Marking homework

[SlyAnimal]

You are between a rock and a hard place here, you will know that you also have to make sure you are popular with the students as the school takes into account what the students think of you. You will know about the paper your students fill in about you at the end of the semester. That's one reason why you may have to overlook the bright student who let their not so bright friend copy them.

Yeah it can be a fine line to walk at times. Although in general I don't worry too much about what the school/students think, as I aim to be respected rather than liked.

I work on the basis that I'm their teacher not their mate, and need to dispense punishments etc to them. But I have to also provide a relaxed environment where they feel comfortable and not shy to try and speak in English, despite knowing they'll make mistakes. I also need to be fair in my punishments, and so advise them at the start of each term about how their grades work + the rules/punishments for common offenses.

I feel to do this, then I need to do it in my own way, not the school's way, as I've sat in on Thai teacher's classes and although I envy some of the respect/authority/obedience which they have, there are other elements within their classrooms which aren't what I'm aiming for (e.g. I need the students to relax and enjoy English).

From what I've heard, the students sometimes don't know what to think about me. As I'm very different to their Thai teachers, since I'm quite relaxed during class (e.g. I don't give them grief for not finishing homework or getting something wrong), but am strict about things which their Thai teachers don't care about, but the students know are wrong (e.g. copying/cheating etc).

I'm lucky, as enjoyed a good relationship with my school over the 3 years I was teaching there. I'm currently taking a year off from teaching, but when I advised them that I'll be back in May, they were ecstatic, so I think I'm "walking the line" well so far.

P.s. Sorry about the post/edit/post/edit, for anyone who was reading. Am posting from my phone and accidentally hit the post/save button 2x while posting this!!! Grrr

[brubakertx]

What's sad is that the students don't think it's wrong to copy or cheat.

They all pass in the end!

So why should they care?

[NoshowJones]

You are between a rock and a hard place here, you will know that you also have to make sure you are popular with the students as the school takes into account what the students think of you. You will know about the paper your students fill in about you at the end of the semester. That's one reason why you may have to overlook the bright student who let their not so bright friend copy them.

Yeah it can be a fine line to walk at times. Although in general I don't worry too much about what the school/students think, as I aim to be respected rather than liked.

I work on the basis that I'm their teacher not their mate, and need to dispense punishments etc to them. But I have to also provide a relaxed environment where they feel comfortable and not shy to try and speak in English, despite knowing they'll make mistakes. I also need to be fair in my punishments, and so advise them at the start of each term about how their grades work + the rules/punishments for common offenses.

I feel to do this, then I need to do it in my own way, not the school's way, as I've sat in on Thai teacher's classes and although I envy some of the respect/authority/obedience which they have, there are other elements within their classrooms which aren't what I'm aiming for (e.g. I need the students to relax and enjoy English).

From what I've heard, the students sometimes don't know what to think about me. As I'm very different to their Thai teachers, since I'm quite relaxed during class (e.g. I don't give them grief for not finishing homework or getting something wrong), but am strict about things which their Thai teachers don't care about, but the students know are wrong (e.g. copying/cheating etc).

I'm lucky, as enjoyed a good relationship with my school over the 3 years I was teaching there. I'm currently taking a year off from teaching, but when I advised them that I'll be back in May, they were ecstatic, so I think I'm "walking the line" well so far.

P.s. Sorry about the post/edit/post/edit, for anyone who was reading. Am posting from my phone and accidentally hit the post/save button 2x while posting this!!! Grrr

Yes, great post. In my three years of teaching, I never thought to ask a Thai teacher if I could sit in their class and observe. I wish I had.

[NoshowJones]

Long ago in the days when I was teaching I caught a group of M4 students who had all copied a prepared essay for an exam. There were clues in the text as to which student had prepared the original. On returning the papers I called the original writer up and praised her for her work and publicly awarded her full marks; Then I called out the 16 friends, who had copied, to all come to the front of the room (the looks on their faces as they realised the emerging common thread was gratifying) .... and divided the top girl's score by 17 and awarded that score equally to all plagiarists - including the originator, explaining that as only 1 brain was involved they all had to share the one score...... I don't recall having that same problem again.

I wonder what your score was at the end of term when your students had to fill in the form about their opinion of you, but you did the right thing.

[attrayant]

for maths it's more difficult to spot people who have copied homework, as if they copy from a good student then they get the answers correct and so they should all legitimately look look the same.

