21st Century Homework Success: Principles, Practicalities, and Products

1. 21st Century Homework Success: Principles, Practicalities, and Products EARCOS 2013

2. For further conversation about any of these topics: Rick Wormeli rwormeli@cox.net 703-620-2447 Herndon, Virginia, USA (Eastern Standard Time Zone) @rickwormeli (Twitter)

3. Five Purposes for Homework • Practice • Interaction • Application • Extension • Preparation

4. Important: • Homework is never given to teach students the material the first time. We assign homework only after checking to make sure students already understand the material. • Homework is never used to demonstrate full mastery. It is formative. We provide ample feedback, but not ultimate evaluation of mastery.

5. Feedback vs Assessment Feedback: Holding up a mirror to students, showing them what they did and comparing it what they should have done – There’s no evaluative component! Assessment: Gathering data so we can make a decision Greatest Impact on Student Success:Formative feedback

6. Be clear: We grade against standards, not routes students take or techniques teachers use to achieve those standards. What does this mean we should do with class participation or discussion grades?

7. Four InappropriatePurposes for Homework • To appear vigorous and demanding • To teach material the first time • To keep students busy • To assess students’ final, summative mastery of a topic

8. Let “No homework” be the default response, not “Yes, there’s homework.” Then we have to fight for the justification.

9. Consider, too, how personal technology is changing the way our students do things. We’ve entered a 24-7 work cycle. Official homework as we know it will soon fade.

10. Let’s talk about the classroom and homework… flipped

11. Information Age is old school. We’re in the High Concept Age, and we have the tech to pursue it: • Twitter and other social media • Daily newspapers downloaded for analysis • Museum school partnerships and Virtual Tours • QR codes attached to classroom activities • Student-designed apps • Khan Academy and similar on-line tutorials • Graduation in four states now requires one course taken completely on-line • Google Docs • Google Glass/Eyes – wearables, implantables, augments

12. MOOCS – Massive Open On-line Course • Crowd-Sourcing • MIT Open Courseware • TED talks and ed.Ted.com • Screencasts (ex. Camtasia Studio) • Voicethread • Moodle • PBL’s • Prezi • iMovie • Edmodo

13. Characteristics of Motivational Classrooms(Rick Lavoie, The Motivation Breakthrough, 2007) Relevance Control Balance of Support and Challenge Social Interaction Safety and Security Motivational Forces (Needs): To Belong To be Acknowledged To be Independent To Control To be Important To Assert To Know

14. What Works? Expertise in the age group we teach -- Circle in our lesson plans where we see evidence of our expertise in teaching this age group. For example, young adolescent expertise includes: • Structure and clear limits • Physical activity every single day • Frequent and meaningful experiences with fine and performing arts • Opportunities for self-definition • Safe and inviting emotional atmosphere • Students experiencing real competence • Meaningful participation in families, school, and communities • Basic of students met: food, water, rest, good health, physical presence.

15. “Emotion drives attention, attention drives learning.” -- Robert Sylwester, 1995, p. 119, Wolfe

16. Moving Content into Long-term Memory Students have to do both, Access Sense-Making Process Meaning-Making

17. More Concerns and Tips • Make sure homework practices what you’re teaching. How does building a diorama or making a coloring book based on scenes from the novel, Touching Spirit Bear (Mikaelsen), teach students literary devices, reading, writing, theme, critical analysis, novel structure, or anything else about literacy? • Any assignment requiring parent involvement in order to understand and/or complete it is usually inappropriate. ‘Example of inadequate student preparation: “Mom, I have to do a report on cells. How do I start?”

18. More Concerns and Tips • During novel studies: Stop the note-taking! Don’t commit Reader Rigormoritis! -- “How would you like it if you were watching a movie and someone interrupted you every ten minutes and asked you questions about what you were seeing?” (Bennett and Kalish, p. 130) • Daily exercise has dramatic impact on the development of the brain’s frontal lobe (Bennett and Kalish, p. 91). This affects decision-making, abstract and moral reasoning, personality, impulsivity control, immediate working memory, insight, and being aware of consequences

19. More Concerns and Tips • Avoid any homework assignment that requires the purchase of any item(s) beyond the standard school supply list • In order to maximize learning, students need 9 – 11 hours of sleep per night regularly. Help parents make sure they get them. • Practice makes permanent • Practice builds automacity • “Homework is like coming home and doing your taxes every night.” (Bennett and Kalish, p. 18)

20. “The best way to make students hate reading is to make them prove to you that they have read.” -- Jim Deluca, as quoted in Kohn, p. 177 “To design in advance that homework in certain subjects will be assigned on certain days is to sacrifice thoughtful instruction on the altar of predictability.” -- Kohn, p. 166 “If we sat around and deliberately tried to come up with a way to further enlarge the achievement gap, we might just invent homework.” -- Deborah Meier, as quoted in Kohn, p. 126

21. Two Homework Extremes that Focus Our Thinking • If a student does none of the homework assignments, yet earns an “A” (top grade) on every formal assessment we give, does he earn anything less than an “A” on his report card? • If a student does all of the homework well yet bombs every formal assessment, isn’t that also a red flag that something is amiss, and we need to take corrective action?

