Interviewer: Okay, so you have your homework out from last night?

Interviewee: Yeah.

Interviewer: So please take a few moments to go over it at your tables.

Every time they come into my class, they come in the same way. That is, they come in, they write down the homework, and they take out last night’s homework and begin to compare their work. They look over their homework so they’re comparing answers, and if there’s ever a disagreement, then they work together to come to an agreement if there is one right answer. If not, they’re just sharing their strategies. Then, after a few minutes of doing that, I’ll take questions, any outstanding questions that they may have.

Interviewee: You could’ve picked whichever of them make, takes or adds.

Interviewer: Or adds, exactly. That’s how I started by saying that there is more than one answer.

For the most part, they tend to resolve things in their group, but often there are questions at the end, and so I’ll take those as a whole class. It makes the homework meaningful and not just “Something I have to do every night and my teacher collects and does I don’t know what with it.” It keeps them accountable to each other. It also keeps the rest of the class from not having to listen to the one person who has the one question and the other 20 of us have to sit there and listen and watch me go over something they already understand.

[End of Audio 01:21]