I find it easier for math (and physics, since there is a lot of math there as well) because my school doesn't provide textbooks. That means I can generate my own classwork and homework handouts where I change the coefficients and variables for each student. With large classes of 30 or more, I might have 10 different versions of the assignment which I print three times. Usually a student will look at his nearest neighbor and notice the problems are different. At that point there is a look of panic on their faces and I get a surprising amount of attention and questions asking me to review some of the lecture material. After a few weeks of this, they finally get it and really start paying attention.

For English I tell them up front that I expect their writing to be different from their friends'. If I ask for a short paragraph on what they did over the weekend, I will expect them to all have done (mostly) different things. I also tell them that any papers that appear to be copied will receive a big reduction in score - both the copy and the copied-from paper (since you can't tell who copied from whom). I encourage them to work together and help each other, but I want them to generate different output.

[German Viking]

...come on now...you know the answer already....

They all pass in the end

This is the problem this kills any ambition.

[German Viking]

I'm not a teacher, but I don't real see the problem of copying.

I would tell all my students when the homework is done on a computer then every sheet need a watermark with the name of the studend.

I think after while this copying go almost to zero.

I would teach them how to do this watermark as a free computer lesson.

[harrry]

Some years ago (about 40) I spent some time in India. One of the pictures seared in my memory of that time is of small groups of students sitting round in the little pools of light cast by the three street lights in the village reading their schoolbooks.

Not one of you here has thought to consider why the homework was not done. How many of you have checked before reacting or destroying their work that they have had suitible conditions to do it. How many of them when they get home have to care for their siblings and possibly older parents and grandparents. How many live in a one room house with one 30 watt light bulb. I suggest a few of you should look where many students really live before being so judgemental.

[aarontendo]

Eh it hadn't occured to me, but in my case the parents are higher class / higher income. School full of farang teachers and technology isn't cheap.

So in my case it's more often students' laziness and/or not giving a damn. Amounts to the same thing in the end. Whatever it's almost time to go for a couple beers =)

[brianp0803]

Usually when I see students copying other class work in my class I offer my assistance to give their assignment to their teacher the next day. The student complains that it is due next period. Bad planning on their part. Additionally, only copying. Not really doing the work.

I do give it to their teacher and explain the situation.

I used to give 5 minute homework quizzes at the beginning of class twice a week. Not a difficult problem.

But it required fast response. If they were solving the problem for the first time they could not complete it in time.

I think I will start doing this again.

[SlyAnimal]

Some years ago (about 40) I spent some time in India. One of the pictures seared in my memory of that time is of small groups of students sitting round in the little pools of light cast by the three street lights in the village reading their schoolbooks.

Not one of you here has thought to consider why the homework was not done. How many of you have checked before reacting or destroying their work that they have had suitible conditions to do it. How many of them when they get home have to care for their siblings and possibly older parents and grandparents. How many live in a one room house with one 30 watt light bulb. I suggest a few of you should look where many students really live before being so judgemental.

If I'm trying to teach them English, and instead of listening or doing their English work, they are copying their friend's science homework, then the conditions at home aren't relevant to the situation (Possibly relevant to their science teacher, but not to me).

If they present me with homework, which they've obviously copied, then not giving them a mark for completing the homework, and a small punishment like 100 lines or similar, seems pretty appropriate by comparison, kids who don't finish their work don't get punished, just told to do better next time (I give a full mark for ~90% or more completed if they only skipped 1-2 difficult questions, and 1/2 a mark if they completed ~75% or more).

Just to clarify incase you misread my earlier post, I never said that I rip out their page if I catch them copying homework during my class.

Within my class I let them know that if it's too difficult I'd rather they try and fail than not try at all, and that if it really is too difficult or they don't have time, to just leave it blank rather than copying.

As I care about them learning, but by copying someone else they learn nothing.

And by then trying to pass off someone else's work as their own shows disrespect to their teacher (And wastes both my time and theirs if it's something I need to mark), which is why they also often receive lines as well for copying.

Edit:

Oh and if they finish the work in my class early then want to read a book or study/do homework for other subjects I'll let them, so long as it's not copying.

Also my English students (Thai program) are generally poor, but the maths students (Bilingual program) are all wealthy. I give very rarely assign homework in English and when I do they usually have a week to do it. Maths they get more and usually just 2-3 days.

[Scott]

I have removed a number of rather nasty posts. This is a discussion forum and the topic is about marking homework. Nobody asked for an opinion about other poster's grammar or spelling. Discussion of grammar and spelling is off-topic and inflammatory.

Please stay on the topic of the thread and treat other posters in a civil manner.

