Homework Stinks #4 - My Verdict

Really! My dog ate my homework.
( “Homework Evidence” Threadless t-shirt by Glenn Jones.)

In the first three (I, II, III) posts in this "Homework Stinks" series, I've tried to cover the major elements of homework and discuss the issues that impact home partners, teachers, and most importantly, students. I appreciate all of the support and encouragement that I have received through Twitter and comments on the posts during this series. Once I started the project, I almost immediately realized that it was probably more than I wanted to take on. However, I felt that I could add something to the long running, and often heated conversations that a great number of teachers have each year. Thanks for sticking with me.

I have read more about this topic than any other issue that affects my kids, and to be perfectly honest, I still don't have definitive advice on homework practices. I want to do what is best for my kids and I think that after reading close to 60 journal articles, innumerable blog posts, and having countless conversations with peers, the only thing I can say definitively is that I am closer to that goal than when I started. This blog series has allowed me to think deeply about the subject and challenged me to think differently, which is simultaneously exciting and confidence shaking. 

Student's Personal Time

I have my students in a facilitated work environment for 6-ish hours a day. Is is okay for me to claim more of their time? Am I using every minute of time that I have with my students effectively? Do I use homework as a 'catch-up' for the time I mismanaged? Is homework assigned to help or is its issuance simply a habit.

One educator that I respect wrote that he gives homework because he believes that learning should continue throughout the day, but that homework is not optional. The teacher tried to buffer their requirement by letting the students choose what  proof of their learning they could submit, but it was still required by the teacher. You can't say that you are respectful of your student's time away from your classroom, but still command their time away when they are away from your four walls. Sure, learning and the love of learning is something that should be nurtured, but I think requiring a student to prove they're learning outside of the classroom smacks of hypocrisy and arrogance. If I can't get a student excited about learning to the point where they want to share with me and our classmates, then that's on me, not a seven or twelve year old. I'm not going to be the one who prevents a kid from letting the figurative apple fall on their head, because they were inside doing a useless worksheet.

My Verdict for students: Pursue what's important to you, that's what's important to me.

District or Building Homework Requirements

Despite the shortsighted philosophies behind the ridiculous policies that require or mandate homework, teachers still have to do what is required of them. Fortunately, I do not live under such a dreadful leaking umbrella of mandated homework. There are many examples of how innovative teachers have effectively dealt with homework requirements, such as homework menus, creativity journals, multi-media, podcasting, and blogging. Do what you have to do, but do it with an understanding that for most students, homework is an unneeded burden that does not contribute to learning. Let your sphere of influence know that issuing homework because 'we've always done it that way' is nonsense. In a vigorous classroom debate I wouldn't accept that type answer from my students and I won't let administrators rest on their power and nameplate when they issue such a lazy leadership directives.

My Verdict: I'll comply, but I'll be creative and do what I believe is best for my kids. I don't think homework issuance can be a proxy for rigor and should not be used to create an illusion of learning. I'll let the learning exhibits that my kids produce impress the onlookers.

Grading

Research indicates that grading homework is an unwise practice, as it decreases student motivation and effort. Think about a homework grade from the student's perspective. You just learned a new skill, maybe you 'got it', maybe you didn't. You're sent home to practice, maybe you have support and have a productive work environment established. Maybe you are asked to learn in chaos. You do the assignment, turn it in, get it back and you receive a poor grade. What did you learn and what are you going to remember?

My Verdict: I think grading homework is destructive to student motivation and its negative impact hurts students who need the most encouragement the most. "Score the game, not the practice" -Tom Schimmer

Successful Homework

A significant of amount of research has shown that homework can improve student achievement. The issue for me, as an elementary classroom teacher is, can I consistently provide the conditions needed for homework to be meaningful? Some of those elements I can control, or have a direct influence on, but many of the things required for homework success are beyond my control.

1. There has to be a classroom culture where assignments are valued by both the teacher and students. If the teacher does not view assignments as valuable learning exercises, by not assessing, commenting, or returning promptly, the exercises quickly become more about compliance than learning.
2. Value alignment of parents, teacher, and students towards homework contribute to positive student efforts, emotion, and learning. When all of the partners agree on the value of the assignment and its completion, students learning and achievement increase, but when everyone is not on the same page, success is diminished. Parental alignment is especially difficult to achieve.
3. The type, quality, variety, and difficulty of homework assignments have to strike a 'sweet spot' with the students. If assignments are too easy/difficult, are of one type (drill and practice for example), or are of low quality (mindless worksheets), student effort, motivation, and emotion plummet. Regardless of  whether these conditions are met, homework issued later in the year receive progressively less effort from most students.
4. Most of the reasons (70%) for issuing homework is adult centered. For homework to be meaningful and effective, it should be focused on how the exercise can enhance student learning.
5. Homework assignments should be  address the different learning needs of the students. Rarely will every student need to practice the same skill in the same way at the same time.  
6. Students should receive prompt feedback on their homework assignments in order to effectively contribute to student learning. Assignments that are assessed & handed back beyond a two day window from the assignment's completion is fairly close to useless.
7. The student should have a designated, clutter and distraction free homework area, that allows the student to become as self-regulating as possible. However, younger students are not developmentally ready to ignore distractions for extended periods of time and even with an ideal environment, cannot successfully focus on a singular task.

Even with all of these elements in place, student learning gains are modest, especially in elementary aged children. The amount of elements required for homework that contributes to student learning are significant. Also, homework is largely a solitary effort and is in contrast with almost everything we do collaboratively in our classroom. Most of my students don't have the technology or financial resources to even attempt collaborative efforts or constructing quality projects away from school.

