“Why are we doing this?”

1. “Why are we doing this?” An exploration in homework Sarah Dianese sdianese@gmail.com

2. Background • Beginning of year • Change of placements • Challenging assumptions

3. Assumptions • Students’ values come from their parents. • Students become more responsible as they mature. • Older students understand the purpose of homework.

4. Assumption #1: Values from parents=values from students • Only 26% of 9th grade respondents are forced to finish their schoolwork before socializing with friends… …but over 99% of them are either rewarded for good grades are punished for bad grades. Parents value GRADES

5. Consequences of Skipping HW

6. Quotable “Loss of preveleges [sic]” “I am thrown into a whirlwind of agony. I feel awful about myself and remorse for my negligence.” “Nothing.” “Homework means nothing, teachers do not even grade it.”

7. Assumption #2: Students become more responsible as they mature. • “I mean yeah, [I do my homework] for the most part. Unless I forget or something” –AP Lit student • “Okay, so like freshman year I was like you have to do homework because it’s like what you have to do…now as a senior I kind of understand why I should do homework, but I still don’t really do homework.”-AP Lit student

8. Reasons for missing assignments:

9. Responsibilities

10. “I’m really busy…you see the whole picture of all that you have to do and it just, you’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m just gonna watch Doctor Who.’”-10th grade Advanced Honors students

11. Assumption #3: Older students understand the purpose of homework. Which grade does each piece of data come from? • “Is like, like, in life you’re gonna have to do stuff that makes no sense” • “If they said ‘figure this out so you can do this,’ I’d be like, ‘great,’ but they’re like, ‘figure this out for no apparent reason.’”

12. What do you get out of doing homework?

13. Quotable “I hadn’t spoken to my dad in three days.” Consequences of Doing Homework “Better grades, less free time.” “I get good grades which keeps me eligible for sports and will have a greater opportunity to do more things in life.” “Nothing.” “Getting bored in ten seconds.”

14. A word from the experts “Some perception of the relation of consequences to means applies even with the very young. Otherwise an activity ceases to be educative because it is blind. With increased maturity, the problem of interrelation becomes more urgent" (Dewey 84). Dewey, John. Experience and Education. New York: Macmillan, 1938. Print.

15. Other Patterns from my Data

16. Self-Identification “Me personally, I’m a bad person in that I can not care less in some ways.”-10th grade Advanced Honors student

17. Revisiting Assumptions • Students’ values come from their parents. • In the realm of homework, they do. • Students become more responsible as they mature. • Respecting students’ other commitments • Older students understand the purpose of homework. • Transparency in the classroom

18. Further Questions • How can we separate students’ identity of themselves as students from their completion of homework? • How can we make sure that students see the purpose of their assigned work? • How can we assign the homework we need to give while respecting our students’ other commitments?