Can you believe that summer has come to an end? School is in full swing and if you are anything like me you are drowning in papers: paper work, to do lists, graded papers, papers to be copied, papers to be signed, etc. This month I am linking up with a Bright Idea that has been successful in my classroom, Organizing Homework with an Agenda.
My first year teaching my stack of papers from students looked like this:
As a math teacher, I would assign homework approximately 3-4 nights per week and then collect it the next day. 150 students times 4 assignments a week = 600 papers per WEEK.
600 papers to organize, grade/look over, mark who was missing, mark who was absent, mark who didn't complete it, and return.
Needless to say, I almost lost my mind and was unable to use it as formative assessment. Often, I was good to actually get it back to them, much less to have looked at it before we moved on in content. It was absurd!
Enter, the lifesaver homework agenda.
Simple concept: Provide a cover sheet with each assignment for the week, attach all work to that cover sheet, and collect it at the end of the week.
But, that's not all.
It is all about how you use it... each day I would look over to see if the work was completed, students received my initials or a stamp, then we would mark it in class. If it was incomplete, I marked it late or incomplete. The next day as I went around and reviewed their completion I was also noting how they did on the previous nights work. Repeat throughout the week. Collect on Friday. Enter all grades at once. Return on Monday.
My agenda has evolved depending on the grade level, the younger, the more basic.
Here is a sample:
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