Homework- Mistakes and Fixes

An interesting aspect of being a teacher is that you have so many models of teaching in your life to follow and overcome.  Sometimes, I think this is why education is slow to adopt change; we are unconsciously following models from 30 years ago.  No aspect of teaching displays this characteristic more than homework.  Homework is almost synonymous with school.  These days it starts as early as kindergarten and students in middle school can be doing up to 3 hours a night.  Greater pressures on  teachers to have higher achievement combined with more content to teach acerbates the problem as teachers pass the work load to students. 

Interestingly, though, there is very little data that supports homework being successful in raising student achievement. Some of the experimental and philosophical misconceptions about homework can be found in this 2006 article by Alfie Kohn, who wrote The Homework Myth.  I'll leave explaining research to the people that are qualified ;) and instead focus on application in the classroom. 

In the classroom, homework is universally hated by students and quickly becomes a nightmare for teachers as well.  As soon as you give an assignment you now have many questions to answer.

1. What if they don't do it?

2.  What if they do it but don't turn it in?

3.  What if they are absent?

4.  What if they fail because they don't do homework but are clearly understanding content?

One fact becomes clear the moment teachers start discussing homework in the faculty lounge.  To many doing homework = work ethic + time management.  Nothing could be less true.  Work ethic cannot be measured by being forced to do a task you deem as worthless.  No adult would do it!  Adults work hard to do tasks that are important to them.  What if I said to the nearest group of adults, "I'm going to measure your time management skills by asking you to add 3 hours of pretend play to your daily schedule." We might all be better off with more play in our lives, but I doubt they would do it.  (Ironically, creative play has a higher effect size on learning than homework!)

Here are 5 mistakes with homework I have made (Apologies to the Students!):

1.  Giving more homework to make my class look more rigorous.  You will see this often at schools that pride themselves on rigor.

2.  Giving homework in class because I didn't have enough time to teach it (Talk about time management!)

3.  Giving homework passes as a reward for behavior. Why should being well behaved mean you learn less?

4.  Giving homework that I myself haven't done and therefore don't know how long it takes.

5.  Giving homework that students might do wrong.  More chances to practice wrong methods doesn't increase learning.

For the last ten years, I realized that no homework was better than bad homework and have earned my students love and adoration by having a no homework policy.  This might not work for everyone and I am looking for a way to tweak my own practice.

If you want to have homework or home learning as a part of your class, try these 5 fixes.

1.  Don't give zeros.  They are mathematically unfair and create grades that reflect compliance over learning. Also, stay away from rules and systems about late work. Honestly, it isn't worth it.

2.  Give homework that focus students to personally connect with content; either to their lives or to the prior knowledge. These connections will deepen discussions in class.

3.  Make homework optional but IMPORTANT.  That way students aren't punished but rewarded.

4.  Keep it short! I can't focus for more than 10 min in PD after school.  Give them little appetizers for bigger learning in class.

5.  Create homework that is implicitly engaging; an "itchy" question to answer, a discrepant event to explain,  an injustice to think about.  

Bonus

Give quick meaningful feedback instead of grades.

Your homework today?

Think about homework that was meaningful and important to you as a kid!