Some effective routines I have witnessed take place at the beginning and end of the day. Each morning students know that they need to go to their lockers, hand in their homework in the homework basket, and sign in on the attendance board. After that routine, the students know there will be a morning message for them to check and they should do what it says. Each morning we have morning work for students to complete before the bell rings. At the end of the day, students take the last 10 minutes to get out their agenda books and write down the homework that is due the next day. Jane puts her agenda book under the document camera and students copy down the homework. As students leave the room to get their backpacks, their agenda books are checked to make sure everyone has their homework written down. If students do not have a planner, they use a post-it note and stick it in their homework folder.
Another effective routine I have seen happens during math class each day. Students know that each day at the beginning of the hour they switch papers with someone at their tables and correct the homework that is due that day. We read off the answers and students score each other. This is a very quick way to get the homework corrected. They also record their scores in their math binders on their score sheets.
OK. So I believe the peer correcting of math papers is an effective routine because you said it's a quick way to get homework graded. My question is, how do you know the homework planners are effective--do students always have their homework done as a result of having completed their planners? And what's the goal of the morning message? Do you have evidence that students accomplish the goal(s) because the message is there? You don't need to respond to these questions, I'm just pushing you to make that connection between saying something is effective and then providing evidence for its effectiveness (or lack thereof).
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