[Kluckmeister]

I have never taught in Thailand but I was a high school teacher for over thirty years before retiring in 2006. Most of my teaching experience was in Asia where I taught in the Department of Defense Dependent Schools which, if you do not know it, teach the children of US military and civilian personnel assigned to overseas military bases. We have schools all all over the world and I taught for them for 27 years, mostly in Korea and Japan but I did three years in England also. I am qualified to teach many subject areas such as History, English, Humanities, Career Education, Business, Computer Applications, and Mathematics and I have a lot of experience teaching Asian or half Asian kids including some Thai-American but mostly Korean and Japanese American kids. In other words, unlike many of the TV posters, I know what I am talking about.

First, I want to congratulate you for even asking the question, It shows you take the job seriously and are not just using it as a source of income and for the right to stay in Thailand on a long term work visa..

As concerns how to mark homework, I would say it depends on how you view the general honesty and work ethic of your students and what subject you are teaching. You need to make a judgement about the general honesty level of your students and their work ethic before you develop a policy on homework, or any other policy for that matter, because once you have it in place you will not be able to change your policies for the remainder of the academic year. Nothing worse than a teacher who is not consistent. You can change a policy, at the beginning of a new term (school year), and if the students or administrators of the school ask why simply tell them that your experience in the past dictated the necessity of change. Also, you need to make an assessment of the school you work for and the support level you will receive from the administrators who run that school. If you work for a school that just wants to collect the tuition and bamboozle the parents into thinking their kids are getting a good education, your situation is hopeless and you should just find a new position or do what Woody Allen suggested, "take the money and run" which is really saying learn to not give a shit because the school doesn't. I have to say that I did that from time to time when I had administrators what did not support me. Just bided my time til I could transfer or they moved on.

Unless you have a lot of experience and guidance from experienced colleagues who have been at the school for many years or are teaching A Level (or in the states AP--Advanced Placement classes) for the very brightest and motivated students, It is best to error on the side of caution, Therefore, your first policy should assume that students will copy homework if it is graded or counted in any way in the determination of their grade. If it is collected and not really looked at carefully they but merely given a check mark by the top of the page or at each question,students will wise up to that and just write nonsense down in places knowing that you just scan the papers and do not really read them. This is the worst thing that you can do. Students know you are a lazy teacher and they can put anything on a page and you will not catch it. A teacher who does this is exposing himself as a hypocrite to his students. Better to not collect and grade homework than to grade it in this manner and the higher weight you assign homework in the final grade the worse you will look. From personnel experience, I have known some teachers to count homework for as much as fifty percent of the final grades. The more you count it the higher incentive you give for students to see homework as an easy way to cheat with little or no risk of being caught.. If you are the kind of teacher who pats himself on the back and states that I check each question thoroughly (as opposed to the sloppy practice above of just glancing at answers and putting check marks down) you are deluding yourself that this is effective in stopping cheating. All that does it cause the cheaters to seek out the best students and flatter, bribe or intimidate them into letting them copy their homework in great detail.

Here is a fairly good policy that you can use for most subjects and it really works well for math which was my preferred subject to teach especially when I taught the higher course levels. I had a contract (one of my long term teaching friends who is now an administrator at a Bangkok area school used to call my iron clad contract my "yellow dog contact" and if you don't know what that means you can google it) which outlined this procedure as well as all my other classroom rules and the students and one of their parents had to sign it at the beginning of teach school year. New student coming in to the class during the term also had to complete the contract. Make sure you school administrators have a copy of this contact on file and make sure they have approved this contact in writing (there is nothing worse than being in a parent student conference with an administrator and having him or her disavow you in front of a parent or student and this will prevent them from doing so) before you hand it out to the students for them to complete and return. Set up a file folder for each student in your classes and this signed contract should be the first thing that goes in that file. Also put any other paper that becomes a part of their grade in that file including their quiz and test grades. You can review the tests with your classes, but make sure to collect all the papers after that review and then file them in the student folders.

As for how I determined grades, in math classes, I only had three things that counted toward grades. Class participation/preparation counted 25%, quizzes 25% and tests 50%. Other subjects would have more categories and different weightings but you get the idea. Notice that you do not want to put too much weight on homework (for the reason I stated above) but enough to make it worth doing.