My Verdict for homework practices: I think my time would be better spent on planning and executing engaging lesson plans that take advantage of the classroom setting where a number of the above elements are naturally in place. I'd like to assign work that is collaborative, meaningful, valuable, while allowing students to choose how they can demonstrate what they have learned. There are simply too many things required for homework to be successful and I cannot ensure that all of those things can be in place for every child. I don't think that homework can consistently meet the learning goals I have for my kids. I'm not a fan of saying never, but I hope that my students will never say "Homework Stinks".

Thanks for reading. Probably the last thing I have to say about homework, unless you would like to keep the conversation going by leaving a thoughtful comment. I'd actually love it.

Feel free to visit my Delicious bookmarks on homework. The collection is not comprehensive, but the articles/blogs I've collected here supported and challenged my thinking. You might find something that does the same for you.

I've updated my Homework Stinks reference page on this this blog. There has been a LOT of recent research on the issue. I encourage you to visit the ERIC database and explore what researchers are finding. Use their hard work to do what is best for 'YourKids'.

Here are some additional resources.
http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2009/09/14/the-best-resources-for-learning-about-homework-issues/
http://www.cybraryman.com/homework.html
http://www.endtherace.org/ 

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Homework Stinks #3 - Teachers' Perspectives

"Really, the dog ate my homework"

My previous posts on homework discussed the history of homework, asked some questions to try and get  teachers thinking about their homework practices and its effect. The second post, although longer than I would have liked, discussed how homework impacted student learning, student motivation, and relationships at home. For this post I want to discuss homework from an elementary teacher's perspective. I would like to talk about why we as teachers, do what we do and  the reasons we issue homework. (As I've written before, many of the issues that involve elementary students transfer to grades 7-12 as well)  

 Let's start here.

  

Parental and Administration Pressures for Homework

Adult Centered

A study on homework conducted in 2001 (Epstein and Van Voorhis) outlined 10 categories for doing homework and found that 70% of those reasons were adult centered. Reasons included to improve student self-efficacy, student self-regulation, and to teach responsibility. This is not to say that Teachers do not always have the students' best interest in mind when assigning homework, but that their motivation might not be centered on student learning needs. There are several factions that put pressure on the classroom teacher to issue homework and most of them are focused on the 70% of the categories identified have little to do with student learning.

Helicopter Parenting & Pride

Parents often feel, based on their school experiences, that homework is necessarily a part of school. I've talked to numerous teachers who have related stories about parents expressing their concerns that their child isn't bringing homework home on a regular basis. The parents worry that their student is not telling them the truth, or for some, they express a feeling of panic that 'Bobby' or 'Susie' are falling behind other students, schools, and districts. I've personally had parents schedule conferences with school administration to discuss the fact that their student (1st grade) was not getting enough homework.  Parents feel that if their child is busy, they must be learning something. I've heard discussions among parents that use the amount of homework their child is receiving as a point of pride or use the quantity as a type of 'one upsmanship'. 

Teachers also hear the whisperings or intimations that if their students don't have a lot of homework that their instruction is not as rigorous, or that they are less than serious about educating children. 

Parental involvement in the completion of homework can be a "two edged sword" (Trautwein) When parental involvement was more direct and possibly interfered with a student's need for self determination, the results were mixed and had a negative correlation with student achievement. (especially with older students)

Policies and Mandates

District or building policies that mandate homework is another pressure on homework issuance. Usually part of a character building program or an effort to appear that the school system or curriculum is rigorous, homework is a outward signal to those outside the school that students are challenged. Not only do these policies have little to do with student learning, they make about as much sense as 'zero tolerance' policies on anything. The requirements don't take into account the students' needs and situations, and are more about appearances and compliance. Successful issuance or completion of a task does not equal learning.

Teacher's Homework Impact

Creativity

The media compose stories that lament the loss of creativity and innovation, while constantly comparing US students to other countries to try and hammer home that public school teachers are solely responsible for the country's 'poor showing' in the standings. Billionaires proudly point to the fact they never finished high school or college and their creations never arose from a textbook. Yet, time spent on homework has continued to rise. We celebrate people who create, but don't give our kids enough time to explore or create. 

Differentiation

Differentiation, personalization, customization or whatever providing students with instruction that meets the learning needs of individual students is called this week, runs contrary to most homework practices. Does it make sense that everyone needs the same practice on the same skill, at the same time?

Self-Regulation Skills

Development of student self regulation is an frequent reason to issue homework. The reasoning is that students need to learn how to eliminate distractions and improve their diligence towards school work, and that homework is the answer. The problem is that self-regulation is just not a skill they are ready for developmentally, especially in K-4. Cooper (2006) found that "younger children are less able to ignore irrelevant information or stimulation in their environment."

Teacher Support

Teacher support is critical to positive student motivation towards homework, including "support of autonomy, (&) competence...extends beyond the realms of the school walls. Perceived teachers' support is important to all students' " (Katz,2010) If students feel that their teacher has not put effort into creating a quality assignment, their efforts suffer.

Questions parents and administrators might want to think about:

• Is academic activity better than any activity?
• Is the homework a task or does it foster learning?
• Can creativity be considered homework? 
• Why is every student getting the same assignment?
• Can we expect parents to provide an effective level of support for the learning activity in a home setting? Would the activity be better completed in the classroom?

Coming up next in my "Homework Stinks" series:
#4 (final) My Verdict - What I will try and do in my class for my students and what I have learned about homework through through this series. (Week of August 25th)

Research studies referenced in this series can be viewed on the Homework Stink References Page

Thanks for reading, please tell me what you think.

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