Why I Don't Assign Homework

Do your students struggle to complete and turn in all their homework assignments?

Do you want to keep them accountable for missing assignments?

Do you want your students to turn in 100% of their homework?

I struggled for many years to find a solution that worked best for my students and I. How do I get students to do their work? How do you get students to turn in their assignments? How much is the right amount of homework?

After reflecting upon my teaching practices and how students would respond to certain homework policies and situations I found solutions that worked. First, I stopped "giving homework". Instead I would set out 10-15 minutes of class time to let the students work on what I would assign as "homework" and call it "classwork" to students. This "classwork" time is mandatory and students are required complete the assignment or finish it for homework. Most students would finish it in class and have no homework! Students that didn't finish would be required to finish at home.

Did all the students finish in class? No. So I had to come up with some other solutions to get to 100% homework turn in rate. These are solutions to the homework problem. Try one or all of them to meet the needs of your students.

More Solutions 

1. Homework Excuse Slips. Have you tried homework excuse slips? I've tried them and determined they did not work for me. After two quarters I found that I was wasting printing paper for students to tell me "I forgot" or "I just didn't do it". It wasn't a solution, it just gave the students the feeling that they were justified in their excuse. My goal of the excuse slips was to get students to see what they weren't doing and to fix the behavior. This was not attained, but I abandoned this solution.

2. Makeup Slips for Absent Students. Absentees can become a problem depending on the school you teach it. I've work at 85% attendance rate schools and 98% attendance rate schools. The system that worked best after years of perfecting was the "While your Were Out" slips. I print multiple sheets of absent work forms, assign other students to fill them out at the beginning of class for absent students, and then those students place the slips in the absent box. Minimal work required for the teacher, just print and go! You can make your own slips or Click HERE to download these.

3. Progress Report Printouts. This has been the best solution for my students. Students are able to see what they are missing (I highlight the zeros and missing assignments that they can turn in before the end of the quarter). Parents are required to sign the progress report printout for homework or extra credit (depending on how I want to assign the grade for being responsible and completing all the work). Parents appreciate the support and reminder of how their student is doing. This also helps keep students accountable and on track for success.

4. Assign Less Homework. After assigning too many homework assignments one year, I made a homework calendar and a plan to only assign 1 homework assignment a week. You can CLICK HERE to read about why I don't grade homework after school and how you can too.  I write down the dates when I will collect and grade any homework (less than 9 a quarter) in my planner. It makes it simple to keep track of all the assignments. If you need a planner I highly recommend Occolo planners. This is the exact planner I use. Keeping track of assignments and tests grading helps keep grading simple and planned. If I haven't planned to grade it, I always ask "does this have academic value?" If it does and needs to be graded then I add it to the list. Assigning less will help you grade less, and in return you will not have to look for as many missing assignments.

5. Assign Less Problems. Along with assigning less homework, I took the 10 problem challenge. Only assigning 10 math problems which was the equivalent of 20-30 minutes of work for students. This greatly improved the percentage of students who completed the assignment. It was more manageable for them to complete and achieve success on an assignment.


I hope these homework solutions are making you reflect on your teaching practices. What could you do to improve the rate of homework return? How could your students have a better attitude about homework? What would be easiest for you to maintain and keep up with grading? Homework doesn't have to be difficult or time consuming. Make it relatable and effective for students.

Happy Teaching!

3 Steps To Continue Student Growth

Congratulations you've made it half way through the school year!

Do you ever get to this point and think, oh my goodness how am I going to finish?

I do every year. It's a great time to reflect on the first half of the school year and compare what worked and what did not work well with the students. One thing I've always noticed is the students' attitudes and work habits towards completing assignments. Why do I have more students completing less assignments? How do you get students to complete assignments in time for report cards? I don't like the end of quarter crunch for grades to be submitted. There needs to be a better solution for students turning in assignments in a timely manner.

Creating a system for the students to succeed within the classroom and the structure for grading doesn't have to be difficult. Implementing these 3 steps will improve your students' work habits and growth mindset. Try one or all three, and tap into your students' potential for academic growth and creating lifelong learners in and out of your classroom.

Step 1: Plan for grading 

Once I acknowledged that there was a problem with the process of grading, changing it to meet the students' needs was key. There are many variables that go into completion of work for a grade. The first is changing the amount of expected graded homework assignments. The easiest change was to go from the staggering 24 assignments to 9. That's 24 grades x 150 students = 3,600 grades just for homework. Your number may look different or the same, but it was key in setting an ACHIEVEABLE GOAL. Setting the standard helps students' GROWTH MINDSET. Once they can achieve a small goal, then they can achieve larger goals later.

Setting up the expectation at the beginning of the quarter was key. I created a calendar and set up the students to know when homework was due at the beginning of the quarter. Any other assignments that normally would have been "homework", now became a "notebook" grade under the "classwork" section of my syllabus.  Showing the calendar to the students, modeling how to turn in assignments to receive 100% credit, and checking grades was key. They bought into the new process and were on board with "less work".

Step 2: Plan for students to grow

Students all buy in to the plan of "less work". It's getting them to do the "less work" that can be the problem. Always have a Plan B for students. The easiest way to help students grow is creating a scaffolded approach. Students need structure and scaffolding the process of completing assignments is just as important as scaffolding the learning process. The Plan B for students who still didn't turn in work was to complete it during lunch in my classroom. No music. No friends. Just complete your work during lunch. Some saw it as a punishment and other saw it for what it was, an OPPORTUNITY to complete an assignment and RAISE their grade. After completing two lunches in the classroom students amazingly did not want to do that again. They would turn in their work ON TIME or before having to come in for lunch. This helped keep them accountable and they worked hard to complete it. Their growth mindset was encouraged to grow and develop as they worked hard to attain more knowledge.  Another opportunity offered to students to grow was through their test scores. Given a scaffolded approach, they completed a plan, retook the chapter test, and improved their grade. Sometimes just giving the OPPORTUNITY allows students to SHINE like never before. 

Step 3: Celebrate Growth

Lastly, plan to celebrate students' growth and accomplishments. At the end of each quarter giving out an award to every student gave them encouragement and helped them continue on their own growth mindset journeys. There are many different types of awards you can give out to your students. You can use phrases, goals, grades, or whatever will inspire your students to continue to do their best!

CLICK HERE to download award certificates to encourage your students growth mindset. 

Awards let your students know you care about them, their growth, and their success. One of the best growth mindset strategies that I did for my students that worked. To earn the top scores your students need to know you care and you want them to do their best work. This strategy is just one simple way to show you care and want to CELEBRATE with them to continue their growth mindset journey.

Challenge

I challenge you to use these certificates this week, this month, or this quarter. Giving them feedback on what they do right, helps them to continue to progress and grow. Maybe it's a certificate for homework completion, or just completing their classwork on time. You can make the certificates as personal as you want, but remember it is a process, commit to awarding certificates every quarter, month, or end of the year.


All the best,