Tootsie Pop vs. Homework

                As I sit here, writing this blog, I realize that it is 8 hours late, officially. I did not meet the midnight deadline. However, I am doing the work, correct? Because we don’t know about a student’s (or person’s) extenuating circumstances at home, we cannot condone a child for doing work late. Therefore, this blog will be accepted because we promote equal opportunities for learning. And as the student who dropped the ball, I appreciate that rule. But what about you – the others? – who did their work on time and listened to all instructions: do you feel it is fair to have my grade equivalent to yours even though my work is not of the same quality?

                I know we are supposed to preach the material, the skill, the standard, rather than the homework and the grade, but at what point does a student recognize this “sermon” and decide to maneuver around our preexisting rules? Students are not as dumb as some may think (and that is not my implication that they are indeed dumb). Rather, it is an insightful look at the fact that students have learned to manipulate teachers. Every time a student comes in with work not done and they say, “My flash drive is lost” or “My computer crashed” or “My backpack was open and snow got in it so all my work was ruined and I had to throw it away”, we know someone has been doing some serious amounts of thinking. (And low-and-behold, I have had all of these excuses just this week.)

                Now, the purpose of this week’s blog is grading, not homework, but sincerely, I feel the two go hand-in-hand. We discussed the 100 point grading system and that, if a student hands nothing in, they should still receive a 60 out of 100 because that is the same as the 4-point system. If this were the case, I would be awarding students who completed nothing. How can I promote, “No, you don’t actually have to do the work because I am really just going to give you points anyway?” What kind of sense does that make? Students need to be held absolutely accountable for their own learning. The teacher is the navigator, the student the pilot (I feel like I use a metaphor every week).

                Granted, I don’t want to see students fail and I will bend over backwards to give students an opportunity to get missing work in. But, at the end of the quarter, when grades are demanded from me, what am I to do? I can’t leave things as “missing’ because that is not an accurate reflection of the student’s achievements. Maybe they do know the material and can pass the test, but I do not feel their incomplete assignments should earn them anything more than they deserve: a 0. I know it sounds harsh and whatnot, but a student who does nothing should get nothing. If a student comes and, for any amount of time, shows me they are willing to do the work, I will give them something. I want my students to pass – I really do – it’s just hard when they don’t want to pass. The old cliché applies: “You have to try really hard to fail my class.”

                The grading conundrum will follow us deep into the educational world. Even if we switch to standards based or a 1,2,3 system, we are still giving students work to complete and they can still choose not to do it. I cannot get behind a system where, if a student has made the choice to not complete an assignment, I then choose to reward them with at least a 60%. I’m no math teacher, but for some reason, that doesn’t quite add up.

                For those of you who completed your blog on time, do you feel I should receive a similar score? I am handing my assignment in hours later than you did (if not days), and yet, in some situations, I would receive the same score. Is that fair? Does that promote fairness in education? (I mean, that was one the author’s major points.) It’s like trying to get to the center of a tootsie pop – “The world may never know.”

Learning and Driving: Practically Synonymous

Let’s picture for a moment a teacher with two students: Student A and Student B. Student A is the ideal student who completes assignments on time and to the best of his/her ability. The assignments reflect the student’s learning. Student will ask questions for material that is unclear and seek help for assignments to ensure accuracy. Student meets success on quizzes/tests thanks to completion of various classroom homework assignments. Because of this student’s hard work and dedication to his/her work, the student receives an A.

Student B, on the other hand, may complete part of an assignment but does not strive for accuracy or timeliness. Student B’s assignments do not accurately reflect his/her potential. Student seeks no help and, if student falls behind, student chooses to take a lower score than complete the work. Student B does not meet success of quizzes/tests due to their lack of homework assignments collected and graded. Because of this student’s disregard for their work, Student B receives an F.

Now, stepping away from that picture for just a second, we must understand how homework assisted Student A. The homework assigned in class was not a massive pointless assignment, but rather a reinforcement activity that solidified concepts taught in the classroom. Student A did these assignments and, thanks to this, was able to retain enough of the information for the assessment. Student B did not do the assignments; Student B did not retain the information.

