Well, this is going to be my most hypocritical post to date. It was supposed to be done roughly five weeks ago. Instead, I’ve been buried under my actual job so I haven’t been here for you. For that, I apologize.
The good news is that your life doesn’t have to look like mine, and the reason for that is simple.
Most of the work you do in class will never be read.
That’s right, my chickadees, the vast majority of what you do will get a cursory glance to judge its completeness. That’s it.
Nobody is checking to see if your answers are correct.
Nobody is checking to see if your reasoning is sound.
No one cares whether or not you read the book.
What they do want to see, and what they are looking for is obedience: did you finish the work or not?
Some of you know this already, which is why “collaboration” on homework is so extensive. Sending pics of your completed homework via phone or “researching” answers on Google is the most efficient way to get those sweet, sweet homework points.
The problem is that you’re not getting any real practice. Here’s the rub: most of the time homework isn’t adequate practice either (except in math; if you’re blowing off math homework, you’re begging to fail the tests, which may or may not matter depending on the weight of your test grade.)
Here’s the thing you may not know, but which I’ve mentioned before. School isn’t really about learning. School is about getting points and the easiest way to get points is through compliance.
Bells tell you where to go and when you have to get there. Your classes are chosen for you based on your age; not on what’s best for you at your current level of learning. Your teachers are chosen for you based on numbers, not on who would be the best fit for your personality. You sit where we assign you. You eat when we tell you. You go to the bathroom when we let you. You answer when you’re called on. You are only allowed to relax when we decide you’ve earned it.
Your day is micromanaged in a way that would cause an uprising in many small countries.
We simultaneously tell you that you are responsible for making good choices (which really means choosing the thing whoever is in charge at the time wants you to choose) while also subtly implying that you are incapable of doing so by structuring your day in a way that gives you almost no agency.
L. O. L.
So here’s how to win: do everything the teacher tells you on paper, but spend little to no time on it, except in math, which I’ll give you a better structure for below.
Obey, but preserve your time and you will maximize your homework grade.
This strategy will work in almost every class unless, by some unfortunate stroke of luck, you find yourself in a class with a teacher who will actually assess whether or not you’re learning the material they’re asking you to master. You’ll know this by the weight of the tests.
Grade weighting generally refers to the practice of making a particular type of assignment or assignment category count for more of the course grade than another. This information should be found on a course syllabus, but if you can’t find it, ask your teacher if he uses weighted grades. He should be happy to explain it to you. Additionally, if the teacher uses a grading program, you should be able to see grade weight by accessing the gradebook information for that class.
Fortunately for you, a heavily-weighted test grade is rare outside of math classes.
Here’s the dirty secret about school: administration needs everyone to pass in order for the school to look good, score-wise. That means they subtly pressure teachers to make sure that very few students actually fail. They do this in many ways, but the most important way they do that is by creating an extensive list of requirements a teacher must meet before they can actually give a student an F in a class. Usually, a teacher will have to document the academic interventions they’ve tried, like moving your seat, adjusting your assignments, talking to you privately, and giving you extended time on assignments (i.e., accept your late work). While we make all those adjustments (and keep track of them) we’re supposed to communicate our concerns to you and hopefully talk you into doing what we want you to do. If you still don’t respond, we’re supposed to contact your parents. This can take many forms, but it generally starts with sending home progress reports, moves to contacting your parents by phone, and finally, having an after school meeting with you, your parents, and your counselor, sometimes with a principal present. Only then can we justify giving you that F.
Now, imagine you’re a tenured high school teacher. You have a choice in front of you: go through all that work, or just give you a 59.6% in the class.
I’ll never forget the first time Mike said in a department meeting, “Why don’t we all just make it an unspoken policy to give kids a D? You can’t really want to see these kids again, and there’s no upside to an F.”
I was shocked (shocked I tell you!) to hear this man I respected and had gone to for pedagogical advice say that out loud in his official capacity as team leader.
Boy was I ever naive.
When you look at it honestly, his response is the rational one. His way means less work for teachers, love from administration, and limited time nagging kids who don’t want to be there.
It’s so much easier just to keep everyone “at C level”, the cringeworthy pun invented by one of our Assistant Superintendents. Yes, he has a Ph.D. an Ed.D.
Still, it is possible that you will occasionally have a true believer (or a teacher who’s a really good actor) who expects you to learn something from the homework and will test you on it.
If that does happen, the best thing I can teach you is workload management.
The best tool for workload management is the Pomodoro technique. A Pomodoro is a focused period of time, usually 25 minutes, where you put your phone on Do Not Disturb or on Airplane Mode (or if you really want to be held accountable, give your phone to your mom to hide until the alarm goes off) to shut down notifications so you can work without distractions. 25 minutes on, 5-minute break, then back to another 25-minute Pomodoro. After 4 repetitions, you take a longer 20 minute break.
Do Pomodoros until you finish the assignment. If you get stuck, review your notes. If reviewing your notes doesn’t help you, formulate a specific question to email to your teacher. That way, if you hit a wall and can’t go further in the homework, you can email them before the assignment is due to ask the question you’ve formulated and request an extension, while continuing to work on any problems you can make it through.
In general, if you are making an honest effort to complete the homework and really trying to understand it, a teacher is willing to offer you an extension on the homework. Just remember it’s on you to follow up and turn in the work once you get some help with the assignment or problem you couldn’t sort out.
Most importantly, actually doing the work should result in high test scores. Just remember, you should know the category weighting for each class; if homework is worth half your grade, you really don’t have to score all that well on tests to get high grades.
TL;DR: Most teachers value compliance over learning; it’s easier to measure.
STUDENTS: Your homework probably won’t be looked at, so do the bare minimum unless the teacher actually will test you on what you do on the homework. Ask for this information upfront, and pay attention to tests/quizzes at the beginning of the semester to ascertain whether or not your attention to homework (e.g., reading, notes, worksheets, etc.) matters in terms of your grade. If it does matter, prioritize those assignment and use the Pomodoro technique to focus, learn more, and get your homework done faster.
PARENTS: Do not sweat every piece of homework; all zeroes are not created equal. Have an open conversation with your student about her observations regarding her teachers’ grading policies. Get on the same team with your kid and help her set priorities with her work (as well as her cell phone.)
TEACHERS: if you’re not going to assess it, don’t assign it. Feedback is necessary when working with important topics, but not every worksheet has to be do or die. If it is do or die, you need to actually read it (or formatively assess while students are working on it) and reteach/enrich where necessary. Otherwise, you’re setting the majority of your students up to fail.
Educated and Free 