Homework - To Grade or Not To Grade

It's almost Christmas - so don't shoot me OK? I am not a fan of grading homework for about a million different reasons. For me, homework was an all or nothing mark in the grade book. You either do it - with effort or you don't. I know many teachers who do grade homework and if that's you, rock on!

Students in Middle School are different (as if you didn't already know that). Homework shouldn't be given unless you know students have an understanding of the concept. Why? Middle schoolers are grumpy and often lack patience. If they have homework on a skill that is difficult, brand new or just plain hard, they aren't going to do it. You and I both know it. Don't punish them because all you will end up doing is punishing yourself.

Why homework shouldn't be graded:

1. You have enough to do. Seriously. You are grading classwork and exams, going to meetings (PLCs, IEPs,) dealing with parents, dealing with students, trying to have a life outside of school. You don't need to take up your time to sit and grade every single homework assignment. 
2. You shouldn't pick and choose when you grade HW and when you don't. It isn't fair to the students. They need to know what is and what isn't graded. Going back and forth isn't providing them - or you - consistency. As you know, consistency is the KEY to successfully managing Middle Schoolers. 
3. Not every student has the same resources. Some kids will go home and have their mathematical engineer mother help them with their homework. Others will go home and ask their big brother who is in AP Biology to do it for them. There will be kids who go home and take on the role of parent because their own parents work in the evening. When students are in class, they are given the same resources and opportunities. Outside of school, the environment isn't controlled. 
4. It really isn't that important. Gah. I know... terrible right? Think about it. What is important? Classroom interactions, cooperative learning, assessment performance, classroom behavior, kids being GOOD people. Those things are important. Outside of schools, kids need to focus on things that will really truly matter in the future. They need to spend time with their families. They need to play sports and participate in other activities that will teach them how to work together and be a team player. School takes up enough of their day (think about how much of your day it consumes). Don't let it take up their evenings too. 
5. Going over the homework in class requires the students to pay attention to their own work - and you! If you pass back homework that is graded, students will not pay attention to you when you are trying to go over it. The kid who had nothing wrong has zero reasons to pay attention. The kid who has most wrong will be irritated and not pay attention - probably shoving the paper in his or her notebook. Giving back a paper with a simple checkmark ensures they will at least listen to the answers you give and check their own paper. Often this will lead to questions.  Learning from mistakes is one of the best ways to learn!

Now. I'm NOT saying homework should never be given. Before a test, absolutely. Real world projects? Go for it. I'm simply saying that it doesn't need to be graded - unless your school requires a homework grade. And even then, grade for completion. A simple check or zero gives you points in the grade book without taking tons of time to check every single question. 

Making Homework a Routine

It's a never-ending struggle.  You NEVER get it back from the students who really need to be doing it.  Your students see it as something extra and meaningless.  But we as educators know that it provides students with extra practice, reinforcement, and we want them to do it... ALONE... without copying off their friends paper!  What am I talking about?

I don't know that we will ever solve all of the homework issues in the middle school world, but I certainly don't believe that we should completely do away with it just because there are a lot of problems associated with it.  It goes back to having high expectations.  Even though it may be easier on both the students and the teacher to cut out all homework, is that really what's best for our students?  I say "NO, people!"

I think I've got a solution that will help lessen the burden (on both you and your students), make it part of the weekly schedule, and make it meaningful.  I actually stole borrowed this idea from my daughter's elementary teachers because I saw how it allowed my daughter some flexibility and it truly became part of our weekly routine.  This past year I called it the "DL Homework", which stands for Due Later.
My teaching partner and I would look at the concepts that were being taught in the upcoming week and create a homework assignment that supported that content in some way.  We always changed up the format.  It may have been vocabulary practice or usage, short content related reading passage with 5 questions, calculations, labeling diagrams, matching, etc.  The bottom line is that the homework should take the average student no more than 15-20 minutes to complete and it always builds upon something they are learning about in class or something I feel that the students need more practice on in order to master.

Every Monday the students pick up the assignment as part of their daily handouts and they know that it is due by the last day of that school week (usually Friday).  Of course, they are always highly encouraged to get the homework completed before the due date and hand it in, but for those with busy schedules (church, extra-curricular activities), a little extra flexibility is built in.

The DL Homework heading always looks the same (it has a distinctive box in the upper right-hand corner that says "DL Homework" and has the due date) so that there is no confusion.  The students put the DL Homework in their yellow homework folder on the "To Do" side.  I train my students early in the year to utilize any free time they have in class to work on this assignment.  Most of them discover that they can easily complete the assignment in 2-3 days using only free time during their class.  My only rule: It has to be done alone - no partners or groups.  If I see that happening, I consider it cheating and I throw it away.    

There was definitely a "learning curve" early on, but I was consistent in my expectations and within a few weeks, the majority of students were completing the work (ahead of time)!  It is routine, it is predictable, and I started seeing results very early on.

Do you have a homework routine or a effective strategy that you'd be willing to share?