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Dawnie
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| Posted: June 17 2007 at 4:36pm | IP Logged
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Just wondering how you all handle this...
If you assign a workbook page, math problems, whatever, how do you handle wrong answers? Do you have the child correct his work the same day right away during your regular school time, at some other time during the same day, the next day, never?
If it's something like copywork or a writing assignment that doesn't have clear right/wrong answers, how do you handle messy work? Do you have the child do his work over until it is satisfactory? If you do, do you require it the same day? Do you <gasp> ever give grades?
I usually have my dd correct her work the same day, except for math...she usually corrects math pages the following day. With copywork, if her work is messy, I ask her to copy the same thing over again the next day and remind her to pay special attention to neatness. I'm thinking of grading her work for neatness now, though.
Dawn
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mellyrose
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| Posted: June 17 2007 at 7:25pm | IP Logged
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For math problems, I have them correct them immediately after I check them. It has helped me see if it's a matter of not understanding, or understanding the concept but rushing through the page. I do score the page by listing correct answers over total answers at the top. I don't transfer it into a percentage or letter grade.
I have a system of check, check minus and check plus depending on the quality and neatness of work. Especially neat work that is also correct will get a check plus plus. I don't make a big deal out of the checks, but my boys usually want to do better when they get a check minus over something. I don't keep track of it anywhere -- once we review the work, it's gone. (I do keep certain pages of completed work -- maybe 1-2 for each subject per month and keep it in a binder for review at the end of the year to see progress. But, I keep the best sheets in the binder.)
Also, for math, my son still struggles with writing some letters backwards. If he has backwards numbers on his page, he writes the number 5 times along the margin the correct way after I look the page over. Numbers written incorrectly get circled, while incorrect answers get exed out.
When copy work gets messy, I usually take a day or 2 off from doing it and then go back to it with new copy work. I've found that it causes more frustration to push the copywork (at least in our house.)
My boys are only in K & 1 -- I may change my approach as they get older.
Melanie
Mom to Colin (11/00), Nate (05/02), Lydia (04/07)
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Tina P.
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| Posted: June 17 2007 at 8:14pm | IP Logged
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Math I correct and have them correct their wrong answers within the same day (usually *after* our other subjects are finished). My thinking is that the sooner you pounce on math inconsistencies, the better the lesson sticks. Does that make sense?
Some of them use CHC spelling and all use CHC (while some also use Winston ~ can you say overkill?  ) grammar which I correct and show them within the same day and some use Phonetic Zoo for spelling, which happily, they correct themselves. 
The older kids *want* to know percentages (for instance: "You scored 88%) for some odd reason. So I oblige them as well as this little math-deficient mind can.
Goodness, Melanie. If I check-minused two of my son's papers, they'd say, "Oh well. Better luck next time." They don't much care whether they're neat or not. My daughters *want* to be neat and they try very hard. And one son is just naturally neat. Don't know where he gets it from ... certainly not me!
In fact, I often let my eldest (one of the messy ones) write his history/science papers on the computer when I want content (a written narration or story that was inspired by a biography ... ). I want to actually be able to read it!
We just talk together about history questions and answers and then they write papers about certain figures or events in history or science. I've never graded a paper. I *do* critique them and ask them to rewrite the papers, which used to cause tears, I'm sorry to say. At first my children didn't grasp the concept of drafts. Science and catechism are subjects I don't give grades for in our house as well. They're way too fun!
Hope I've helped. God bless,
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ALmom
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| Posted: June 17 2007 at 9:28pm | IP Logged
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Well, at our house it depends. Math I try to correct right away and corrections must be done before proceeding. This means it is either done that day or the next depending on how much time it has taken for the formal work that day.
Neatness, I try to make a judgement call. If the child is simply rushing to be done and giving me slovenly work that is well below their capability, then I warn them that I will not accept this in the future. I point out specifically what I do expect - Ie paper must be right side up, answers numbered (if it is this kind of assignment), name on the top of the page, etc.) I also do this for grammar. If we have been talking about beginning with capital and ending with punctuation and this lesson has been reinforced and understood and child gives me a paper that is from start to finish, totally without capitalization or punctuation, I hand it to them to redo. If it is a new concept, I am much more gentle and ask them to tell me what is missing from the paper.
If neatness is because they are struggling with writing, then we try to focus on one little thing. Trying to identify only one thing that might improve quality. It would help me to read and understand if you had a set spacing. We should put a space between words but not between letters in the same word. Then we might practice this with handwriting (but I would not have them redo the original paper that initiated the lesson). WhenI could see the child implementing these handwriting lessons in a paper, I make sure to compliment them for how well they have done this.
It is all very much a judgement call with each child for each thing. I don't generally grade much at all in the elementary grades but since I do have to hand in something along these lines for cover school, we come up with a grade based on effort and attentiveness to instructions and staying on task (once per semester in each subject).
Janet
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Erin
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| Posted: June 18 2007 at 8:50pm | IP Logged
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Dawnie wrote:
With copywork, if her work is messy, I ask her to copy the same thing over again the next day and remind her to pay special attention to neatness. I'm thinking of grading her work for neatness now, though.
