Homework

There seems to be an eternal back and forth about homework in education. As a teacher, I thought it necessary. As an administrator, I have had my doubts. As a parent, I can see how sometimes it is excessive.

At my current school, Goodrich Academy, we have no homework. As a public, alternative high school part of our job is to make sure that we do not duplicate the reasons why students struggle in more traditional settings. So many of our students have never done homework, and they find that they cannot succeed in their regular schools because of this. This means that my staff has to work hard to get the teaching and learning done in class without a lot of wasted time. Not a bad philosophy, but I bet they often wish they could throw an occasional homework assignment the students' way.

On the other end, I see my children come home with homework every day. Most of the time it seems measured and reasonable. However, every once in a while they might have 30+ problems in math or 30+ vocabulary words to look up and use. I kind of do not get that because I really do not think that 30 questions of any kind done quickly will have better results than 10 questions done well.

I also wonder, sometimes, how much of the work done at home is in place of learning that should be done in the classroom. I can see doing math problems that further what was actually taught and learned in class. I can see finishing a writing assignment that was started and checked on by the teacher in class. I can see the need to get important reading done so that the ELA, Science or Social Studies class is not a reading only class. But, I have concerns about how homework is assigned and assessed.

Here are some of my general ideas:

1. Reading is appropriate for homework as long as it is meaningful, and of reasonable length.
2. Math and science problems should be furthering what was done in class and only enough to reinforce. A big concern I have is when a student does something the wrong way 30 times. How long will it take to undo that?
3. If it is important enough to do for homework, it should be important enough for a teacher to assess in some way. This could mean a short quiz on the reading. It could mean a class discussion where everyone must participate. It could mean correcting the work the students did. It is frustrating for me to see teachers walk around a classroom, glance at homework and then assign a check, check plus or check minus to work that a student was supposed to spend 45 minutes on. Why should the student care enough to do the work well if the teacher does not assess it well? What is the message that this sends about homework?
4. Homework should not be a significant part of a student's grade. A student who is intelligent enough to pay attention in class, do well in all assessments, and be a contributor to the class should not be doomed by the fact that they do not do homework assignments. They should be accountable, yes, but a good grade should not be contingent upon this. From what I have seen, it is often the case that homework becomes a matter of compliance for  a teacher and they are upset when a student sees no value in it. Learning is not about compliance. It is about learning.
5. Homework should never be given for the sake of giving homework. If an assignment furthers the learning done in class, then it is fine. If it is busy work, then it is a waste of everyone's time.
6. Homework should rarely be given on a weekend and never over a vacation. We all value our time off. As educators we need to recognize that students appreciate it when we also value their time off. Sure, we will be correcting work over weekends and vacations (because we plan it that way so we do have time), but that does not mean we have to make our students "suffer" as well. Sometimes, there is a need to get a major paper done. Sometimes we want students to stay current in what was taught just before the vacation. However, be sure that this is the case.
7. Unless it is research or project based, a student should never be expected to learn something the first time as part of their homework.

Your thoughts? A younger me would definitely disagreed with this.