Going over Homework the Next Day in Class is Not Immediate Feedback

Perhaps one of the greatest fallacies facing the way we do math education today is the thought that going over homework the next day in class qualifies as providing our students with immediate feedback.

The Benefit of Immediate Feedback

Immediate feedback is one of the most important strategies you can use in your instructional design to help your students master what you are teaching. This is discussed in John Hattie’s book, “Visible Learning for Teachers.”

Besides this book, it’s obvious when you consider how we learn anything. If you were to learn to play a musical instrument, after being shown how to play a certain note (or chord) you would then practice it as your instructor helped correct any mistakes. The same is true with any athletic skill. Your coach would model, and then you would practice as she gave you feedback, correcting any errors or praising you when you did it the right way.

When a student learns a math concept, they need to practice it, repeatedly, with immediate feedback. If you don’t provide immediate feedback, the student will not know whether or not they are doing the problem correctly. Thus, they could potentially repeat their mistakes on all of the questions they are working on.

Providing immediate feedback allows a student to learn from their mistakes. When an error is pointed out to the student, she can reevaluate her work, find the error, correct it, and be better for having made the mistake.

OR, he can gain confidence as he completes problems correctly and is shown that he has done so. He will feel accomplished as he continues to complete problems and get the right answers. This will encourage him to do more. He’ll enjoy being successful, and suddenly, he’ll have positive sentiments towards math, school, and you.

Math Teachers Struggling with Vocabulary

You wouldn’t think math teachers would be so passionate about vocabulary and definitions – that’s usually reserved for our language arts teaching counterparts. However, when I post my meme that says “Going over Homework the Next Day in Class is Not Immediate Feedback” you would be surprised at the harsh and negative comments that get left in my feed. People calling me names, saying I’ve never taught in a classroom, and declaring me to be an imbecile. (You’d think people who dedicate their lives to helping students talk nicely to each other would try to avoid treating others this way).

Why are some teachers so frustrated by the definition of the word “immediate.”

Let’s Talk Terms

First, let’s all agree that the word “immediate” means right away. Not 23 hours later.

If learners benefit from immediate feedback, that must be provided instantly; as soon as they finish the problem. Otherwise, the benefits will be lost.

When you get feedback right away, you can learn from your mistakes or gain confidence as you correctly do the work.

The next day is not immediate. Think of all the things your student has tried to learn since your math lesson. They have likely visited 5 or 6 other classes, each trying to teach your student new things (like definitions, dates, science theories, and more). They also have likely participated in sports, clubs, fine arts programs, or other extra curricular activities, also requiring them to learn new things (like lines to a skit, movement in a play, how to play a note, do a dance move, solve a puzzle, play a game, or more). Then, they’ve gone home and done homework, chores, and some of them have had to cook, clean, take care of siblings, and more. By the time they return to your class, they have forgotten what you have been trying to teach them – it is long ago.

The next day is also not immediate because it doesn’t allow students to learn from their mistakes and try again. Instead of doing problem number one incorrectly, being made aware of it, and then learning from it and fixing the error so that they do numbers two through ten correctly; the student repeated the mistake, unknowingly, on all ten problems. Now they are being shown the answer a day later, so they will not have the opportunity to practice the problem correctly.

Why Teachers are Frustrated by this Idea

I believe that when teachers are lashing out at me for my “hot take” of immediate being right away, it’s because they are already overwhelmed with the many duties that they have. And now, the one thing that they think they are doing well (in spite of all the extra duties we have to face) is being criticized, and they don’t see how to fix the issue.

Teachers often feel limited by circumstances, so suggesting that the only way they’ve found to make things work is ineffective is quite an irritant.

BUT IT SHOULDN’T BE.

We’re supposed to be lifelong learners. We’re supposed to have a growth mindset. As educators, we believe that everyone can learn. That doesn’t just apply to the lowest student in the class, it also applies to the smartest person in the room; the teacher. Yes, even we teachers can learn new things. We can grow. We can become better.

The Problem

Most lesson plans, especially in math, look like this

A bellringer or do now (5-10 mins)
Review yesterday’s homework (10-15 mins)
Teach the new lesson (15 mins)
Practice the skill in class, with review (10 minutes)
Start homework (if time)

This is what my lesson plans looked like when I began teaching, and I was not an effective teacher. My students weren’t learning what I was teaching them, and as a result they were frustrated with me. I, in turn, was frustrated with them. How could they not learn it? It was so simple. I explained it so well!

The issue was immediate feedback. It’s how we learn something new, and with the instructional design outlined above, I wasn’t giving my students enough time in class to have practice with immediate feedback. We would do a few practice problems, together, which I would provide feedback on, and then they were released to their independent work.

But a few problems with immediate feedback is not enough.

How much practice is required?

When learning a new skill, you must practice it repeatedly to master it. But the great Vince Lombardi famously said, “Practice does not make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect.”

