Homework

Hello everyone,

When I first started my career, I was taught that teachers should give 1/2 hour of homework per weeknight in the middle schools for academic subjects. I was later counseled to give 45 minutes of homework for high school students.

I looked before I gave any advice to you, and I find that the District no longer has a district-wide policy on the amount of homework; it is left to the individual schools. Still, I can't help but feel that two hours a night (middle school) or three hours a night (high school), Monday through Thursday, is not an unreasonable expectation to prepare kids for the rigors of college.

(Weekend homework was not always practical or desirable, though if you give your students an assignment on Monday, and you tell them it's due the next Monday, the vast majority of them will be working on it throughout Sunday, and will only have it done sometime after midnight that night.)

I judged the amount of time required to do homework based on how fast a typical C student was able to work in my class. That meant that some students would take more, and others less time than my estimated amount.

I gave very little homework in my elective classes.

I have found a few truths about homework that are inescapable.

Homework makes a lousy assessment. Never use homework for an assessment; it's too easy for students to cheat, and you only end up assessing the student that everyone copies the homework from. Save your assessments for what can be done in your presence.

Our students generally will not read independently. In order to force the issue, you must hold them constantly responsible for whatever reading you have them do. If I assigned reading, I always had a quiz the next day, or I would require the students to pass the accelerated reader tests.

It is easy to hold students responsible for independent writing, but you must be careful of downloaded essays. If you know your students' writing ability, it's easy to recognize when they are not working independently. Keep in mind that essays take time to correct, depending on their length.

If you give students a long time to finish something, they will almost invariably wait until the last minute and do the assignment quickly and sloppily. If you break the long assignment into smaller, gradable portions, you can help them avoid that pitfall. (Of course, each portion may be done in the waning moments before it's due, but at least some of the process is being preserved.)

Collect all homework, but don't correct it all. You might try some of these strategies: have the students correct it; correct it together as a class; or audit it like the IRS does your taxes (look at selections only); you might put a checkmark or "OK" if it's done, without giving detail on how well it was done; you might tell your students that you'll hand it back only if they individually request it at the end of class, saving yourself the mountains of papers you have to pass back.

Always carefully grade major assignments that were completed as homework, and always hand them back.

Always hold students accountable for homework, but be careful that you're not turning into the homework policeman. Have the parents police it. Set up procedures, if necessary, that require parent involvement (like having the parents sign a homework check), as long as those procedures don't overwhelm you with paperwork.

Homework must be easy enough that the students can do it independently, but never simply busywork. Make it meaningful practice, but keep in mind that they won't practice it if it's beyond their abilities.

Jeff Combe