Teacher to Teacher

I had the good fortune of hearing Dr. Lee Jenkins speak in McCook on March 16th.  Dr. Jenkins is the developer of the L to J process.  I first heard Dr. Jenkins in 2004.  He had a major impact on my teaching.  I used the L to J strategy in my fourth grade math class with great success.

In McCook, Dr. Jenkins brought up homework by asking the question, “Is homework a subject or a strategy?”   He contends that it is a strategy that we use to help students practice and master the skills and concepts we would like them to master.  If the purpose of homework is to practice, then mistakes on the homework should be viewed as temporary rather than permanent.  Students should have the opportunity to learn from the mistakes and correct them.

Dr. Jenkins uses a “referee/coach” metaphor to help teachers think about their dual roles in the classroom.  Most of the time, teachers should be in the coaching role in order to help their students to higher levels of success.  “During coaching time, [teachers] sample items for informational learning and sample students for performance learning” (Jenkins, 2004, p. 107).  Homework and classroom work would be a couple of ways teachers could sample student learning and then coach them as needed.  Every once in awhile the teacher must take on the role of the referee.  In this role, the teacher will more formally assess the student’s mastery of the standard and assign a grade.

So if homework is practice and the teacher is the coach, why do we assign grades to homework?  The referee of a game doesn’t usually show up for the practices.  Therefore, shouldn’t grading take place once students have had ample opportunity to practice alongside a good coach?

Many teachers may think students won’t do the homework if there is not a grade associated with it.  Other teachers might be required by their districts’ grading policies to have weekly or daily grades.  These are legitimate concerns.  Dr. Jenkins offered one strategy shared with him by a high school teacher.  I see some merit in this.  Maybe it will work for some of you.

John McDonald’s Homework Policy

1. I give homework.
2. I don’t collect it or grade it.
3. Every time I give an assignment, the following day the students get a two question quiz on the homework.  I don’t use the same two questions for other sessions of the same course.

The policy isn’t perfect, especially if the students have been practicing mistakes on their homework.  Therefore it is important that students have had an opportunity to identify and correct mistakes before they are sent home with the assignment.  Feel free to share your thoughts on the controversial subject of homework and grades.

Reference

Jenkins, L. (2004).  Permission to forget and nine other root causes of America’s frustration with education. ASQ Quality Press:  Milwaukee