22. If we do not allow students to re-do work, we deny the growth mindset so vital to student maturation, and we are declaring to the student: • This assignment had no legitimate educational value. • It’s okay if you don’t do this work. • It’s okay if you don’t learn this content or skill. None of these is acceptable to the highly accomplished, professional educator.

23. “If we don’t count homework heavily, students won’t do it.” Do you agree with this? Does this sentiment cross a line?

24. How much should homework count in the overall grade? - 5% or less, preferably 0% - [If this is a big stretch, start with 10%] ----------------- Homework performance is not an accurate portrayal of final proficiency or mastery. It’s what we do in route to mastery. We grade students against standards, not the routes by which they achieve them.

25. With hocked gems financing him, Our hero bravely defied all scornful laughter That tried to prevent his scheme. Your eyes deceive, he had said; An egg, not a table Correctly typifies this unexplored planet. Now three sturdy sisters sought proof, Forging along sometimes through calm vastness Yet more often over turbulent peaks and valleys. Days became weeks, As many doubters spread Fearful rumors about the edge. At last from nowhere Welcome winged creatures appeared Signifying momentous success. -- Dooling and Lachman (1971) pp. 216-222

26. Prime the brain prior to students doing homework. The impact on learning is much greater! Priming means we show students: • What they will get out of the experience (the objectives) • What they will encounter as they go through the experience (itinerary, structure)

27. Chance Favors the prepared mind. -- Pasteur

28. Components of Blood Content Matrix Red Cells White Cells Plasma Platelets Purpose Amount Size & Shape Nucleus ? Where formed

29. The student’s rough draft: Red blood cells carry oxygen and nutrients around the body. They are small and indented in the middle, like little Cheerios. There are 5 million per cc of blood. There is no nucleus in mature red blood cells. They are formed in the bone marrow and spleen.

30. Chronological Order Definition and Key words: This involves putting facts, events, a concepts into sequence using time references to order them. Signal words include on (date), now, before, since, when, not long after, and gradually. “Astronomy came a long way in the 1500s and 1600s. In 1531, Halley’s Comet appeared and caused great panic. Just twelve years later, however, Copernicus realized that the sun was the center of the solar system, not the Earth, and astronomy became a way to understand the natural world, not something to fear. In the early part of the next century, Galileo made the first observations with a new instrument – the telescope. A generation later, Sir Issac Newton invented the reflecting telescope, a close cousin to what we use today. Halley’s Comet returned in 1682 and it was treated as a scientific wonder, studied by Edmund Halley.”

31. Compare and Contrast Defintion and Key words: Explains similarities and differences. Signal words include however, as well as, not only, but, while, unless, yet, on the other hand, either/or, although, similarly, and unlike. “Middle school gives students more autonomy than elementary school. While students are asked to be responsible for their learning in both levels, middle school students have more pressure to follow through on assignments on their own, rather than rely on adults. In addition, narrative forms are used to teach most literacy skills in elementary school. On the other hand, expository writing is the way most information is given in middle school.”

32. Cause and Effect Definition and Key words: Shows how something happens through the impact of something else. Signal words include because, therefore, as a result, so that, accordingly, thus, consequently, this led to, and nevertheless. “Drug abusers often start in upper elementary school. They experiment with a parent’s beer and hard liquor and they enjoy the buzz they receive. They keep doing this and it starts taking more and more of the alcohol to get the same level of buzz. As a result, the child turns to other forms of stimulation including marijuana. Since these are the initial steps that usually lead to more hardcore drugs such as Angel Dust (PCP), heroin, and crack cocaine, marijuana and alcohol are known as “gateway drugs.” Because of their addictive nature, these gateway drugs lead many youngsters who use them to the world of hardcore drugs.”

