Hi all, I have been reading the postings on spelling contracts & have found several awesome ideas! I always say every year I'm gonna do contracts & then I fall back on what I've done year after year. This year I really want to get this going. I know how I want to set mine up except for the grading part. My principal (and many teachers in my school) discourage grading homework for the report card grade. I've also had so many run-ins with parents over how not doing HW causes their grade to slip even though they know the content on the tests. I also ran into "well mom/dad/grandma accidentally threw out her HW". Since I did put this assignment in the gradebook, (and this is 2 weeks later that the parent is complaining I gave her a zero by the way) it was a huge fight. My principal said that's why she doesn't like using HW as part of the grade. My thing is then how do you hold the kid accountable? So, any suggestions on how to hold the kiddos accountable for doing the contract activities? I do check off that they did their HW every day & they finish it at lunch if it's not done. I also have a 15 min. free time on Fridays so if they did their HW everyday they got to attend. But the contract is all due on 1 day, which is nice. But do you check on it everyday somehow? Thanks for your ideas!!
I am adding my website with my contract, which I think works, please be aware my site is WAY under construction... but here is a blurb from the site.. We will have weekly spelling tests. I will give spelling pretests on Monday. If you child receives a 90 or better he/she will not need to do any spelling homework for the week or retake the test on Friday, however, he/she will need to do the dictation sentences that I give on Friday and any morning work that may involve spelling. The following page will have the list for the week as well as the assignments for that week. The final spelling tests will be given on Friday. If your child is out on Monday, he/she will need to do all the work all week. If your child is out on Friday, he/she will receive the grade they got on Monday. What I do is go over their HW but our district doesn't "Grade" hw, I do only for completion, if they do all that they need to do they get 25/25 pts. Hope this makes sense. http://www.barrow.k12.ga.us/cles/teacher1/html/weekley_list.html
I do participation grades for homework, as long as it's done then they get 2 points, etc. If you're not comfortable putting grades in the grade book, then you could so type of incentive like Homeworkopoly. I do spelling contracts, but I set it up differently. The kids have to write their words in cursive for five points. Then they have to earn ten more points in other spelling activities. I have five point and ten point activities for each month. They have to have a total of 15 points each week.
When I taught 5th, I only occasionally had trouble with them being responsible for homework. It was probably the fact that I gave them about 15 minutes in class each day to review the words and work on the contract. There were no excuses that way.
I check that my kids did their homework but I don't give them a grade for it. If they don't do their homework, they have to spend time getting it done (like recess). Sometimes I"ll give them one more day to do it if it sounds like a viable excuse!
