Adele

Current Homework Practices For my American Cultures II classes, I begin the year by reviewing a variety of reading and writing strategies. Then, I model how I interacted with a few pages in our text. I include on my handout three different strategies for the pages, so the students understand that a graphic organizer may work for a portion of a reading, a list for another, and a definition of a key word or concept for another. I then assign the next page, which finishes the first section of the chapter, and require them to interact with the text in whatever way suits them the best. The next day my students use red pencils to add to their "notes." When I assign reading in our text, I only assign a section of about 2-3 pages, and the students may interact with the text in any way they choose as long as they are able to demonstrate via our discussions or open-note quizzes that they did interact with the text and did not just write anything to look as if they did the assignment. Depending on the material, I may give the students a guided reading or have them read related primary source material and answer questions about it. I often have the students begin the homework assignment in class; they are more likely to finish it once they start it. For my inclusion class, I adjust the assignments according to the students within this class. I tend to do the primary source assignments with them in class. According to my students, my homework assignments for my American Cultures II classes take about 15 - 20 minutes to complete on most days. I usually have one long term assignment per marking period, such as reading a "Reading Counts" book from my reading list from the school library. For my Honors American Cultures II classes, I usually have a discussion about reading and writing strategies, but I do not formally review the different strategies. I find that these students already use strategies successfully. The homework in my honors classes varies from day to day and often includes primary source material and online assignments. Since my homework assignments for the honors classes vary so much, the time it takes them to complete them also varies; however, most assignments probably take about 20 - 35 minutes to complete. I usually have two long term assignments per marking period for my honors classes, one of them is the reading of an assigned novel, such as //The Red Badge of Courage.// Questions What changes can I make that will result in homework being more interesting? How can I motivate all students to do their homework? Can students learn the skills and content without homework? How much differentiation is needed for homework assignments? How do I convince students that homework is necessary to make learning easier? Are long term projects a good idea for all students? Should homework be worth the same for all students?

Application From the articles that I have read so far, common sense is the key. I have yet to discover the magic that will have all my students doing their homework assignments; however, I have found affirmation for some of my current practices and some good ideas to try next year. I am looking forward to using Harman's idea about using contracts with goal setting statements to improve the homework completion rate. I was quite interested in Cooper's article, "Homework Research and Policy: A Review of the Literature" and hope to discuss his recommended homework policies for districts, schools, and teachers with several people.

Changes Made from September through January? I used contracts with goal setting statements in the beginning of this year, and this worked quite well to get the students started thinking about what it takes to do well in my class, including doing homework. I have students reading more in class in their RA groups and helping each other with assignments. I am also having the students begin their homework in class and then use their homework assignments to answer open-note quizzes the next day, which has convinced some of them that it is a great idea to finish the assignments that they began in class. I really have not changed the length of my homework assignments because they seem to be in line with what most of the articles suggested for ninth grade students. I have made it a point to always explain the reason for the assignment, which I think I sometimes assumed would be obvious last year. The good news is that I believe the common sense approach I have always used for homework assignments matches the research; the bad news is I have not discovered a way to convince all my students that homework is necessary and valuable, even though I believe that my homework assignments are reasonable and very worthwhile.

Concerns How do we get our students to understand that it is their responsibility to do their homework and not to blame parents or other factors on their unwillingness to do THEIR assignments? I am quite concerned that we decide not to give homework because students do not do homework, rather than help them learn to do homework on their own and assign homework that they can do without help from an adult.