Homework – that dreaded word….. Is it important? Is it useless? I’ve always felt that homework was an integral part of the a child’s education. I still do. After seeing this article published by Edutopia (Homework vs. No Homework Is The Wrong Question), I’ve grown ever more confident of my opinion.
When I was able to teach English for 90 minutes a day, I didn’t stress much over homework. For me it’s always been some form of independent reading, reading comprehension practice, and vocabulary practice. When I moved to a new school and I only had 60 minutes (if I’m lucky), I began to depend heavily on homework to make sure that we are able to cover everything.
I love how the author of the Edutopia article asks, “What do we believe should happen after the end of the school day to help ensure that students retain what they have learned and are primed to learn more?” How many of us have seen the image below?
Credit: Nagy, W. E., R. C. Anderson, and P. A. Herman. 1987. Learning word meanings from context during normal reading. American Educational Research Journal 24: 237–70.
I just don’t have the minutes during my class time, so it becomes a staple of my homework.
My homework definitely varies. In the beginning of the school year, students had two days of basal reading and two days of independent reading. But, it was really difficult the next day in class when students hadn’t read the text! After a few weeks of seeing my students struggle with the reading, I began creating videos of the reading to assist them. Most of my videos are done in class, and the homework is an extension of the concept.
About halfway through, I changed it up…..again! Ss would read, listen to, or watch the text video in class on Monday (first read) and then they watch the “concept” video at home. That worked a whole lot better, because they’d get a “second read” in class and then we could discuss it, because I knew EVERYONE had had at least one read.
With vocabulary I began alternating roots and affixes with vocabulary units that would help improve students written vocabulary (a way to improve the “voice” in their writing). The first few weeks, most of the kids were bombing the test! So I began adding a vocabulary homework component – just a way for them to practice. It helped…..scores drastically improved!
In addition to assigned homework, other activities are totally optional. I just provide incentives for those students who complete them. What they are able to come to terms with themselves is that if they take the initiative to do the work, they see an improvement in their grades which makes them more likely to continue to do them.
I do like this question that the author’s poses, “Maybe what we need is a new word for all this. Instead of “homework,” how about “continued learning” or “ongoing growth activities?” I’m going to try it out next week (no homework this week because of standardized testing) and let you know how it goes!
Until the next time,
Just that word “homework” can evoke strong emotions – you nailed it! I love the idea of extending the learning beyond the school day. What if we just asked ONE homework question every night: “How does what you learned today connect to other courses or lessons?” I would hate to be dictated to by my school – either NO HW Policy or a Mandatory HW Policy – because not every kid needs the same thing from us. I like to be free to respond to the needs of my learners. It sounds like you are actively doing the same – responding to their needs, meeting them where they are, and growing them from there.
Thanks for your insights!
JMaze
Just that word “homework” can evoke strong emotions – you nailed it! I love the idea of extending the learning beyond the school day.
I would hate to be dictated to by my school – either NO HW Policy or a Mandatory HW Policy – because not every kid needs the same thing from us. I like to be free to respond to the needs of my learners. It sounds like you are actively doing the same – responding to their needs, meeting them where they are, and growing them from there.
Thanks for your insights!
JMaze
I have very mixed feelings about doing something that is school / class specific (as opposed to calling it homework) outside of school. I am very much in favor of the idea of us being learners all day long, but what does that mean and what should that look like? I really like how this article emphasized the importance of making sure that the work that is assigned is for retention or priming, and thus is meaningful; HOWEVER, I even have mixed feelings about assigning that type of work – here is the struggle in my head…
On the one hand, I think we need to encourage the process of being a lifelong learner – that learning does take place outside of the school, and let’s face it, if we teachers don’t encourage it, often this idea will never be fostered in kids. It is clearly important that we pick the right way to do that (25 extra math problems is not the way to foster life long learners).
On the other hand, I don’t believe it is the school’s right or responsibility to invade my home and take away from what I might be interested in doing with my children. The problem is 1) poor parenting and 2) standardized testing have driven us to think that it is our job as teachers to dictate what they need to do outside of class to help them. As the parent of a child with special needs, she loses 9 hours a week that other children have. For example, “typically developing” children get out of school, go run wild for a few hours (maybe after school sport, activity, little basketball in the driveway, or maybe just get some much needed downtime that they aren’t allowed to have in school anymore). Afterwards, those children can focus back on some work before / after dinner. But our child has 3 hours of therapy on MWFs, then eats dinner, and then has to rush through homework (usually worksheets), so she can get showered and ready for bed in just enough time that she can have about 20 minutes of “downtime” before bed. Her therapy is usually pretty intensive work for her, so truly, our daughter is hard at WORK from 7:30 until 5:00 at least 3 days a week. Then some teacher has the nerve to make her work MORE??? No thank you! 😉 So while we are able to get it done, she is missing out on a lot of her childhood that other kids get. That 30 min – hour of mindless worksheets could be better spent with me taking her for a walk on the rail trail and looking at bugs, riding our bikes around the neighborhood, playing a board game, or any other interactive activity where I get to dictate the learning. We always include 20-30 minutes of reading to our kids everyday too, they do their own reading time on top of that. So for our daughter, assignments outside of the classroom are a rather unwelcome addition to our house.
…rant over. Sorry about that. But like the article said, people are passionate about it!