Assignment #5: Complete the 4 part assignment format as you read, reflect, and respond to Chapter 5 – Homework and Practice.
Don't forget to comment on each others' thoughts and reactions :)
Remember: Although your course packet asks you to post to blog for parts A, B, C, and D…we are asking that you only post part C and D. We’re trying to make the blog easier to read and more user- friendly. Thanks!
A. Self Assessment of Current Beliefs and Practices: This component asks you to reflect on how and why you currently use the instructional strategies of Homework and Practice in your classroom. The intent of this is to activate your prior knowledge of your strategy use so that you can make comparisons as you read the chapter. Below are the questions to help you complete your self-assessment. After completing your self assessment please post a thought or two as a comment (click on comment link below) to this posting labeled Week Five: Homework and Practice.
• Think about the kinds of homework you assign to your students and what some of the purposes of those assignments might be.
• Do you have questions about using homework?
• How do you decide which skills students need to practice a great deal and which skills they can just have a basic proficiency in?
• What makes skill practice effective?
B. Read & Reflect “Research & Theory”: This portion of the assignment asks you to read chapter 5 and reflect briefly on your thinking after reading the “Research and Theory” section for both homework and practice. You may want to think and respond to one of the bulleted thoughts below. After completing your chapter reflection, please post it as a comment (click on comment link below) in the posting labeled Week Five: Homework and Practice.
• Reviewing the research on homework emphasizes the importance of commenting on students' homework assignments. What strategies would your recommend to a teacher who wants to assign homework but claims that it is logistically impossible to comment on students' work?
• The research described in this chapter suggests that, especially for older students, homework seems to be positively correlated with student achievement. Even when some parents who are opposed to homework become aware of this research, they express strong negative feelings about homework. What do you think are some of the reasons for these feelings?
C. Practice: Choose one of the specific “classroom practice” strategies or techniques shared in this chapter to teach to your students (If you are not currently teaching, you may share how you would use this strategy in your classroom). Please post a brief reflection of how this went to the posting labeled Week Five: Homework and Practice. Click on the “comment” link below..
D. Final Strategy Reflection: Use the following sequence of questions/promps to reflect on what you’ve learned about both the strategies presented in the chapter and what you’ve learned about yourself as both a teacher and a learner. Please post your brief reflection to the posting labeled Week Five: Homework and Practice by clicking on the “comment” link below.
How has the information you read in this chapter on homework and practice effected your thinking about teaching and learning? What have you learned about yourself as a teacher and learner? Use the following questions to assist you in writing a brief strategy reflection:
• How might I change how use both homework and practice in my classroom?
• What is something you now understand better about homework or practice?
8 comments:
Assignment 5:
C.
As a specialist in elementary school I don’t really add homework to my students’ weekly/nightly load. I don’t believe in giving homework just to give homework and the homework I do give has a specific English language goal for the students. My normal ‘homework’ is just things I ask my student to remember to do such as read every night and practice speaking English with someone. Often my students only use Spanish in their homes (or Russian). I make sure to check in with them to see who they are speaking to in English. Even if it was just to name things around the house (which is an area that is surprisingly lacking in my ELL’s vocabulary). If we are learning about a specific topic (such as clothes) to improve on a function of English I will ask students to use that specific language at home with someone. I also make sure to check in at least once a week to see who they are reading with/to and how it’s going. Even though I don’t teach reading I like my students to see that it is important in all aspects of school and life.
So the much shorter version is that I don’t give traditional homework. However, if I did I would really look at the classroom practice of varying the approach to providing feedback. I would work hard to provide specific written and verbal comments that address not only how well the student did but look at the effort that it took to do a specific assignment. I would also have students do occasional self-assessments and then meet with them to see how they think they are doing and how that compares to how I think they are doing. If the perspectives are vastly apart it would help to find that out and see what we can do to find a common goal and then explicitly explain what is expected of them to meet that goal.
D.
