Students Explain How Homework Can Help

the math hub blog by scholastic/tom snyder productions

Students Explain How Homework Can Help

Posted by Jennifer Chintala on Tue, Oct 12, 2010 @ 09:13 AM

Have you ever asked your students, "What do you want to do for homework?" An article by Kathleen Cushman called Show Us What Homework's For gives several students' perspectives on how to make homework meaningful, and students make suggestions about how to make it less of a chore and more motivating.

The students quoted in this article are in high school, but their ideas can be applied to students of any age. Through vignettes from their own life, students share five suggestions about how to make homework valuable. You'll notice that some of these overlap with suggestions provided by the "experts" in terms of what makes a good homework assignment.

Purpose – Homework should match students' individual weaknesses. Just as athletes spend time refining the skills they struggle with, students should be given opportunities to work on their stumbling blocks.
Follow Up – Don't just take a cursory look at assignments, really try to understand where students went wrong and provide opportunities for students to revise their work.
No Grading – Homework is meant to enable students to practice the skills they have not mastered. If it's graded, students will find the correct answer using any means possible without actually grasping the concept.
Better Use of Time – Assign less homework but gear it towards deeper understanding. Doing the same problems over and over again just creates routine, not comprehension.
Follow the Four R's – Readiness, Repetition, Review and Revision.

Finally, students made suggestions about specific activities that can help them master content using the guidelines above. Give one of these ideas a try...you might be pleasantly surprised with the outcome!

In This Learning Situation...	Instead of This	Try This
You introduced new material in class.	Assigning a question set so we will remember the material.	Ask us to think up a homework task that follows up on this material and to explain our choices.
You want us to read an article before a class discussion.	Making us answer questions that prove we read it.	Ask us to write down two or three questions we have after reading the article.
You want to see whether we understand a key concept (such as literary irony).	Making us complete a worksheet.	Ask us to demonstrate the concept for the class in small groups, using any medium.
You want us to see how a math procedure applies in various situations.	Assigning 10 word problems that involve this procedure.	Ask small groups to choose one word problem that applies this procedure in a real-world situation, solve it, and present it to the class.
You want us to memorize facts (such as dates in history).	Handing out a list that we will be tested on.	Ask each student to share with the class a memorization trick (such as a visual cue) that works with one item on this list.
You want us to remember what you taught last month.	Assigning a review sheet.	Give frequent short pop quizzes about earlier material. Go over each quiz, but don't count the grade.