SKKN The overview of homework and techniques in correcting homework applied for teachers and secondary students

TABLE CONTENTS
PART 1
I. BACKGROUND AND THE REASON FOR THE STUDY
 The purpose for this study comes from my own year-to-year efforts to help students to do homework in Grades 12 in Dong Son 1 High School.
 I feel that the majority of students are always lazy doing their homework. At first sight, they do not understand the purpose of homework and they are not patient enough to do their homework. Also, this part accounts for a small percentage in their whole remark. As a result, students usually put this part aside and sometimes come to class without doing their homework.
 On the other hand, teachers sometimes give students too much home work and do not properly plan the homework tasks they give to students.The result is that students have to repeat tasks which they have already done at school and, of course, they do not find it interesting to do homework. Further more, the way of correcting homework tasks is not always effective.
 Owing to the necessities, I have made up my mind to choose “The overview of homework and techniques in correcting homework applied for teachers and secondary students ” as my topic of the study.
II. AIM OF THE STUDY
With the above mentioned reasons in mind, I have the specific aims as follows:
1. To help teachers prepare homework tasks requisitely .
2. To encourage students to confidently cope with their homework tasks so as to complete the tasks at best they can.
3. To introduce some homework correction techniques.
III. SOURCE OF THE STUDY
 The materials that have been greatly valuable to my study are from the following books: 
1. Breach,D.(2005). Exploring the Vietnamese Concept of a “Good Teacher”. Teacher’s Edition 16:30 – 37
2. Corey, S.M. (1953). Action Research to Improve School Practices. New York: Teacher College Press
3. Downs,M.(2000). Increasing student Motivation. Teachers’ Edition 4: 8 – 13
4. Kemmis,S and R.Mc Taggart.(1998).The Action Research Planner. Victoria, Australian: Deakin University Press.
5. Underwood,M.(1987).Effective Class Management: A Practical Approach. New York: Longman.
6. Ur,P.(1996). A Course in Language Teaching: Practice &Theory. Cambridge University Press
 Besides, the examples to illustrate my thesis are from the latest homework tasks that I have prepared for my students.
PART 2
I. WHY SET HOMEWORK?
 Teachers should figure out the purpose of homework tasks carefully so that they can make effective homewok exercises. 
1. To extend and consolidate classroom practice
 Commonly, students have no more than three hours of classes per week in the target language, divided into three forty five-minute sessions during the week. In this case , two homework tasks per week involving half an hour of student time each will increase the time spent practise the language by 33% and increase the frequency of contact with the language from three to five occasions per week.
2. To allow students to work at their own pace
 Classroom tasks usually have to be done within a fixed time-limit set by the teacher, which may mean that faster students have to sit doing nothing while the slower students face the possibe embarrassment of not finishing the task in time. Homework, however, can be done at a students' own pace, allowing more time for reflection and lessening the pressure to finish the task quickly.
II. IMPORTANT PRE - REQUISITES FOR HOMEWORK TASKS
The following apply largely to writing activities, as homework tasks will normally involve writing rather than the other skills.
1. Validity
 Tasks must be valid in terms of the aims for which the teacher is setting the homework. For example, if a teacher wants students to practise the use of the passive , an active-to-passive transformation exercise would not be a valid way of practise this as, although it ensures that students know how to manipulate the verb forms, it can not conclusively show whether they understand its use.
2. Guidance
 At a simple level, this means clear instructions with examples of what the students are required to do. However, beyond that, it has implications for the amount of control that the format of the task has over what the students can produce. The degree of guidance can be divided into four general categories:
 * Controlled: where the students is given little or no room for errors, for example in an exercise involving simply the choice of alternative words to fill each space in a given text where each of the chosen alternatives for each space is acceptable. This level of guidance produces what is little more than a copying exercise.
 * Cued: in which the language of the exercise is given, but students have to perform a task such as joining given sentences with given connectors.
 * Guided: in which details of content are given but students have to formulate their own way of expressing that content.
 For example: write a letter of application for a job saying: 
Paragraph 1: which job you are applying for
 where you saw the job advertised
Paragraph 2: how old you are
 what qualifications you have
 where you worked before
Paragraph 3: why you want the job
 when you are available for interview
 * Free: in which students are provided only with a subject for their writing, perhaps in the form of a composition title, and, ideally, a purpose for which they are writing.
Guidance has a number of functions and the relative weight of these varies according to the nature of the task and the level of the students.
- It means that students can produce extended piecies of written work from a very early stage and this has motivational value.
- It limits the students' scope for error. As in the guided category of task above, if details of content are given, students are not tempted to express ideals which they are not capable of expressing in the target language.
- It can ensure that students use certain items of language or an appropriate range of items in their writing. One of the drawbacks of the unguided composition is that students can write answers using only simplistic language which can deceptively appear better than an answer by a student who has attempted to use a wider range of language.
3. Meaningfulness
 Grammatical exercises should involve thought on the part of the student rather than a mechanical operation which can be carried out without necessarily understanding the language involved.
