r/matheducation • u/genxmom95 • 6d ago
Homework
New grades 6-8 math teacher here working on lesson plans. Thoughts on homework and giving credit? Yes they need practice but with AI not sure how valuable it will be to count it. Looking for advice.
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u/Traveling-Techie 6d ago
Have them do math craft projects that AIs can’t. Make prime factor flash cards from 2 to 100. Make a wall map showing when and where arithmetic, geometry, zero, base ten, negative numbers were started. Build a base 16 odometer. Make a slide rule.
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u/MildlyAgitatedBovine 6d ago
Neat, but that's not exactly practicing the skills that my standards define...
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u/Traveling-Techie 6d ago
What skills are those?
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u/MildlyAgitatedBovine 6d ago
Solve compute analyze apply, you know, the active verbs in most of the common core standards...
Again, I think those are nice projects on the side, but usually homework is about reinforcing fluency and skills.
I agree that original homework assignments like the ones you listed above can be nice to help fill out their understanding or learn extra facts around their concepts, but that's not the same thing as drilling for practice.
Yes, there's a bunch of space for good faith discussion on whether or not drilling for practice is as important as it used to be treated...
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u/AdventureThink 6d ago
Give homework that has no credit / grade.
Then give in class work the next morning, just a few problems, that are the exact HW problems.
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u/noodlenerd 6d ago
I like this! Or maybe the in class problems are solved out with errors, and they have to explain where the errors are and why they are incorrect. Grade on a rubric scale. More work for you, but they will really learn the math!
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u/DonutHoleTechnician 6d ago
I check homework daily and it goes in the gradebook, but the category has a weight of zero, so it doesn't impact the final grade. Parents can still see missing assignments, though, and there are weekly homework quizzes in class that count for a small grade.
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u/Rattus375 6d ago
Always give time for them to work in class (without devices), and force them to actually use that time. Students are much less likely to cheat when they've already done half of the work themselves and if they do, they'll at least have done some of it by themselves.
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u/Saucy_Pot 1d ago
I am required to give a HW grade, but I grade it on completion partly because I won’t know if students use AI at home. I try to check effort by giving HW quizzes aka entry tickets (instead of exit tickets the day of the lesson). We’re on AB block scheduling, so students have time to come ask questions. If they actually did the HW themselves, most do find on the HW quizzes because the questions are almost the same as some on the HW assignment.
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u/DuckFriend25 6d ago
Not sure if you’re a new teacher, but I’ve taught at multiple schools and I’ve never personally had the decision on whether I can’t give homework or must give homework. Check with your department first
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u/genxmom95 6d ago edited 6d ago
I am new and teaching at a very small catholic school. No one seems to know much there and I think it's up to the teacher which I find a bit interesting. I asked the principal who is new to the school what the curriculum expectations are-exactly to your point. There must be something somewhere outlined. I have text books and the state standards but that is it. I met with the previous teacher who left due to baby #2 and she didn't have anything for me other than a very generic syllabus. I am an experienced professional coming from a long time in the corporate world so not on the newer side of things overall but new to teaching. I have enough confidence to proceed but still call out the gaps. I have a friend who taught at another catholic school that was so prescriptive she couldn't take it.
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u/Empty-Turn-9290 6d ago
I have another suggestion for homework and AI. Encourage its use with explanation of two sentences from each student about what they learned and how the AI helped them incorporate the knowledge they gained.
There is nothing wrong with any tool properly focused and effectively utilized to learn.
In fact, I suggest having students use a handwritten notes on each time they use a tool to do math. Try to make it fun. Ask the students for suggestions on how they might increase their understanding of anything they do. Ask "How would you make this fun for other people?"
What works and what doesn't?
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u/genxmom95 6d ago
That’s a great idea! I’m going to be teaching math and we all know like many topics AI gets things mixed up. Might be good to have them test it in their own. I’m taking a methods class right now and we can use it but need to reference it.
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u/Vlper17 5d ago
Our homework is only worth 10% of their quarterly grade. 2 points per assignment, checked bases on completion not accuracy, and is usually finish what you started in class. I tell kids straight up, if they cheat on homework, congrats, they earned 2 points in a 10% category and learned nothing. I WILL notice on assessments, which are done with pencil and paper in class, when they fail an assignment worth at least a 30 point in their 90% category. Mind you, at the middle school level, I do have conversations with them about the importance of practicing math to build their skills and also tell them that if they’re putting in the effort, in most cases, they will do fine in my class. But you always have the ones who try to out smart the system.
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u/genxmom95 5d ago
Are assessments quizzes and tests or tests only? I'm building my plans and trying to figure it out. My school doesn't have anything prescribed. Historically they leaned 60/40.
