Homework? To what end?

Is homework necessary to deliver the AP Statistics curriculum?

This week, my class will meet four times and the students have four homework assignments (see below) that they should work on prior to each class. I expect that they should spend 30 to 45 minutes on each assignment. So, I am asking my students to spend around six hours this week on AP Statistics. And this is a fairly typical week. We have about 31 weeks total from August until May for the students to prepare for the exam (vacation weeks excluded). So, that works out to about 186 hours of preparation for a 3 hour exam.

The AP courses are supposed to be college courses. Yet, we have far more class meetings than any college course I ever took. And the course is spread out over a year rather than a semester. My college courses met for 50 minutes, three times a week, over about fourteen weeks (though it may have been fewer than that). If we assume that a one-hour assignment accompanies each class meeting, then that would work out to around 77 hours of study in a semester. We should probably round that up as that does not account for projects or papers. So, let’s say 90 hours.

How is it that a college course expects a student to learn the same material in roughly half the time as a high school student?

Is homework necessary?

I would like to perform an experiment to investigate this question further. That just does not seem practical, or maybe ethical is a better choice of words.

If I were to eliminate homework altogether, my students would still have about 103 hours of preparation time which should exceed that of any college student. Add in another 20 hours maybe for project work and get a total of 123 hours which would be about 33% more than a college student. That seems like a more appropriate balance. Especially when you figure that the course would be delivered over twice the number of weeks allowing for the work to be presented in smaller chunks, and thus more easily digested.

In my mind, this should be feasible. If the AP Statistics course truly is a college course, that is. My class consists of eleven twelfth graders and two juniors. The twelfth graders are six months away from taking college courses. Do we really expect to be preparing them for college if the transition is so sharp?

Projections and Senioritis

I had hoped to write weekly. I did that for nine weeks. Then, I lost momentum. I'm not sure why, but I expect it's not all that uncommon for new teaching blogs. You start out with a lot of enthusiasm, some good ideas to write about, and you're not too overloaded with work. Then steam runs out, work piles up, and ideas don't seem so fresh.

Tuesday is my blogging day. It says so on my calendar. I even have my calendar send me a nice email to remind me of that. Here it is Wednesday and I have not written a blog post since November 3. A month. And so, even though I am writing this without much of an idea of what I will write, I push the keys on my laptop hoping something worthwhile will end up coming out of this post.

My blogging statistics show that my posts gets anywhere from 12 to 26 views. I am sure that pales in comparison to many blogs, but I am honored that 12 to 26 people were taking their time to read my ramblings each week. I'm guessing my view count for this post will be lower because of my month off.

To be fair, I was out of town for a week in the middle of November, and then there was Thanksgiving. But, ideally, I would have written those weeks, too.

I have eleven more teaching days. AP Statistics will drop two of those days, so I have only nine more class meetings in 2015.

From where I sit, things have gone quite well this semester. Certainly, there is room for improvement, but I am pleased overall. We have covered about 40% of the AP Statistics curriculum. I made some projections based on the tests they have taken thus far and they are all on track for a three or better. Of my nine students, three of them currently project to a five, which certainly feels good to write.

Second semester will present new challenges. Seven of my nine are seniors. I would guess at least two of them will come down with a bad case of senioritis. That doesn't really bother me. I have been teaching seniors long enough to anticipate this and not take it personally. What concerns me is the potential negative impact they could have on the class as a whole.

For my non-AP Statistics class, I designed the second semester with the second semester senior in mind. I kept the workload light and we played blackjack, played craps, read the book "How to Lie with Statistics", and each student sold a product employing the artful use of statistics.

This year I have an AP Statistics class. Particularly since this is my first year teaching this course, I do not feel I can do the same projects. I expect the second semester workload will mirror the first semester, making senioritis a greater concern for me.

I will do what I can to fend it off. I will try to keep my energy up and do my best to incorporate several engaging activities that simultaneously teach the concepts and keep the interest of the students. But, ultimately, it is not me who will be taking an AP exam in May. The students will have to decide for themselves how hard they want to work and how important that three-hour exam is to them.

PS - If anybody can help me learn how to follow a Twitter StatsChat, I would greatly appreciate it. I have not yet figured that out.

Choose your own adventure

When I was young, I got hooked on the Choose Your Own Adventure series of books. As the reader, I got to make choices and the plot progressed based on those choices.

As a new AP Statistics teacher, I am trying my best to prepare my students so that they have the chance to reach whatever AP score they find desirable. For the first four weeks, I set a quick pace and assigned a good amount of homework to complement the work done in class. For many, the amount of work proved to be untenable. In response, I started making some of the textbook exercises optional. I explained to the students that by doing the required homework, I believed they were still being sufficiently prepared to earn at least a 3 or even a 4 on the AP exam. The optional exercises would be more important for those who seek the 5.

I have a variety of students in my class. One boy seems in over his head and a 3 will be a great accomplishment. A few students are very ambitious and will likely try for that 5.