While the information on homework was basically what I expected it to be the one thing that I didn’t fully agree with were the comments about parental involvement. I fully agree that parents shouldn’t do the work for the children or even coach them too much toward the correct answer but I think the paragraph could have been written more clearly to describe the ‘help’ parents can give that make homework more effective. If parents understand how to re-teach the problem and maybe do one as an example with the student I think that would be better than not helping the student at all. Also, as I think about it I would encourage teachers to take the extra time and send homework instructions home in English and Spanish (or other languages that are spoken in the classroom). Then all parents are able to understand how to help, and how much to help.
I was surprised to read how much practice is needed before students were able to demonstrate even 80-percent competency with a skill. I will definitely be looking at how often we practice the skills that we need. Also, because so much time is needed to gain competency I will look at prioritizing the skills I teach so that I can make sure my students are able to practice enough to achieve competency and not just try to teach as much as I can knowing now that they are not fully understanding and retaining the knowledge.
I’m really not too sure what I could change about how I use homework in my classroom. I still feel that as an elementary specialist the students are getting enough homework in their classroom and I don’t want to overload them. I would maybe create a check in sheet so my students could see that I am checking in with them to see if they’ve spoken English with someone outside of school and what they talked about. It would show the specific topic if I asked them to discuss one.
C.
I really liked reading the example on page 64-65 of a homework policy letter to be sent home with students during the first week of school. I have a similar one I send home that is more age appropriate for middle school students, but it shows I need to alter mine and make it more informational and helpful to families. I admit that my letter focuses too much on the negatives of not doing the assigned homework (late policy) instead of advice and suggestions to help make the process work better for the student and family. With PBIS, we are reminded to be more positive with students in all areas and we will be more likely to see more positive behavior and productivity.
Our school district is requiring its’ teachers to take part in Data teams focusing on testing effective teaching strategies. One of the strategies I have used predominately is Homework and Practice. It really has worked well with student learning and the data collected has proven just that. The more students are focusing on practicing what they have learned, the better the numbers in academic gains and student engagement with the material and lessons. Most students like to be acknowledged positively for their accomplishments and I see an increase in scores as being rewarding and exciting for most students. The key, in my opinion, is in making the homework and practice fun.
D.
Reading this chapter and looking at all the data reminded me that homework and practice is necessary for students to master a concept or topic, but too much diminishes the results over time. It‘s almost like however, that too much of a good thing loses its value if over used. I can see a lot of practice being useful when teaching math, but not necessarily in social studies. Recently, my students were expected to learn major mountain ranges, rivers and deserts of the world. One strategy I used everyday was practice, practice and practice. It really worked, but it had to be meaningful to the students. I came up with some fun facts about some of the more difficult names and we practiced them together every day. The students’ post-tests were so much better than their pre-tests. I definitely have been affirmed that continuous practice over a concept or difficult name and/or vocabulary can work incredibly well. Students can learn together as a group and/or at home with independent homework. I will continue to assign homework, but I will make sure it is meaningful to the students and (hopefully) fun. Fun works!
Assignment #5: Homework and Practice
C. Like other specialists I don’t really give homework to the students I see. As the reading specialist I help facilitate the Read At Home activities and goals, so in a way I’m helping to encourage reading practice at home, but the actual student management of it is done by the classroom teachers. I have also given extra reading slips before to let students earn extra points by turning in reading minutes, but this depends on how established the students are as readers, so it is indeed extra practice, and not students that need more guidance than that. This topic though was a huge one in our building a few years ago because of this chapter. Once “homework” was brought up we realized our teachers and grade levels were very inconsistent school wide. We decided to create a homework “scope and sequence” like you would for any other subject area. We used the guidelines suggested by the researchers-10 min multiplied by the grade level, and all sent home some sort of communication to parents about how the homework folder would be used each week and/or day, etc. We also agreed to only send home work that was actually “extra practice” and not something that the student still needed direct instruction from the teacher on. We decided to keep reading, math, and spelling included in the homework. Spelling was definitely under scrutiny for its effectiveness, but we decided it could help students with the fundamentals of phonics, and it was something that all parents seemed to feel good about helping with. It was an easy concept and one that they also grew up doing—so it was a solid foundation for homework.
