Ready before it happens---that’s the hallmark of an effective
teacher. Barbara De Santis is one such teacher who is ready before
her students walk in the door each morning. For those students
who do not do their homework, Barbara De Santis has pink slips ready
for pick up and completion.
Chelonnda Seroyer uses pink slips, too, and she has a high
percent homework turn in rate.
Both of these effective teachers and their procedures have been featured
in past teachers.net columns. Barbara De Santis shared her first
day of school script in “Effective
Teachers Are Proactive.” Chelonnda Seroyer validates
“The
Power of Procedures” in the February 2005 column.
Barbara and Chelonnda use the pink slip technique to give students
an opportunity to explain why they chose not to do their homework.
In their classrooms, students are not allowed to sit passively
and not turn in their homework. They are required to
take responsibility for their actions by completing a pink slip when
homework is not turned in. The students are warned of this procedure
on the first day of school.
Click
here to see the pink slip.
The students are told that there is no penalty for filling one out
other than the loss of credit for their homework assignment. However,
they always ask, "What happens after we get so many?" or "What
are you going to DO to us if we get one?"
Chelonnda tells her students that she will not be DOING anything to
them. It is simply a procedure that allows them to offer an explanation
and allows her to document why they do not have their homework.
She does tell them that she will show the pink slip to their
parents and the administration, if necessary, during conferences about
their performance in her class. She gets affirmation
that they understand the procedure and moves on.
Origin of the Pink Slip
Barbara De Santis learned of the pink slip technique when she heard
Chelonnda Seroyer speak at a meeting. Chelonnda, in turn, said
she “stole” the technique from a fellow teacher, Karla Hensen,
at Liberty Middle School in Madison, Alabama.
The original form was called the "Personal Responsibility Card."
It was a 3½ x 5 inch card and it had the same information that
the pink slip has.
However, Chelonnda found that the card was difficult to file and it
did not stack neatly with the other homework papers. So, with
a good friend, Grindl Weldon at Locust Fork High School in Blount County,
Alabama, they resolved to revise it.
Someone had given Chelonnda a pack of pink paper (“Teachers will
accept anything!” she says.) and she didn't know what to do with
it. So, instead of wasting it, they opted to reprint the information
from the "Personal Responsibility Card" and put it on the
"Pink Slip."
It worked wonderfully because it was an 8½ by 11 inch piece
of paper that was easily distinguished from the rest of the stack.
This made it easier to sort and file immediately.
Chelonnda’s Pink Slip Experience
Although the students are fully aware that she will use the pink slip
during conferences, Chelonnda says that she is often amazed by what
they will write down.
One student said that he did not do his homework because his grandmother
died and he had to go to her funeral.
Shortly after that, the administration orchestrated a conference concerning
this student's poor academic progress. Guess who showed
up at the conference . . . the grandmother!
Another student wrote,
"I was at home and I sat down to do my work and then I realized
that I didn't have a pen or a pencil. So, after looking for
a total of 15 seconds, I chose not to do my work then, but I would
get to it later. I lied. I didn't do it at all because
I forgot. THE END."
Shortly thereafter, his father called to inquire about the zero that
his son received on this assignment. Chelonnda read his son’s
statement to him and there was absolute silence on the other end of
the phone! He quickly thanked her for her time and said
that he would have a talk with his son!
Chelonnda and Harry regularly present their classroom management techniques
to the teachers of the Miami/Dade County Schools.
At one of these sessions, a teacher shared that he had been using the
pink slip. He had a HORRIBLE time with students not turning in
their work. He used the pink slip. He said that the first
week he used an entire ream of paper. The next ream lasted him
the rest of the school year! His homework turn in rate
improved drastically!
At a similar type of session in New Jersey, a principal said that he
asked his teachers to use the pink slip. He said that their homework
turn in rate increased from 45 percent to 85 percent!!
Chelonnda says that she currently has a 92 percent
homework turn in rate.
And, it gets better each year!
Barbara’s Pink Slip Experience
Barbara De Santis shares how she has used the pink
slip:
- It provides excellent documentation at parent teacher conferences.
When the parent swears the child has completed the assignment, the
pink slip is produced in the child’s handwriting. End of discussion.
- They are great resources when writing progress reports. Information
from the pink slips can be sent home every week for parental review
and signature, if needed.
- In her class, she uses them to withhold reward activities. Excessive
pink slips means the student cannot go to a special program or cannot
participate in a class activity.
Barbara started to use the pink slips last school year and has shared
that she plans to spend time this year analyzing its efficacy during
the school year. She says that she wants to see if she can identify
any recurring problems. She plans on involving the students in
the analysis of the problems and have them make recommendations for
improvement and success.
Before you use the pink slip as a threatening devise, do as
Barbara De Santis plans to do this year. Analyze the
problem. It may well be how the homework assignments are being assigned.
How to Improve the Homework Turn-in Rate
- Wait until the second or third week of school to assign
homework that is to be done at home. During the first
week or two of school, assign homework, but do it in class.
Teach the students the procedure of how to do the homework.
When you have assessed the student’s ability to do the homework
correctly, then assign homework to go home.
