analytic essay
IMPACT OF HOMEWORK ON MARKING PERIOD GRADES
Artifact 1, “Impact of Homework on Grades,” analyzes the impact that homework has on my students’ class grade. The feedback (Artifact 1A) received from my students about my class influenced the creation of this artifact. On the first day back from winter break, I asked students to give me feedback on their thoughts about the class rather than waiting until the end of the marking period. For a ticket out, students were asked to answer, “What do you like about this class? What don’t you like about this class? How would you change it?” Although I did not intend to use the feedback as a part of my inquiry, I realized that some of my students’ responses tied into my developing inquiry question.
“Making Homework Central to Learning” by Cathy Vatterott (2009) made me curious about the impact of homework grades on my students’ grades. In the article Vatterott discusses the belief that homework grades help students who test poorly, and she addresses three problems in regards to the defense of grading homework (p. 61). The first concern is that heavily weighted homework grades versus the weight of assessments may mask poor performance on other measures, and the second apprehension is that grading of homework mixes practice and formative assessments with summative assessments (p. 61). The last problem is that many teachers are not aware of other ways to assess student learning beyond homework. I specifically want to address Vatterott’s (2009) first two concerns.
In order to explore the idea of using homework to balance the grades of students who might test poorly, I examined whether homework grades (which account for 20% of the marking period grade), affected my students’ average grades in a positive way as discussed in Vatterott’s (2009) article. I used “SchoolNet” (the school’s grading system) to collect the breakdown of all of my students’ grades into the following categories: Homework (20%), Classwork/Do Now/Ticket Out (20%), Quizzes/Labs/Activities/Small Projects (20%), Tests/Major Projects (30%), and Participation (10%). The participation grade was not included in my analysis because it is not entered into the grading system until the end of each marking period. In order to calculate my students’ grades without a homework grade, I readjusted the total percentage for the class to 70% (no homework or participation). I made a table (Artifact 1B) comparing students’ grades with and without a homework grade, and then I plotted the data (Artifact 1D). It was challenging to determine how taking the homework grade out affected my students’ grades so I decided to tally how many students’ grades went up, down, or stayed the same after taking homework out of the equation in Figure 1 (Artifact 1C).
“Making Homework Central to Learning” by Cathy Vatterott (2009) made me curious about the impact of homework grades on my students’ grades. In the article Vatterott discusses the belief that homework grades help students who test poorly, and she addresses three problems in regards to the defense of grading homework (p. 61). The first concern is that heavily weighted homework grades versus the weight of assessments may mask poor performance on other measures, and the second apprehension is that grading of homework mixes practice and formative assessments with summative assessments (p. 61). The last problem is that many teachers are not aware of other ways to assess student learning beyond homework. I specifically want to address Vatterott’s (2009) first two concerns.
In order to explore the idea of using homework to balance the grades of students who might test poorly, I examined whether homework grades (which account for 20% of the marking period grade), affected my students’ average grades in a positive way as discussed in Vatterott’s (2009) article. I used “SchoolNet” (the school’s grading system) to collect the breakdown of all of my students’ grades into the following categories: Homework (20%), Classwork/Do Now/Ticket Out (20%), Quizzes/Labs/Activities/Small Projects (20%), Tests/Major Projects (30%), and Participation (10%). The participation grade was not included in my analysis because it is not entered into the grading system until the end of each marking period. In order to calculate my students’ grades without a homework grade, I readjusted the total percentage for the class to 70% (no homework or participation). I made a table (Artifact 1B) comparing students’ grades with and without a homework grade, and then I plotted the data (Artifact 1D). It was challenging to determine how taking the homework grade out affected my students’ grades so I decided to tally how many students’ grades went up, down, or stayed the same after taking homework out of the equation in Figure 1 (Artifact 1C).
For my inquiry question, “Should homework be eliminated?” my data showed me that simply looking at the numerical grade did not inform me about the effectiveness of the practice of homework towards student learning. I cannot generalize the affect of homework on my students’ grades, and the grades of each student must be analyzed individually. Even though 17 students’ grades were somewhat cushioned by their homework grade this only accounts for 17 out of 29 students. What is different about the other 12 students’ grades? A proposed alternative to graded homework by Black et al. (2003) was to continue making homework count by collecting homework to check for completion and providing feedback to students about their progress. I implemented this practice starting in the New Year. I chose to try this technique based on the complaints and feedback I received from students that their homework grades are low even though they do the work. This also troubled me because while it is important for a select few of my students to go through the motions of “doing homework,” I want homework to supplement every student’s learning.