Homework

Homework is the one thing that my CT says is the one thing he can't find the right to do during his time teaching.  Usually his homework is review of the lesson that they just when over the previous day.  Then at the end of a chapter, he will give a review sheet that the students have to do for homework.  The homework assignments usually have 15 problems and the review will have about 25 problems on it.  Most assignments will be a lot like the practice problems that they go over in class, so the students should not have too much trouble doing them.  As for going over the assignments, he spends very little time going over.  He usually sets time aside to go over questions, but he usually just skips it to get to the more important parts of the lesson.  Even when he does fit it into his lesson, it usually only takes about 10 min.  The kids only ask for about 1 or 2 problems and then my CT goes over them pretty quickly.  Homework for the chapter is turned in all together right before the chapter test.  Every assignment from every student gets checked.  However, it is only graded on completion.  

My CT says he tries to assign homework everyday.  However, he said when he doesn't get through a lesson he will wait to assign it after he finishes the lesson.  He said he tries to create assignments that give the students a little bit of a challenge and also problems that help them on their tests.  He said he would love to go over every problem and give the students feedback on every single problem, but he just doesn't have the time to do that.  So he goes over every problem and sees if the student put in effort to work the problem.  He doesn't give any of the students projects for the students to do.

My ideal way of going over homework is to give students assignments with 8 or 9 problems on it.  I would assign something for every lesson and the students would turn them in the next day.  I would then grade them on the completion but give them comments on the actual work.  I think that grading them on completion and not the work is because homework is for practice the problems so the students are probably going to make mistakes on it.  Then the feedback will help the students see their mistakes and they can learn from them.  Hopefully I will be able to actually use this system and I don't have to skim back on it due to lack time.