What's the Best Way to Collect Homework?
Sunday March 8, 2009
Teaching, as most new teachers find out very quickly, is as much about the day-to-day instruction as it is about mastering daily housekeeping routines. Collecting homework is one part of daily classroom management that can cause many teachers problems. This article focuses on effective ways that you can take care of collecting homework with a minimum of disruption.
Comments
Collecting homework, as you say, is one of those chores that one just has to deal with. I agree that routine is the key. Collecting homework allows for some important individual interaction with each student in your class. When homework is due, I ensure that students have a routine, manageable task to be going on with. At the beginning of the lesson, prior to heading around the room to find out who has and hasn’t completed their homework, I write an instruction on the white board. It will say something like this: if you have your homework ready to hand in - and at our school, lots of kids don’t - have it ready. If you have not completed your homework, have your diary open on your desk at today’s date. Then I walk around the room and collect homework, giving praise where it’s due. The kids who haven’t completed their homework get the dreaded ‘Work not completed in English’ stamp. I get the opportunity to encourage or ‘chastise’ according to individual needs. During all this, I’m carrying my mark book. Those who have done the work get a tick in the box. Those who haven’t get a big circle in the box, allowing me to fill it in if and when the work is submitted. This prevents that situation where kids claim they’ve given you work and you know they haven’t. Because they know I go through this regular process when anything is due, I have very few disputes about whether I’ve ‘lost’ work that they haven’t even submitted. Sounds like an arduous process, but it actually works. Cheers.