Now this is the part that kids hated about my classes but at the same time grew to respect as they knew they could not bullshit me or get around my policy. I told students that homework was to be given as a way for them to prepare for the spot quizzes at any time and the tests that occurred at the end of each chapter. Thus, if they did not do the homework or copied it that would be reflected in the poor quiz and test grades and they would have to explain to the parents why they had perfect homework papers but could not answer the same questions on a test of quiz. Remember you have all the papers and tests in a file to show the parents and justify your grade. However, this was not enough for me because I knew teenagers, being teenagers, would not do homework solely as a means to prepare for the quizzes and tests, but at the same time I did not want to grade in detail all the homework papers of all of my students every day or give a lot of weight to an assignment that in many cases I knew was copied. That being the case, I also told students the first day of every term when we reviewed my contract that I believed in their general honesty and would not be collecting their homework each day because good students knew that homework was necessary to be prepared for the tests and quizzes. Instead each student started each marking period with 100 points for class participation (you should recall at this time that this category had a twenty five percent overall weighting) and they only lost points from this grade each time they disappointed me by not having their homework done. You can never go wrong with administrators when your explain this policy as an optimistic glass is half full policy and kids and parent love it when they think they are getting a hundred percent grade and that grade counts twenty five percent of their overall grade for the quarter regardless of what else they do.

I further explained that I would randomly collect 20% of the homework papers after they were reviewed in class. (Note: my general routine for all the classes I taught was to begin each class reviewing the prior day's homework. During this review students were to ask questions and complete any missing parts they did not understand. Thus, it was their duty to actively participate in class. At the conclusion of the homework review and before I began the presentation of the new material, is when I collected the sampling of homework.). Thus I might have five math classes a day with each class having 25 or 30 students but I would only have five or six papers from each class to grade and thus only 25 to 30 paper a night to review. This is key. The students who did not have their homework had to sign a paper stating the assignment (pages and problem numbers) they did not have, the date and time. The next day the students who had their homework done had only a check mark and the students handed in incomplete homework or who had uncorrected mistakes in their homework (remember it is reviewed in class prior to collection) go a plus markl and they had to sign a paper that they did not complete or correct their homework and that was stapled to their homework. All those homework papers and or signed slips were put in the student files. The students with the check marked homework assignments did not receive any penalty. The ones with the plus marks got five points deducted from that 100 point grade I described above and the ones who did not have the assignment at all got ten points deducted from the grade. Remember, all graded assignments go back in the file and incomplete or missing assignments slips are also in the fikes and the students admitted by their signature that they did not have their homework. In my classes there is no escape from responsibility or way to like to parents and administrators.

At the end of two or three weeks the students who do not do homework are easy to spot and their class participation which counts twenty five percent of their overall grade is going down rapidly. The kids who do a sloppy job with their homework or are struggling with the material are now scrambling to ask questions and fill in missing blanks before their paper is randomly collected in order to save those one hundred points and that extra effort usually is reflected in higher test and quiz grades and, if not, it still helps them pass the course if they can preserve those one hundred points. The good student always do their homework and thus always keep their one hundred points but they didn't need it anyway as they always do well on the quizzes and tests. At the end of five or six weeks i usually had a pretty good handle on the students or at least enough of a handle to know which ones were lazy unmotivated students, the ones who were likely to cheat by copying off the good students. I went to the good students and I told them I knew they were letting so and so copy from the because their papers were identical. I told them I did not hold it against them because I knew they were under a lot of pee pressure and they had to do it for one reason or another. I told them to deliberately make mistakes and then let the cheaters copy. In class they could ask questions, erase and correct their answers and thus not lose any points but the cheaters would not follow suit and thus they would be caught out amd their grades then began to fail rapidly unless the started to pay attention in class and correct their mistakes before their paeprs were randomly collected.

As you might guess I was very unpopular with lazy students and they hated me because they could not pass my classes without changing their cheating ways nor could they justify their grades to their parents as I had all their graded papers and test on file plus little signed papers every time they screwed up. Many administrators said it was always entertaining to attend a parent teacher conference with me because I had my act together when I brought in their child's file and could justify my grade down to the last decimal point. Many a parent who threatened action left with their tails tucked between their legs. Many of my colleagues disliked my policies also but they were usually the ones who got the loser who were fleeing my classes at their earliest opportunity.

Sorry for being so long winded, but I hope this helps some of you teaching cherries out there.

[SlyAnimal]

Interesting method Kluckmeister, I think it'd incorporate too much administration into my classes (I teach about 400+ different students each week, usually just once per week, sometimes 2x, depending which classes I'm assigned). But I know some teachers are lucky enough to teach the same class 4x per week so might work for them.

One interesting thing I thought of while reading though, was to tell the students at the start of the term that they'd randomly have a surprise test each week. The tests would then be the same/similar questions to their homework, but short enough to be completed within 5-10 minutes.

You could then tell them that you won't check homework, or just check for completion, as the surprise tests would give you the real feedback.

Something I might try next year (Would only work for writing subjects like maths/science though, not English conversation).

