Middle School Classroom Management - Homework Club

There are a couple concepts that I am a firm believer of using in my classroom.  I believe that all of my children can be good at math and math can AND should be fun.  I use growth mindset, guided notes, guided release, and the concrete, pictorial, abstract lesson format in my classroom. (I'll post more about this format later.)  I tell students that the difference between a professional and an amateur is that, "an amateur practices until they get it right;  professionals practice until they can't get it wrong."  An amateur is also satisfied with correctly solving a problem, while a professional wants to know why.  (That's a classroom philosophy I'll get into in another post.)  I have high expectations and am a firm believer in homework.

My students get homework 3-4 nights a week.  They have two options.  They can work hard in class or they can work hard at home.  The harder they work in the class, the less problems they take home.  Not because homework is a punishment, but just because we accomplish more during our time together.

April and May are hard months.  Students start to smell summer and freedom, while teachers are making a final push before state testing. I wanted to motivate and reward students to make the push with me.  Homework club was my solution. I saw homework club posted on pinterest and a free homework club set up here.  I wanted to utilize this concept in the middle school setting.   I teach five classes of 20-28 students.  All of my students have a class number.  I created a poster with every students' number on a post-it, on the poster.  I have my classes on the poster in order by class period.

If I assign a homework assignment Monday night students are expected to have the assignment at the start of class on Tuesday.  If they forget their homework they are removed from homework club.  They have the opportunity to be put back into homework club if they complete their homework and show me first thing on Wednesday.  However they do not get to participate in any homework club rewards offered on Tuesday.

Rewards can be anything.  At the start of the club rewards in my classroom consisted of a chance to win candy.  I use different probability games, that required the students to use math, have fun, and have the opportunity to win candy.  I explained sticky ball in my instagram stories that can be found here.  Click the classroom games icon to see the game explained.  Other probability games I use are cards (pick the student you predict will draw a face card), basketball (pick the student you predict will make the shot), marbles (pick the student you predict will draw a certain color marble), and using dice or a spinner.  All of these probability games require the students to first find the compound probability of winning and correctly picking the student who will complete the task in question.  I have anywhere from 3-5 students participate in the actual game.  I choose these students at random.  Comment below if you have any questions about my probability games.

Some of my bigger rewards will be homework passes, popcorn, crazy socks (students were uniforms to my school), no shoes, chewing gum (gum is not allowed in my class), bring a snack to class (no food is allowed in my class), listening to music during computer work, math games during independent practice, etc.  I am excited for my students to use my new horse racing game in the future.

This game can be found  here. This game can be used with flash cards, task cards, or practice problems.  Happy teaching!