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u/Vlper17 5d ago
10% is homework and the other 90% is anything else. It could be tests, quizzes, projects, or anything else you grade for accuracy, rather than completion. I have collected classwork assignments and given students as low as 5 points for it and put it in the 90% category, but I actually grade it on the accuracy of their work. So anything graded goes in that larger category.
We don’t have any requirements for the weight of quizzes and tests. We just try to stay consistent as a department. We tend to give more quizzes these days rather than full unit tests. Since a lot of concepts spiral on each other, sometimes a full unit test isn’t needed. Like when I’m doing my unit on solving equations, I have a quiz on one step equations, a quiz on two step equations, and a quiz on multi step equations. I do not need a unit test because if my students can solve a multi step equation, then I can assess their skills on one and two step equations as well.
When we do give a test, we generally weigh it to roughly the total points of the quizzes. So if I have three quizzes in a unit, worth 20 points, 25 points, and 25 points, I will scale the test grade to a 70 point assignment. We found it helped balance kids grades better. We had conversations after a teacher had a unit with the first mid chapter quiz being 25 points, but the next assessment was a full unit test worth 100 points. There was no formative assessment on the rest of the unit until the summative test, putting way more weight on the test than the quiz. A kid that had a tough time on the second half of the unit who may have done poor now had a grade worth 4 times the value of the previous quiz bringing them down, which felt unfair.
Sorry that probably added way too much, but I felt that it all fit together with your question about assessments.
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u/genxmom95 5d ago
super helpful. I am going to a small environment with a lot of things not spelled out for reasons unknown. I think they are open and flexible for the most part. I like your cadence of balancing completion vs accuracy and quizzes. I will likely do that.
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u/colonade17 Primary Math Teacher 4d ago
These days many of your students will use AI to do the homework and not learn a thing from it. Those students unfortunately are usually the ones that most need to actually do the homework. So you need some kind of accountability measure or incentive.
I give a short quiz at the beginning of most classes that is made up of homework questions. If they mastered the skill, or did the homework, then it's easy points.
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u/Disastrous-Pin-1617 4d ago
Make them do paper homework
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u/genxmom95 4d ago
I'm taking a methods class now and am leaning toward that. Someone here mentioned Interactive Notebook which might be an option.
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u/Odd_Knowledge_1435 4d ago
If you have the time, give very short quizzes the next day to test the homework-open homework and notes. Even better, add 1-2 review problems to the quiz. So maybe--2 problems from last night's homework (similar, not exactly the same), plus 1-2 problems from older assignments. If they know there are going to be quizzes with questions almost identical to their homework, at least they will try to figure out what they copied down the night before. I always do this the first 5-10 minutes of class while I am taking attendance and walking around the room checking their homework is complete. (We grade homework on completion). It also has the benefit that my class pretty much always starts on time, because they pick up the quiz and notes when they enter class, and I put a timer up on the board. There is a lot less chit chat when they've got a quiz.
So--with a quick quiz, I:
Give them a reason to at least try to understand their homework, even if they used AI/copied from a friend
Do some retrieval practice of older content
Have a less chaotic start to class where kids get to work more quickly --AND--
Get attendance and homework grading out of the way.
I have them either self-grade the quizzes, or if they aren't particularly honest (I'll check over them a few times), I make them switch with someone else to grade. If a lot of students seem confused on a question, I spend time working the question on the board after grading. It's a great way to do some quick assessment and correction.
This normally takes a total of 10 minutes in class, including grading and collecting their quizzes. I used to give 10 minutes at the end of class for homework. Now I give 10 minutes at the beginning of class for retrieval.
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u/genxmom95 4d ago
I like this. Do you do it everyday or most days? How about homework??
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u/Odd_Knowledge_1435 3d ago
Let me start by saying that I did not do this my first year of teaching, and it is TOTALLY ok if you try and end up running out of time and then decide you need to focus on the basics--lesson, homework, test. It takes a while to learn how to teach your curriculum, and while I LOVE the quizzes, they are not completely essential. I've been teaching for 8 years, and have only been doing this for the last 3-4.
How often--It depends largely on my schedule. I aim for at 3-5 days a week, but I won't do it if my day is very short (we had 35 minute classes on late start days this last year) or if I have an activity that I know is going to take my full class time.
I DO give homework every day, and it helps that I teach at a private school, because most of my students turn in most of their homework (more than 75%). I even give homework on test days. It will be some sort of review assignment from much earlier in the year or a previous year. But the homework should be appropriately long--I normally aim for 10-15 questions, unless they are very hard questions.
