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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 D to the blog (especially since it's summer term and many of us aren't working with students). We’re also trying to make the blog more user-friendly and easier to read. 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?
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21 comments:
#5
I feel pretty good about having a routine for homework in place (most especially math and RN) but I see now I am not utilizing it to its full advantage. We do make sure the work is something the students are familiar with before sending it home. We often add notes for parents of specific students, asking for feedback if we have concerns about the difficulty, etc. My IA keeps track of the homework but neither of us makes comments on it. It usually isn’t returned to the student unless there is something to correct on it. The research on this really drove the “importance of comments” point home. In the future, my IA and I will make some time to write comments and return the work to the students. I can also tweek a “suggested homework” packet I created when I first started teaching. I outline various tasks (writing a shopping list, reading the signs in stores, making change, etc.) that their student can do to increase their daily life skills. I have not however expected them to specifically do any of it, it was more of an idea packet for the parents. Assigning tasks from something I have already created will save time and make better use of it as a resource.
This leads me to the sticky problem of parental involvement. Often it seems the parents of my students either don’t help their students at all (especially if it involves their participation) or they do too much or let a sibling do the homework for them. I don’t have many in the middle.. So,I am going to start outlining a homework instruction packet, as they suggest, with do’s and don’ts and specific instructions. With that in place, and signed and being used, I can test the waters on having parents do some timings at home, etc. for math and reading practice. Specifically regarding practice, I have tried on numerous occasions to set up weekly math timing for basic adding, subtracting, etc. but somehow it always gets left out of the schedule. I will start writing it in our weekly plans ahead of time (MY homework!), to make sure we get to it. This chapter reminds me how motivating timing/charts and graphs can be (we use them in RN daily). Lots of ideas from this chapter, I am anxious to try them out.
Robin Rose
Assignment #5
Marzano Class
Erinn Carrillo
Assignment # 5
Homework
Homework was a very big issue and quite a controversy in my building a few years ago. As a staff, we struggled to come up with a policy that would be consistent across grade levels and throughout the school, so that families knew what to expect. That was 3 principals and a staff turnover of about 70%, so our homework policy, expectations, etc. have changed over time.
When we came up with a ‘policy,’ we all believed that it was important to give homework at all grade levels and to give homework as practice of previously learned skills. Additionally, all students would be required to do a reading log.
Currently our building does not have a policy in place. Most teachers do a variation of a reading log and send homework for varying purposes. The ELL department does not regularly assign homework to our students, as they have classroom homework assignments.
I like the idea of coming up with a more current policy and clearly articulate the purpose/outcome to families. As a parent of elementary students, it is helpful to know the goal of the homework and how it will be used in assessing my children.
The piece of the chapter that was shocking to me was the fact that homework should be commented on if assigned. I don’t believe that I commented on the homework I assigned to my fourth grade students in the past. I would keep track of its completion, but would rarely write comments or revisit assignments for further understanding. I would give long projects that students would complete, and would grade those. The weekly math assignments were only looked at and checked off.
I was shocked at the quote that ‘… homework on which the teacher provides written comments for students has an effect size of .83, representing a percentile gain of 30 points.’ (p. 64) in my building, we need to use our homework for a different purpose and need to use it to help the students in their learning gains overall.
Also interesting was the amount of practice it takes students to learn/master a new skill. The example of Japanese students shaping the practice of their students by slowly teaching a few math problems in depth hit home. We hurry and cram information in to our students in hopes that they will learn it and meet standards. If we slowed down, explained in depth and practiced in a focused manner, our standards may be met more easily.
@Robin
In my school, we have very few parents who are available to help their children with homework or who have English skills to assist the kids. We now have a SUN afterschool program that helps students to complete assignments, yet with varying policies, expectations…it is difficult for our instructors to enforce homework time, facilitate reading time, etc. Any thoughts on that? I guess a schoolwide policy translated in MANY languages and for our afterschool staff would be best. Anyone else have some ideas?
Robin--I enjoyed your reflection. We also have an after school homework club 2 days a week at my school. I had students work together on their spelling words during that time (they could practice the words with each other and the aide in the room could sign off on it). Also, could students partner read books during your SUN program for their reading logs so that they were reading and getting fluency practice? The minutes could count for both of them if they were reading together and then it wouldn't have to be "silent" with an aide helping other students on math, writing, etc. All the aides in the room would have to do is "sign off" on the log. Older kids could even read to younger kids, which they often love to do. Just an idea...
