Homework - a reflection and some questions to ponder

It's been a wee while....
In typical fashion, just as a few people tell me not to stop writing, I stop writing.  It's been a busy couple of weeks under the beam of the projector (doesn't have the same ring to it "as at the chalk face", does it?)

Anyway, thanks for some positive feedback about the ramblings so far. It's been longer than I'd hoped since I wrote my last little piece.  I felt that a break would be a good idea.  I didn't want to make this a place where I could come on and moan about "the bloody fourth year".  I wanted to get to deeper issues than that.  I felt last time round I maybe let the practicalities of the job get in the way of my higher order thinking.

I'm going to continue from where I left off last time, although this time I'll hopefully deal with the topic in a more reflective manner.  The issue I've been considering is homework.  I make no apologies for using my own practice as a start point in all of this.

Homework
I have an S4 credit class and an S6 set doing higher (for those in England - this means that although they are doing calculus etc and some of them will master it - it's going to be like pulling teeth for me to get them through it.)

First of all the S4.  The reason I was so frustrated in my last post was that I had designed all of my homework in S3 in a certain way.  It was designed to be consolidation of the current topic but it also contained questions which referred back to previous topics in order to keep them in the pupils memory.  My thinking is that by constantly going back to things from the past it will refresh pupils memory and hopefully become something that the pupil knows well.  This is why initially I was depressed with their early S4 homework when they couldn't do anything from last year!  Now I realise the error of my judgement.  The fact was that pupils could do things from early in S3 (further back in time!) because they'd had more consolidation of these topics through the homework.  Whereas the things from later in term (closer to the present time) they had forgotten as they hadn't had as much consolidation over the long term.  I am seeing some very positive results from this now.

My questions to you, readers, are the following?
a.) How do you structure Standard Grade/GCSE homework?
b.)  How do you reinforce previously learned concepts with a class who could do it at the time, but like my class, are unlikely to revise very much?
c.)  Do you use notes jotters?  I give my pupils notes.  The pupils all agree they like them, however I despair when I see questions which are almost identical to those in the notes left with no attempt!
d.)  How do you mark homework?  I have occasionally used peer marking and assessment for learning strategies, however I'm maybe a wee bit old fashioned in that I like to mark it and give them a score with some feedback points attached.  This is time consuming though, as we all know.  A colleague of mine never gives raw scores.  She runs with a green, amber, red system.  I think this may be a wee bit too wishy-washy for my preferences.

My fear is that I am trying to not only teach the kids the work, but also remember it for them, by tailoring all of my exercises as I do.  I don't think I give them enough responsibility for their own learning.  However, there are results to justify at the end of the day.  It's a delicate balance.

The "Success Loop"
 Moving on to the higher class.  I run a similar sort of system for this class.  However, I have additionally added two "recommendations" that some of them are following up.  These are that pupils at least read over their notes every day after class - preferably writing them up - this is how I learned at uni and during my own higher - although I know it might not be suitable for everyone. The second thing I have decided to ask pupils to do is consider the "success loop".

It looks a wee bit like below....

 I am not forcing pupils to do corrections, they need to have some motivation for themselves by the age of 17!  However, they should be considering the above. Most of the pupils in fairness have been trying to fix their mistakes now, rather than getting into dangerous mindsets like I did as a pupil "Oooh, I can never do those hard trig equations!".  My retort to the kids now is "Learn to do it then!".  I will help any of them over and over until they can do it, so it's not getting help that they have to worry about.

Another small, but not insignificant breakthrough that I have made with this class is by giving them a questionnaire about their own attitude to the study of the subject.  I have given questionnaires before about my own teaching - however I've never properly challenged the pupils to be introspective about their attitudes until now.  The impact during that subsequent two weeks has been great - three or four of the pupils who are borderline pass/fails really seem to have taken the message on board and are working harder now.  I feel this was much more effective than the usual rant.  I did add into the rant the fact that Uni is going to be so much harder and much more work etc and that they had to get used to it, and that if they couldn't deal with it maybe they should choose some other life path.   If you'd like  a copy of the questionnaire for a nosey drop me a line.

Any feedback, tips, disagreements etc - leave me a comment! :)