Using Online Assignments to Promote Mastery in Math Class

Several years ago, I began noticing a trend in my math classes. I would give students paper-based assignments, and they would return them when completed. On particularly difficult math concepts, such as order of operations, there were more than a few low grades, but I would grade them and return them to students. I would then follow up with the next assignment. One day, some students asked me if they could "do the homework over" for a higher grade. I allowed them to re-do the work. More students took advantage of this offer; soon, I was inundated with past homework assignments. Not only was I grading the new work from class, but I was also re-grading work. How could I make this work and still return graded work to students in a timely manner?

I researched a few websites and decided to use Quia.com as my new class platform. There, I could post homework assignments. Once I set everything up, I told students that my expectations for homework had changed. "Work for 100," I told them. Their assignments were now posted online, and they could re-do them before the due date. If there was a particular problem they were having an issue with on the assignment, the data would show me, and I could address it during class. Quia totally changed students' attitudes about their assignments. It worked so well, I began including some classwork assignments to the platform.

Allowing students to re-do their assignments continues to promote mastery of mathematical concepts. Instead of waiting for me to grade and return their assignments, students receive their grades immediately. They can review their work to determine what they're getting wrong and why. They can also communicate with me for assistance on an as-needed basis.

There are plenty of programs out there that teachers can use for online assignments. Give students the opportunity to take ownership of some of their own learning. The results can be extraordinary.

The Power of Coding

I may be showing my age, but my first experience with coding was using BASIC during my formative years. My parents indulged my extreme desire to have a computer and gave me an IBM portable computer for my birthday and Christmas (those of you with birthdays near Christmas understand my meaning). Back then, DOS ruled the day and I had to use a series of 5.25" floppy disks to run programs. Of course, I wanted to make my own programs too. I wanted to tell my computer what to do. There was no Internet to Google my way to programming excellence. There were books...with way too many pages. My foray into BASIC began. I don't recall making anything extraordinary. With some effort, I recall making my computer emit beeps if a person answered certain questions correctly. Despite my limited programming prowess, my first experiences into coding sparked something deep within me; it still persists today.

I recently participated in the Hour of Code and it really brought back some great memories. I still have that old IBM and those floppy disks. I don't know if it still works. I thought about getting a stern warning from my computer science professor in college because I decided to write a program full of references to Star Trek instead of following an assignment (I still believe it was a great program!). It also reminded me of the strong connection between coding, logic and mathematics. The skills students learn in middle school math through algebra provide a solid foundation for learning to code, but it's never too early to learn.

My middle school and high school didn't offer computer science or programming classes, and I had to learn it on my own. I wasn't alone in my self-education and it makes me wonder where we'd be if students such as myself had those opportunities. We no longer have to guess. We have so many avenues to expose children to the languages that are essential to a tech-driven world. Based on my experience with the Hour of Code, I'm committed to developing and implementing a lesson plan that gives my students the opportunity to learn a skill so crucial in today's society and future societies. Tomorrow's jobs will require knowing how to use programs as well as understanding the languages that make them work. Maybe the meaning of the word "bilingual" will expand to include understanding how to communicate in spoken/written languages and programming languages. Hopefully, my students will experience that same spark I did so many years ago.