Homework

1. Homework Is it good or bad? Are we assigning too much? Why are we assigning it at all?

2. Homework • History of Homework • The “Pro” side • The “Con” side • What we can expect and do as future teachers

3. Homework • Definition: tasks assigned to students by school teachers that are intended to be carried out during non-school hours

4. History of Homework • Cycles of good and bad feelings about homework

5. 1800s • Only high school • Non-compulsory attendance past age 14 • Only best students of the well-off attended high school

6. 1890s- 1940s • Progressive movement • Homework = evil • Most protests for homework in grades 5 through 8 • Still non existent K-4 • OK for high school

7. 1950s and 1960s • Death of progressive movement • Birth of the space race • Homework as national defense policy

8. 1970s • 1968-1972 • Change and challenge to political authority • Shift from homework is best to how to keep kids in school and behaving

9. 1980s • Beginning of strong international competition • Publishing of A Nation at Risk (1983) • Schools go back to basics • Department of Education releases homework guidelines

10. 1990s - Today • Exponential increases in homework • 1981, 1997 and 2004 studies • Grades 3-6 spend 50 – 75 minutes on homework each night by 1997 • Any given day 58% of K-3 have homework in 1997, up from 31% in ‘81

11. 1990s - Today • 2004 Michigan study shows amount of time spent on homework is up 51% since 1981 (across all grades)

12. Examples of What is Out There • Ritenour School District • Elementary • Middle School • High School

13. Pro-Homework Side • Beneficial • Academic • Character Building

14. Academic • supplement in-school academics • impact on test scores • increased student achievement

15. Character Building • Heightened study skills • Time management skills

16. Anti-Homework Side • Time factors • Student achievement? • Reinforce Economic and Social Inequities Goal: HW should be something done occasionally when outside-of-school learning expands on the classroom topic

17. Time Consuming • Extracurricular activities • Family Time or Family Stress • Working OT

18. Extracurriculars • Music lessons • Dance class • Sports teams • Social and psycho-motor skills

19. Family Time • Takes away from quality family time • Parents nagging • Students biggest cause of stress

20. Working OT • School as student’s job • American Educational Research Association report "Whenever homework crowds out social experience, outdoor recreation, and creative activities, and whenever it usurps time that should be devoted to sleep, it is not meeting the basic needs of children and adolescents."

21. Student Achievement • No link between HW and student achievement until high school • HW as school reform on the cheap • Change focus to instructional quality and equity of access • Diminishing returns

22. Diminishing Returns

23. Diminishing Returns

24. Habit? • Universal practice • Perpetuating a belief, myth • Predetermined benefit without thought of how, when, why used

25. Character building • Work ethic? • No study confirmed link between HW and its supposed social benefits • Can be taught at home in different ways

26. The Joy of Learning • Worst part of too much homework • Too much, too soon leads to loss of love in learning • Reading example

27. International Competition • Penn State and Mizzou joint research • 8th graders and math scores • Japan, Czech Republic and Denmark

28. Reinforcing Economic and Social Inequities

29. Role of the Teacher What you will hear: too much too little too long too short too hard too easy too ambiguous

30. The Teacher’s Role • Ill-informed are ones demanding more • beholden to old ways • really wanting reassurance that something is happening in your classroom

31. The Teacher’s Role How to grade? • Grade for completion • Grade for right/wrong answers • Issues related to these

32. The Teacher’s Role • Zeroes—yes or no? • Columbia ZAP program

33. Zero-Homework Policies • Alfie Kohn thinks it should be the default • Phil Lyons in Palo Alto • Bellwether School (Vermont)

34. 10-Minute Rule of Thumb • Elementary • Middle School • High School

35. Designing Homework First Thought: Is this truly something that should be done at home versus at school?

36. Designing Homework What is the purpose? • Instructional • Communication • Political

37. Designing Homework • High Quality • Reinforces, not a new skill • Adjust to abilities and rates of learning • Let students have say in some aspects of the homework • Consider flexible deadlines • Age appropriate?

38. Communication with Parents • Explain district policy • Explain own policy • Explain how they coincide/overlap

39. Projects • Communicate details of big projects near beginning of term, school year • Break down into manageable pieces • Allows preparation

40. Natural vs Un-Natural Homework Elementary • Free choice reading, with progress chart • Replicating a science experiment • TIPS Methodology

41. TIPS methodology • Interactive • Promotes family conversations • Involved without having to teach/tutor • Averages example

42. Natural vs Un-Natural Homework Middle School • Free choice reading • Family history interviews • Organizing materials for future projects

43. Natural vs Un-Natural Homework High School: more independent and involved • Research • Preparatory readings • Project work

44. Summary • No correlation between effectiveness of teacher and amount of HW assigned • Great teachers will have some days of HW and some days off • Not a prescribed idea

45. Further Readings • Kohn, Alfie The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing (Da Capo: 2006) • Bennett, Sara and Nancy Kalish The Case Against Homework: How Homework is Hurting Our Children and What We Can Do About It. (Crown: 2006) • Theory into Practice Summer 2004

46. Sources • Baker, David P. and Gerald K. LeTendre. "Too Much Homework Can Be Counterproductive." Penn State News 31 May 2005: 3. • Bennett, Sara. "Homework Does Not = A's." USA Today 3 July 2006, National Edition: A8. • Corno, Lyn and Xu, Jianzhong. "Homework as the Job of Childhood." Theory Into Practice 43.3 (2004): 227-233. • Coutts, Pamela M. "Meanings of Homework and Implications for Practice." Theory Into Practice 43.3 (2004): 182-188. • Gill, Brian P. and Steven L. Schlossman. "Villain or Savior?: The American Discourse on Homework, 1850-2003." Theory Into Practice 43.3 (2004): 174-181. • Haddock, Vicki. "After Years of Piling It On, There's a New Movement To…Abolish Homework." San Francisco Chronicle 8 Oct 2006, Final Edition: F1. • "The Homework Hubbub." Weekly Reader News 88.8 (2006): 3-3. • Kohn, Alfie. "Down With Homework." Instructor 116.2 (2006): 43-68. • Kohn, Alfie. The Homework Myth: Why our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing. New York: Da Capo, 2006. • Kohn, Alfie. "Kids May be Right After All: Homework Stinks." USA Today 14 Sept 2006, National Edition: A13 • Lacina-Gifford, Lorna J., and Russell B. Gifford. "Putting an End to the Battle Over Homework." Education 125.2 (2004): 279-281. • Nyhan, Paul. "Parents, Authors and Even Some Teachers Rebel Against Homework." Seattle Post-Intelligencer 3 October 2006, Final Edition: A1. • Stokes, Sutton R. "Closing the Book on Homework: Enhancing Public Education and Freeing Family Time." Radical Teacher 75 (2006): 38-39. • Van Voorhis, Frances L. "Reflecting on the Homework Ritual: Assignment and Designs." Theory Into Practice 43.3 (2004): 205-212. • Wallis, Claudia. "The Myth About Homework." Time 4 Sept 2006: 59. • Wascoe, Dan. "Setting Time for Learning." Minneapolis Star Tribune 16 Oct 2006, Metro Edition: B1.