Young Learners

Teaching English to Elementary School Children

My last entry looked at how to use time efficiently while homework was being checked and corrected. To follow on from that, this entry will consider how to go about checking homework. Most of this can be applied to any written work, not only homework.

Why do we check homework?
Firstly, we should consider the reasons we check homework. They probably include some or all of the following:
to see how the students managed with the task set for homework in order to evaluate the students’ progress
to give students another opportunity for learning as they make their corrections
students and parents expect homework to be checked
checked homework provides a correct model for students to look back on when necessary.

How many of the mistakes in students’ homework should be corrected?
If we look again at the above reasons for checking homework, it would follow that we should probably attend to all the students’ mistakes. This, however, may have some negative consequences especially, but not only, for weaker students. Weaker students may lose confidence if they realise they have made a lot of mistakes. Stronger students too can often be sensitive about mistakes. Pointing out all mistakes may lead students to be fearful about mistakes and may discourage them from taking risks in class, turning them into very passive learners. If they feel that perfection is necessary, they will be much more averse to taking risks. It is far better to have a child spell “desk” as “besc” than have them scared to write anything at all.

How should we handle mistakes in homework?
If mistakes are handled in a positive way then most students will be happy to deal with quite a few, as long as other students have a similar number or are occupied doing something else. If we correct the mistakes ourselves, the students are unlikely to learn from their mistakes and also don’t get any sense of achievement. It is better to have them self-correct. Giving small hints at first and gradually giving bigger hints as necessary gives maximum opportunity for students to think about, and learn from, their mistakes. For example, for spelling mistakes, first, point out which part has a mistake, then which word, then which letter, then say the letter or sound and anchor word (e.g. if they have spelled “desk” as “desc” we can say “k-key”), and finally we can give them three or four options to choose from written on the board (one is the correct answer - others are incorrect). Working through mistakes in this way will mean that finally the student gets the correct answer without being told by the teacher. This will lead to a greater sense of achievement as well as a greater likelihood of the word being remembered.

How should we handle mistakes with punctuation or letter formation?
This probably depends to an even greater degree on the individual student. It is important that writing is legible of course, and probably better overall to correct sooner rather than later to prevent bad habits taking hold. On the other hand, younger children may simply not yet have the fine motor skills needed for good handwriting. If students are making mistakes with the substance then we can probably be more lenient about punctuation and handwriting. With stronger students who are making few mistakes with the substance then we can encourage them to rectify any punctuation or handwriting mistakes they are making, such as height of letters, way of forming letters, and so on.

How should we check homework for large classes?
The method mentioned above will probably not work in a large class. For large classes we have to check the homework in advance or do it as a class activity in class. If we check in advance we can either correct mistakes ourselves or point out the mistakes, without actually correcting. If we have plenty of time for homework correction then students could be encouraged to correct their mistakes, and it can be re-checked with the following week’s homework. If we have time constraints that don’t allow this, it is probably better to correct those mistakes that we think the student may not be able to correct by themselves, and point out mistakes that we consider to be self-correctable. The drawback of this advance checking is that students don’t get the benefit of thinking through the corrections. It can also be quite time-consuming.

We can check the homework in class as a whole class activity. This would save teachers’ preparation time. It still wouldn’t give much chance for self-correction as it would probably involve the teacher or a student giving the correct answer. Common mistakes could be done in a more useful way, with the mistakes written on the board and the students trying to correct them individually. One major drawback of class corrections is that it will accentuate differences in ability between students, with the result of lessening the confidence of some students. Weak students will probably not want to correct their own work in front of their classmates because they feel embarrassed by the number of mistakes, and are likely to put their homework away out of sight as soon as possible. An ideal mix of these two methods is perhaps to check homework in advance, and to incorporate any common mistakes into the activities for that day, either in a “Find the mistake” type activity or as part of a regular activity.

Final Comments
It is important to remember why we set homework and to make sure how we correct it fits in with the reasons we set it in the first place. If the reason to is to provide the students with an opportunity to practise English outside the sessions they have with us, and to increase the amount of time spent on English by our students each week, then it is important to keep homework as fun and as stimulating as possible for the students. This includes the correction of the homework which should also be as fun and stimulating as possible.

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