Homework
Just curious about what people think about giving homework points for completion and not accuracy? I teach a fundamental mathematics class and I toy with how to correct homework each term. I feel that the homework (at least in this class) is a time for the students to learn and master the skills from the course objectives and I don’t want to take points away from them for trying to learn things. I only assign homework that they have the answers to so they can validate their understanding, I start each class and “Fix” whatever the class didn’t understand from the homework, and then every meeting the class takes a quiz over the objectives we learned from the previous class. I would compare this system to a professional athlete getting paid to practice. Ultimately the only thing that matters is that they win the game, but they are still required to practice and penalized when they don’t.
Home work is extreemly important in any school
envoirnment this helps reinforce the learning in my case it gives me an opportunity to give them
more practice on the subject taught and check for
understanding so definately some type of grades
have to be given and have some value towards the final grade. Home work also gives the student an
opportunity to see how well they can work independently.
Yes, this is true about clearing up misunderstandings. When students are able to talk out exam topics, they work out any points of confusion while continuing the learning process.
I agree with this. The act of doing the homework reinforces learning. Since students learn differently, the kinetic learner will benefit from writing out the answers. Questions that a student is unable to answer is a perfect topic to revisit as a review. I like the idea of exchanging homework and having students grade each other's work. Saves time for the instructor but also opens the class to discussion of topicsacts as a review and clears up misunderstandings.
I agree. A lot of the homework I assign, I only grade for completion. We discuss the topics in class thoroughly. I just want to know that they did the research. I trust they did it correctly.
I think homework needs to make sense. So many instructors just randomly give assignments and the students who actually do the work get upset because they feel they wasted their time.
I believe giving homework credit for accomplishment purposes is positive and keeps the student actively involved. Yes, it can be considered "gimmee" grades, but if they are responsible enough to accomplish the homework and turn it in, they are learning something. That is a major accomplishment in my books. It also is a tip the scale point when grading for me. If they are borderline and are turning in homework, I give them the benefit of the doubt, if you will, and go with the higher grade.
It seems like it works really well in my situation and it is a huge time saver in the classroom. Are there any guidelines on how high of a percentage should be given to pass/fail activities in classes?
Frank, there are some subjects in which a pass / fail grading system works best. Mathematics is one of them when you want to encourage students to creatively solve problems. As long as you really show students what they are not understanding and help them work through it, I think it could work.