- Start the homework in class and then send the students
home to finish the homework is a variation to use when you sense students
may have a difficult time with the assignment.
- Tell the students what the homework is and what
the purpose is of the homework. The homework must be correlated
to the objectives of the lesson. If not, the students will ask
why they have to do the homework. The students will suspect
(as well as the parents) that the assignment is just busy work masquerading
as “homework.”
- Make the homework consistent in style and clear
in purpose. A consistent style also helps to reinforce the routine
of completing the assignment. This is the same as routines that
must be done in life such as washing the dishes, calling an elderly
parent, or picking up the kids, but if there is a routine, it makes
the task that much easier to complete.
- Give homework that is a positive, enriching experience.
It should be an opportunity to reinforce the day’s learning.
- Indicate the probable length of time for completion
somewhere on the homework assignment. Just as you like to know
the length of a song on a CD or the length of a movie on a DVD or
at a theater, you can improve homework completion rate if the students
know the time it will take to do an assignment.
Bear in mind that some students are shuttled between parents or
caregivers. Others have parents or siblings to take care of or have
a part-time job, so you can help them to schedule their time by
indicating the length of the assignment.
-
Do the first few homework assignments yourself.
Ask yourself the important question: If I were the student, could
I complete the assignment in a reasonable amount of time, with success,
and what will I have learned or have reinforced from having competed
the homework assignment?
Procedures for Orchestrating Homework
Dedicate a place in the classroom to post assignments.
This can probably be the same place where the daily schedule is posted.
As soon as the students come into the classroom, have them place their
homework in a designated spot on their desk (a procedure) and begin
their bellwork assignment.
While they are working, work the class—visiting with each student,
asking about their homework, maybe even their life. Daily contact
right at the beginning is an easy, but meaningful way to build a relationship.
Homework must be corrected. If they see that homework is assigned,
but not looked at, they will logically stop doing the homework, even
with the best of students.
The purpose of homework is to reinforce or provide more practice
for the class objective and lesson. You don’t grade
practice, so don’t let homework become too much a part of the
student’s grade, if at all.
Check the homework for completion or correctness, initial or stamp
it, and note the completion in your grade-record book. The students
want and appreciate the immediate feedback.
Bear in mind that certain students have parents who help their children
with their homework, provide a designated study place, and even have
procedures at home for where and when homework should be done.
These students obviously have an advantage over the students who do
not have these, which is not their fault.
Help the students to organize their homework.
This also helps the parents to organize helping their child. To
do this, perhaps you can have a permanent HOMEWORK FOLDER provided for
each student. The homework goes home nightly in the folder and
is returned the next day in the folder. The homework or the folder
is placed in the designated place on the desk.
For those students who may be homeless, have parents who are barely
making ends meet, or have no place to study, place a sheet or two of
binder paper in the folder. It would even be nice if an occasional
phrase were written, heart were drawn in the corner, or a “thank
you” written in the bottom corner.
Make use of a school or district homework hotline, if one is available.
If students are absent a procedure is for them to check the hotline
for the current homework assignment.
For younger children, have a place for the parents to initial that
they have seen the homework folder. This way the student cannot
claim that there is “no homework.”
Before you assign homework, check your school’s policy
about homework. It may be highly prescribed as to what
you are to do and not to do.
Some students may need weekly, rather than nightly homework.
This may be better for gifted and more mature students. Some students
may be very active in school or have outside of school activities and
will appreciate this flexibility.
The most effective time to assign homework is during the lesson; otherwise
it has no relevance to the student. The other effective time is
at the end of the lesson when the homework can bring summary to what
has been learned and provide transition to the next lesson.
Effective Teachers Share Their Success
Effective teachers never cease to learn – especially
from each other.
You’ve just read how a simple technique observed by one teacher
got enhanced and then “stolen” by another. What it
really is is collaboration. Effective teachers sharing what works
with others.
In high performing schools, teachers who take a collegial
approach to decision making and are willing to share with one another
produce students who reach high academic standards.
It’s quite obvious that classrooms where homework turn in increases
from 45 to 85 percent are producing students that are achieving more.
And this is with one simple technique – a pink slip.
Imagine the achievement levels of students if we opened our classroom
doors, our file cabinets, our boxes of techniques and shared with each
others. We thank those who have done just that with us, shared
with us what has worked for them, so we can share it with others.
You are truly helping to elevate the profession and increase student
achievement.
Call it sharing; call it stealing; call it research; call it
collaboration, call it collegial learning. It’s
an endeavor we all must practice. No one school or individual
has all the answers. And no one answer fits every question.
It’s a process one goes through to find what works best.
Our ears, eyes, and mind must always be alert for what others are doing
and how it is working for them.
Make a commitment this school year to share with a colleague, the staff,
in a professional journal, at a workshop, with us what is working for
you and how your students benefit from it. You will become a member
of a much larger profession and grow greatly in the process. And
the real winners will be the kids for you’ll bring to the classroom
new insights, greater depth of understanding, and an endowment for their
success.
We depend on each other for the creative solutions to our problems
and the inspiration to find solutions for those we serve—our students.
The effective teacher never ceases to learn.
Make September a month for Sharing.
1996 - 2004. All Rights Reserved. Please review our