No More Homework, Mr. H: round three.

7/11/2011

Eschool News Reports

This blog will refer to these other blogs: http://www.teachersfortomorrow.net/1/category/homework/1.html

Mike and I have talked about not giving homework during this last school year many times. It all began in Sept of 2010, when we first brought up the craziness of homework. It stemmed from the idea that students would do poorly in class by not doing homework and the homework had no real bearing on the content they were learning. To make matters more difficult, we would hear the stories of what some students lives were like at home; and frankly how they could not do homework while caring for younger brothers or sisters, making meals, all the sports, theater, etc... Kids don't have time to be kids. I buy that. I watched my own kids face this. My oldest daughter was in the theater this last year. She had a key part and loved to "act". This was big, but so was softball and school. She would go to play practice from 4:00-6:30 and then head to softball, usually eating in the car, (two days a week) from 7:00-8:30. Then get home about 8:45-50 and she needs to be up to get on the bus at 7:10. Homework was not our friend during this time.

Mike went to a no homework policy and I went to homework once in a while. However, both of our homework was not the normal, "read pages 345-351 and answer these questions." No, we thought about what we really wanted kids to learn and asked the WONDERING type of questions. The type of questions with no real answer, but made my students think and wonder about the world around them or the content they were learning and how that content applied to the world around them. Or we gave them mini lectures (flipped teaching) to listen to outside of class, so that class-time would be used for work, not listening to me or Mike talk about information.

In today's world, I just think we have to rethink our homework policy and grading system to better reflect this world. It looks as if L.A. Schools did just that, Check out this link: http://is.gd/0nD6Tn. I want to thank markbarnes19 and mgerbrick on twitter for sending me this link. Thanks for sharing.

It is time for you to rethink your homework policy?
Garth

6 Comments

Amy Hollingsworth link

7/12/2011 05:13:19 am

I'm not sure if it was you I was talking about this with, but I love the idea of flip teaching, where the students watch their "lecture" as a podcast, youtube video, Khan Academy video, or similar on their own time - and then you can spend class time doing fun projects, hands on labs, or class discussions. Does it still count as "homework" if it's watching a video?

I'm brainstorming ideas for my Natural Science Biology Lecture for the Fall. I teach the class three days - MWF - but I would like to make Friday a "Work from Anywhere" Day. So Monday and Wednesday we do our classroom stuff, but on Friday, they watch a series of videos on their own time, do a webquest, or participate in a chat group. Something techie and fun and not sitting in a room with 170 bored freshmen.

Marissa link

7/13/2011 11:43:18 am

I think what you are saying is definitely true--but it gets complicated. Right now, I am teaching English Composition courses where the focus is on assisting students in becoming better writers. Per university and department policies, I have to have my students write papers--20 pages in the 111 course. English 111 isn't held in a computer lab, so not assigning homework of writing papers isn't an option for me. However, I limit the assignments I give them outside of class--especially during the last half of the course as we are really focused on writing papers then. I have a lot of students who work nights or in between classes and who have children and other demands that really make it difficult for them to complete work outside of the classroom.

I think that giving students blogs to write versus the papers could serve as a great alternative in that it would feel like less work to them, but I have a lot of students who don't have access to computers regularly either.

Unfortunately, giving and not giving homework in my situation seems to be lose-lose. I'm definitely going to see what I can do to make my course more interesting to them, though, come fall semester.

Garth

7/13/2011 01:55:43 pm

Love the Friday work for anywhere day. I call it google Friday (I will try this this year..do a post on it soon). Marissa, I do not think this idea should apply to college students and maybe even not 11-12 graders (have to think about that). College student should expect and need work outside of the classroom. I don't have any problem with that.

Kersten Swartz

7/17/2011 10:53:58 am

As a mother of three young children, I can say that sometimes I am overwhelmed by the length/amount of homework my kids are expected to finish in one night. After 2 hours I generally tell them they are done. 6 1/2 hours of school and 2 hours of homework are more than enough for a fifth grader- a little excessive even.

As an up and coming teacher, I am torn on this subject. I spent last semester in two different schools, the first had a no homework policy for the class I was in and the second school had an expected homework policy. The first school had poor passing rates for the OGT and the second school had all students pass with flying colors. I think having expectations of students, increases the amount of time and effort they are willing to put into school work. I do not think homework should account for more than 10% of the grade(similar to California schools) but I think a standard of expectation needs to be set- especially for high school students. I do like the idea of flip teaching, which would allow students to watch the lecture/ introduction to the material prior to class time. This would allow for more interactive lessoning during the in-class sessions.

Kristen

7/20/2011 09:14:41 pm

While I like the idea of having class focus on more engaging and hands-on lessons doing away completely with homework may be difficult. I have been substitute teaching in many classes where there is a no homework policy, but classes aren't engaging either and I have to wonder how much these students are really learning. I hope to teach high school English and I think homework will be necessary. Students,especially college-prep students need to be prepared for what is awaiting them. If homework can be of the "wondering-type" questions I think it can be a useful addition to classroom lessons.

John

7/21/2011 01:08:10 am

I agree that homework policies need to change. It is difficult for me, coming from a Language Arts position, to say that homework should be eliminated though. I realize educators argue this debate from three positions, the two I mentioned already, and for homework to stay the way it has been since the public school system began. I believe homework should always have a purpose and that purpose should not be to keep students busy or to give teachers something to grade. The purpose should be to expand learning and monitor learning. Activating higher level thinking skills by having students consider the greater impact of the content on the world around them sounds like a good place to start.

No More Homework, Mr. H: round three.

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