Homework correction

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jtanka
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Jul 12, 2007 9:17 pm

Homework correction

Post by jtanka » Sun Jul 15, 2007 3:10 am

Can you suggest efficient, effective and creative ways to correct hw? So many t's waste time goin over homework item by item. What can you suggest besides:
a) having pairs do peer correction and then ask the T about items they disagree on or
b) hand out an answer key and have sts correct hw quickly; address only recurring problems with the whole class.

Judy T.

Sally Olsen
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Post by Sally Olsen » Sun Jul 15, 2007 6:28 pm

In Greenland students took turns writing the answers on the blackboard and there was discussion in Greenlandic and English about the answers - some better students translating for the poorer ones who didn't understand. I thought it was excellent because they reviewed the previous lesson, spoke the words orally, got help in their own language and tips from their peers that I could never give them, put them in the "teacher's" role for a short time and they were very careful with their printing because it was for all their classmates so was a good lesson in that. Because they knew they would have to write it on the board the next day they did their homework. They didn't know which sentence or question they would be called up for so had to do all their homework. I then used the sentences to emphasize a point as I rubbed them out - left all the adjectives or showed how nouns and verbs went together and so on or left on some vocabulary words I didn't think they knew well and had those translated so they could write them in their personal word banks.

You could also pass the homework back one person so the person behind marked it as you gave the correct answers. That is highly motivating to some students if they want to impress the person behind them. The last person in the row brings his/hers to the front.

I never marked homwork myself, only exams. It is such a waste of time to do it yourself as the students rarely look at the mistakes they make unless you have some correction built in. They have to do the mistakes over or explain the mistakes and what is the correct answer and why.

When they wrote something original for homeork, I would have them leave a 2 inch margin down the right side of page. You just get them to fold over the page two inches from the edge and keep it under the page while they write. When they have finished writing they open up the page and use the 2 inches to write down their questions on what they have written or comment on something they are worried about. They write things like, "i don't know if I should use a : or ; here". or "i think that is the irregular form of the verb but don't quite remember". or "i can't remember the English word for ......" It really makes them think about technicalities and gives you a chance to put in longer comments or prepared comments. I used to print standard mistakes on sticky notes that I could add to the margins to explain things.

I think that the review of homework on the board or any other way made sure that the homework assignments were short because you don't want to spend too much time on them in class and that is positive as well.

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