Is there graded homework in this class?
Yes. The single most important determining factor for your grade in this class will be the amount and quality of homework that you complete on a daily basis. By learning and practicing skills with homework problems every day you will prepare yourself to do well the Mastery Quizzes. Every thing you struggle with and then learn while doing homework is another thing you won’t get wrong on the next quiz.
For each section of the book you will have two homework assignments, as listed on the Calendar: a set of WebAssign Warmup problems that you will complete online, and a set of Paper Problems that you will complete on paper and hand in. Each Mastery Quiz is generated from a bank of problems based directly on these two homework sets.
WebAssign Warmups – UPDATE – See Grades page for Spring 2020 adjustments
You can access the WebAssign problems through the link on Canvas. These online assignments will be graded for completeness, are graded by chapter, and are due in bundles on test days. You can submit answers as many times as you like while completing the online assignment. After the due date, full solutions will be visible. Late submissions cannot be accepted.
WebAssign will probably give you some kind of precise-looking grade or score for each problem set, but you can ignore those. Your grades for the WebAssign Warmups will be based on the following rubric:
0 points = Not completed by Chapter deadline
1 points = Half of the problems completed correctly
2 points = Almost all problems completed correctly
3 points = All problems completed correctly
Paper Problems – UPDATE – No longer being used in Spring 2020
The purpose of homework is to develop understanding and learn how to solve problems, not to copy correct answers from the back of the book. For this reason, paper problems are not just graded for correctness, but also for your work and time creating a resource that has the potential to actually be useful for studying for Mastery Quizzes.
For each problem assigned, you have three objectives: write out the problem statement, show all work clearly and completely, and find the correct answer. Paper Problem sets are thus graded for overall effort, completeness, and accuracy. Paper Problems are due in stapled (please) chapter bundles on test days. You will have an opportunity to resubmit any two paper chapter sets at the end of the course to increase your score. For each chapter set the rubric is as follows:
0 points = Not completed by chapter deadline
1 points = Most of the problems satisfy one of the three objectives
2 points = Most of the problems satisfy two of the three objectives
3 points = Most of the problems satisfy three of the three objectives
Pacing yourself
I recognize that you have a lot of time demands, activities, and responsibilities to deal with on top of this course. Homework is due in bundles on Chapter Test days so that you can have more control of your own schedule, and more flexibility in choosing when you do homework for this class.
But, a warning: If you wait until the last minute to do an entire chapter of homework, you will not have time! Make time every day to do at least a little bit of homework, and/or set aside large blocks of time to work on the assignments — whatever works for you. You will have to motivate yourself to stay on track between tests, and finding this motivation and sticking to it may in fact be the most difficult part of this course.