D. It was good to revisit this chapter. As I mentioned in part C our staff only studied this chapter when it was provided to us as a way to better our “homework” practices. We had frustrated parents with multiple students in the school and an inconsistent amount of homework between children—often the younger siblings were required to do more homework every night than the older ones. We also wanted to piggyback a training we had on poverty and its effects on children and school. We were asked to consider our students home lives and how well they are or are not supported academically at home prior to assigning homework and penalizing them when it didn’t get completed or turned in. We set up a homework club in our school that gave some students time during the school day to get their homework done. These students are nominated by their teachers and get parent permission to attend. Some students attend for 30 min after school instead. These students also get parent permission, but need to be picked up because the buses are already doing afternoon drops. Transportation needs determine which students do which session. We also take into consideration a students’ home language before they are provided with homework. We have parents that either cannot read, or read in English, and cannot offer support for some skills. Information is sent home in Spanish on subject areas when it is applicable, but we try to know our families well enough to make sure everything going home can be addressed at home, either by the student independently, a sibling, a parent, etc. If it cannot then it doesn’t go home.
C. Establishing and communicating a homework policy is strategy that I have used in my class. At the beginning of the year a note went home explaining the pattern of homework. It was clearly stated that it is for practice purposes only and should need minimal help from the parent. Then, again, at open house I handed out a sample of a weekly homework assignment. The parents were told how the students would be graded (participation, neatness and correct answers) and that it would be recorded on the report card (as a combined score). Later in the year, the homework for the week was added to our class website. The students and/or parents were able to download extra copies and see when the homework was due. Because of our schedule, the homework for the week was always due on Friday. Many parents communicated that they appreciated this as family life with extracurricular activities can be quite busy for parents and children. This allowed for students to skip a night of homework if they were too busy, sick, not home etc… I always encouraged them to do a little each night and not put everything off until Thursday. The homework was then corrected quickly with each child one on one every Friday, stapled and returned to parents. Although this took some time each Friday, the immediate one on one feedback was extremely valuable for each student. For the most part the homework was always math practice or spelling practice or reading practice. When the homework was reading, a book was provided for those that did not have access at home to books at their level. There were also times when we simply “took a break” for a week yet gave the students materials to read at home for extra practice.
D. Our entire school had to read this chapter a few years ago. It was good for me to reread it and review many of the points made. In reading this chapter I realized that I would like to add more self-assessment in their homework, limit the amount and not make it so routine. However, in doing this, parents often ask for and appreciate the routine as well as many of our students who need the structure. Now that our school is consistently analyzing data, creating rubrics and creating common formative assessments, I see even more value in the students self –reflecting and assessing their work and/or homework. I am considering a complete overhaul for next year, but I am not sure what grade I will be teaching so this chapter will be one I refer back to soon! I also am reminded (not really a new understanding) of how critical varied feedback is to the success of homework. This is the area I would especially like to improve on depending on the grade level I teach next year.
. Another thing we have done this year as far as providing practice goes is have students make flashcards of all the different math vocabulary terms. Geometry has soooo much vocabulary that students need to understand, especially since we have OAKS testing. We had kids practice these flashcards on their own, partner up and quiz each other, try to match them up like a game, and take them home to share with their parents. It’s another way to practice all of the information they are learning, the
Sorry, above post was only partial. Here is the whole thing.
