Homework: sometimes helpful but mostly it just sucks

Homework. Students hate doing it, teacher hates grading it, students don’t do it, teacher gets frustrated at students for not doing it – and then the whole cycle starts over again when the teacher assigns the next night’s homework. If we know how the cycle will go, why do we as teachers continue to repeat it?

One reason homework is assigned is to see if students are comprehending the content of that day’s lesson. This is quite counterproductive when you actually think about it. If the students are not comprehending it, they either don’t do their homework and get points taken off, or they do it, get it wrong, and still get points taken off. Teachers are often rushed through explaining the homework at the end of the class period while students are packing up their things and thinking about everything but listening to the teacher explain some assignment they will (maybe) complete hours later. In such cases, homework is not a reliable account of comprehension.

Another reason of assigning homework is to keep students accountable for contributing to the class. In my MT’s class, the homework is often used the next day as bellwork. For example, students will write Daily Oral Language sentences as homework and bring them the next day for the whole class to correct together. However, when students don’t complete or bring the homework to school, it affects the entire class.

I will often ask students where their homework is and why they do not have it with them. Many students will answer that they left their homework at mom’s, dad’s, grandma’s, etc., but did not the other parent/guardian was the one that drove them to school. This is obviously a consequence of students that come from divorced or single parents. In Robert J. Marzano and Debra J. Pickering’s article “The Case For and Against Homework”, they state that homework is often particularly harmful to “economically disadvantaged students, who are unintentionally penalized because their environments often make it almost impossible to complete assignments at home” (Marzano and Pickering).

While teachers are not purposely penalizing students at an economic disadvantage and others whose home situations cause them to be at a disadvantage, it is crucial that teachers take all students and all home situations into consideration when planning homework assignments. One quote from Marzano and Pickering’s article which I found particularly intriguing was that “teachers are not well trained in how to assign homework” (Marzano and Pickering). Looking back on my Curriculum and Instruction courses, I can’t remember a time where we explicitly went over strategies on how to assign homework. Is there even a way to teach teachers how to effectively do this?

Marzano and Pickering do suggest several strategies for assigning homework, keeping in mind those students that would struggle with completing homework in their home environments. One thing they suggest is to have the child “show or explain their written work or other products completed at school to their parents and get their reactions” (Marzano and Pickering). I love the idea of having parents included in the learning process without forcing them to be experts on the subjects. 

Articles cited: 

Marzano, Robert J., and Debra J. Pickering. "The Case For and Against Homework." Educational Leadership 64.6: 74-79. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Web. 25 Sept. 2015. <http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/mar07/vol64/num06/The-Case-For-and-Against-Homework.aspx>.

Partner Work, Schmartner Work

Having students work as partners or in groups always has the best intentions; you believe, as the teacher, that allowing students to work with a partner they choose on an assignment will make them more engaged in the work. My MT has been assigning partner work quite often at the end of the class period. The students are usually asked to work on that night’s homework with their partner and finish whatever they did not finish in class at home.

While at observations the other day, the teacher had assigned the homework and given them the last 15 minutes to work on it. I was walking around the room checking in on each pair of students when I stopped at a pair with one student – let’s call him Michael* – that spent the entire 30 minutes of instruction time drawing in his notebook and giving somewhat correct answers when the teacher gave comprehension checks throughout the lesson to see if the students were understanding the content.

Then, it happened. As I was standing right next to Michael, he said these words to his partner, Aaron*: “Hey, you just fill out the sheet of paper, and I’ll keep drawing.” OMG. I went up to them and told Michael he would not be allowed to put his name on the paper if he was not willing to do the work, and therefor he would not get the points. He responded by saying, “Nah, Aaron’s my boy. You’ll let me put my name on the paper, right Aaron?” OMGx2. Aaron had no choice but to say yes to this and agree to take on all the work while his peer continued to draw in his notebook.

Michael did end up setting his drawing aside a few times and helping Aaron finish the assignment. However, it’s still obvious that Michael has come to learn that if he just picks a partner he knows will do the work for him, he can still earn participation points by doing whatever he wants.

How can I engage ALL students and know that they are all putting forth the same effort as their peers? I came across on article by Timothy Quinn titled “G-R-O-U-P W-O-R-K Doesn’t Spell Collaboration.” Quinn states in his article that “Simply putting kids around a table and telling them to work together does not teach them collaboration skills” (Quinn). Have students ever actually been taught collaboration skills? What does that even look like? How can I be part of the process of students’ collaboration with their peers during group work/partner work instead of sitting at my desk checking my email?

Suzie Boss’ article “Focus on Collaboration to Kick off New School Year” lists several tips for teaching collaboration. Many of these include hosting discussions about teamwork, leadership, and accountability. One that really stood out to me was to “ask guest speakers and parents to talk about how they collaborate in their work or when they get involved in community issues” (Boss). I love the idea of bringing in real world examples of partner/group work to teach students that collaboration is a life skill. Teachers that assign group work can often come across as lazy, but if teachers take the time to teach students how to get the most of their group work, it can be really beneficial to both teachers and students.

*Names of students have been changed.

Articles mentioned: (In chronological order)

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/12/01/kappan_quinn.html

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/collaboration-new-school-year-pbl-suzie-boss