Bonus Blog #1

Homework

    This year, homework became a contentious issue for our fifth grade team. We began our first year of rotations, and teachers didn't do a good job of coordinating homework. Some teachers gave homework for a week, such as questions from a chapter in the textbook. Many students struggled to pace themselves with this. Other teachers would give some homework every night, but the result was often an overwhelming amount of homework. Hence, we had many irrate parents and stressed students. Despite this, I feel I had a good opportunity to think about homework, what its advantages are, and how best to assign it.
    I think that homework is important, but should not become a source of stress for students or parents. I think there are two main reasons to give homework- either to reinforce concepts students have learned, or to encourage inquiry based learning. One example of this is a homework assignment which was given in our science class. Students had to think of a way to build a model to explain to other students how an animal cell and a plant cell are different. We made materials available at school if needed, and students had to bring in their models and then present them to the class. Homework completion for this assignment was far greater than for most other homework assignments. Students seemed proud of their work.
      As a special education teacher, I sometimes use programs which are different from those used by the rest of the class. An example is the Rewards reading program. Because of time constraints, I often had to assign practice of decoding skills for homework. I made sure that this would not take more than about 10 minutes per day. This made sure that students could keep progressing. I also asked parents to listen to their students read aloud, also for about 10-15 minutes per day. We didn't often have time for this at school, and I felt it was too important not be done on a daily basis.
     In conclusion then, I do think there is value in students doing work at home. Teachers need to beware though that it doesn't become a source of tension and dislike of school, and has genuine value for the student.