Homework Completion - Meeting with Michiko Bozic

PLC’ers,
I was finally able to meet with Michiko Bozic, an LHS Japanese teacher, about strategies to improve homework completion. If you don’t remember I was supposed to speak with her at the recommendation of Stacy Geyer. I thought I would share some of the ideas I took out of the meeting.
She recommended giving up to 70% credit for late work. (I currently only give 60%.) Michiko said that she feels the students (and parents) respond better if the student has a chance at a passing grade.
She splits up her class in half each day between the students that completed the homework and the students that didn’t complete the homework. That way she can have the students that didn’t complete the homework work on that work while the other students get a chance to work on other work during work time in-class. In addition to this she allows the students that completed the homework on time to earn extra credit (she made it a point that it is only minimal) if they help another student complete their homework.
Michiko said that it is essential that she praises the students, both one-on-one and in front of the class, that are setting the high standards in the class. She has actually tried praising the good students in one class and using more critical comments in another class of the same of the same prep. She said that the difference was huge between the two classes as time went on.
Another recommendation that Michiko made was pairing her students into groups of 2 students. She does this because she likes the group work interaction but has found that 3 or more students lead to more talking amongst the members. She said that she tries to pair one high achieving student with one low achieving student. She has found that in this one-on-one setting that the interaction has been productive for both students.

I am pretty excited to try some of this out. I will probably give my students up to 70% credit for late work next semester and will try to keep praising my students as much as possible. I know the praise thing is far from a secret, but I have found it hard to stay positive in my IMP 2 classes due to the low achievement and I need to try to stay aware of my demeanor

I personally have not seen any added benefit between having groups of 3 or 4 students. If there is something to be gained from groups of 2, I would be willing to give it a shot. The other strategy, dividing the class into homework completers and non-completers sounds good…I just don’t know that I have had a lot of extra “class work time” for my students. Most of the class work time is material that is intended to be worked on for the discussion that is to follow the work time. I would be interested in hearing everyone’s input on how they think these strategies might work within the IMP classroom.

-Jason

11/7/07 Minutes

Minutes for 11-7-07 Meeting

(slightly beyond the Sell-By date)

7:00- Data collection on passing/failing scores on Bees topics

7:25- Rose and Thorn

Marchetti

Very frustrated, especially with 8^th hour IMP 2 class.

Assessment show little progress.

Feel of class is similar to IMP 1.

Planning to take time off.

Gonshor

Same general thorn as Marchetti.

What can we do to get kids to work?

Some kids are working hard and getting the material.

Wentz

4^th hour class is very involved but low performing.

7^th hour class suffers from contagious poor work ethic, but outperforms 4^th hour on assessments.

Honors class shows good results.

Fuller

Pacing and layout of materials is proving frustrating- disconnect between 50 minute IMP days and block schedule.

There are a number of kids who “get” the idea of math.

Brief discussion ensued about the difficulties surrounding this year’s schedule. General complaints included the long waits between classes as well as the idea of teaching on back-to-back days.

7:45- Revisit Norms

“Group food” will no longer be acceptable in the IMP 2 PLC.

7:50- Homework Hierarchy and Student Survey

Wentz brought a teacher survey and a graduating senior survey he found on the Internet. They provided a starting point for the IMP 2 survey, but were extremely detailed.

The Homework Hierarchy from Race was evaluated and reworded. It will be used in all IMP 2 classes with “stickies” to get an initial feel for how students perceive themselves in terms of homework completion and the reasons for doing assigned work outside of class. Fuller will e-mail the reworded version (just like he will promptly post the minutes).

8:15- Break

8:25- Wiki Demo

Marchetti has set up a Wiki (which is so cutting edge that Word flags it as a misspelling) for contributing survey ideas. He will send e-vites. Fuller is delighted.

8:30- Data Discussion (ELOs on assessment for Bees)

Wentz

No real correlation between homework and comprehension.

Marchetti

The passing kids do the homework.

There are kids who do homework but still struggle with comprehension.

Kids who do not do homework do poorly.

Gonshor

Revision completion is the best predictor of success.

Fuller

Homework completion is not an issue in Honors classes, but the few kids who do not do the work are the ones who struggled the most on the assessments. In general, the students did well.

8:45- Revisit Planned Intervention Strategies

Marchetti

Previewing homework- not really working.

Wentz

Encouraging Calculus students to help. None have stepped forward.

Gonshor

Intended to call home after each missed assignment. Changed mind due to enormous time requirement.

Previewing homework- working on clarifying wording of assignments. No noticeable increase- last few weeks have been “pretty bad.”

Fuller

Not previewing as well as planned. Homework completion strong nonetheless.

8:55- Wrap-up

Need to discuss exams.

Will give a two-part Matrix Final.

Agenda for 11/7

Fuller - Minutes
Gonshor - Time Keeper

1. Rose and Thorn 10 min
1.5 Revisit Norms 3.14 min
2. Homework Survey 30 min
2.5 Break 10-3.14 min
3. Bee's Unit Assessment Data 30 min
4. Final Exam 30 min
5. Wrap Up 10 min