33. Problem and Solution Definition and Key words: Explains how a difficult situation, puzzle, or conflict develops, then what was done to solve it. Signal words are the same as Cause and Effect above. “The carrying capacity of a habitat refers to the amount of plant and animal life its resources can hold. For example, if there are only 80 pounds of food available and there are animals that together need more than 80 pounds of food to survive, one or more animals will die – the habitat can’t “carry” them. Humans have reduced many habitats’ carrying capacity by imposing limiting factors that reduce its carrying capacity such as housing developments, road construction, dams, pollution, fires, and acid rain. So that they can maintain full carrying capacity in forest habitats, Congress has enacted legislation that protects endangered habitats from human development or impact. As a result, these areas have high carrying capacities and an abundance of plant and animal life.”

34. Proposition and Support Defintion and Key words: The author makes a general statement followed by two or more supporting details. Key words include: In addition, also, as well as, first, second, finally, in sum, in support of, therefore, in conclusion. “There are several reasons that teachers should create prior knowledge in students before teaching important concepts. First, very little goes into long-term memory unless it’s attached to something already in storage. Second, new learning doesn’t have the meaning necessary for long-term retention unless the student can see the context in which it fits. Finally, the brain likes familiarity. It finds concepts with which it is familiar compelling. In sum, students learn better when the teacher helps students to create personal backgrounds with new topics prior to learning about them.

35. Claim and Evidence Defintion and Key words: The author makes a general statement followed by two or more supporting details. Key words include: In addition, also, as well as, first, second, finally, in sum, in support of, therefore, in conclusion. “There are several reasons that teachers should create prior knowledge in students before teaching important concepts. First, very little goes into long-term memory unless it’s attached to something already in storage. Second, new learning doesn’t have the meaning necessary for long-term retention unless the student can see the context in which it fits. Finally, the brain likes familiarity. It finds concepts with which it is familiar compelling. In sum, students learn better when the teacher helps students to create personal backgrounds with new topics prior to learning about them.

36. Enumeration Definition and Key words: Focuses on listing facts, characteristics, or features. Signal words include to begin with, secondly, then, most important, in fact, for example, several, numerous, first, next finally, also, for instance, and in addition. “The moon is our closest neighbor. It’s 250,000 miles away. It’s gravity is only 1/6 that of Earth. This means a boy weighing 120 pounds in Virginia would weigh only 20 pounds on the moon. In addition, there is no atmosphere on the moon. The footprints left by astronauts back in 1969 are still there, as crisply formed as they were on the day they were made. The lack of atmosphere also means there is no water on the moon, an important problem when traveling there.”

37. T-List or T-Chart: Wilson’s 14 Points Main Ideas Details/Examples 1. 2. 3. 1. 2. 3. 1. 2. 3 Reasons President Wilson Designed the Plan for Peace Three Immediate Effects on U.S. Allies Three Structures/Protocols created by the Plans

38. Cornell Note-Taking Format ReduceRecord [Summarize in short phrases or essential questions next to each block of notes.] Review-- Summarize (paragraph-style) your points or responses to the questions. Reflect and comment on what you learned. [Write your notes on this side.]

39. Somebody Wanted But So[Fiction] Somebody (characters)… wanted (plot-motivation)…, but (conflict)…, so (resolution)… .

40. Something HappenedAnd Then[Non-fiction] Something (independent variable)… happened (change in that independent variable)…, and (effect on the dependent variable)…, then (conclusion)… .

41. Narrowing the Topic The Civil War People Reasons Inventions Battles

42. Is the topic narrow enough to be focused, but broad enough to have plenty to write about?

43. Battles of the Civil War Gettysburg Vicksburg Antietam Manassas

44. Is the topic narrow enough to be focused, but broad enough to have plenty to write about?

45. Battles of Gettysburg Statistics Strategies Famous People Geography

46. Is the topic narrow enough to be focused, but broad enough to have plenty to write about?

47. What was the “Fish hook” strategy used at the Battle of Gettysburg? Yeah. That’s it.

48. Writing about Math • Paragraph 1: What is the problem about? What am I supposed to find? • Paragraph 2: Step-by-Step explanation: First, I…, then I…Finally, I… • Paragraph 3: My answer is ______. My answer makes sense because… -- Adapted from Kenney, quoting Jubinville, 2005, p. 38

49. When we summarize, we: • Delete some elements • Keep some elements • Substitute for some elements. “DKS” Ask students to memorize these three actions.

50. TaRGeTS (Based on Rules-Based Summaries, 1968) T -Trivia (Remove trivial material) R - Redundancies (Remove redundant information) G - Generalize (Replace specifics/lists with general terms and phrases) TS - Determine the Topic Sentence