Making Homework Meaningful

Making Homework Meaningful

If you have been following along, I have been discussing going "gradeless" in the classroom. This has included much more formalized formative assessment, reflection, and student ownership. One of the comments Joy Kirr made in a recent podcast (#tg2chat or Teacher's Going Gradeless) was that it takes 10 positive comments to overcome 1 negative comment. I felt my students were hating the way in which I flipped the class on their heads because the vocal students were the ones who were sounding the horns for a mutiny. After asking for feedback, I found the vast majority liked the way class had changed and they regularly used the phrase that they felt they were "owning their own learning"

With all that being said, we just finished our second test since that shift and the mean was an 85% and the median was an 87% (typical tests all year had been about 79%-80%) so this was great news. Very few students were surprised by their scores because of the constant reflection. There was clearly an improvement, but I made so many changes I could not pinpoint what it was. Here is the list of changes I made:

1. "Gradeless" on formative assessments and assignments - feedback: Google Forms and me
2. Practice formative assessments EVERY day to start class- students would identify if they missed the question b/c content or because of difficulty identifying importance piece of the question (2 of our skills in AP Psych)
3. Reflection - Students reflected each day on their effort using a scale that they helped create that rated their effort on their homework and their preparedness for the class to do the activities.
4. Making homework important and meaningful - assigning specific modules each night instead of a blanket get these done by the end of the week.

Recently I sat in a lunch and learn about Flipped Classroom by Keith Culberson Maine South Teacher I was hearing much of what I had learned in previous PD and research (Keith you did a fantastic job). He made a comment though that was so obvious yet I completely had disregarded up until now. If you simply teach what the homework was in class, then why would kids be motivated to do it? I reflected that many of my University Professors (best school in the country IU) lectured anything I ever needed on the test and so I never really did the reading...sorry... (I've been told teacher's don't make the best students).

For example, I was previously assigning modules 10-14 due on Friday. This is how I had seen it done by countless AP Psych teachers and it made is simpler from the planning side for me. It is impossible to cover everything in AP Psych during class without lecturing every minute of every day so the catch-all for teachers is... it was in the book. While that is still the case, I have found by assigning a specific reading and questions for the night, students are coming more prepared because they know they will be encouraged to apply and use those notes in a meaningful way. One of the comments I always got from students on their feedback during units is that they were not using their notes at all and so they would complete them and they were essentially meaningless. At the time, I just would say, well we try to use them in class, but we do not always have time to do activities with them for review. Now students are spending more time on their assignments because they know that it will benefit their learning process.

Here is the rating system that they are currently using, which they helped create:

Homework Effort Rating Scale
5	I read thoroughly, answered all questions, had someone quiz you (or find quiz online), reread before class, came with questions to ask during class (completed 4/5 options)
4	I read thoroughly, answered all questions, had someone quiz you (or find quiz online), reread before class, came with questions to ask during class (completed 3/5 options)
3	I read thoroughly, answered all questions, had someone quiz you (or find quiz online), reread before class, came with questions to ask during class (completed 2/5 options)
2	I mostly found the answers and answered the questions
1	I did not prepare for class and finish the questions

By no means do I think this is perfect or that the wording is where I want it to be, but it is a start.

HELP: The question I have for you all is, what do I do if the student has not completed their assignment/notes before coming to class? I have sent kids in the hall to complete and then come in, but then the groups get chaotic, they finish in the hall at different times, etc. It becomes hard to be so flexible especially when desks are moved around and groups have been created and are mid-activity.
In a later post, I will describe how the activities and classroom dynamics have changed to become much more revolved around inquiry, small group discussions, and vocabulary activities.

Thanks for reading!