Alan

I'm adding HW blog here until I can access the discussion board.

My homework is generally light. Usually a brief vocab. assignment or finishing what we started in class, studying sci. and SS notes, math review, and/or reading for lit. circles. Students can complete the HW the next day if it wasn't done. I would rather reward students for completing or trying HW instead of punishing them through extra work, detentions, or writing asignments-this tends to waste time and start unnecessary 'battles.' You can usually tell which students have supportive families and which are on their own. This leads me into one of the articles. "Using the Internet to Improve Homework Communication and Completion" Having a web site with HW info. where parents can communicate with the teacher and students can access assignments ( class or individual) can be a valuable tool. Two-way communication eases many of the stressors of HW. Having a set time to reply to questions would be necessary-I'm usually busy with my kids! We have many students using IM already. They could discuss HW for the next day. Sounds interesting. The only hurdles are time to get the site ready, time to update and communicate, and student/parent access to the web. I've tried to update parents with emails about assignments, etc. The students that usually don't do homework still don't complete the work and after awhile parents don't continue communication. Some way of engaging parents as a vital link to student success is necessary. Ideas? 8/21-In the article, Homework Ate My Family, the researchers noted how homework can be a stressor for families. They talked about the amount and time it took for HW. Discussion access working. The article noted one student's HW witha math WS of 100 fraction and long division problems, a writing prompt, and more. Couldn't the teacher find the student's math skill level with a few problems? Too much HW is a stressor for students and families. 1/15/08-I've noticed that my students are not performing as well this year without homework being assigned often. When I give a short assignment, they must be reminded to 1- write it down, 2-actually take the materials with them, and 3- complete the work and bring it to school. They aren't in the habit of doing 'something' often anymore. Even studying for tests is lacking, and parents don't seem concerned since I have not had many inquiries about grades. Maybe less stress at home without homework is a compromise for grades??? Since I gave little homework and tried to complete most assigned work in class with the students. I did assign some less stressful homework in vocabulary. Several students still didn't do these assignments as usual. 2/6/08-Reflection After trying to not give homework, I find myself looking at homework slightly differently. I still think students need some type of review of the day's lesson- a few problems to practice, notes to review, or pages to read. The research about making a connection to learned material in a timely manner would reinforce the need for some type of relection/review/practice by students after school. I know from my own experience at home that too much homework is stressful and not productive, especially when my daughter says the teacher gave us more work to do because some kids were talking in class. Just having students complete pages of work at night to get through material quicker is not productive for higher level thinking skills. This type of work is at the basic level of memorizing facts for a test and is used too often. I know I will still struggle with how to and what to give for homework. At least we are having a discussion which could lead to a different way of instruction and review of lessons. I'll see how the rest of the school year progresses as I add some homework for students. Will it create a habit of daily review? Will class discussions improve? Will attitudes about being successful and not settling for just getting work done change?