Assignment #5: Homework and Practice
Marika Conrad
Homework. It’s a hot topic amongst teachers and families alike. This chapter affirmed to me that we are doing some things right in this department! Our grade level created a 5th Grade Expectations packet that outlines attendance, planners, homework, etc. and is signed by both parents and students. One of the first assignments students do is complete a homework planning sheet that has students list activities and chores at home, where they will do their homework, store their supplies, etc. This is also signed by both the parent and the student. I also list my homework assignments and due dates in my weekly newsletter. On the communication end, I feel we do a nice job.
I have always graded the homework I’ve assigned to students because I feel like if I assign students something to do, I should provide feedback. It has meant COUNTLESS hours grading papers in the evenings and on weekends. With over 30 students in my classroom this next year, I am going to have to modify some things and hope that I have parents who want to help—both at school and at home. Our school board has set the homework time for our grade level to 60 minutes a day, 4 days a week. Most of the homework assigned at my grade level is reading—30 minutes a night, 4 nights a week (or 120 minutes sometime during the week). The rest is math, spelling practice, and a smattering of reading comprehension, writing, social studies, and science.
Half of our assigned homework is reading, yet many students didn’t turn in their monthly reading calendars this year. One way we are going to try and solve that problem this next year is go back to a weekly reading log that also includes fluency practice. I’m excited to use this system again and it will help me support my students who aren’t taking charge of their reading sooner rather than later. I can also see what students are reading more frequently and students have to mark whether the text is too easy, just right, or challenging. That self-assessment piece is a great addition!
Another large chunk of our homework is our Bridges math homework. This homework meets the “shaping process,” (pg. 69) by focusing on the process more than the number of problems. I graded the homework by marking if they got problems correct or not, but had students correct some problems in small groups. This gave me time to encourage them to ask questions, take the time to slow down and read carefully, and just take pride in quality work. I only marked a check or plus in my grade book that the homework was completed. Students saw that I held them accountable to review their work and the quality of their work increased. With so much of my math curriculum based on partner work, reviewing the math homework helped me “catch” students who were sliding by during class. I do want to do a better job of modifying homework for my IEP students to better meet their needs (also per their IEPS) so that their homework focuses on concepts they should be able to do independently and are the problems most closely assigned to the standards. I just hope I can carve out the time to work with students in small groups like this next year for math and reading, even with so many students in my room.
Some ways I can meet the needs of my students in this area and still “cut back” to survive this next year are to still grade the math (or sometimes select problems on assignments) and be selective with what I have students fix. I can also have students self-correct their work more and if there are multiple assignments that cover the same concept, I can have students choose their best piece for me to grade. I would also like students to share out more about what they are reading with each other. One way for students to get feedback on their reading logs is to have students share about what they are reading with their groups or in partners. Then, some students can share out to the class. I am excited to try out some of these strategies this fall!
Assignment Five – Homework & Practice – Paula Stepankowsky
This chapter about homework and practice gave me some new insights into both processes with some surprising results from research about the roles they play in the education process.
I was surprised to learn that research has shown homework is more effective the older the student gets. There wasn’t a lot of detail about why that is the case, but since I teach middle school, I will take this into consideration in the future. I was also surprised at the lack of research done on how much homework is the optimum amount. I suspect more research in the area might have been done since this book was published. How much parents should be involved in homework is an ongoing question for teachers, and it was interesting to read that research supports that parents should facilitate homework rather then actually help their students do it. I know it’s a fine balance for parents, but it’s true that if they in essence do the homework for the student, neither the teacher nor the student has a realistic idea of how much the student has mastered the subject.
The section on practice also had some interesting research – in two particular areas to me. The first is that mastery of a skill requires focused practice and that the increase in competency is less and less after each practice. This certainly makes sense and supports what I have observed in class. Knowing more about this research will help me calibrate the practice I do in my classroom so that I have a better idea of when to push – and when to stop.
I was also interested in the findings about shaping skills. Depending upon the academic goals and what is going on in the classroom, the research seems to indicate that it can be better to introduce a topic by taking some key examples and go over it thoroughly rather than rush through multiple examples. Since I teach Language Arts, I have found this to be particularly true with challenging concepts such as case in pronouns and pronoun-antecedent agreement and subject verb agreement. I also liked the suggestion of using focused practice for writing certain parts of an essay – such as the conclusion as the book suggests. I can see that it would also be effective to practice writing thesis statements in my classes.