I am not for a second saying that homework is the answer to a successful classroom. Quite the opposite, I feel a teacher’s job is to provide students an opportunity to continue learning even after leaving the room. That is what homework is. Homework allows students to continue their learning independently. It serves simply as a tool for the teacher. However, I hate assigning something knowing my students will receive nothing for doing it. I try to give them points for anything they do.

In my 7^th and 8^th grade English classes, I have to teach grammar. The students hate it. I don’t enjoy it. But it must be done. I came up with the idea at the beginning of the year to make grammar a gradual assessment and every week, we would cover one grammatical concept. Be it Subject/Verb agreement or Direct Objects, the students only focus on one concept for a week and then the next week, their new concept builds off the previous. (Grammar is like the English version of math – it’s cumulative.) However, as Stephanie said during the class session, how can I punish a kid for not knowing something as fast as the other kid? That isn’t fair. Learning how to identify a Compound-Complex sentence for one 8^th grader may be a cinch; for the next, it could be near impossible. That is why I don’t grade on their mastery of that skill. I grade on their attempt. My packets are graded on completion. They have been all year. The question, “Do I give 0s?” is an absolute YES! If a student is not even going to try to complete the work, I am not going to reward them. I will, of course, take the assignment late, but they will receive a deduction in their score.

I believe that, as in the assignment example above, homework (and as a result, grades) is a necessary evil in the classroom. The grammar packets I give are not my student’s most favorite part of the day, but it is a part they have come to be used to. That is why, when Friday rolls around (and they are due), I feel little for a student who doesn’t have it done. I provide time in class to complete the work. Yes, every now-and-then, the student has six problems to do independently. When they are scrambling on Friday to get the first page done because they forgot, I don’t pity them. How hard is it to complete six questions? When it’s not done, why should I still give them all the points? I would offer to grade on their knowledge of the concept, but they did nothing to prove to me they understand.

Of course, the argument that “they did not understand the material and, as such, could not complete the assignment” may come up. When I am at the school from 7:30am-6:00pm most nights, I want to say that excuse doesn’t work. Students do not realize that the teacher is only the vehicle in the learning process. They have to do the driving and navigating themselves. I provide the opportunity to receive points in the classroom, but it is the student who must earn them. I do not just give points away.

At this point, I believe in homework and 0’s. I feel that, in order for a student to understand their role in the educational world, they need to know what happens if they don’t contribute. Yes, it’s harsh and yes, it’s mean, but it’s also the way they learn to complete their work. Eventually, in the real world, there are no chances for “I just didn’t feel like it” or “I forgot I had to.” Students need to learn to step up and take control of their learning.

To Rethink...Or Not To Rethink...Not Even A Question.

            I had ideas about homework out of college. I knew that students did homework; I knew that teachers corrected homework; I knew that no one really enjoyed either side of it. I had assumptions that homework would be the easy part of the job. You, the teacher, assign it and they, the students, complete it. It did not take me long to realize that everything I had assumed, all my theories and ideas, were rather worthless. Homework is not easy. Homework is a time-consuming yet necessary mess.

            Cathy Vatterott made some excellent arguments in her book. I agree that it is essential to know what a student is going through outside of the classroom. There is no way I can expect a student working two part time jobs to pay rent to complete their homework or to complete it well. And if I ever meet one, I now know what to do to handle that situation.

            However, I do not agree with much of what Cathy said. While reading, I felt attacked as a teacher. Yes, I understand that if a student comes back unsure about the material, the homework may have been difficult. However, I do not agree that this action signifies that the teacher did not teach the material. If a student is going to not do their homework, why would the teacher want to keep repeating the same thing? To me, that makes no sense.

            I have come to the realization that homework is merely a piece of the teaching thing. Of course, there is no teacher I know that uses only homework to teach their content. Homework is a skill builder more than a responsibility teacher. Vatterott, in my opinion, focused only on the reasons we should abolish homework rather than pointing out the benefits of homework. Even for the student who has a limited amount of time, a small amount of homework can make that concept click. A little bit of homework may clench that concept for a student.