And so, I give my students the chance to Choose Their Own Adventure. They can choose to go the easier route, maybe not be prepared for a 5, but still have sufficient preparation to pass the exam. Or, they can select the more demanding option and give themselves a greater chance at a 5. I wonder how many will take the second adventure...

Honeymoon's over

Today, there was a palpable difference in the attitudes of my students. The mystery and wonder of just what AP Statistics is has worn off. College application deadlines are no longer small specks off in the distance. Summer is now a long time ago. The senior fall outdoor trip is a fading memory. We are six weeks into the new school year and the word "new" no longer applies as a modifier for "school year".

Here we are. Here we go.

The students by now should fully understand the expectations and demands of this course. As they juggle the many demands on their time, they are likely finding it a bit harder to give as much attention as they might want on certain subjects, such as AP Statistics.

I do not think their dedication has flagged, but I think the flood of work that comes in the first semester of the senior (or, in a few cases, junior) year is wearing them down. So while they still aspire to certain outcomes, their energy is lower.

A few did not have their homework complete today. This even after I made a conscious effort to lighten the load. The spark was not quite as bright today in class, the attention not as sharp.

In reflecting on my use of class time, I know that I have kept it varied. They just completed a group project. This was an assessment that had a very different feel from the tests. They found their own data and used technology (StatKey and Google Spreadsheets in addition to their graphing calculators) to analyze their data. Then they wrote meaningful conclusions based on their statistics and displays. I have already evaluated their work and returned it. And, because I want them to produce the best possible work they can, I have given them the opportunity to improve on their work and re-submit it for a potentially better grade.

So, I am not taking the change in mood personally; I am not taking it as a repudiation of my teaching or of the course. No, I think it's just the normal rhythm of the senior year. At least for the near future, it will be an extra challenge for the students. Can they grind through it until the mood brightens?

Fortunately, for students and teachers alike, our two-day Fall Break is this weekend. Timing is everything.

How to Homework

Homework. Work to be done at home. Work done after school is over. Work to do because there was insufficient time to complete it in class. Work done before dinner. Busy work so that students' minds do not get dull. Review of the day's lesson to solidify learning. Work done after dinner. Preview of the next day's lesson to get the students' minds turning in the right direction. Work done after bed time. Work.

Hmmm... shouldn't school be fun? I mean, shouldn't students enjoy learning?

No, I do not believe I am an entertainer. But, am I a slave driver?

Let me say right now that my AP Statistics students have impressed me. A lot. We have been going at it now for almost four weeks and I have been laying the homework on. Thick. Because I have to, right? I mean, it's A dot P dot Statistics. This is a serious class. And we have something like 20,000 hours of material to cover during 110 classes. So, homework is necessary. Lots of it.

Or is it?

If you have read my blog before, you know well that this is my first year teaching AP Statistics. One of my initial stresses was how to plan out the course so that the students get to play around with every topic for an appropriate amount of time. And so rather than linger over the mean and the standard deviation and try to gain a deep understanding of the information they reveal, we rush, give them a high five, and check them off a list. Topic covered. Done.

But topic learned? Skill mastered?

To ensure that my students understand the ideas sufficiently, I had it in my head that they should expect to spend at least an hour on homework before every class. That means 4-5 hours a week spent on AP Statistics outside of class on top of the 3.5 to 4 hours a week spend in class.

My textbook was a godsend, or so I believed. In the Annotated Teacher's Edition, I found a sample syllabus and a suggested pacing guide which completed the book in 109 days. Holy cow, I thought. I actually can cover everything and even have one whole day leftover to do something from a different source! But, seriously, I was relieved to learn that it would be conceivable to get through the course in time and here was an outline to follow.

The catch? Well, not all statistics homework problems are created equal. Problem #68 may take two minutes, while #63 may take thirty. I did the lazy teacher thing (also known as the teacher-trying-to-create-a-good-set-of-assignments-while-still-maintaining-sanity-and-family) and I assigned the suggested problems without even reading through them all. And so I found out last week that a couple students were spending two hours on their AP Statistics homework.

As I said earlier, my students have impressed me. Not only have then done all the work I assigned, but they did so without complaint. Just sucked it up and got 'er done. And they have been learning. A lot. The brute force method of teaching has been effective. Efficient? I doubt that.

I only found out about the two hours of homework after casually asking one student about their homework load. Further investigation found that my students were spending 72.5 minutes each night on the textbook problems with a standard deviation of 25.9 minutes. And every night I assign a suggested reading. Some nights, I assign them a video to watch. There's another 40 minutes.

Silly me. I looked at the assignments and I figured 15 minutes on the video, 15 minutes on the reading, and 30 minutes on the problems.

I have already begun re-thinking my homework assignments. I will keep using the suggested assignments, but I will choose a few of the textbook problems to be required and the rest will be optional. And I will assign fewer problems when I also assign a video. Or maybe eliminate the problems on those nights altogether.

And now this question burns in my mind: Can I teach the AP Statistics course without any homework at all?

If you think homework is necessary, I suggest you read some of Alfie Kohn's work and reflect critically and honestly on the role homework plays in your course.