[brianp0803]

I teach grade 10-12 math.

I've been assigning mostly odd question and telling students I expect them to check their answers themselves and ask questions if their answers don't match.

I check the process. They can not supply answer only. Worthless because they have the answers.

I randomly check the odd answers to make sure they are correct. If wrong odd answers I remind the student to check their odd answers.

I check the even numbered problems for process and correctness.

Upper level math it is easy to make a small error and not get the correct answer.

Most the points are for correct process but accuracy is also important.

I wish there were conferences for teachers to gather to share collective knowledge.

[Kluckmeister]

SlyAnimal

Quizzes handle the function that you refer to above. They are spontaneous, are based on homework just reviewed and are similar to the questions given and reviewed in the homework assignments. At the beginning of each term I divide the class into three groups, A through C and I change the group that they belong to frequently during the term. I post two to three questions on an overhead projector. It takes one laminated page and I use the same pages from year to year to avoid work. Group A has their questions then group b and finally C. They have ten minutes to complete the questions and they have assigned seating so I can prevent students from sitting next to others in their group and they also don't know which students have had their groups changed. Different classes of the same subject have different questions and they also don't always get quizzed the same day so the students taking thew quiz at the beginning of the day can't pass on the questions and answers to their friends at the end of he day because they don't know if I will be giving a quiz to that class and they also know that the questions may be completely different for the three groups in that class. That is quizzes are completely randomized on two or more levels. Tests are done the same way and I have other tricks that caused cheaters to complete tests and end of term exams with entirely wrong answers from other forms of the test. They then had to explain to the administration why they had the answers completely wrong for their test but exactly right for a test version they did not take but theat their friend took in an earlier class.

A lot of cheating students used to cry when they found out their were assigned to my classes and would change their entire schedules to avoid me if they could get out of my math class. I was either work hard enough to pass honestly or fail. No middle ground and no way to cheat on anything.

[tzar]

Okay... I have to ask... how long have you been teaching? I have been doing it for so many years now, that I have forgotten just how long... God help me... LOL!

Issues about homework and copying have been around since schools first started. This we all know. We also know that we did the same things when we were students (come on... you know it is true) and here in LOS a student is just a student with all the traits and all of the human characteristics that every student has around the world. To think that the students here are in some way different or are guided by a different set of rules or parameters is silly.

For all students hate homework. Yes, you can see this as being just a "general statement", but it isn't. However, homework should not be issued simply or exclusively to extend 'class times' but rather to also teach the student about "deadlines" and to get them to work on their own to solve issues, questions, and/or reinforce what was covered in class and to even, perhaps, go beyond that it.That is what homework is for. Should it be seen as part of the student's grade? Yes, but only from the standpoints of their ability to get things done within a set time frame and their ability to work on their own.

However saying that, the fact that students might very well work together and/or copy from one another is more than a possibility. It is even more so given the Internet and the communication capabilities that not so long ago where not on hand. But is this a bad thing? No it does not have to be. For homework should not bee seen as a teaching tool in and of itself. It is just a small part of the bigger picture. For when I give my students homework I know that they will either not get around to doing it (I will get the usual excuses, and sometimes even get ones that I have never heard before which I sort of kind intriguing) or that they will simply copy each other's work in an attempt to get it over with. All of this I know, as I remember what it was like being a student in my day. My answer to this? I give followup work in class or even a mini quiz and I see "what is what". It takes but a few minutes but not only 'levels the playing field' a bit, but gives me (the teacher) a better understanding of not only my ability to teach the material but also in the students' ability to consume and process it as they should have done...if you get my drift. Of course it will depend upon a number of factors, such as the importance of the material itself and whether or not I will be covering said material again either in the future or even the next day.

Listen, copying is a fact of life within schools and it is not going to go away. We have all done it and our students will continue to do it when the mood, opportunity, or even necessity requires them to. But it is the latter that we, as teachers, need to focus upon. For that is the issue that has to be addressed.

However with regards to plagiarism... though it should not be allowed, it should be tolerated in so far as its use is concerned. Copying something word for word is wrong ... yes and I do not accept that. But to do it within an assignment by incorporating it within the construct of the student's work (without any footnotes or credits given) does show thought. If they have taken the time to find the material that they copy indicates that they spent time working on the topic and in "copying" what they added to their work shows an ability to understand the material and see that what they are copying fits. So, in my mind following this line if thought ia not really such a bad thing. But I let them know that I know what they did and then take the thought and the information that they used and use their actions to get them to understand it.

