OBSERVATION
The content of the homework consists of problems from the textbook (which can be a physical book or it can be found online). These problems are chosen by the teacher. The problems picked are to increase and challenge the students, but mainly to give the students have practice with types of problems they will see on the test. These problems almost always follow from what was discussed in class that day. The students are to finish the homework and return it by the next day in class. The problems are of good quality for the most part. It seems that some repeat showing the same skills over and over, but usually those topics need to be repeated so that the students can get a good handle on the problems. The number of homework problems never should take the students over an hour, maybe even a half an hour. Our teacher doesn’t assign a certain number since some problems are very short so that night there might be a greater amount of problems to accomplish for the next day. Some days our teacher will make a worksheet that will have the same criteria as discussed here.
The students write the number of which question they had trouble on from the night before on the board as they are walking in to class. The teacher will go over big questions that several students struggled on, but she will not do the entire problem so they are still using their skills to give the complete answer. The first five minutes of class is used to go over homework. Our teacher says that she never wants to use more, but if it needs to happen then they really missed the point of the class before. I think the efficiency of the homework review is very good. It is good and concise. The effectiveness varies. If the students really still don’t understand something then they will come in to ask questions after school.
The procedure to check the students’ homework is quick and effective. Our CT said to never put a grade on the top of the page since research shows that students look only at the grade and never at the feedback. So she grades and comments on how to do things that the students don’t understand. Individual work is checked. Each student has their homework checked individually. These assignments are checked either the day they are turned in or the immediate day after. Incomplete homework is not accepted until there is an answer for each question. The criterion for the grade is completion, but as said above incomplete homework is not accepted. I think effectiveness of the grading is good. It is definitely efficient for the teacher since they are not putting a grade for each assignment. It is good for the students also since the grader can tell whether they tried, copied or just wrote stuff down.
INTERVIEW
Homework is assigned nearly every day. The only days that are not included in this is usually the day before a test since the previous homework assigned is sufficient, or the day after a test. A majority of the assignments come out of the text since the teacher loves the text for Algebra. If the problems are not good or insufficient then there are worksheets that are created by the teachers that teach that level of math. The problems that are pulled from the book are ones that look like the test. The test drives everything she does. So these problems can be word problems or simple equation solving. In the book she also looks for diagnostic things that give good feedback for her as the teacher. She also likes her homework worksheets to be more challenging than the tests since she knows if the students can understand her homework then they can get the test. Usually these assignments are not more than a hour and she tells the kids to not spend more time than this.
She does not like to spend a whole lot of time on homework at the beginning of class since very few kids are engaged in that activity. She answers the questions, but does not dwell on these things. She likes to go over parts of questions such as getting started or a certain step and leave the rest of the problem for the kids to figure out. To grade the homework, she picks three questions that she posts on the board that they grade on their own. Also, she picks three questions that she picks and grades on her own. She does not assign projects as individuals, but some projects are completed in class by groups.
REFLECTION
I think that based on everything I have seen in this class so far, this way of going over homework is very effective and efficient for the teacher. It gives a great view of what the kids know and it gives them feedback as to what they are missing. Right now there is an all or nothing scoring, however that is changing over the next semester. Instead of all or nothing, it will be based on the three question that are picked by the teacher. Based on how many of the three questions they get incorrect then they will receive a 100, 90, 80 or 70. This is good because then they will connect that getting the right answers is just as good as doing the work. So it transforms from doing work to doing GOOD work. This will help me achieve my goals. This is very diagnostic is nature since the students will be getting more specific grades now that they are entering into high school.
I really like how your CT has the students write on the board which problems they had trouble with as they walk into class. Your CT is able to see which problems come up the most and can focus on those instead of going over a problem that only one student had. You could ask that student to stay after class to talk about it so that you could help the most people possible.
ReplyDeleteI also like how your CT doesn’t go over the entire problem with the students, just the step that the student had trouble with. I'm wondering what questions your CT asks in order to find out where in the problem the student was struggling. In my practicum, I have noticed that students aren't able to say where exactly they had trouble and tend to want to see the whole problem worked out. Your post has inspired me in that the next time I go over homework with my students, I am going to set up the problem and then tell them that they can work out the computations on their own.
I noticed that your CT will be changing the way that she grades homework for next semester. I'm wondering if she will strictly give 100, 90, 80, or 70's or will there be half credit given for the correct work but perhaps the wrong answer (due to a computational error or something). What if the students have all of the right answers but don't show any work? I'm wondering how the students will connect that understanding the process is just as important as getting the right answers if the homework grade doesn't take student work into consideration.