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Regards copywork, if I find my dc start having messy work I actually reduce the amount they do, I would far rather they say do even a couple of words really neatly than a couple of messy sentences. That is my system for 'grading' copywork.
For maths I generally get them to re-do the incorrect sum as the important thing is understanding the concepts. I don't give marks though just ticks. When marking I don't cross the incorrect one I just put a dot so they can then have a tick when the correct answer is written up. So at the end they have all ticks:)
I do mark their spelling and give a score at the bottom of the page.
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Red Cardigan
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| Posted: June 19 2007 at 1:49am | IP Logged
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I start out every year fully intending to check every bit of work the kids do.
By the middle of the year, if I'm lucky, I'm grading any chapter tests/quizzes that come up, and reminding the older two to use the answer keys to check their own daily work frequently enough to catch problems.
And by the end of the year I'm making all sorts of resolutions about how I'm going to do better next year! Sigh.
I really do want to do better in this area. Those of you that do check work on a daily/near daily basis, how do you do it? Do you sit down in the evenings and look over everything at once, or do you try to check stuff periodically during the day? Do some things that might take longer (30 problem math pages, for example) get done all at once over the weekend?
I think the two worst subjects for me when it comes to checking are grammar and math, because there's so much of it to check. I don't mind glancing over a phonics or spelling page and just making sure they understood the concept and were relatively neat; I don't feel like I have to check every line in those subjects, but with math and grammar you do pretty much have to check it all, and those are the first ones I fall behind in.
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Becky Parker
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| Posted: June 19 2007 at 6:52am | IP Logged
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I have to admit that checking my kid's work has been one of the things I do very poorly. I think, for me, it is just lack of discipline to "just do it". However, this past school year, I did start something which has helped. My ds is 13 and is motivated by grades. The first thing I did was to buy an "Easy Grader" from Rainbow Resourses. It's just a simple, inexpensive thing but it has helped a lot. Then, every Friday, my ds and I have a "meeting". He brings all his work, divided by subject and in order by assignment. I bring my answer keys, and we go through each paper correcting it "school style" (I say the answer, he puts and "x" on it if it's wrong.) Then, his job is to use the Easy Grader to find his percentage. He really loves this whole process (which surprises me). He will actually come to me on Friday and say "Mom, when are we going to check my work?" which keeps me on the ball. Granted, it's not an evey day thing, but for us it is a step up because assignments are being graded at least weekly. I don't have such a system for my younger kids, although I think for this coming year I'll start the Friday thing with my 3rd grader. The younger kids do most of their work with me sitting there so there is really no need to check it.
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ALmom
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| Posted: June 19 2007 at 2:05pm | IP Logged
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Since I have 6 dc, there is no way that I can correct everything everyday. I try to do math most frequently as it is frustrating to have 1 mo worth of corrections that basically if they had been corrected with the first mistake, it would not have been repeated. With an AK, I can usually get these graded for everyone, at least a couple of times per week. Grammar is similiar - but one of the reasons why we use CHC. I just cannot deal with endless similiar problems - and even if it is a younger age, I like having the AK. I certainly am capable of doing every problem in these subjects at least through elementary - and in math, through Alg II, but it is much quicker to use AK. With math, I look for patterns - ie, I look for why they missed the problem. I sometimes will make a note on the paper, like, I think you understood this, but you copied your own handwriting incorrectly. Be careful to be neat, even in math. Or it might be a note, come talk to me about (name concept), I think there is one minor detail that is throwing you on all these kinds of problems. This way, they do have to find their own mistakes but it isn't quite the frustrating exercise.
For my highschoolers, I have someone reviewing essay papers for me, and I have an AK that bullets main ideas. This is a tremendous help. In the elementary, I focus on basics.
In order to make sure that no one gets overlooked for too long, I have a rotating system. I spend one day working with each child (the youngest, I can generally cover 2 in one day). We don't do a lot of additional work this day, it is mostly going over work, making corrections, discussing what worked and didn't work and writing out plans for the next week based on what needs review and where we need to move on ahead. It also allows me to catch them if they are totally ignoring a subject. Some of my olders would never get to science and now my 10 yo would never get to history if I didn't do this and emphasize that we need to make sure we do not neglect any area entirely.
Now all this being said, we looked at last year and realized that the spelling program was way too mom intense and so we didn't get to it. It is a wonderful program but not doing us much good if we don't use it. My plan for next year is to go ahead and use the vocab. as spelling so it is covered regularly - and then do the best I can to use this other program to remediate the easier words we simply still misspell.
I do also tend to learn my dc greatest weaknesses - and these are the things that need my greatest attention. So if time is limited and I know that dc is a whiz at grammar, but struggles with math, then if I have to chose between doing both, I'll grade the subject in the weaker area and either let them self-check in the stronger area or get to it a bit later. Sometimes I have found that I can get an older dc to help. My dc who is now in college was a grammar whiz - and when I was working with grammar with her sis, I often found myself asking this dd for refresher explanations to save me the research time.
I've also sometimes recruited dh to help, esp in the advanced math and science areas. He can correct science without looking up in the book, so he is quicker at it and as long as I'm asking for help at a reasonable time in the evening, after dc are in bed, he doesn't mind and then we are both done in short order. Otherwise it would have taken me over twice as long.
Janet
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: Correcting work