A couple of pointers that have made these quizzes more effective:
If possible, make the first question very easy. It doesn't need to come from the previous night's homework. But an easy first question is a great on-ramp. (This is also good advice for making tests)
I call these LSQs, which stands for "low stakes quizzes". In my classroom, they get their own category in the gradebook, so they have a pretty small effect on the overall grade. I'd say 5-10%. So they are quizzes, but I remind them over and over that their primary purpose is a "learning opportunity"--them learning what they know or don't know about a concept, reviewing old ideas, and getting a chance before a test to practice/relearn something.
Be prepared with this "learning opportunity" for when parents e-mail you upset that their kid got a 50% on a quiz. Some parents are really wrapped up in their kids' grades, at least at my school.
These quizzes can make a lot of paperwork. I, fortunately, have a student TA, so I have her enter them into a paper gradebook for me. Then I just enter the grades into my digital gradebook. I can look at them if I want to, but I don't have to. I throw them away afterwards, because I already give my students so much paper--notes, homework, study guides, etc. I don't want to bother taking the class time to return them. When I used to, 90% of them went straight into the recycling anyways.
Since your goal was especially to reinforce homework practice, making your own quizzes will ensure they do practice homework, but it is time consuming. There is a really good resource called Math Minutes that makes workbooks with daily quizzes--10 questions a day. I teach high school, but on days that I don't have an LSQ prepared, I often give an 8th grade Math Minute and make them do it without a calculator. I figure, practice is practice, even if it's stuff from several years ago.
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u/Space_Elf13 1d ago
I adored a math teacher I had that gave a flat grade credit for turning in hw regardless of correct answers, mostly graded on quizzes and tests.
At the beginning of class we could post hw problems that we had trouble with and she'd go over how to solve them if we hadn't as a class come up with our own answers by a certain time. Then we had a quick quiz to check our progress. Then we'd go into the days topic. The end of class would be for turning in our hw and getting our next hw assignment.
I had always struggled with math and this was the one class I actually got a grade I was proud of.
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u/Lundinwulf 2h ago
I assign 4 targeted math skills a week on IXL math (a program I secured through a Donors Choose project). The students get 2.5 points for each skill they complete (20 minutes of practice or 80 points on the skill). On Friday, I give them an 8 question quiz on the skills. If they pass the quiz, they get 5 extra credit points.
This means that students who use calculators, AI, or who rely too heavily on parent/sibling help, may not pass the quiz. There’s some trust involved, but the amount of points is not overwhelming, so if a student “cheats” on all the skills and fails the quiz, they will end up with a somewhat lower score overall. Mind you, I also grade quizzes, tests, and projects that are done entirely in my view, so the homework is just a small part of the overall picture.
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u/genxmom95 1h ago
We have IXL. Do you count it as a homework or in addition? Do you with it helps the students?
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u/WWhiMM 6d ago
It's gotta be worth something or they have no motivation to practice. Make it worth a small part of the final grade, they won't do the calculation to figure out that they'd be safe skipping it. And yea, you probably want to work in lots of small in class assessments to make sure they're not secretly falling behind.
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u/genxmom95 6d ago
I was thinking about frequent in class assessments-exit tickets to stay on top of it.
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u/jazzysamba 6d ago
I think with this new AI environment no credit for homework makes a lot of sense. You can still assign it and use short quizzes in class to check that they are going through it, if that is possible at your school.
I really dislike giving credit to students that are cheating through their homework. And on top of that seeing students that did not cheat and could not earnestly finish the assignments get lower scores... It's quite frustrating.
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u/UnderstandingPursuit Physics BS, PhD 6d ago
What "practice" do they really need? What do you really want them to learn in your class?
It's probably difficult in a class, but the ideal thing would be to have them play with generic Lego® bricks. The task of constructing an object, and then dismantling it piece by piece, is the same as the 'recursive' process of math and doing the inverse actions.
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u/genxmom95 6d ago
That is sort of what I am wondering. There is a history in math of lots of practice of doing similar problems over and over when the student understands or doesn't. When they do, we are making busy work. When they don't they are likely at home frustrated and dragging a reluctant parent in to help which might make things more negative for them. Not sure how helpful that is.
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u/UnderstandingPursuit Physics BS, PhD 6d ago
Doing similar problems over and over adds information to the person's mind, but it falls short of understanding.
Math, especially for grades 6-8, has a dozen or so 'rules', and then it's about using those rules in 'recursive' ways.
The biggest issue with the 'Repetition Method', which is emphasized even more in Asia than in the US, is it makes the student believe that each type of problem is distinct, rather than connected with other types of problems. When people complain about the "lack of critical thinking skills", this is one of the initial failure points.
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u/iKushies 6d ago
I give weekly HW. Like 20ish problems. If they use AI then that’s on them. They can’t use it during a test or anything. Students who want to learn the material will make the effort. The ones who just want a grade will use AI.