No Hassle Extra Credit

As teachers, we always have plenty of work to do!  
Prioritizing is essential, so I make extra credit as simple for me as possible ... no hassle.

In my classroom, I set aside a location and make plenty of options available: math puzzles, logic problems, pentominoes (to use in class), a short article about a mathematician accompanied by 4-6 reflection questions, challenging worksheets, pictures to graph on the coordinate plane, and so forth.  I make a few of the options easy enough to tempt my struggling students.  If everything looks too difficult, they won't even try.  Having a variety of choices is important since I want every student to be able to find something of interest.  I do need to change the offerings from time to time.  The kids let you know when it is time for something new.  :)

Students may select something and take it home to complete, do it in study hall, or work on it in class if they finish their classwork early.  There is NO DUE DATE other than the end of the grading period!  I tell my students to work on the extra assignments as they have time and turn them in whenever they are completed.  Whatever they have turned in at the end of the grading period will be taken into consideration if they have a borderline grade at that time.  

I don't really grade the work.  Remember, this is "No Hassle Extra Credit".  All I do is put a check mark on the paper if it looks like a good effort and an "x" if not.  I record the check or x in my grade book and that's it until I calculate final grades for the grading period.  I've found that kids will put forth a lot of effort for a "check".  When I used to score extra credit, many students would shut down or give up if they got wrong answers.  With the check system, they continue to try.  I can always show them the answer key and let them check their own work.  This doesn't seem to have the same negative impact on their confidence.  

I do recommend that you come up with some general expectation for the amount of effort necessary for the extra work to influence a student's grade.  For example, you might require 5 "checks" of extra credit to get 1% added to a student's final grade or 10 "checks" to earn 2%.

Also, I set a limit on the amount of work that I will "count".  Students may do as much as they want, and I will accept it.  However,  I remind them that the purpose of extra credit is to help them if they have a borderline grade, such as a B+, and really want to earn an A-.  If they want to raise their grade beyond that, they need to be putting more time into their studies, not doing more extra credit.  This doesn't always make them happy as some students would gladly do 20 or more extra credits, but not complete daily assignments.

An additional perk to this "No Hassle Extra Credit" system is that students can never say that they have nothing to do!  You won't be scrambling for something to keep those early finishers busy while other students are pleading for your help.

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