What's the correct unit for homework?

Question

Consider the case when a teacher has thirty students in the class. The noun "homework" is uncountable so he cannot say "I have thirty homeworks to grade every week." My question is that if there is any unit of homework so that the sentence "I have thirty (units) of homework to grade every week" can be valid?

Edit:

1. After reading the replies, I think I should make the situation more clear. I myself am a math TA. What our students need to do for homework is usually about ten exercises from the textbook. I feel if I ask another TA how much homework he needs to grade, the usual reply will be like, "I have two sections, fifteen students each, and we have one assignment every week." Since the amount of exercises is usually the same, we don't really care about it. The amount of homework to grade mainly depends on how many students we have. But I always feel this kind of reply to be very indirect. So my precisely question is if there is any way to reply the question "how much homework do you need to grade?" by saying "I need to grade thirty (units) homework every week."
2. Based on what I see from the replies, I have the impression that different countries have different answers for this question. Is this true? I'm on the west coast of the US so the way in which people there answer this question is what I care about the most. But I'm still interested in knowing the difference.

Answer 1

In your example, you could use pieces, as in I have thirty pieces of homework to grade every week.

piece noun [ C ] (THING)
a single object of a particular type:
a piece of furniture/clothing/equipment
a piece of paper (= a whole sheet)
a piece of china (= an object made of china)
a piece of information/advice
(Cambridge Dictionary)

However, that doesn't seem particularly idiomatic to me. You could use assignments, as in homework assignments:

assignment
noun [ C/U ]
us ​ /əˈsɑɪn·mənt/
a particular job or responsibility given to you:
[C] The homework assignment was to read Chapter 2 in our history book.
(Cambridge Dictionary)

However, in my experience, it's more common to use the type of assignment instead of homework. I think the most broad term is assignment, but you could be more specific:
I have 30 ______ to grade every week.

• assignments
• papers
• essays
• worksheets
• modules
• warm-ups
• tests
• quizzes
• etc.

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Edit:

I was very briefly a grader (or, "reader") in a related field. I can't remember exactly how I talked about it, but if someone asked me, "How much homework do you need to grade?", I would probably reply

I need to grade thirty [assignments] every week.

You could also say sets (as others have mentioned), or even submissions (more generic). I'm thinking maybe even "papers", but that's usually used with reports or essay-like works.

I don't think I would have responded in the form you supplied, "I need to grade thirty (units) homework every week." But, that's just my personal feeling of it. You can still use pieces, as mentioned earlier. It may or may not sound slightly strange to the listener, but you will be understood.

To my surprise, BrE users are reporting that pieces of homework is idiomatic to them. I did a little Ngram search, and it appears that the phrase is more common in BrE.

I'm from the West Coast (US).

Answer 2

You are given homework assignments:

[Merriam-Webster]

2 b : a specified task or amount of work assigned or undertaken as if assigned by authority • a homework assignment

The students were given a homework assignment.

Answer 3

You pick a different noun that is more flexible yet appropriate.

I have thirty reports to grade. I have thirty assignments to mark.

Answer 4

You're asking about the teacher's workload in evaluating the homework that has been returned.

I think the word 'sets' is what you're looking for.

I have 30 sets of math homework to grade, and I still have 8 sets of geography homework from yesterday that I'm not done with.

set (MW, noun definition 2)

a number of things of the same kind that belong or are used together

Answer 5

The dictionaries don't seem to have caught up yet but, as somebody who regularly sets and marks homework in a university in the UK, I would quite happily refer to "marking 30 homeworks". A comment on another answer says that this is also used in the US.

So, at least for informal use, I think it's fine to use homework as a countable noun and pluralize it. If you wanted to be more formal, I'd go with my usual cowardly solution of rewording to avoid the problem: "I have to grade 30 students' homework" or "I have to grade homework for 30 students."

Answer 6

I suggest you use the word exercise. It's one of the most frequently used words in this meaning(=homework) & it's countable too.

Well, there are other simple ways:

For homework, you're going to finish thirty exercises every week.

In other words:

Do Exercises 3, 4, 5 etc on pages 51, 52, 53 etc for homework.

If you are student you can say:

My science teacher always sets a lot of homework.

The teacher told us to do thirty exercises for homework.

If you are teacher you can also say:

For homework I want you to do thirty exercises.

Answer 7

I'd quantify it by the amount of students whose homework you have to grade.

"I have homework of 30 students to grade this weekend"

Answer 8

At MIT, most courses assign homework in "problem sets".

A typical engineering student has to do four problem sets per week: one for each course that he or she is enrolled in.

A typical TA (Teaching Assistant) has to grade dozens of problem sets per week: one for each student in his (or rarely her) recitation section(s).

A typical problem set consists of several problems.

Some courses (especially in Technical Writing and the Humanities) require students to write weekly essays, instead of solve weekly problem sets.

Answer 9

'30 sets of homework' perhaps.

But 'I've got 30 homeworks to mark' doesn't sound wrong.