This is one of those texts that makes me want to start the school year all over again so I can create the AMAZING, BRILLIANT and INSIGHTFUL environment I imagine as I read. Then, reality sinks in: the year has already started, structures (of my own and others) are already in place, and I have a life to live. The good news: this book is grounded in reality. I love that the conversations with students cover everything from little ideas like: "Don't take off points for wrong answers on homework. It's practice!"(p 134) to bigger ideas: "[have students] gather evidence from several primary and secondary sources, including at least one interview with an expert in the field" (p 144). It made me feel better to see that many simple, do-immediately steps mattered to students. I can be taking those baby steps while working towards those bigger and more brilliant ideals.
I want to focus on homework, in particular. I've been thinking about ways to incorporate student voice to create more personalized, meaningful home practice. I hate spending so much of my time preparing and grading homework that many kids don't do and many more do with minimal effort. It just becomes a waste of everyone's time. So, how can I create better homework with my students without creating more work for myself? How to I offer 120 individuals voice and choice and still maintain sanity (and quality of work)? I want to start working on this now so that I have something ready to launch for my next unit (in 4.5 weeks). What can I realistically achieve in that time?
I love that you take inspiration from the bigger ideas and chose one thing to focus on. When I read the chapter on homework, I wanted to know more about how to create a culture in your classroom where students truly saw the purpose of homework as practice and approached it as an opportunity to learn. I think assessment plays a big role (e.g. grading for effort rather than accuracy) and wonder how what you do with the homework during class time impacts motivation as well. I was in a classroom today where the teacher was going over a quiz in front of the class and left wondering if there may have been a way to structure group work for this process instead. It could be interesting to play around with different ideas. For example, what happens once students have practiced at home given that each student will come back with different levels of mastery and questions about the work?
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, it's a little spooky that you chose almost exactly the same quote I did about grading homework. Way to go critical friend! We obviously think alike!
ReplyDeleteThe word homework itself has developed a bad connotation to kids as a social norm. It's not socially acceptable to "like" homework. I know that several teachers actually call it brain food at our school just to avoid the negativity of the word itself. I'm a big believer in the kids understanding why they're doing homework. It would be interesting to conduct a survey much like Zoltan did at Explorer, asking kids "why" they need to do homework, what it's for, and what happens if they don't do it. If they said something like "it'll hurt my grade if I don't do it" then it's obviously not very useful to them. I'd like to try that survey in my class since I really try to focus on homework as a means to reach a goal. I'll get back to you on that.