Teaching is an art. It is part stage performance, part audience capture, yet at the same time (as with any good script) part instruction. All have to work together and both teacher and student must be on the same page. We as teachers, have to be vigilant yet at the same time be understanding as to the student's out of classroom life. We must work together and be ready to apply whatever teaching technique/s we can either create or draw upon (from our own education or 'manuals') when required. We also have to understand that we have to wear a number of different "hats" from time to time and in so doing be ready to answer the 'call' fro a student or students when we see that there is just too much copying going on. For this would indicate that we are not getting through to them and in so doing allowing the material to fall on deaf ears.

Please kindly do speak for yourself. Making assumptions about people you know nothing about is a rather cheap strategy.

As far as i can remember, never once did i copy anyone's homework during my secondary school years.

Neither did i hate doing homework. Quite the opposite ... turning up with the homework (properly) done was not only a sweet way to show off, but in the long term it meant getting preferential treatment from educators & classmates alike.

My suggestion to the OP here would be as follows: first & foremost, do not be too 'serious' about homework but place the emphasis on classwork. Pupils do not learn much from doing homework anyway; homework is more like some chore that needs to be done, & as soon as it is done it's forgotten about. That means many will take the easiest way out, for the mere sake of the mark.

Instead, mark them for class participation, for creativity, for attentiveness, for tasks completed on site.

And by all means, quiz them.

Tzar.

[brianp0803]

I am also making similar but different test.

Y= 3x+2 on one test y=3x+3 on the other.

Take derivative of

x sin (2x) or

X cos (3x)

I have seen right answers to the wrong test.

It is also amazing when 5 minutes into the test someone will say there is a problem with their test because different from their neighbor. How did they discover that?

Now I have 3 versions of the test that I can distinguish by the problems. But I number the tests 1,2,3,4. If someone tries to find another person with test 2 they will get the wrong answers.

A game of moves and counter moves.

Before certain students always missed my exams. Of course they talked to students that took the exam.

Now I either change the test or just count the next test double since the topics build for calculus. Then the students had better test attendance.

I try to watch carefully but I see evidence of cheating. Not sure how they are accomplish it but students are proud of their ability to copy.

I work at a small school and teach all grade 10-12 math classes. No escaping me.

[mikecat]

I never give homework, total waste of time. Students either copy or pay someonr to do it. I get them to work in class. Those who dont want to work do it after school under my supervision. This works well, they get the message pretty quickly.

I also had a spate of students doing other homework in my class. I explained to them that it was pretty unfair to be doing other teachers homework in my class when I didnt give them any. Most stopped, some didnt so I collected the homework and gave it to their homeroom teacher and explained why I was giving it to her. Worked well, this practice has sopped.

[SlyAnimal]

Now I have 3 versions of the test that I can distinguish by the problems. But I number the tests 1,2,3,4. If someone tries to find another person with test 2 they will get the wrong answers.

A game of moves and counter moves.

Haha I had a good chuckle thinking of the students faces when they work this one out.

I'm definitely going to look into doing this lol.

As usually I just try to vigilantly supervise the tests/exams, and catch enough students cheating that many realise it's too risky.

It's surprising who you catch too, last year I caught the 2 smartest girls in the class copying/comparing answers. Luckily for them, it was only their practice test.

As I usually give a practice test to the students, then go over it in class the following lesson, before the real test the following week.

I figure it shows them the format + gives most an incentive to study.

[Scott]

I worked with a teacher who randomized the questions and also a few the answers. The students never knew if she had 1, 2 or 3 different versions of the exam. She didn't tell the students, and it was so interesting to see who had cheated and copied the person next to them and, of course, got a very low grade.

She also liked to mix up the answer so that even if it was the same question, on one test the answer might be a and on another it might be b.

[ggt]

My English teacher figured out who all us boys were using to copy our homework...returned all the homework papers to the smart female student who had been helping us...and the female student refused to allows us to copy her homework thereafter...

Had to learn English and do my own homework...what a bummer...lol

[brianp0803]

My visible numbering is meaningless. But I know my slight modification to change the answers and sort the tests before marking.

My most interesting catch cheating was someone copying off a student that showed show much work that the answer to problem 1 was next to problem 2. Problem 2 ' s answer was next to problem 3.

The person copying had many right answers but for the wrong problem.

Another student started his problem correctly but changed his answer to match the very smart student next to him.

But the smart student next to him made a tiny error early in the process and did everything correctly from his initial error. Consistency.

How have caught cheaters?

Do you catch wandering eyes?

Harder to catch cooperative cheating.

Once I saw students trying to switch papers. After the good student finished her test she then she completed the other students test.

I caught them and the girl was in tears.

