Homework

Homework is an opportunity for students to take accountability for their learning, to demonstrate responsibility in completing tasks, and to work at their own pace.  In class, we work together on the major concepts and overarching ideas; the homework is more focused on specific details that fit into those concepts.  Most days, the students have 10 - 15 minutes in class to begin their homework and should be at least halfway completed.  Longer assignments in 7th & 8th grade may be given two days for completion instead of one.  

Students have access to online textbooks.  Guided notes (usually 6th grade) are handed out in class but also posted online for students who are absent or forgot/lost their papers -- they can be printed out at home.  Independent notes (7th/8th grade) should go into their US History composition notebook, but are accepted on looseleaf paper if necessary.

• Homework and other assignments are posted in Google Classroom under the "Classwork" tab.  (Resulting grades are posted in Rediker.)  It's also written on the board each day.  

• Parents:  If you would like to know about the homework assignment, tell your child that you would like to see the posting.  

  • • • They should go to the Google Classroom home, which will look like the top image on the right.  Any pending assignments not yet marked "done" will appear in the boxes under the class titles.

      • They should click on a particular class.  It will open to the main screen, which will look like the second picture.  

      • They should click on the "Classwork" which will show all the assignments, whether they have been marked as "done" or not. 

      •   If you click on the assignment, additional information and links will appear as appropriate.  

IMPORTANT: A student can simply hit "Mark as Done" without completing any work at all.  If you are checking up on your student to see if homework or assignments have been completed, they should show you the actual work.  Grades are posted in Rediker and NOT in Google Classroom.  

If you do not know how to get into Rediker, start with the e-mail you gave the school as your contact information.  If necessary, reset the password; you may need to check your "spam" folder for the reset link.  

For Social Studies, I keep a running track of assignments marked as:

• "M" (missing or less than half complete-- 0 points)

• "INC" (incomplete -- less than 2/3 of the way done -- 0 points)

• "L" (late -- done but late -- 2 points)

• 3 (done, but partially incomplete, not in ink, barely legible, or retrieved from locker -- 3 points)

• ✔  (done completely & on time -- 4 points)

At the end of the chapter, I add up the points and mark this as the homework component of the grade; for 7th & 8th grade, it is usually about 20 points (with a 100 point test).  For 6th grade, it is usually about 10-15 points (with a quiz worth about 50 points).  You will not see this grade post until the end of the chapter, but I do physically stamp completed work and annotate late or incomplete work in class, so you can see the written grade on the work itself.