 For example, instead of using the following transformation exercise:
 Exercise item 	 Student answer
a) I've broken a cup 	I haven't broken a cup
b) I've seen John 	 I haven't seen John
 the task would be made more interesting, and also made to require thought, by using the following instead:
 Exercise item 	Student answer
a) Did you like the new John Fowles book? I haven't read it yet
b) Did you like the new Fellini film? I haven't seen it yet
 The second exercise is more meaningful in the following ways:
- The students response forms part of a realistic conversational couplet.
- It is related to the real world of films,books,etc...
- It requires understanding in seeing the semantic relationship between the noun book and the verb read...
 Extended writing tasks can in turn be made more meaningful through contextualization. In other words, the students are told not only to write but also why they are writing. In each of the examples below, (a) is a typical composition topic and (b) is the same topic given both a context and an imaginary audience:
(a) Describe somone you know.
(b) It is your first month at high school. Write a paragraph describing a friend you have got to know there.
(a) What are the arguments for and against capital punishment?
(b) You are a Prime Minister. Write a short speech, which you are going to make in Parliament, either for or against capital punishment.
(a) When you arrived home last night you found that your home had been broken into. Describe what you found.
(b) When you arrived home last night you found that your home had been broken into. Write a report to the police about what you found.
 4. Motivation
 Much of what has been written above in connection with meaningfulness applies here. If an exercise requires thought, or if the relevance to the real world of a writing task can be seen by the students, then they are likely to find the homework more interesting and thus more motivating. 
 An awareness of the interests of the students is also important. Teenagers are more likely to enjoy writing the sleeve notes for a new record by their favourite pop group than a letter of application for a job, even if they are more likely to do the latter in real life. This can also be an argument for setting alternative tasks to satisfy the heterogeneous interests within a group of students.
III. CORRECTION TECHNIQUES.
 Checking answers (to homework, as well as exercises done during the lesson) is a part of class often described by teachers and students as boring, slow and not all that engaging for anyone. Naturally, we check these answers for a variety of reasons, such as for marking, for noting student progress, and in order to check if the students have understood the language point in question. However, in my experience both as a teacher and as an observer, the time spent checking answers in class is often the part of the lesson where a lot of time is spent that is of no benefit to any of the learners. In short, the teacher is checking answers just because it is expected that the teacher will check the answers. I don’t want to get too deep into methodology here, but rather to dispel the notion that it is our duty as teachers to check every answer to every exercise the students have done, and also to offer a few suggestions as to how we can make this whole process more engaging and beneficial for the learners. The first point to look at here is what the teacher wishes to achieve by reading and correcting the homework. In brief, the answer is to find out what the students have or have not learnt and to communicate that to the students. For the students, the effectiveness of this communication depends, in practice, largely on the system of correction used by the teacher. Correction of homework can take a number of forms.
1. Full teacher correction
 By this is meant the full written correction of all mistakes by the teacher, after which the homework is handed back to the students. This is by far the most correction technique used, but the question arises of exactly how much attention students give to their mistakes thus corrected and, even if they make a brief mental note of mistakes at all, how much learning takes place as a result of this effortless process of glancing over the home work.
2. Student-student correction
 Students check each other's homework in pairs, discussing it and making any necessary alterations before handing it to the teacher. This requires them to think rto take place. However, this method does have a disadvantage in that students may wrongly identify mistakes and , as a result, reinforce mistaken ideas. Further, in many teaching situations, teachers are required to build up an assessment of individual students, part of which is usually based on homework, and such co-operation between students conflicts with this requirement.
 2.1. Let the learners compare their answers first. 
Speaking from experience as a language learner, I always appreciated the opportunity to have a look at my partner’s answers to make sure I wasn’t completely off the mark (and so didn’t have to worry so much about making a fool of myself when called upon).  By letting the students compare their answers, it means they’ll have more confidence in them (and so they will be more likely to volunteer them) and also gives them an opportunity for the learners to use English to explain why they chose answer A instead of B, etc.
This is, for me, the golden rule of checking answers in class:  we want to get the learners to use English in their discussions / comparisons of their answers. In general, students are often resistant to this at first, but if we can get them use to it then comparing answers later becomes an opportunity for the students to speak and use many of the language structures they’ve learned in class (e.g. modals: “the answer must be A”).
2.2. Alternate between asking for volunteers and nominating students to give the answer.
We’ve all taught classes with students who dominate question / answer time.  This is a way to simply get more (if not all) of the students involved in the process of checking answers.
2.3. Random Order
Instead of just going through the questions linearly (i.e. 1,2,3,4,5), elicit the answers to the questions randomly.  This will hopefully keep the students alert, and helps prevent them from simply anticipating what question they are likely to get.
2.4. Let the students decide which questions to answer
A variation of the above- nominate a student and let them decide which question to answer.  This is good for weaker students, as it allows them to answer questions that they are more confident they have correct.
2.5. ‘Randomly’ call on students with correct answers
For activities done in class, you can walk around the class, monitoring and offering help, then ‘randomly’ call on the students who have the correct answers.  This, again, is nice for giving students confidence in speaking and offering up their answers in class.