C. We read this chapter as a school a couple of years ago. We talked at that time about the amount of homework that we should give in relation to the child’s grade. In third grade, we ask our students to complete about thirty minutes of homework a night. Our students are given spelling and reading homework four nights a week. We ask them to read fifteen to twenty minutes each night and do one spelling activity each night. Books are often assigned to students that are at their reading level and spelling practice is explained each night to make sure they understand the assignment. Sometimes we give a math assignment as well, such as math fact practice or skill work based on the topic (i.e. geometry or fractions). All of the work is due on Friday, giving the student the whole week to work on it at their own pace. If students didn’t get it done or didn’t understand the assignment, then we would talk about it and they have some class time to work on it that day. We realize that students all have different home lives and modifications are made as necessary: some students have the option of going to homework club after school, some students receive help from an adult volunteer during the day, and 4th and 5th grade has study hall during lunch time. The purpose of the homework is to practice and if they are not able to do so at home, then we find the time for them to do so at school. Another thing we have done this year as far as providing practice goes is have students make flashcards of all the different math vocabulary terms. Geometry has soooo much vocabulary that students need to understand, especially since we have OAKS testing. We had kids practice these flashcards on their own, partner up and quiz each other, try to match them up like a game, and take them home to share with their parents. It’s another way to practice all of the information they are learning, the
D. It was good to go back and review this chapter again. It was a good reminder that homework should be practice time and something students are able to do on their own. One piece of this chapter that I would like to add into my communication of homework are the ideas listed in the example on page 65 (i.e., a consistent place for homework, a consistent schedule, etc.). Currently, I have the homework assignment posted on my class webpage for parents to see, but I think this additional information is nice and lets parents understand the purpose of the homework.
Hi Kelsey,
You make a good point about the section discussing parental involvement with homework. I think you are right that it could be written better. I agree that as a specialist that you don’t want to overwhelm the students with more homework. Your decision to stress the importance of reading and practicing English is a strong supplement to the students’ educational process.
I also was surprised to learn how often students need to practice skills in order to demonstrate independent proficiency. I found the section a good reminder to really be intentional and consider which skills I am satisfied with just introducing and which skills I expect mastery.
Hi Therese!
I found the example homework letter useful and immediately saw that I could improve my own letter by adding a section for the purpose of the assignment. I also thought it might be useful to have a section where parents could write a note about how the homework process went at home or if they have any questions. (Though with email, many parents may already just send a note to the teacher without needing the form. But not all families have access to email, so it could serve a purpose.)
Making the work as fun and as meaningful as possible are great ways to get students to buy in and participate. Often we are in such a rush to cover content that we let our “fun” activities go by the wayside. Great reminders.
Hello Molly,
How great that your building had a school-wide discussion on homework and was able to develop a common practice around homework. The points your staff considered are all excellent ones for teachers to keep in mind: Parents with siblings in the same building, the home lives of the students and supports they do or do not receive, the literacy skill of caregivers and primary language spoken at home, whether or not to penalize students for not bringing incomplete or incorrect homework, etc… Homework clubs are a good solution for students who need additional academic support they cannot receive at home; though as you pointed out transportation and funding can be issues for after-school programs.
Sending assignments and notices in a predominant language is a wonderful practice to utilize, though it is not possible at all schools. My last school had a large number of New Comers to the United States and our students spoke about 30 different languages. Translations were available for some district forms for the common languages but not for all. Reaching out to parents/caregivers is an area of concern for many school districts currently.
Hi Christi and Renee!
As a working parent of a Kindergartener and Preschooler I have a whole new appreciation for the assignment of homework. Personally, this year, I’m finding the required homework that my son needs to complete for Kindergarten a lot of busy work. Luckily it’s only due on Fridays and really easy to complete, but it still can be stressful when we realize that somehow it’s Thursday and we haven’t completed the homework packet. I would much rather have meaningful assignments given instead of the never-ending worksheets we receive. But this is through my lens as a parent. ☺ Though when I teach in the classroom, I don’t like to assign busy work for homework and I certainly do not like spending my time “grading” busy work.
Renee,
I am glad to hear that your school makes the time to support the students who don’t/can’t complete their homework either during the day or after-school. Instead of complaining about the situation it sounds like your school comes up with solutions.
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