Laura Varlas from Conference Daily wrote an article about homework. She believes that homework should not be graded. Rather, it should be checked for understanding. It is not fair to grade students lower if they are slower to grasp the material. I can see her point. Homework doesn't need to be stressful and it shouldn't require help from a parent to do every night. Parents can help from time to time, but they have other things to do to. The most important thing I got from this article is that homework must be evaluated by an instructor on a daily basis. If the teacher is going to give assignments, then there needs to be feedback either through grades or checking for understanding. Otherwise, it looks like the instructor doesn't care and the students won't know how they are doing in the class.
I also do not "grade" homework. The children earn points for completing the assignment, but I use the homework to check for understanding and see what types of concepts may need reteaching on my part. I have a little "Spot Checked" stamp that I put on every homework assignment so that the parents know it was checked, but not entered into the grade book. I, of course, circle mistakes and assume that the children go back through their work folder the next day!
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