The One with Homework, a Toolbox, and Clips.

Summer Break is in full swing.

I'm not sure that it's fair to call it a break.

I've already attended three workshops and did 2.5 hours of PD online.

Of course I've also done plenty of this...

Sorry...this post has quickly gone away from the topic at hand.

Homework Bingo.

I was working on my new Bingo board for next year when I realized I have never shared it on the blog or on Instagram.

That needs to be remedied so let's get started.

Let me start with the homework part.

My students receive their math homework every Monday.

It looks like this...

Homework is due every Friday.

The homework is divided into days...the only real reason for this is to help students pace themselves throughout the week.

Any student who turns their homework in on time gets to write their name on the Bingo board.

The letters & numbers are road maps to go with my travel theme.

On Friday I draw a winning square.  Any one with their name in that square gets to scan a QR code for a prize.  If there are multiple names in the winning square, they all win.  If there are no names in the winning square, no one wins that week.  I do not draw until I have a winner.

My students loved this last year and it was a big motivator from some of those kids who wouldn't normally do their homework.

This was my teacher toolbox.

It got a little makeover this past week.

Stay tuned...it may get another makeover before school starts.  I'm not totally loving how it turned out.

I also added some spray paint and washi tape to a few binder clips.

So much cuter than the plain black.

The One with Rewards

There are still a few things left on my to do list from this summer.  

Yes  I said summer.

I fall into this trap every year.  As the beginning of school approaches things get shoved to the bottom of my priority list and never seem to come to fruition before the first day of school.  

And then they never come to be.

One of those things this year was some sort of reward system for homework.  I wanted to change the way I do homework with my sixth graders.  I had them last year as 5th graders and their homework habits... well they weren't the best.

I did make an immediate change.

Instead of sporadic homework here and there, I decided to do weekly homework.  They have quickly learned the system and there have been very few occasions this year where someone doesn't have their homework.  Every Monday they receive their weekly homework.  

It looks something like this without the answers of course.  :)

It is due on Friday.  If they happen to finish before the end of the week they can turn it in early.

Every Wednesday I take the last 10-15 minutes of class and answer any questions they have about their homework.  This motivates the majority of them to at least look at it before they come to class on Wednesday.  This is some of my favorite time with them.  We have good conversation and I feel like understanding occurs during those few minutes.  

The students seem to appreciate this consistency.  There is no question about when they have math homework or when it is due.  Several parents commented during parent teacher conferences how much they like it for the same reason.

Last week's assignment was a little heavy.  

It was time to finally come up with some type of reward system.  I felt like students who completed this assignment deserved something for their effort and perseverance.  

I mentioned in my last post about my love for task cards.  A love that is almost as big is my love for QR codes.  My students love them almost as much as I do.

All that to say I created some reward cards using QR codes and they are a HIT with my students.

I have them all in a basket.  Students reach in and grab one, scan it, and then it goes back in the basket.

My students have asked every day since when they could scan again.  I actually rewarded a student today for raising her hand when the rest of the class was shouting out.  They were all very jealous and were suddenly all raising their hands.

Prizes include a new pencil, a fun eraser, a piece of candy, pick your seat for a day, free homework pass, and sit at the the teacher's desk for a day.

Simple things that don't cost me a lot of money.

I might add some other rewards as the year goes on.

If you would like to grab a copy of the QR Code Rewards, check out my TPT store.

Hope you are having a good week.

The One With the Homework Menu

Thursday...7th grade away football game that night and students are asking me for math homework, saying it's fun.

How did I do it? I gave them the power to choose their homework. I almost feel like I tricked my students into liking math when my real goal was differentiation.

I used to hate that word. Did they really expect me to make 28 different lesson plans for my 28 very different students? Yes. To some extent, they did.

Awhile back I heard about this great way to differentiate with homework. I've been meaning to try it and finally pulled it out of my bag of tricks last week.

The idea is that you give the students several homework problems, assigning a point value to each problem. For example you give them 40 problems. 1-10 are the easiest so they are worth 2 points each. 11 - 20 are worth 3 points each. 21 - 30 are 4 points and 31-40 being the hardest are worth 5 points each.

I then tell my students how many points they have to collect. The first time I did this students had to collect 35 points and I gave bonus up to 45 if they went over. I won't do the bonus every time, but I was also trying to help their grades a little.

The other thing I told my students was that I was counting how many points they earned not how many points they miss. So if they did 40 points worth of problems and one of those was a 5 pointer that they missed, they could still make a 100 % because they had 35 points.

I really hope all this makes sense. I struggle to explain what we are doing. Don't hesitate to ask if you are unsure what I'm talking about. :)

I'm thrilled to tell you that I had more students turn in homework than ever before. The majority of them did well over the 35 point minimum.

They absolutely loved it and begged to have more homework the very next day.

And all I was doing was differentiating. The idea is that your advance students can be challenged by the harder problems and not have to work as many. Your weaker students will do the easy ones, but that means they have to do more problems getting the practice they need.

I may never do homework any other way. Try it and let me know how it works for you.