Like others have commented so far, I was also interested in the information on how important it is to comment on students’ homework, something I try to do but that I will do more of. Depending upon what we are doing, particularly grammar, we go over the homework in class and the students correct it themselves. They do this in their English notebooks, which I collect, so I see what they are doing.
Theresa Muller
Assignment #5
Homework and Practice
My personal feeling has always been that the younger the student, the less time should be spent on homework. I have always felt that homework at the primary grades should be given for the main purpose of developing good study habits and to help instill positive attitudes towards school. So, it was both reaffirming and interesting to read that research supports that homework is more effective with older students than younger learners.
My homework policy is simple but relatively effective. Yet, there seems to be some confusion for some parents each year.
As Paula pointed out, it is a fine balance for parents as to how much they should be involved in their child’s homework. First Grade parents have a hard time judging what is the right amount of “help”. Stressing that a parent’s role is that of “facilitator” will hopefully help define their role better.
I do keep track of homework completion. Students enjoy finding their name on the class chart and counting the “stickers” showing the weeks they’ve completed their reading logs and math practice. That has always been the extent to the feedback I’ve provided on homework. I now see the benefit to commenting, even briefly, on assignments I send home.
Practice: I think too often in the primary grades, we don’t provide enough repeated practice with a skill. We become bogged down and pressured to rush through curriculum in order to ensure that students are introduced to enough skills to prepare them for outcome-based tests. I wasn’t surprised to read that research supports that learning new content requires lots of practice spread out over time.
It therefore makes sense that it is better to introduce a topic by taking key examples and slowly walking through them, shaping their skills as they are learning them. My goal will be to make sure that I focus on targeting specific elements or skills that seem more difficult for students to grasp, and practice more slowly and in depth, before encouraging speed and accuracy.
I would like to figure out how to actually plan for understanding. This seems pretty difficult and a bit abstract. Perhaps others have some ideas.
Thanks Robin, Erinn, Marika, Paula, and Thersa. HOMEWORK…another one of those topics out there full of conflicting sides and views. I’ve always tended to be more reserved on my homework assignments, maybe it’s because I teaching elementary school? Maybe it’s because I’m a Mom of two now and with both my husband and I working full time, I understand the home frustrations and point of view on homework??? My bottom line is that homework needs to have purpose. If I’m not going to be able to provide feedback on homework that I give OR a student doesn’t need the practice I’m giving, I don’t believe that they should have to do it!!!
Robin – It’s your “sticky” parent problem that gives me issues with homework as well. As you stated, there are two sides of the coin with this problem. You might have the parents who don’t enough support necessary or those who pretty much complete the work themselves. This is what’s at the root of my concern…how is this helping? And in the end is it fair that a child gets punished because of an err in parenting? As you suggested, the math fact work (and reading) are to safe areas to stick with!
Erinn – It sounds as though you’ve been dealing with homework issues for the past couple of years now. Because the research shows the importance of homework feedback, I think we have to be very particular in choosing what we decide to send home and ensure that it is the appropriate practice that an individual child needs. In your afterschool program, would it be helpful to train the staff as reading tutors that might be able to confer with students as they work on their Just Right reading for the night? Most students need to read at least 20 minutes a night even in the primary grades.
Marika – Spelling is another great suggestion for homework, especially due to the fact that many teachers struggle with finding enough time in their instructional day to spend on spelling. You also had similar ideas for the after school program :) It sounds as though you and your grade level do a wonderful job communicating home about homework expectations. I love the idea of sending home a reading log for accountability. Great ideas for feedback on homework!
Paula – You are correct….mastery takes practice, therefore we do need to provide time for kids…it’s the balance of it that seems to be what everyone disagrees on. With high stakes testing raising the stress level in education, it’s very easy to see why teachers might pile on the homework in an attempt to provide support. Since the research shows how important feedback is though, we have to take care to not assign so much that we can’t keep up with the feedback.
Theresa – I think that it would be extremely helpful if you were able to target specific needs in your homework for your students. The problem is that differentiation takes time and planning, so this needs to be done in moderation. Therefore, I agree with the thought that it’s OK to assign less HW as long as what is assigned is effective (targeted and provides feedback). As far as targeting for understanding or comprehension in reading at home…are you familiar with The Sisters? They provide Parent Pipelines on their website that correlate to each of the strategies that your readers will be focusing on within their reading goals. Let me know if you’d like more info…..