Students told me he did that often in many classes.

[brianp0803]

I worked with a teacher who randomized the questions and also a few the answers. The students never knew if she had 1, 2 or 3 different versions of the exam. She didn't tell the students, and it was so interesting to see who had cheated and copied the person next to them and, of course, got a very low grade.

She also liked to mix up the answer so that even if it was the same question, on one test the answer might be a and on another it might be b.

I think there is a program called Exam View.

It can randomize answers to questions and randomized question order on multiple choice tests and produce answer keys for multiple tests.

Unfortunately not good interface for math questions but great for other subjects.

Also many pre made test banks for different books.

You can select the questions you want from the bank or create new questions.

[SlyAnimal]

How have caught cheaters?

Do you catch wandering eyes?

Harder to catch cooperative cheating.

Wandering eyes I don't catch unless I'm 100% sure. As they can be innocent eyes, and cheating is a serious offense in my class. But I'll go Zander stand next to someone with wandering eyes and check their answers vs their neighbors (I can read Thai, so do so even on their Thai exams). I've caught a few like this.

Some students have notes on paper or something hidden with notes, it's not common though. I've caught only 2, since then I made some changes to my setup which made it more difficult for them.

Others write on their hands. I've caught students doing this but it was before they started the exam, the co-examiner just told them to wash their hands, they weren't too concerned. This was the same co-examiner who would sit outside and just wanted me to just come out with him for a chat rather than actually supervising the exam (nice bloke, just saying he's relaxed would be an understatement lol).

Some are simply whispering in the exam which is easy to hear but my co-examiners usually allow students to share whiteout, and they whisper in Thai, so they have a valid excuse + I can't confirm what they said. My last co-examiner was great though, she was as strict as me so we combined our techniques (which made it boring, as neither of us caught anyone cheating lol).

Some write on their desk. I think it was last year that I caught 23x students with a numerical combination on their desk which corresponded to the multi choice answers. There were a lot of tears that day, as some students swore that they didn't write it and that it wasn't their desk.

Another class I actually caught someone in another exam room cheating. As their supervisor left the room for about 10-15mins and from outside the class I saw a student standing next to another and literally comparing answers.

Sometimes if there are too many students in a class, some students will sit outside of the class where it's difficult for the examiners to see them. These students I'd try to get angles on them so I could see them but they couldn't see me. Some just talked to or leaned forward/turned around to look over the shoulder of the person infront.

Others, where I didn't supervise the exam myself, I have simply looked at the answers after the exam and decided they were cheating (I then just ask them directly, telling them that if they admit it, they'll get 100 lines + 0 for the test, if they don't they can re-sit the same test & if they get a worse score get 0 for the test + 500 lines (And an apology from me + the best of the 2 scores if they do better).

In general, I'm often hindered by my co-teacher not setting up good exam conditions, where it's simply very easy to cheat. Usually the other examiner doesn't even watch the students at all, which is ok with 2x teachers, but I'm relatively sure they will also do the same thing when supervising exams by themselves (Usually teachers make arrangements to just supervise half of the exam days each. Although Thai teachers usually don't leave supervision solely in the hands of our Farang teachers for various reasons).

[Scott]

I could write a book on the various methods that students have used for cheating. There is the old trustworthy cheat-sheet, writing answers on desks, and on body parts, like arms, hands and even one girl wrote them on her leg. They have written answers in their dictionaries and then 'shared' dictionaries (this was some time ago when the book-type dictionary was common).

One young man had the answers stuffed down his underwear. I had a couple of the Thai PE teachers perform that search and he was a little resistant, but there it was. Students have also excused themselves to go to the toilet and answers are written on a paper and then the next kid goes and gets them.

I had one class that used some sort of hand signals from one of the best students. I never could figure it out, but he would work diligently on his exam and everyone else would just sit and doodle, then all of a sudden when he was done, they would start. Not every student could see him, so their method wasn't all that efficient. There was a great deal of protest when I once moved that kid to a different classroom to take his exam.

I also had two very poor students who once exchange their papers and each of them did as much as they could. Sadly, between them they couldn't quite muster 50%.

What we did was any students caught cheating were given a zero on the exam and no retest. A letter was sent home to the parents. Cheating went from being quite endemic to be fairly rare.

The students would also be given a stern talking to. I would explain that our goal was for them to learn the subject and the actual test was not all that significant. The peer culture went from one of a tacit acceptance of cheating to students who cheated being very much looked down on.

