Homework rationale / purpose Blog#10

 Homework Rationale/purpose:

Homework should provide students with opportunities to practice, review, and apply the knowledge they have learned in the classroom (Hill, 2006).  It should deepen students understanding and help build essential skills (Vatterott 2010).  I believe that homework can develop a sense of ownership.  I also believe it helps students to be responsible for their learning and even at a young age can begin to develop the necessary life long skill of time management with their homework. 

What will constitute meaningful homework?

As mentioned above meaningful homework will have students practicing, reviewing and applying their knowledge.  Homework assignments should not consist of skill and drill, but instead should be an application task.  The assignment should be an activity that the student can complete on their own, keeping parental involvement to a minimum.  Meaningful homework will also have a clear defined purpose, it will be differentiated to match the students learning style, and develop ownership by allowing choice with assignments.

There might be times with our ELL learners that front-loading their learning will help them comprehend a lesson that is going to be introduced.  Students should not be asked to complete a task using this information, but it might be helpful for them to listen to the story or watch a video in their L1 language to help build their background knowledge.

What are your intended homework objectives for your students?

Along with practicing, reviewing and applying knowledge homework should also begin to instill responsibility and ownership.  “The goal of ownership is to create a personal relationship between the student and the content” (Vatterott, 2009).  Finding out how students learn and practice their learning best, and letting that dictate the type of assignment they complete will make homework meaningful for students!

How will you provide specific feedback?

In order for students to stay motivated and feel like their efforts were worth the time that was involved we must provide students with timely specific feedback.  Feedback can be in verbal or written form for students and can come from the teacher or from peers (with training about how to give feedback).  As I think about the feedback I provide to my students, it is usually specific, just not always timely.  A system where you could check in with a small number of students each day and provide feedback would be a way to manage trying to reach all 26 students on the same day.

Using technology in this communication process.

Classroom websites have become a valuable tool for finding, clarifying, and supporting homework assignments.  Due dates, explanations and examples of assignments, and addition links for further practice can all be available for students and parents.  These websites also allow parents and/or students to E-mail the teacher with questions.  As teachers we do however need to be aware of any of our families that do not have access to a computer and internet or might not understand what is on the web pages.