I struggle with homework in a couple of ways. As everyone as mentioned, finding the balance with parental help is a challenge. Often times, I do want parents to at least see what their child is working on, and I send Rebecca Sitton homework pages which gives parents a clear idea of how to help their kids with spelling. I have a beginning of the year handbook that describes our homework policy and expectations but nothing is signed. I liked the idea of having families think about a time and place for homework, so I will consider something like that. So many of my students have little or no support at home for homework, not because the parents don’t care, they are just trying to survive. I send home a weekly reading log which includes a space for parents to initial, students are to write in the title of the book and minutes read. The first trimester they read at least 15, then 20 and 25 minutes the 2nd and 3rd trimester. I have about 70% success rate but it goes down each trimester. I don’t know what to do for kids that don’t have support at home. I liked the after-school ideas and the buddy-reading. Since we are a 2-3 school, we don’t have any big kids around. For written work, I send home some mixed-practice work on Tuesdays to be returned on Friday. About 95% of the kids are able to do this, and I always correct it, but it would be more productive to have the kids correct it in class to see what mistakes they are making. I do give some feedback, but after reading the research, I will need to be more thoughtful about this. So, I think I will continue both my reading and written homework practices, but give more feedback to each. I think reading at least 4 times per week is really important practice and I give parents some really good reasons kids need to do this. Math practice is very important as well. My students are learning their multiplication facts, as well as reviewing addition and subtraction so they need a lot of time to practice. After reading the research I am reminded how long it takes to develop speed and accuracy. I might have kids chart their progress in a graph, since we are working on graphing as well.
I found this chapter to be very helpful to me in the utilization of homework and practice. The situation given at the very beginning of the chapter is something that I have dealt with this year in my chemistry classes. A specific example is the balancing of chemical equations. This is one of those skills that you only get better at through many, many practice problems. After reading this chapter I feel I have gained some insight and possible solutions in refining how I might have my students carry out practice problems for balancing chemical equations.
I really liked the section when they discussed charting speed and accuracy during classroom practice. During chemical equation balancing, I would give my students a large number of chemical equations to balance and they would be of increasing difficulty. This upcoming year, I believe I would attempt to break these problems into sections of 10-15 problems and introduce the charting of speed and accuracy when solving these. I think it would be a motivator for student to see how much they could improve within each section of problems.
I have a better understanding now of how important it is to be very clear on what the purpose of the homework is and introducing a homework policy that explains more than just what happens if you do not have your homework done.
I plan on using much of the information presented on having a homework policy at the start of the year. Much of the information I feel is something that I just took for granted and was commonly understood by students and parents. However, I look back on when I did homework and see how many of these recommendations I did not follow, especially doing homework while watching television. Hopefully these policy guidelines will help students and parents develop a habit that will stick with them throughout the entire school year.
I also plan on incorporating in the second point of “designing homework assignments that clearly articulate the purpose and outcome.” I have always placed the learning objectives for any assignment or project that are done at the top of each page, but I really like what the sections of making students write out what the purpose of the assignment is and also having them identify what they already know or need to be able to do to complete the assignment. One thing I feel that I would add in to this section is to add a section of trying to relate what they are doing in the assignment to a real world application. For example, when my students were learning about stoichiometry, I would try and use the example of how drug companies might have to go about mixing different chemicals or substances in order to produce the drug insulin used in treating diabetes. I feel this is always important in having them understand a real world application of what we are doing and why we are doing it.
Name: David Lee
Assignment #5: Homework and Practice
Amy Ryan
Assignment #5- Homework and Practice.
We have a school-wide expectation about independent reading. The number of minutes varies per grade level, of course, but reading logs are due each week. This is one element of homework. Otherwise, my 5/6 grade students have a nightly math assignment and one other assignment- usually language arts, social studies, or science. I grade practically all homework assignments and often comment on them too. I will have to streamline this process next year since my class size will be increased by a third. I know this goes against the research, but something’s got to give!
I post my homework assignments each day on my website, and I send home a grade report print-off every two weeks so parents know where their child stands at that time. Nonetheless, there are always kids who are chronic non-completers of their homework. Since I have to give letter grades, I have to count homework in my grade book or there wouldn’t be enough data to justify the grades. So kids who do not do their homework can quickly find themselves failing classes. Sometimes I count the actual score of the homework assignment, other times I give a completion score- basically, you get 100% if you completed the homework.
