start of summer of curriculum planning where I must reflect on the question "How much does homework help students?"

Path of least resistance

The path of least resistance is not only for power but it is also for the typical math student.  The typical student, the one that wants to pass and get their diploma follow the path of least resistance.  I am not talking about the rare student who cares only for the learning which is a very low percentage.  But everyone else including the "A" grade driven students, who sometimes are the worst offenders  -- memorizing procedures for tests versus making connections, etc.  

My first round of assessments this year has reminded me of the least resistance fact.  The fact is the typical student will do the bare minimum to get the passing grade and has little concern if they learn the math.  It seems funny that most teachers forget how minimalist we were too when we were students often just driven far enough to get to a magical level of learning called A or B or C or D (remember D for degree!).

Thus I take it upon myself to make sure that concepts are learned and that learning the concepts is the path of least resistance in my classroom.  I try to not worry about letter grades but make sure students are conceptually strong (ready for career or secondary). 

So as I comment on the assessments and reflect on student's current level of conceptual knowledge I quickly remind myself to make sure my path requires understanding.  We must remember that the teachers who push, are tough, are typically remembered more and thanked more....

So watch out Mr. A's students 80% isn't enough - you need to demonstrate understanding....  And I always remember I am in customer service - I work for the student, not today's 16 year old but the same student when he/she is 25 in the work place and wants the skills needed to succeed.

Funny thing is -- the future student always seems to want me to push their current self....

New grading scale, still not grading homework...

Only during my first year of teaching did I have the class grade homework (or me).  Since then I have never wasted class time or planning time grading homework.  I have always felt it was a complete waste of time, I also have never had homework count for much in their grade and I am trying to find a method that makes homework required without keeping a grade on it.  I spent my time on other formative and summative assessments.  My feedback methods are working in class with them.

Last year I assigned homework daily, aiming for 2-3 hours per week outside of class.  On daily work for practice I always provided the answers and assign work they knew.  My projects I assign as homework are not designed for one solution but can have many answers and are more about providing support of a solution (will talk about in a later post).  I simply had the students turn in the homework for about 5% of the student's grade.  I coupled that to a policy of all homework had to be completed (Homework FAQ).  There are 2 sides - the grade side and the responsibility side.  I was carefully not to mix the two; so late work was full credit - the consequence for missing homework was staying with me outside of class to complete.  But yet their grade had 5% credit....  Why?

So lately I have read blogs on homework they had 3 things.  They suggest traditional 10-20% for homework, graded in class or by teacher (nope) OR two other ways on how to handle homework -- 1) assign suggested homework and let assessments be the grade  & 2) assign homework count it for a little, based on completion.  I have been on #2 for a couple of years and want to move off it -- thru a migration so the community can keep up.  But I am not sure what it should look like....

My problem with number #1 (assign suggested homework and let assessments be the grade) is HS students make crappy decisions, they will not do the work.  And often by the time they react the damage is too high....   My job is to make sure they learn math, not just give an opportunity.  Often the blogs that suggest method #1 seem to be teachers of honor classes or high social-economic communities, where grades motivate.  I fear how this would work in my traditional Algebra 1 or Algebra 2 class.

SIDENOTE - for the record I assign very little homework outside of class to my struggling students (Pre-Algebra, etc).  They need to have instant feedback.  The little I ask outside of class is web based with instant answers (so they cannot do the problems incorrect).  Because even if they have answers they typically will not do problems incorrectly, math has become painful for them typically, and they just want to finish....

I feel like homework in my class this year will be only about 2.5-3% (migrating from 5%) based on completion.  I also plan to have assigned problems and suggested problems, which they would keep in their math notebooks (plan to check as they start warm up problems each day).  Finally the big changes, what I am seeing in my mind is a standards based grade mentality where I select about 10 standards per quarter to track.  Also I see myself continuing optional retakes but adding a lot more "mandatory" retakes on the standards, which would/could include additional outside of class work (tutoring, homework) for individual students based upon their weak spots.

This thinking starts the process of moving from grades to standards, but I would still issue a grade that is based upon assessments (tests/quizzes/projects) ~85%, the 10 standards ~12.5%, HW ~2.5%.  I think it allows the community to get their hands around what I am doing, making it the "new normal."

As always I would love to do something bigger and faster but I have to take bite size pieces or this becomes too much too handle.