I would like to discuss the use of homework in classes. I teach business and geography at the secondary level. Both are elective courses and students usually want to take the course, other than Grade 9 geography which is a compulsory course. I don't assign homework, and I provide enough time for assignments and projects to be completed during class time. However, if they decide to not use their time wisely, it becomes homework.
During lessons, on numerous occasion I have "caught" students working on math homework because they have so much of it and were not able to finish it the night before due to many extra-curricular activities they are involved in. I am not talking about your lazy and non-academic student. These are students are involved in everything - school, sports, jobs, volunteer, social committees and more. But the students are always doing math homework. So what is the acceptable amount of homework to provide students at the Gr. 9-10 level. A few years ago, the standard was 10 minutes per grade, therefore a Gr. 9 students would have 90 minutes of homework a night (including all subjects), on top of any other activities they were involved in. I realize its important to continue practicing a skill or concept, but how many questions must be completed from a math textbook to determine if the student understands the big idea? And why is math and science always the courses that seem to hold the most importance to the secondary level student. I know that they have never been 'caught' doing their business or geography homework in another course. Math is definitely at the top of the academic tower of student achievement. Is it because they are required to complete 4 course to graduate. How do we get students that concerned about other subjects? This is when the idea of the flipped classroom seems to fit well with a math course because students don't spend hours completing questions at night (or in other courses) which they may be doing completely wrong, but they watch a video and then are able to use 75 minutes of class time to practice the concept correctly.
You mande some excellent points! Being a math and science teacher I think that it all comes down to repetition. If we want a student to know a formula then get him/her to use it over and over again. Some of the students struggle with math so they have to spend more time on it (and they have to know the material for the next course because, as you said, they have to take so many of math courses). I personally do not give more than 30 min. of homework in total (and usually they have some class time). I like the ide of flipped classes but woulf the "lesson" at home be longer than 30 minutes?
ReplyDeleteI think that it is really hard to say how long math homework will take a student, but they all work at such different paces. Homework is definitely a tough one! One of the teachers I work with at College posts the most difficult question associated with her lesson from the day. If students are able to complete that question correctly, then they need not complete the homework. It is up to the students to judge this based on their success with her posted question/answer/explanation. I can see this working for Grade 11 and 12 academic students but not sure about the others. Also, I imagine she spends a lot of time with them looking at self-assessment. Maybe the question we should ask ourselves is how can we make students feel comfortable that they grasp whatever the particular concept is that we are teaching, so that we can put some of the accountability on them to determine just how much additional practice they need to do.
ReplyDeleteMarisa, you made some excellent points regarding math homework. Like you mentioned earlier about the 10 minutes per grade level, I also heard of this from previous teachers. When you start getting to the senior grades that can all accumulate and may lead to serious health consequences such as stress and anxiety. From my understanding, homework is only used to reinforce material for students and the teacher can not mark this as a summative form of assessment, is this true?
ReplyDeleteI have heard of teachers using homework checks as a very tiny communication mark. I do not know if this is actually permissible. Has anyone else heard of this?
DeleteI empathize with you Marisa because my teachables are history and geography, and I also teach a lot of religion, civics/careers... in essence, courses that kids don't think are as important as math. The biggest difference between all those courses and math is that social studies are language-based, while math is more abstract. Abstract concepts cause students to struggle, and often that leads to frustration/giving up and not understanding. As someone who works better with their back against the metaphorical wall, I would guess that they might work best under the gun trying to complete math in your class (afraid I might add), as opposed to at home when there is no time limit and they're stuck. I used to tell my kids to put their other homework away, but I remember doing the same thing. If they're working... I leave them be. I just try to remind them of what they need for the next day, and they usually feel guilty and oblige.
ReplyDeleteAs for the flipped classroom, that method would probably work best with math because they have a great resource to help them along during the class but not necessarily at home. I can't believe I didn't bring up this question before, and maybe we need David's opinion on this, but what happens if the students don't do the lesson at night? Great post though. Practical, relevant, every day teacher issue.
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