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Posted by Becky Rock on 20-01-2015 at 00:09:

I'm not saying they should do away with homework as a way to gage whether students are understanding concepts, just that it shouldn't be graded - I agree with my son on that. It's too easy to cheat. If a student gets a 100 on their homework but a bad grade on their test, it does make one wonder.

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Posted by ChrisW on 20-01-2015 at 04:08:

I can share an example of where that can happen, though. When I was in university I was studying mechanical engineering. We had to take 1 electrical engineering class as part of the program, and that turned out to be the only subject that truly left me feeling like I could never figure it out. I retook the class in summer session and that time I actually did all the stuff I should, including regular visits to the teaching assistant, etc.

I did well on the homework and on the quizzes, but when it came to the exams, I felt like I'd entered an alternate universe or was suddenly attending school in another language. I did terribly on the exams. The lowest possible C that I got was kind of a gift because the TA felt sorry for me and felt I was trying very hard (and not going into electrical engineering).

I guess part of it for me is that I learn best by doing. Not having homework would really cripple me, and I'd be less likely to do it if I wasn't graded on it, I suspect.

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Posted by Becky Rock on 21-01-2015 at 00:07:

I know there are some kids who freeze up on tests. That's where teachers and parents come in. They should work together with the child to help them work out their anxiety.

My son had so much anxiety about presentations in middle school he'd refuse to do them. He would rather take an F rather than try. One of his teachers alerted us to it since his report card wasn't noting it and we just thought h was screwing around. We all worked with him to help him through it. It took us two years.

He's currently taking a college course from James Madison University that is being given at his high school during regular hours - Geospatial Integration Systems. It combines computers and satellite data. Today, he had his midterm - since college still has them - which was a presentation of his 1st semester project to a JMU computer professor. We checked with his teacher, who said he did a great job.

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Posted by ElectricWhite on 21-01-2015 at 02:07:

quote:

Originally posted by Becky Rock
Today, he had his midterm - since college still has them - which was a presentation of his 1st semester project to a JMU computer professor. We checked with his teacher, who said he did a great job.

So glad to hear that! deal

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Posted by ChrisW on 21-01-2015 at 02:09:

Awesome about your son!

I don't tend to freeze up on tests. That was the weird part with the electrical engineering stuff. It was something about the test design and my own understanding or lack thereof of the material compared to the homework and quizzes. I couldn't make the leap to what was on the tests. Kinda freaked me out as I'm not used to that.

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Posted by Becky Rock on 22-01-2015 at 00:59:

My son always wants to see real world applications, particularly with math. He hated the way his calculus teacher taught because he never showed them how calculus contributed to engineering, for example.

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Posted by ChrisW on 22-01-2015 at 04:58:

I took calculus and AP physics in the same year, and the AP physics required calculus because calculus was used in the physics class. Something like that might have helped.

I envy the fact that my husband was in a gifted program that combined English and history such that they'd be reading in the historical period they were studying and got to discuss a lot more context. So much more interesting than "memorize event + person + date."

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Posted by ElectricWhite on 22-01-2015 at 08:12:

quote:

Originally posted by ChrisW
I envy the fact that my husband was in a gifted program that combined English and history such that they'd be reading in the historical period they were studying and got to discuss a lot more context. So much more interesting than "memorize event + person + date."

Not to sound like I'm bragging, but I always somehow naturally combined what I learned in English class with history class...it floored me when I discovered that my classmates' minds didn't work like that, and I still have trouble seeing how anybody can completely separate the cut & dried facts of history (the "event + person + date" aspect) from the social aspects (what books, movies, and music are popular at a given time).

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Posted by ChrisW on 22-01-2015 at 20:00:

I didn't entirely divorce them in my mind, but my memory of high school history was a lot of memorization of fact/date/person and multiple guess tests with perhaps some fill in the blanks, and I suck at memorization. University history classes with their essay exams and a lot more context and less memorization of what felt like empty facts were much more interesting and started giving me a love of history. (Plus being able to choose which time periods I was most interested in, I suspect.)

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