To give or not to give homework…that is the question
May 4th, 2008 by Mr. Miles
A word to the wise ain’t necessary - it’s the stupid ones that need the advice.
Bill Cosby
I never know if I should add a question mark to the end of sentences like that…ahh well. This is why I teach Math and not English.
The school year is winding down and I couldn’t be happier. Warm weather usually brings a bit of craziness out of the students. But as I go into next year I have some decisions to make about my pedagogy. I plan on integrating technology more into my program to give my students more experience with graphing calculators and computers, thereby increasing their interest in technical fields. I also want to do more experiential learning so that the abstractions in mathematics become as concrete as I can possibly make them. I’m not into that constructivist crap that lets kids play until they figure it all out. However, I have seen many benefits in creating a situation for them to explore to learn the general ideas of what’s going on with a certain aspect of math. For instance, I’m going to use Robert Moses’ approach to teaching integers as the idea of “which direction” as opposed to “how much” by taking the kids ( if I’m allowed to do so) on a train or bus ride…using forward motion as a representation of positive direction and reverse motion as a representation of negative direction. I want to do all of this before introducing 6th graders to the number line.
All that good stuff aside…I still can’t decide what my homework policy is going to be. Personally, I believe homework and classwork for that matter are essential to learning the material. All people need opportunities to practice learned material. However, the students who need the least amount of direction are the ones who always do the homework, and therefore benefit the least from me assigning it, and the ones who need the most help don’t do homework at all.
I’m not going to stop assigning it. That would be crazy because I have plenty of students in the middle of the pack who would sink without being assigned homework. Should I just not count it as part of their grade ? If I do that, I fear that NO ONE will do any of the homework. 6th graders usually don’t see, at least not right away, the connection between practice and improvement in skills. They still subscribe to the idea that some people are just good at __________________ ( insert sport, skill, art form here ).
Also, I noticed that kids copy each other’s work like no tomorrow. They just see assigned work as a task to be completed rather than as a pathway to improving their skills in math. I’m not sure how to inspire this change in perspective in my students either. I tell them all the time. Maybe showing them the relationship between hard work and reward will work better.
What do you think ?
Have you been teaching for over 2 years? I saw that you teach math, and for a class I am in at university, I need to interview a math teacher about how they manage the classroom. If I sent you a few questions, would you be able to answer them?
Yup. This is my 3rd year. I’d be happy to answer some questions.