<p>I’m hoping to gain some insight from others concerning high school homework and tests. In college, we always had access to science problem set answers, which were hung on a board outside the classroom. Yesterday I inquired and again learned that my kid’s science teacher isn’t going over homework assignments. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen this. In previous classes, homework was sometimes gone over at the board. Sometimes teachers only review problems kids ask about. Often they only ‘check’ the homework, i.e. verify that the kid did it, but not verify that the kid did it correctly.</p>
<p>Instead of going over the homework problems, this teacher allowed the kids to come up during class and review an answer sheet in a folder while other class activities were ongoing. Leisurely access to worked problems, on paper or online, isn’t available to students during class.</p>
<p>I’ve asked my kid to find out when students can inspect the folder out of class, but I am amazed by this approach. What am I missing? In my long-ago day, I recall teachers saying over and over, “review the homework assignments, review the quizzes” to prepare for tests and finals. Nowadays, it seems they have limited access to graded papers, and no in-hand worked problem sets, in science and math class. I understand concerns about paper usage and cheating, but what I’m really wondering is how kids are supposed to get the message that getting the right answers to problems is of primary importance, not just attempting the problems. Is this a new trend, or am I only imagining that things were different years ago?</p>
<p>I’m assuming this science class must be physics (problem sets?).<br>
In my son’s physics class, they would get hw assignments online; I think it was through the University of Texas but don’t quote me. Anyway, the students were expected to work the probs and then submit answers online, where they would be told right or wrong. They could rework and resubmit answers repeatedly. If a right answer, the student would get the solution as well (so he could compare how he worked the problem). If after repeated tries, the student still couldn’t figure it out, he could ask for the solution online. The teacher had some way of seeing the “record” of attempts, etc. so he based his homework grade somehow on that. If the student was really confused, the teacher would reteach or do remedial work during class or before/after school.</p>
<p>The homework grade was based somehow on success rate and/or number of attempts.</p>
<p>In many schools, homework is ungraded and uninspected. In others, homework is graded on completion. Ideally, homework is turned in and errors are noted, but that ideal is often too time-consuming for many teachers. </p>
<p>When I was in high school, our homework was ungraded and uncollected (in a private school, BTW). We were, however, expected to bring up questions about it before the daily (yes, daily) one-question quiz that was based on that homework (which took a few minutes and was graded by the swap-and-grade-each-other method). </p>
<p>As for how kids get the message that “getting the right answers” is important, I think most high school kids know that. </p>
<p>Your son should consider forming a study group.</p>
<p>^^^This is true. In my son’s Chemistry class, homework was optional. The teacher assigned it for the students’ benefit, and it wasn’t part of the grade.</p>
<p>Had a similiar problem with S’s Spanish class (that he failed) last year. The teacher took up the homework and graded it but if she could see that more than half of it was wrong, then she would just give a “zero” grade rather than figuring out the actual number value. Anybody knows that even a 50 is better than 0 but she didn’t think it was worth her time. </p>
<p>Also students were never allowed to bring their tests home. She would return them in class so they could briefly see their grade and then take them back up. Since S basically failed almost every test, it could have been really helpful for him to bring it home and try to figure out the mistakes (teacher did not go over the test in class either) but it was against her policy. I talked to her several times and emailed a lot but S had done so poorly (she said he wasn’t trying) that she already had her mind made it. S personally knows of at least 7 kids who failed her class.</p>
<p>He signed up to retake the class this year and ironically was assigned the same teacher. His school is huge with lots of Spanish teachers. I stormed the guidance office and demanded a schedule change. After much finagling, it got changed. His new Spanish teacher is a football coach. S is a football player (another thing teacher 1 didn’t like). Hopefully we’ll have a better result this year</p>
<p>^The policy of not giving back the tests and only going over them once in class is truly annoying. Tutors are rendered almost useless to help in this scenario. Ask around and you will find it is because the teachers don’t want to re-write a new test for future classes. How are kids supposed to learn from their mistakes if they never know what they are? I would love to see some teachers on here comment about this.</p>
<p>^^This is a case of laziness on the part of the teacher. </p>
<p>The teacher for physics that my son had did a good job of monitoring the online records for attempting homework. As well, he did an excellent job of presenting the material, making himself available after school hours on a daily basis, and going over the homework during class. </p>
<p>The chem teacher had his own ways; he was not a “book” teacher, so he gave “book” homework and if the kids did it, great, if not, oh well. His class was hands on, which was awesome for my sons, not so for some others. All I can say is that my sons only had “honors” (not AP) chem, are both majoring in premed or bio/chem engineering, have made "A"s at the college level; so the chem teacher who didn’t give homework must have done something right.</p>
<p>Packmom–that sounds exactly like the Spanish teacher at my son’s HS! Precisely the same m.o.! Son did not do well at all in Spanish (wouldn’t try) but it would have been helpful to at least see the tests & talk to him.</p>
<p>If the problems are assigned from the textbook, you could try purchasing a copy of the matching solutions manual or teachers guide… I’ve usually found them available on sites like half.com for a reasonable price. My D could then use them to check her answers and then if they did not match what she got and the manual did not provide an explanation, she could ask the teacher about those specific problems. You don’t want to do this however if the hw is being graded and you think that your child is just going to copy the answers from the solutions manual. D always did the work first and then checked on her answers.</p>