Practice- it seems impossible to practice some skills up to 24 times when we always have to get to the next thing. Teachers have always had a lot of curriculum to cover, but testing has really skewed our teaching lately. There are exceptions though-our district adopted the Common Curriculum standards for math this last year, and what a relief! The kids are actually expected to master fewer concepts in depth, rather than be rapidly exposed to a multitude of concepts that they can’t remember the next month. This is the way to actually teach kids something. I hope education starts to trend toward that kind of thinking more and more. Then we would feel we had the “luxury” of allowing time to practice a skill enough to master it.
I am happy to read about other teachers’ struggles with this issue…
Homework is a tricky in my school. It just doesn’t really work. Kids don’t do it, so we don’t really assign it outside of finishing class work they don’t finish in class (which never gets done, either). I understand why they don’t do it—they get away with it. They tell their parents they don’t have homework, parents don’t’ know what to look for or how to track it because every teacher is different (and they have five academic teachers), and their little brains say, “I don’t have that class for two more days. I’ll finish it later.” The system lacks consistency. Also, our schedule—every other day blocks—doesn’t contribute to a consistent homework pattern. Lastly, with standards based grading, homework does not directly affect their grades (until they take a test and do poorly). It is frustrating for parents and teachers, but students love it…until they fail a test or get to high school and think it is “so hard.” I would really like to change this “culture” at my school and I think that next year provides a good opportunity. Our schedule is changing to an every day, six-period day. Parents and students are so overwhelmed coming from one teacher to six, but I think the consistent daily schedule allows us the opportunity to offer a more consistent homework model. Like this chapter says, homework provides necessary practice for endurance, accuracy, and study skills. I hope my team can agree on a new homework policy that makes sense to students and parents.
Thanks Marti, David, Amy, and Ashley for sharing your thoughts on homework and practice.
Marti – I think that in the instances where students don’t have parental support at home for any variety of reasons, there are two important things to consider. The first is to make sure that what we’re sending home is JUST practice, not new learning that we didn’t have time for during the day, and my second thought is that we shouldn’t be punishing the kids for things that are out of their control. The most you can do is to provide motivation for them to do their best and independently complete the assignments.
David –I’m glad that you found the chapter so supportive; I felt that Marzano really addresses the needs of high school age students in this chapter. For your age group especially, purpose and owner ship are going to be key in accomplishing what you want with your homework assignments. I love the idea of having the students participate in the “designing of HW that clearly articulate the purpose and outcome.” The real world application is a super idea!
Amy – I agree that something will have to give; you will need to prioritize your time. I would rather see a teachers spending the majority of their time on instruction for whole group, small group, and individual class instruction rather than getting bogged down in grading piles of homework from every night. I think the purpose of spiraling curriculums across grade levels is to address the issue of getting in those 24 opportunities for practice.
Ashley – It definitely sounds as though you are dealing with a very difficult middle school schedule, and I can see how this can cause a problem. It would be great if you and your team could set up some sort of consistent homework routine and policy for all involved. Best of luck in your efforts!
This chapter was very interesting to me and I have never had to deal with homework being a substitute teacher but I have often thought of how I would implement it if I had my own classroom. This chapter reinforced my thoughts on the importance of homework.
I have always been a believer of homework but only for practice and not introducing new information. I remember as a student thinking I always needed the practice and did not like new information when I hadn’t been taught. I was one who needed lots of practice to retain anything I learned that day. I am a big believer in lots of practice and was not surprised on the report by Healy that educators in the US rush students through multiple examples where as in Japan they take more time shaping and walking them through the process. I remember as a student feeling rushed and not always getting concepts down especially in the higher grades. I also believe that reading most nights of the week is important and I like the idea of 20 minutes a night. I think it is a good habit to form and I always love the 20 minutes of reading right before bed. I try to do that every night with my children so that they are in the habit by the time they are in school.
I also loved the idea of establishing and communicating homework policy. I love the guidelines being outlined and that the parent and child read through it together and sign it. It is a great way to open up communication and parents understanding of the importance of homework and what the teacher expects. I also loved how parent involvement should be kept to a minimum. I remember having friends whose parents would do their homework for them. It is important for children to learn that it is their responsibility and also they only learn by doing it themselves.