He is so right. If his football team practiced a play 100 times, but practiced it incorrectly all 100 times, they would not have mastered the play. If, however, they practiced it 20 times correctly, they will have likely mastered it and be able to run it correctly in the game.

The same is true with your students. If they practice the math concept you have been teaching them on 25 homework questions, but they did all 25 incorrectly, they will not have learned that skill. On the other hand, if they practice it repeatedly, with immediate feedback, and eventually learn from their mistakes so that they can do the work correctly, and then they practice it correctly several more times, they will master the skill.

How to Increase Independent Practice with Immediate Feedback

If we are now bought into the idea that our students need practice with immediate feedback, how can we provide more of it to them so that they can be successful.

The first idea I will suggest is to have them do more independent practice in class. When students do their practice problems in class, instead of at home, there are many benefits. For starters, there are less distractions and its harder to cheat then when they’re at home.

But even more beneficial than that, doing work in class gives the student the greatest benefit of all – you. Having their teacher there to catch mistakes, correct common misconceptions, motivate them, help them when they’re stuck, and praise them when they’re successful is significantly beneficial.

You are their greatest resource. And since practicing a skill is how we master it, why would you separate the student’s greatest resource (you) from the most important strategy (practice).

Another way to Increase Immediate Feedback

Instead of you checking everyone in the class’s work on all of their problems, you can also provide immediate feedback by using technology or providing answer keys.

Websites like KhanAcademy, IXL, and even Google Classroom allow you to give students feedback after every question. You can guarantee that no student, regardless of how fast or slow they work, will ever complete a problem without immediate feedback through the wonderful use of technology.

You can have one student practice 20 problems, and another practice 3, and both will know after every completed problem whether or not they did the problem correctly. And it will not wear you out. This is the wonderful gift of technology in the classroom. If you have it, you should use it.

If you don’t have technology in the classroom, you can still provide all of your students with immediate feedback on every question (without you having to run around and check everyone’s work) by providing answer sheets. This way, students can check their answers on the answer sheet, and discover whether or not they are doing the work correctly.

Won’t they Cheat?

It is possible for students to cheat while using answer sheets (or even technology) in the classroom. But it’s much easier for students to cheat on homework. Plus, if you can teach students the value of checking their answers after they do their work (instead of before, which would be cheating) you are likely to get more buy in and reduce cheating.

I like to explain to my students that they’re going to get the right answer, I’m giving it to them. But if they don’t do the work, check the answers, and learn from it, and instead just write down the right answers from the answer sheet without doing any of the work, they will not have learned the subject matter, and then they’ll not do well on the test. Talks like this usually get good results for me with my students.

Don’t let the concern of a few students cheating deter you from implementing a very effective teaching strategy.

Instead, try to discourage cheating and encourage utilizing this highly effective strategy through quality teaching and lots of praise. Besides all of that, once students start realizing you’re for real, and their grades are doing well, and they start feeling the success of mastering the material, they will understand the methodology and be less likely to cheat.

Finally, when a student fails the test, this is usually a good indicator that they weren’t doing all of the work in class – or they weren’t doing it correctly. Which either means they weren’t using the answer sheets, or they were using them incorrectly (i.e., cheating). Then you can have a constructive conversation with them about how they’re using the answer sheets, and hopefully start to change their habits.

I remediate my students who don’t pass the test. So they have to do the work all over again while their peers move on. This further motivates them not to cheat.

Finding the Time

How will you have time to for students to do independent practice with immediate feedback in class?

Well, for starters, if you remove the “going over homework” portion of your class, you will immediately find 10-15 extra minutes that you used to use for students to do independent practice with immediate feedback.

Another great strategy is to place an emphasis on practice work with immediate feedback. If you start to value this as extremely beneficial to your students, you will deemphasize other sections of your class.

With this mindset, you might have an easier time trimming up your lecture. Or spend less time modeling problems and talking about them. Or you might find other areas of your instructional design to trim up in an effort to spend more time practicing problems and providing immediate feedback. For some other strategies on finding time in class, check out my free, online course: Math Teacher Tuneup.

Another idea, if you can’t find enough time to get students through their independent practice problems in class, is to allow them to take their answer sheets home and do the homework with provided answer sheets. I do not think this method is as effective as having your students do their work in class, but it is still more effective then having them do their independent practice without immediate feedback.

A final thought is to consider a self-paced, differentiated classroom. In other words, instead of pacing all of your students together, where they are all working on the same practice problems at the same time, on the same skill as everyone else – you pace them independently. Students who need more practice are afforded it, while students who need less practice and are ready to move on may do so without rushing the rest of the class. Those who are behind are remediated to work on prerequisite skills, while those who have already mastered the current lesson are progressed to work on more challenging material. Learn more about this methodology by clicking here.