#10: The Purpose of Homework

The reason for this ongoing homework assignment is that reading is an essential vehicle that raises all of their academic skills.  It increases their vocabulary, which is inherently deficient compared to native English-speaking peers; it strengthens their ability to decode automatically and read fluently, and this leads to increased comprehension and critical thinking skills.   The improved thinking that results from reading helps them to succeed across all of their subject areas.  By reading content of their choice, and finding pleasure in reading, they then recognize the intrinsic value of reading.   As a result, when reading becomes something that provides intrinsic rewards, it is less of a chore to do the required reading in any content area, and the students become accountable for their own assigned reading and learning in all subjects.  This is an invaluable long-term result of assigning 20 minutes of reading per night as homework.

 The guidelines that I follow in assigning and grading homework are:

1.                    Meaningful homework always re-visits skills or new information that they have already learned in the classroom.  Before having homework on a topic, in class we: build background on the topic through discussion; learn and practice the topic through listening, speaking, reading and writing; and I informally assess their understanding of the topic through observation.  If the students do not have a grasp of a topic before leaving the classroom, then I will wait and re-visit it in one more lesson before assigning it as homework.  This is because meaningful homework always reinforces and offers practice of new skills.  It should not lead to frustration or make students feel incapable of practicing a skill correctly.

2.                    Along with reinforcing and practicing new skills, my homework objectives are that students: 

a.    Use it as an opportunity to solidify the skills they learned in class that day.

b.    Come up with new questions as they do the homework that serve as discussion points in class the following day.  Not understanding becomes a way to ask questions and extend learning on the topic.

c.     Become more confident in their ability to independently do a skill as a result of completing a homework assignment, since it takes at least 24 practices to become 80% proficient in a skill (Hill, 86).  A homework assignment should be comprehensible so that a student completes it with a sense of confidence in their ability to independently do the learned skill.

3.                    I provide feedback for homework in two ways:

• First, I spend each Monday conferencing with each student individually for 3-5 minutes on their overall progress in ELL and in core classes.  At this time, I ask them how their nightly reading is going, look at reading logs and provide them with new ones if necessary.  I also try to give specific comments on how they do on core and ELL assignments.  This shows them that they do not just get a number on a paper, but that the teachers really think about and value what a student produces when they do assignments at home.

• The second way that I provide feedback is online.   Our school uses a district-wide Schoology subscription as a way to give and turn in assignments, chat about classes, and post grades.  It is a mixture between Regis’s World Class and Facebook for middle and high school.  On Schoology, my students submit homework as Word documents in a dropbox.  I grade them and leave comments on them and return them to each student through their personal account.  Their iPad notifies them when an assignment is graded, and they can look at it and ask questions if necessary during the next pullout lesson.  This way, students are informed of their grades and comments as soon as I submit them, with no papers to get “lost” in a pile or in a locker before being turned in or graded.  It is a system that takes some getting used to at first, but I like it because of fewer papers/ less waste.  Students like the technology component because of the control that they have over submitting assignments. And, they like to see grades and teachers comments without waiting an entire week to discuss a paper assignment after it has been returned to them.