I teach at Metropolitan CC in Omaha. I teach alg based and calc based
physics.
In both courses I assign 15 or more problems each week. I grade them all
and give the students a point per problem. I assign 20% of the overall
grade to homework. I have no grader, but sometimes get help from our
lab prep person. I don't do much in terms of correcting mistakes,
depending on class size and my load. I even give fractional credit on
problems with multiple parts, or where a very small error has occurred.
I do try to hit the problems in class where a majority of students have
a common error. I imagine it takes about 2 hours per section each week
to do this. My total grading time for hw is probably close to 6-8 hrs a
week.
I encourage students to ask the question back to me concerning what they
did wrong, and will answer those in class in all most every case. The
exception being I don't work problems I worked in class because someone
missed class and blew it on the homework. I regularly work assigned
problems in class as we go through the material, both on my own and at
the request of the students. Only a minority of students are on pace all
of the time, but a slight majority are usually there by the end of the
chapter. Perhaps 80% by the time an exam comes up. I have been known to
take late homework, but after the exam has passed I tell the students to
forget it and move on. On rare occasions, if warranted I have taken the
homework, marked it late taking 10% a week off, and then grading it
after the exam.
We have no recitation separate from the course. I have worked out some
blacked out keys for a study guide to help the students and distribute
those. Most of the students are so busy with their jobs, and lives they
have little time to interact with each other or me, but I encourage both
strongly.
As for working problems, I also try to get to class early to answer a
question about a problem, which I prefer rather than using extra
"lecture" time. I stay after class. I put office hours before and after
class.
When asked, I try not to work the problem but to get the student back on
track. The majority of the questions about the problems my students ask
out of class have little to do with a lack of comprehension, but rather
to do with a simple mistake. The others are because the students haven't
learned how to problem solve. I spend a great deal of time emphasizing
good problem solving techniques and try to force my students to use
multiple representations in their problem solving. This includes force
diagrams, bar charts, pictures, graphs, stating knowns and unkowns, and
stating all equations and the steps towards a solutions. I demand this
on all examines, and they are scored on positive credit basis for doing
this. I go over every exam problem. I grade all my exams, which
generally takes about 3 -4 hours per exam to grade. I also have
multiple choice and short answer sections on the exam.) I have some
handouts, which teach and demonstrate this. I will collect some of this
work and give an "attendance" or participation point from time to time.
I make use of ranking tasks, interactive lecture demonstrations etc to
discuss the course material in class. I have the students hand this in
from time to time again, basically an "attendance" point. I try to get
away from "lecture/derivations" as much as possible. Less so though in
the second semester.
The only instance where I don't collect homework and grade it are in
summer sessions, where we compress the schedule into 5 weeks. I can't
keep up with the students, nor they me. There time for working homework
is compressed so it tends to come in waves, which I can't surf. I try
to compensate by working extra problems in class, and shift emphasis
where they must read and use more out of class resources to answer their
non homework questions. Usually the students that take these sessions
are highly motivated, and higher ability. The schedule takes care of
those who aren't.
Not sure that helps. I you want to visit further the joint meetings of
the Nebr. section of AAPT and Iowa section are Saturday Nov 3 at
Creighton University in Omaha.
<http://www.creighton.edu/~mcherney/NAAPT>
Bill Waggoner
Metropolitan Community College
PO 3777
Omaha NE 68103 - 0777
W 402 738 4752
W 1 800 228 9553
H 402 553 2574
bwaggoner@metropo.mccneb.edu
W Lincoln 402 472 2786
H Lincoln 402 438 3006
-----Original Message-----
From: Tina Fanetti [mailto:FanettT@QUEST.WITCC.CC.IA.US]
Sent: Wednesday, October 31, 2001 11:52 AM
To: PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu
Subject: Value of Homework
Hello all
I am currently thinking about next semester. I was wondering, how ma=
ny assign homework, collect and grade it? How many just assign the p=
roblems and expect the students to do them on their own (ie not for a=
grade)?
For those that don't have a specified recitation section for your cla=
ss, like at a community college, do you spend class time going over t=
he homework problems? How much time?
Thanks very much
Tina
Tina Fanetti
Physics Instructor
Western Iowa Technical Community College
4647 Stone Ave
Sioux City IA 51102
712-274-8733 ext 1429