Sara Malvar
Assignment Five: Homework & Practice
After reading this chapter, I am feeling pretty good about how I have been managing homework in the classroom. I have my students complete about 40 minutes of work per night four days a week and I rarely assign anything over the weekend unless it is a special project or speech. I believe weekends should be for spending time with the family and getting time for play. On the other hand I am vigilant about the rest of the week. I wait at the door on Friday morning to check them into class if their work is complete. Students who do not have their homework must fill out a slip explaining why it was not completed and I send it home for a parent signature. After about the third time I do this almost everyone turns in their work on time. I have been good about providing feedback and I know students are reading what it is I commented on. I honestly give specific feedback on 2/3 of the work and just a couple encouraging words on the rest. I also work hard to return the homework the following Monday before they fill out their homework sheet for the new week. Students are expected to read every night and write a 3-5 sentence summary on what they read. In addition, I usually assign math practice on the concepts we are learning or math fact practice. I make sure to communicate to parents and students at the beginning of the year that homework is something the students are expected to do every night with little, if any, help from parents because most of my students are unable to get much help at home anyway. The one thing I do plan on changing is how parents can become better facilitators. If the family can provide a quiet place to work that is consistent to help develop regular study habits, I will make sure the students are prepared for the rest.
Enough practice on new concepts is the area I need to focus on this upcoming year. I guess I am primarily thinking about math. This year our district has adopted the Bridges Math curriculum. I’m not quite sure about the adoption yet but in the past I always feel like we move to quickly onto the next concept due to our schedule rather than going deeper with the understanding. It was interesting to see the amount of practice needed for mastery. I know I have not been providing enough reoccurring practice as we move through the school year. I need to find ways, maybe a more focused warm-up, to spiral the learning so students have not forgotten what they learned as we enter the infamous testing season. The brief review we do before the state testing just does not suffice. I too like the idea of focused practice for writing. Writing has so many components that the idea of looking at a specific, predetermined component makes a great deal of sense.
Assignment #5 (8/10/11) – Homework and Practice
Amber Young
Assignment #5 Homework and Practice
I teach beginning band, so each 30-minute class is in the format of a good practice session, 5 minutes warmup/instrument maintenance/mentally clearing your head, 5-10 minutes playing new music by focusing on difficult sections or notes, 5-10 minutes of playing old music or music just for fun, and then 5 minutes cleaning up/logging the practice time/goal setting. I send home a letter explaining good practice habits, weekly schedule, good lighting, etc. and the policy about signed practice charts due weekly. This has always been a dismal turnout, and I could never figure out why. My students tell me they practice, and I can hear improvement, but they wouldn’t turn in the darn piece of paper. I’m not teaching band this coming year, but when I do again, I either need to make the accountability easier (maybe through email?) or just let it go and only count on in-class playing tests for scores.
For my future band classes, I will have a format for writing each assignment’s goal and time expectation. I will send home a practice time frame format as listed above with the songs I want practiced written in, either by the students in class or by myself. Band is only twice a week, so we would be assigning homework on the spot after I determine which skills they’re struggling with. I sympathize with Ashley about seeing students every day vs. every other, it can be difficult to provide structure for my 5th and 6th graders, who are just learning how to do homework well and learning an instrument on top of it!
Thanks Sara, John, and Amber for sharing your thoughts on homework and practice.
Sara – I think you may be one of the only people I know who can reflect back and remember thinking that as a younger student, you actually thought you needed more practice :) I have to read the Healy report…should I be embarrassed that I don’t already know about this report? I think that we’re all trying to squeeze in the curriculum, that we are rushing things!
John – It sounds as though you have a great system in place for homework. The home-school connection is a key piece for complete success and this would be a great goal to work on this coming school year. As I mentioned to Sara, I do think we need to slow down, there does seem to be this frenzied rush to move through the curriculum.
Amber – Well even though your parents didn’t seem to be all that accountable, at least your students were increasing in their skills! Is band an elective? If so, students are choosing to participate, therefore they are invested and actually want to increase their skills and practice. Your are in a difficult situation not being able to see your students daily to have follow through from both students and home support.
Yes, band is an elective for the sixth graders only. I chose to talk about band because it's the only class of mine that has homework. Maybe it attracts the TAG kids who feel that practicing itself is enough, why bother to be responsible for a practice chart, too? It's a mystery, if someone has the answer, I'd love to hear it! These are well-educated parents, too, so you'd think they'd be on board.
