Credits - Students correcting their own work

[cbollin]

Should high school students correct their own work?

I'm hesitant to do this... Isn't it too tempting?

You know your child. If, it is a temptation, then don't.

in my house...
for math/science stuff
my dh or I grade tests. But dd corrects her homework problem sets. She is checking her understanding and learning where she went wrong on it before we test her knowledge. If she's just copying, it'll show on tests that she's not learning it. So far, she's doing ok as much as we can tell.

for Notgrass reading (we're in whl), I check work on Fridays for those daily things.

English assignments - so far in WHL, that's not something she can grade or correct on her own per se.

Health class.... we're using total health. and, we use the review/quiz thingys as open discussion. So our way of awarding grades and credit is very different from how mfw does it in lesson plans. We added a DVD series on medical myths [instead of reading] Josh Harris again.

For some children, it is not a good idea to let them check their homework. You'll have to do that based on you. I just want to say to you Tracey, that if your child is tempted, it's ok. You're not a failure. It's a lot of pressure on a high schooler to do their work, and some are not as ready to check independently. It's not a sign of failure or lack of parenting.

-crystal

[Julie in MN]

I usually correct, but mostly because I want to keep my ds moving on his work, and I think he'd get bogged down and disinterested by correcting - don't really feel he's a kid who'd "learn something" by correcting. I think the test pilot families must have had most of their kids do their own correcting, though, since that's in the manual. Probably a lot of large, busy families there. And really, in an ideal world, self-correcting would probably teach you the most.

At my house, I've always done the correcting but some of the keys were right in the books, and I haven't taken out the answer keys (unless it really makes my correcting easier). Sometimes my son asks to see the answer key, especially in math. So he hasn't seemed to look around enough to notice where any of the answers are. I did put a sticky label over the answers in the mapping book to prevent temptation, but it's not like it's not obvious with a big lime green sticker there

For most things, my son knows I'll be asking some casual question, like: "So, what did you learn about this sentence you wrote here?" "Why did you answer in this way?" "What did you think about this topic?" Maybe he figures he couldn't get away with just going straight to the answers because his mom likes to chat about school topics too much

The one time I do "hide" the answers, though, is on tests, kinda like Crystal mentioned. Temptation is there in all of our lives, and I do talk about it with my son on occasion, but in general it isn't his issue right now -- although of course like you were saying Tracey, I don't want to put temptation in his way, so that's why I have him do tests right in front of me.

Julie

[Julie in MN]

On his/her own. I know that I am to be the one to check tests and quizzes as well as essays, reports, writing assignments. Are the children supposed to be checking their own answers to Exploring world history? Thanks!

Oh my memory is faint and I don't have my manual here, plus during the first 2 years of high school, I usually did all the correcting for my son no matter what the instructions said, just to keep him moving forward.

However, until you get some better answers, I'll just say... I think they check everything on the grid that tells them to check it. In other words, if the grid has a check-off box for checking your answers on something, then the student checks his own answers on that.

Does that help or not at all
Julie

[4littlehearts]

That makes sense. Dd was balking at having to check her own work. Not that she does not have the time , she just does not want to do it. But, these last days she has been buckling down and doing it. This year has been a step up in independence and workload but she seems to be stepping up to the task now. Which is a good thing. We will start week 4 on Monday and I know things will get increasingly more difficult as well as WHL increasing the work load. I am hoping that she can continue to keep on top of it. Thanks for your input!

[Julie in MN]

Well, I did check all my son's work in AHL and WHL, so that's always an option if she can't keep up. However, last year in 11th grade, ds started checking his Chemistry and was delighted at how it helped him "see" what the author was wanting, so then he preferred doing the checking vs. reading mom's corrections and having to figure out how to fix them LOL.

[DS4home]

This post has me thinking now! I have always checked everything. I guess I assumed that's what a teacher would do. But I can see how reading through the Notgrass answers could be more helpful...
Maybe I'll try moving my ds in this direction this year! More independence is good!
Thanks for opening up my mind

Dawn

[4littlehearts]

Dawn, my dd did not want to check her Notgrass, but like you said I explained to her that it would be more beneficial to her to check her own work in history because *she* was the one taking the course and if she checked her own questions it would help her in the long run to remember what she would need to know for her tests. Before this year, I pretty much checked everything except for Math, this year she is checking so much more on her own and it is such a huge help to me as I have 3 other kids ( one of which, has special needs) who I homeschool.

[ark2003]

I have my daughter check all her work and write out corrections to the problems she missed. I just do the grading. I think this method helps her to understand the content better. I am not sure what MFW recommends, however. It seems as if it might be addressed in the instruction guide? Not sure.