I designed a seating chart which mixed the students from the various grades so that no two students from the same year level sat next to, in front of or behind a fellow student. It was interesting in that the Thai administration decided against it and seemed to think this was 'unfair' to the students. As near as I could tell there was an acceptance on their part that cheating was permissible.

[Kluckmeister]

All the things that the posters have been submitting since my last post were used by me and all the techniques used by the students to cheat that were mentioned were also tried by them and each of them can be defeated by a dedicated professional cheat catching teacher. Hats off to Brianp0803 (you have some good techniques and I used them all myself with some variations of course) SlyAnimal (you are indeed a sly one) and others out there who are still in the trenches trying to stay one step ahead of the cheaters. It is a never ending battle but one worth fighting. Sharing techniques and observations is always worthwhile.

The things that really pissed me off in my teaching years is when I encountered administrators that for one reason or another did not appreciate my efforts to stop cheaters or thought me to strict and devious. There are some truly awful administrators in some schools and they can make life hell for teachers whose practices in the classroom make them unpopular while at the same time praising the idiot teachers who let the kids do practically anything they want and give them good grades for the crap they hand in including the acceptance of plagiarism and other acts of cheating that in some cases are too blatant to be ignored by anyone with pride in their work as teachers. Then again, that is a whole different topic..

Edited November 7, 2014 by Kluckmeister

[brianp0803]

I have seen school advertisements that the average grades for their students are 3.5. Is this smart students or low standards?

Realistically, what does grade 2,3,4 mean? I suspect Thailand is not much different from the rest of the world.

On poorly written papers at a grade 10 bilingual school school studying English 10 hours a week I see grades of 75-85.

I ask the teacher how they deserved that score.

She told me the paper had an introduction and conclusion and 3 paragraphs and met the criteria.

Is meeting the minimum requirements a grade 3.5?

Theoretical no, but in reality?

My test averages are about 68%.

I do have many exceptional students scoring over 90%. This is lower grades than most teachers. Maybe 30% are doing average acceptal work. Some excellent, some marginal and some fail.

Since failing students eventually get a 50%, I want marginal students to get better grades.

I know the stated criteria for grade 2,3,4. But, realistically, what might be a distribution of grades in an average class?

It isn't fair if some teachers grade harder, but students work for their desired grade.

I have had students ask for extra work to make the next grade level.

Extra credit to increase a grade 2 to 2.5 is different from extra credit to increase a 3 to 3.5.

High performing students I ask them to do extra more difficult word problems.

Lower performing students will get easier worksheets. I think fair.

Edited November 8, 2014 by brianp0803

[SlyAnimal]

The school gave me their % to grade conversion sheet, but when I first applied this to their scores, most of the boys failed. Even though most of the girls in the same class were getting 3.5 or 4.0.

I decided that this imbalance was primarily an attitude/aptitude problem rather than a teaching problem, there was such a wide range within the class, particularly between genders.

I also believe holding back students just because they fail a test for a minor subject like English conversation is over the top. I instead think they should look at it as feedback and try to do better next time. But I knew if I made the lesson/test content any easier, the girls would lose interest due to boredom. I also believe in grade parity and so giving different students different tests wasn't an option.

Thus my thinking was sorta in line with the school's policy of changing grades or not failing people (Although I initially resisted changing grades until I found out the students would be held back if I didnt).

So to accommodate all of this in the future, I changed my grading system to use 10% brackets rather than the 5% brackets the school used (keeping 80% as a 4.0). Which means that 50% is a 2.5 and 40% is a 2.0. I feel it gives more feedback and accommodates a wider range of student abilities. Although we usually received our direct % in NZ which I thought was better (I think they've changed the system in NZ now though, to achieved or not achieved lol).

I also don't award grades of less than 1.5, as I believe a student who tries but fails should receive a better grade than someone whom I fail for lack of attendance then gets their grade changed to a 1.0.

By doing this, everyone who came to class passed (as the school wanted), my median grades were above 2.5 (as the school wanted) and I didn't need to dumb down the tests to ensure the boys got ok grades (As I wanted). So everyone was happy

[brianp0803]

Everyone in Thailand knows that 50% grade is for lazy students that fail and show no effort.

If they show some effort and try a little they will get 55%.

My tests questions are:

50% can be answered with minimal effort and listening in class.

30% require doing most of the homework.

20% are difficult.

Partial credit for making a reasonable attempt at the problems.

I was worried how I can help the failing students and talked with other teachers. I discovered the students that were failing my class usually had the same problem with all teachers (including Thai subjects)

Since they are also failing Thai classes, I concluded their low scores usually were not about their math ability or English ability or the teaching style but their overall effort.

Students getting grade 4 from me deserve it.