#5
I am always looking for ways to improve my homework system. Right now I give homework everyday, students receive points if they complete it. I walk around at the beginning of class to see if they have their homework completed and give them their points. What I don’t like about this system is that usually I am in a hurry, so if I spot a mistake or a student has a question I don’t have that much time to spend with them. Also, sometimes students just write down anything just to “show” they completed the assignment. So effort alone is a bad way to grade homework that is why at our school we came up with a system to check for accuracy and achievement as well.
Probably the most overwhelming part of this chapter was the research about commenting on homework. I assign homework every day to about 150 students. The idea of commenting on each homework assignment is overwhelming. One strategy my colleagues and I have come up with is something called a learning check. Once a week we have these little quizzes that reflect questions that have been on their homework. They are even allowed to use their homework, which they have had an opportunity to correct. This provides me useful data to see if there are any major ideas my students missed or have misconceptions about. It also provides my students weekly feedback on how they are doing. Right now what we are missing is the final piece, what happens when someone continually fails a learning check. This feedback is only useful if it gets used.
Assignment #5: Homework and Practice
I spend a lot of time rethinking and revising how I do homework each year, so it was helpful to me to be able to read about homework research and effectiveness throughout the grade levels. I teach first grade, and my homework usually consists of a reading log (I consider this to be the most important piece), phonics or comprehension practice, and math practice. I try my best to align all of the literacy and math work to what we are doing in class and also send home phonics readers to benchmark and just-below benchmark students. I differentiate the literacy skills work by high, medium, and low—and sometimes the math if someone is way above or below benchmark. The biggest recognition I provide for completing homework is a sticker chart so the kids can see how much they’ve done, and in the past I’ve given a ceremonial handshake and a pencil to students for each five sets of homework they’ve returned. I check to see that the homework is complete, but I don’t grade it or write comments. I would say that the homework system I have in place is moderately effective and somewhat time consuming to do all of the differentiation. J
Even though it takes a while to put all of the pieces together, I find it helpful to create differentiated work packets. Hopefully the kids can do the work somewhat independently and the parents are seeing work that isn’t too easy or difficult, which keeps them satisfied. My school also has a large ESL population, so often times there is no homework supports at home because parents don’t have the English language skills to assist even when they want to.
I’ve always thought it would be helpful to give feedback on the homework, but I just haven’t taken the time. Now I see that research strongly supports this practice, so I am planning on finding a way to incorporate more feedback. I’d like to create a time to check in with the kids about their reading at home which could be beneficial in several ways: (1) I can see if they’re really doing it, (2) I can provide feedback to the parents on how to create a work space and how to assist, (3) I can get more information about the resources the students have at home and maybe supplement them if needed, and (4) I can emphasize the importance of reading at home for continued practice of the skills we learn in class.
Speaking of practice, I really like the idea of the students (or myself) charting their accuracy and speed, especially with math facts. We use Bridges for math, so we do go into depth about strategies to solve math problems, but I feel that I have to supplement the program with additional math fluency practice. I think it could be really motivating for the students to see their accuracy increase (especially below-benchmark kids) as well as their speed.
I do reading fluency practice with my students, especially in guided reading, but I haven’t really shared the actual data with them. Of course I’ve let them know areas for growth, but it seems that sharing the actual data with them about their speed and accuracy would make goal setting easier and perhaps be a good motivator as well.
After seeing your comments about the “Parent Pipelines”, I am strongly considering purchasing an annual membership to the 2 Sisters website. I’d like to start using The Daily 5 as a literacy framework, and they have so many supplemental resources to take advantage of.
Assignment#5: Jennifer Flagel
Thanks Lynn and Jennifer for adding your reflections on homework and practice.
Lynn – I absolutely love the idea of your “learning check”. What a meaningful way to check for understanding while at the same time, give purpose for completing homework. Could you pull a small group within independent work time to work with students who are failing the learning checks? It just seems so hard for teachers to be able to timely manner without having to take piles home every night OR waste precious class time correcting and reteaching for the handful who were not successful.
Jennifer – It’s great that you take the time to differentiate the homework for your students. Your ESL students especially need that extra practice time within their zone of proximal development. I think it’s a super idea to use The Sister’s Parent Pipelines as a resource to support parents as they continue to work on reading goals at home. They are now translating all of the Pipelines into Spanish, so definitely check it out!
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