            I do not like homework to be a breaking point for students. Rather than grading everything based on accuracy, I grade it based on completion. I have a hard time believing that I should reteach a subject when clearly, it’s not that the student didn’t understand it, it’s that they didn’t do it. I want to know where the line is. It seems that, recently, society has been blaming teachers for the downhill slide of its students. Yes, sometimes a teacher needs to slow down. Yes, sometimes a teacher needs to reteach. But a lot of the time, we need to make sure our students are doing just as much work. I finished a paper with my students last week and, as homework, they needed to take their rough drafts, which I had looked at and commented on, and make the necessary changes. While grading, it is not hard to find those students who did not do that. Who’s responsibility does that become? I did my part of the job—the comments and feedback. It was the student who did not follow through. In Vatterott’s opinion, it would be me that failed them.

            I think, if anything, this book has taught me to be more open to students who are unable to complete their homework, but I believe now (more than ever) that we need homework. Of course, I do not believe in busy work or pointless assignments, but if I teach a lesson on symbolism and then give my students a worksheet identifying symbols, I find that relevant practice.  

The Great Debate

                If one takes a good look at teachers, as a whole, the population would be considered quick-to-judge. Naturally, this comes from years when teachers made an assumption and were ultimately proven correct. Vatterott (2009, p. 47) claims this is because it is “easier to judge children as unmotivated or lazy than to reflect on our own teaching methods or to admit we don’t have the tools, experience, or training to meet individual students’ needs.” While Vatterott may represent that other side of the homework debate, her words hold a strong truth in the educational profession. After only three months of full-time, independent teaching (and three months of cooperative, student teaching), I have come to believe that students are [were] lazy for not doing their homework. While I do not believe Vatterott changed my beliefs on homework, she definitely provided a perspective to consider that I had never once began to think about.

                I have a couple students who, no matter what the assignment is, do not complete their homework. Currently, my students in 8^th grade are learning about media literacy and they are given worksheets to reinforce the topic we discussed that day. For instance, we learned about 10 forms of propaganda and, as their assignment, I handed each a sheet with a different advertisement on it. They needed to determine which form of propaganda was presented and write 4-5 sentences on why they felt their opinion was correct. While I had 70% of my students complete this assignment, I had that handful of students who didn’t write a single word on the page. I could understand how that assignment would be the one to be forgotten. The next one, to further examine Print Advertisements, students needed to answer five multiple choice questions about an 1861 ad. Still, I had students that didn’t answer a single question. I don’t understand how five questions are too much; my head instantly dubs these students as lazy.

                I feel, if anything, this discussion is opening my eyes to a different side of homework. Like it was said during the face-to-face discussion, I was actively involved in high school and still completed my homework. I understand that some students may have difficulty doing so (part-time jobs, extracurricular activities, etc.), but at what point are we, the teachers, making excuses for our students. And at what point are they, the students, realizing that if they spin their story the correct way, they can avoid all the homework they want.

                I have a student who was told, if he/she ever feel overwhelmed, he/she would not have to complete his/her assignments for my class. Just my class. I wouldn’t have thought anything of it until those words, “I felt too overwhelmed to do this” came out of his/her mouth. A student in Junior High would not use that type of language.  He/she listened. He/she heard what his/her teachers said and realized, if he/she spun his story toward those words, he/she could avoid the work.

                Don’t get me wrong – I agree that we need to be conscious of students’ lives outside of our school, but never would I agree with cutting homework. While it may not teach organization or time-management (as Vatterott claims), it does teach students to work. They cannot skid by through school without ever having to be responsible for something. Whether that is five multiple choice problems or a 10 page paper, students must be held accountable for homework. To give them none would only damage them later. No matter what profession they choose, they will have some type of homework. And no one is going to eliminate their homework for them. It just doesn’t happen.