2.6. Let students nominate each other
Easy and fun to do- nominate the first student, then allow this student to choose who will answer the next question.  Variations of this include using a ball in class (the student throws the ball to the student they want to answer next).
2.7. Read out the questions randomly at normal speed.
After the learners have completed the exercises and compared their answers,  you can give the learners a bit of authentic listening practice by reading out the questions randomly, but at your normal speed.  This makes the process at bit more different (naturally) for the learners, but if done regularly could help them become more aware of features of natural speech, such as weak forms, connected speech, etc.
2.8. Hold off on confirming if an answer is correct or incorrect
I think it’s a teacher’s instinct to tell a student if their answer is correct or incorrect straightaway, but discussion in class among the students can be generated by simply waiting a bit (thus giving the other students a chance to agree or disagree) or by nominating another student in the class and asking “do you agree?.”
2.9. Just give the students the answers
When I first started teaching, I considered this to be the ‘lazy-way’ to check answers, but it’s what I do most of the time now.  Simply give the students the answers on a handout or put it on the blackboard, and give the students time to check their answers and ask questions.  If there are no questions, then move on.
When I taught in a private language school (where marks were not given) I would often give the students the answers to the homework and set aside a few minutes at the start of class for questions or problems with the homework.
2.10. Put the answers on the board in the wrong order
When dealing with a relatively low number of multiple-choice questions (I certainly wouldn’t do this with 50 answers)to check, you can simply put the answers (not the numbers of course) on the board in a random order and let the students work out in groups.  If you wanted to turn this into a full-speaking activity then you could also put a few functional phrases (such as modals “Number 5 could be A” or even basic conditional structures “If 5 is A, then 6 must be C” etc. )on the board for the students to use in their groups as they work out which answer goes with which question.
2.11. Easy-First Game
A Variation of number 4 above.  Put the groups into teams.  The teams first compare their answers, then, in turn, each team gets to choose one of the questions to answer.  If they answer correctly, they get a point, if they answer incorrectly then the next team has an opportunity to answer.
2.12. Snake game
Put numbers of questions on board in rows and/or columns as shown below.  You could even put the numbers randomly if you want.
 1 2 3 4 5
 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20
Again, the students work in teams.  This time, the goal of the game is for each team to have the longest ‘snake.’  So, for example, in the first round a team answers number 1 correctly.  In the next round, if they answered number 2 or 6 or 7 correctly (the snake can only move 1 space vertically or diagonally) then these two numbers would be connected.
This game is nice with competitive groups as a bit of strategy is involved in blocking the other teams movement, etc.
The problem, for me, is often keeping track of which snake belongs to which team.  Either different color markers or assigning a different shape (circle, square, triangle) to each team helps keep everything clear.
Again, encourage the students to use English when they’re talking in their groups.
2.13. Using a copy of a listening tapescript
If checking the answers to a listening task (or reading task), allow the students to read (or read while they listen again) and find / mark the passages in the listening where the answers are.  Following this, the students can compare their answers and, in theory, should be able to explain why the answer they’ve chosen is correct.
A variation of this is to give the students the correct answers and have the students use the text / tapescript to explain why the answers are correct.
2.14. Exploit the vocabulary in the questions / answers
Ask the students if they know a synonym or antonym of one of the words in the question / answer, or with higher level groups, ask if anyone can rephrase the question or answer in a different way but with the same meaning.
2.15. Working with mistakes
While part of the job does entail testing the students from time to time, most of the tasks we do in the classroom are not meant to be tests. As such, mistakes shouldn’t be viewed in a negative light, e.g. that the learners have failed to master a particular language point, but instead are a natural part of the learning process.
So anytime we can get the learners to reflect on their mistakes and examine why they got a particular exercise wrong (e.g. due to a difference between their L1 and English, or are they possibly confusing two different structures that are similar in appearance, such as “Used to” and “be used to”, etc), we’re not only helping them notice and internalize the language point in question and approach similar tasks more effectively in the future, but also giving them the tools to become more reflective, autonomous, successful language learners.
3. Indication but not correction
 There are two approaches of this kind. First, the mistakes can simply be underlined by the teacher, leaving the student to identify the nature of the mistake and to correct it. Second, as well as underlining the mistake, the teacher can indicate why it is wrong by using a code such as the one given below.
 If a marking code is used , then it is , of course, important that the students are made familiar with it beforehand and that they are able to understand the terminology used. For obvious reasons, it is also advisable for teachers in the same school to use the same code.
 Symbols for indicating errors:
Symbol
Error
Example
#
Number or agreement
 # #
She need two banana.
^
Some thing is missing
I went school yesterday.
 ^ 
[ ]Wo
Word order
Where he [does ]Wo work?
WW
Wrong word
 WW
I didn't buy something.
WF
Wrong form
 WF
His English is very well.
T
Tense
 T
I saw a nice sweater and I buy it.
[ ]
This need to be reorganizied
The city grew in such a way that the old centre, outlined in a time that [ there is no automobiles and bus... and now is different in dealing with so much traffic. ]
Symbol
Error
Example
?
What do you