After spending a day immersed in an initial training at a recent Tabor Rotation Institute, participants placed several sticky notes on the “parking lot” of questions. I promised I’d blog about those questions.
“When do you give homework?”
“When do you check homework?”
“When you’re using math stations and guided readiness groups, how will you have enough time check homework?”
These are valid questions, especially when a teacher or school is beginning to use small-group, differentiated instruction in math using the Tabor Rotation Framework and homework is mandatory. This next question is the one most frequently asked.
“Do you believe in homework and how do you use it with your students?”
A discussion on the belief in homework could encapsulate quite a few hours of heated discussion and debate. I have studied the topic with an open mind and from varied perspectives. (I’ll share some links in this blog.) You can find studies that support many varied views, but most agree on one assertion,
“The quality of homework assignments is more important than the quantity of time students spend on them.” -Homework Expert, Harris Cooper of Duke University
Robert Marzano and Debra Pickering, in their article, “The Case For and Against Homework” assert that there is great value in the right kind of homework. They support schools making policies that ensure homework will produce learning gains. Here are their general guidelines.
-Assign purposeful homework.
-Assign homework that is likely to be completed.
-Involve parents in appropriate ways.
-Don’t overdo it.
-Follow up with students.
Linda Darling-Hammond and Olivia Ifill-Lynch provide additional insight into effective ways to get students to do their homework in, “If They’d Only Do Their Work.”
Here’s a summary of the key points of their article.
-Assign work that is worth of effort. Teachers should be examining homework assignments and asking questions. What is the purpose of this assignment? Do students have the support to complete it? Does it make sense? Is it necessary? Most important, is it authentic and engaging?
-Make the work doable. Teachers need to make sure that directions are clear and that the work can be done independently.
-Find out what students need. The goal is to make the process of doing the assignment transparent, concrete, manageable, and as simple as possible. The point is for the student to learn that it feels better to succeed than to fail.
-Create space and time for homework. Some schools have put in place systematic ways of ensuring that students have opportunities to get their schoolwork done in school. As founding principal of Manhattan East Middle School Jacqueline Ancess asserts, “The school needs to make it harder not to do the work than to do it!”
-Make work public. When schools engage students in major projects [or even in minor ones], it is important to show them models of work and exhibitions that meet the standards. This practice helps demystify the work, demonstrates that it can be done, and illustrates how to do it.
-Encourage collaboration. Schools that are organized as supportive learning communities with opportunities for collegial problem solving can better support their students in developing the practices and habits essential to doing schoolwork.
One homework criteria, from Cathy Vatterott’s article, “Five Steps to More Effective Homework,” really made me stop and think.
Decriminalize grading!
“Homework should not cause students to fail. Holding students accountable for homework should mean insisting that they finish rather than giving them a zero.”
The list below provides good guidelines for this.
-Have a zeros aren’t possible policy—all work must be completed.
-Use homework to check for understanding and give feedback.
-Don’t kill motivation or course grades by being too punitive.
-If possible, don’t give grades at all; give credit for completion only, not correctness or accuracy.
-Count homework for 10 percent or less of final grades.
-Be somewhat lenient on lateness; allow re-dos or give incomplete until the work is finished.
Vatterott’s work is worth reading and gives many more ideas for making sure homework is not only done, but contributes greatly to learning.
The research provided in this blog was put there to help you, your students, and the parents understand how to make homework as meaningful and purposeful as possible. But, you may still have the same concerns that some participants have at the end of a Tabor Rotation Institute Training.
Teachers who are trained how to transform their classroom using the Tabor Rotation Framework really don’t want me to share the research or quote the theorists. Most are required by their departments, schools, or districts. What most teachers want are some answers, they want to know how I incorporated homework into a classroom that is student-centered and focused on engagement instead of rote practice.
Below are suggestions that have proven to be highly successful with students who use Tabor Rotation and are accustomed to engaging and meaningful instruction. It’s what I did with my students.
*Make deadlines flexible. I assign a week or unit of homework/productive practice all at the same time with a final turn-in date. I give specific dates for certain homework items to be completed and brought into class so that students have practice with concepts that build on each other.By giving the homework assignments all together it allows those students who have varying commitments to complete the homework when their schedules allow.
*Give students time to complete homework/productive practice during the school day. I allow students to complete homework during daily warm-ups, during extra study periods, and during choice board selection or independent work. Some students do not have a home environment that is conducive to working on anything and may never finish any work or practice at home. Homework then becomes punitive. This was counter productive and I just didn’t do it! Homework was never more than 10% of their grade.
*Provide the teams with the answers. You don’t need to review all of the problems–just the most important ones. This allows students time to check their work and then move to the discussion of which ones were most challenging and which ones were the simplest. The discussion and the process of their learning was more important to me than having all the right answers.
*Make homework collaborative. If my students spent time working, then I wanted them to be able to share it with someone else besides me and receive feedback from their peers, too. Before checking homework, I have students work with their partner and share the most challenging problem and the simplest problem from their homework and why they found it challenging or simple. I encourage discussion on how they solved the most challenging problem or the steps they took in attempting to solve it. Students should be able to ask for assistance from their partner or another member of their team.
*Use homework results as part of Guided Readiness Group Instruction. I conduct progress monitoring using Passports, Clipboard Cruising, Exit Questions, and formative assessments. I use this information to form Readiness Groups during Phase 3 of Tabor Rotation, but homework results should also be used. You can also circulate and use teachable moments during Homework Check.
*Ensure homework is interesting and purposeful. I always make some portion of the homework assignment have a purpose beyond rote practice. I make sure that it is used for something outside of class. I also put a social component into the homework that encourages purposeful interaction with a family member or with a team member.
*Make sure the students can do the work independently. My rule of thumb was “if it takes you more than the amount of time we spent on it in class, then record your efforts and bring it in to discuss. Homework isn’t purposeful or productive when it becomes painful to my student and/or their parents.
As I think about my years of assigning homework, there is one consistent truth. No student has ever come back and thanked me for giving them homework. They come back to thank me for making school fun, meaningful, purposeful, and engaging. They thank me for all the cool things we did that didn’t even seem like work. They tell me they remember everything we did like it was yesterday.
I’m going to take that to mean the homework was pretty good, too!