Assessing Homework Lisa
Peterson
For both new and veteran teachers, giving feedback on student
homework can become a monumental task. Whether you teach five
subjects to one class or one subject to five classes, the
paper can easily pile up if you don’t devise systems
to manage it effectively. I can’t say that I have solved
this problem myself; I tend to fall behind because I try to
give too much feedback. But I can share some tips that have
worked for me and my colleagues.
1) Set students up for success.
Homework is a chance to practice and reflect on material learned
in class. However, students may not yet understand the material
completely, and they may not have anyone at home who can help
them. I find it works well to create open-ended assignments
that students can complete at their own level of understanding.
For example, I might ask them to write a letter to a character
from a book. Some students will write more sophisticated and
detailed letters than others, but all of them should be successful
if they put in the effort. For assignments that are naturally
more specific, such as math problems, try to make sure that
all the students are capable of doing at least part of the
assignment. Then reward students who clearly tried to complete
the assignment.
2) Give feedback on some assignments.
As much as I hate to admit it, it’s virtually impossible
to give detailed feedback on every homework assignment. You
will be better off if you develop a system that allows you
to give regular and timely feedback. Even the most thoughtful
feedback won’t help students if it’s given to
them weeks later.
You can set up any number of systems for giving feedback
on student homework. You can decide which assignments for
the week are the most important and give feedback on those.
If you teach several classes, you can give feedback on homework
from each group once or twice a week, varying the days so
the students won’t know when to expect it. If you teach
a self-contained class, you can give feedback on homework
from one or two subjects each day. You can also have students
select the assignments for which they want feedback. For example,
your language arts class might pick two written assignments
per week for your response.
3) Let students take some responsibility for assessment.
Ideally, you want your students to be able to reflect on the
quality of their own work, and evaluating their homework is
a way to teach them this skill. Sometimes I have students
check their own work, and sometimes I have them respond to
their peers’ work. Students can easily check work that
has specific answers, but they can also provide valuable feedback
on open-ended assignments. Sometimes I ask students to respond
to the content of the assignment. For example, if the assignment
is to write a letter to a book character, the student checking
the assignment could assume the identity of the character
and write back. Other times, I ask students to serve as a
critical pair of eyes. For example, if we are working on supporting
the main idea of a paragraph with details, I might ask the
students to circle all of the supporting details they can
find in their own or another student’s paragraph. (I
usually don’t ask them to look for errors because the
interactions can get too negative.) As long as you give students
specific directions, having them evaluate homework can provide
them with another opportunity to practice their skills.
4) Collect homework regularly.
Students need to feel a sense of accountability, or many of
them will let their homework slide. Although you can’t
respond in detail to every assignment, students need to know
that all assignments matter. Some teachers collect homework
at random a few times a week. Because students don’t
know when their work will be collected, they need to do all
assignments. I personally like to make sure every assignment
is graded in some fashion; otherwise, I think students who
have made an effort feel frustrated. Sometimes I collect the
work and provide feedback myself; sometimes I collect the
work after a peer has responded to it; and sometimes I walk
around the room and check the work briefly as students work
on an independent assignment.
5) Use a simple point system to encourage quality.
If you are looking for effort rather than perfection, you
won’t need to grade each assignment precisely. You will
simply want to indicate a general level of quality. Many teachers
use a "check" for an assignment that meets standards,
"check +" for an assignment that exceeds standards,
and "check -" for an assignment that is below standards.
I personally use a 2, 1, 0 system because I can easily convert
it to a number grade. Students get 2 points if their work
fulfills the requirements of the assignment with a reasonable
degree of quality. They get 1 point if their assignment is
incomplete or of poor quality. Students don’t get any
points if the assignment is missing, is of extremely low quality,
or ignores the requirements of the assignment.
I also use this system to encourage changes in students’
work habits. I take off 1/2 a point if students neglect
an aspect of quality we’re focusing on. For example,
in the beginning of the year I focus on correct format, so
a student might get a 1 1/2 for an assignment without a heading.
Once students have mastered the format for assignments, I
focus on writing skills, such as punctuation and paragraphing.
Students know that I am paying attention to such details,
and I find that giving them this type of “nudge”
on a regular basis leads to a cumulative change in work habits.
If your kids are working hard, it’s never easy to keep
up with their homework assignments. However, if you keep these
tips in mind and try to be consistent, you will find the process
easier.
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