5 (Non-violent)Activities that Made My Students Submit Homework on Time
I was placed as a Teach for Nepal fellow at Shree Ma Vi Bijaybasti, Thori-4, Parsa for 2018–2020. The classroom size was 50+ students. Students number is enough as well as the absenteeism rate is very low as compared to other public schools. However, there is lack of interest towards education not only in students but their parents as well. There are a lot of instances where people who have gone abroad for foreign employment have done well rather than people who have good education. I believe that this may be one of the factors that students didn’t care for their studies. A lot of other factors are there as well due to which the academic achievements of the students was very low.
As I focused more of my classes being interactive, students really enjoyed and used to grasp the contents. They used to perform well in group activities as well as individual activities. While doing random check of understanding, most of the students would answer instantly. The daily assessments also gave a satisfactory result of over 80%. The classes went really well. At the end of each class, homework was given, but the next day, the submission rate was very low. Only 20 students used to submit homework out of 50+ students. Students used to give a lot of reasons for not being able to submit homework . Some of them were valid too and needed to considered. I could not track my students progress if they didn’t do homework. So, I did some following activities that increased the homework submission rate to more than 95%.
Homework Announcement
One of the most prominent excuse that students made while not submitting their homework was that they didn’t listen or understand what the homework was. They would often say that they were unaware about the homework that was given the day before. Due to this they were unable to submit the homework. It may be real in some cases. However, I had to find some ways for this problem.
From the next day, what I did was after assigning the homework at the end of my period, I would make students reflect about not only the learnings but also made 3 students to read aloud about the homework that I had noted earlier. This made all of the students aware about the homework and it helped them to remember better. Next day, the rate of homework submission increased.
Daily Homework Observation
Each day homework was given. It was not necessarily always to make them write and remember but also sometimes about their community and surroundings. They would get homework on somedays just to observe their locality. As the number of students were high, it was quiet difficult to track which students brought their homework. But, I had to do this. I would check if all the students made their homework or not. Some students would be absent, I would just simply smile at them and move to the next student. They would understand that they need to do homework from the next day.
Homework Checklist
Each day students had to study different subjects. Each of the subjects was taught with different activities. In some period, they would read the contents, in some of subjects, they would discuss the content and in some they would do their classwork. As the school in which I taught didn’t have a school diary, students would often forget the homework given. Later, I made them make a table at the start of the subject copy with the date, topic taught and a check mark if the homework was given. The students would note down the topics taught and would give a check mark if they had homework for that day. When they would reach home, they would just see the first page of their copy and would instantly know if they had homework or not. This zero cost trick worked as a separate diary was unaffordable for my students at that time.
Homework Collection
After students brought homework to the classroom, it was my responsibility to check them and correct. As there were maximum number of students, so collection and checking of homework was impossible in a single period. It was even more difficult as course content had to be covered on time despite of the regular disturbances in the school. Another problem was that, students would simply copy homework of other students after they arrived at the school. To keep homework at home, we placed a chair in front of the class. Students had to put their homework before entering the classroom. If someone had a problem, they would either consult the monitor for that day or their subject teacher. However, this case was rare as most of the time students would submit their homework regularly.
Group Homework Check
I started group homework check because of two reasons. The first one was that I was involved in extra administration of the school and I wanted to develop a system in which student would feel responsible for themselves. The group homework check worked in a manner in which team work was essential. I had divided several diverse groups in a classroom. I had tried to make the group as diverse as possible based on culture, gender and location. In group homework check, students in a group would exchange their copies and go through the homework done by their friends. After that they would provide critical feedback to their peers. I would move around groups and facilitate as necessary.
