[we] have two questions that we would like to ask you.
We were wondering why do you assign mandatory homework?
What is the use of it?
I'm quite certain they were unaware of how loaded their questions were or that I had been (briefly) discussing/lurking on this topic during the #isedchat on Twitter (archive here) two nights before they contacted me.
After some investigation, I discovered that they had contacted several teachers and were preparing for a debate. I'm not sure what the full context is, but I decided that I would share my thoughts with them as freely as I felt I could.
This was my reply:
My first year as a teacher (at another school) I wasn’t assigning much homework at all and at Back-to-School Night a parent came up to me and told me that she thought my class was too easy because there wasn’t a lot of homework. That was an interesting early introduction to how differently people feel about this issue. A few years later in my first year at a different school I had a nightmare that my students didn’t have any time to play or have free time after school because of all of the homework they had (not just from my class). So you can tell, homework is something I think about a lot.
When at all possible, I prefer to give flexible homework. For example, my current CNN Student News assignment is to watch videos for two specific dates (Tues/Thurs) each week, but the discussion question responses do not have to be turned in until Monday. An upcoming math HW assignment is to choose 6 out of 20 questions to complete, as opposed to me assigning specific numbers. I don't seem to be able to get around to doing this for every homework assignment. I really, really like projects because my hope is that students can take a fundamental topic and connect it to something that has personal meaning for them. I hope they make students connect more deeply with topics.
But I don't think I've directly answered your two questions yet ...
Why do I assign mandatory homework? What is the use of it?
- Different students learn at different paces. Sometimes students need additional practice beyond what takes place at school to really get a good understanding of a topic. I would love to be able to tailor individual homework for every student, but there isn't the time. Some students who need additional practice would not complete it if it were not mandatory. I try to limit the amount of nightly homework time I assign so that everyone gets a little practice, and for kids who need it less it won't take too much of their time.
- There is a lot we try to cover in the school year. Even though each year it seems like teachers try to cut out little things here and there so we are trying to squeeze in less, it always seems like there never is enough time. Part of being able to get through everything involves using time outside of the school day.
- I prefer to use class time for things that require face-to-face time with me or discussion with other students. While this doesn't always happen, in my perfect world, that's how it would be. With that in mind, I often (like with CNN current events videos or textbook reading) try to assign things for home that don't need that layer of interaction. Although, as I say that, wouldn't it be interesting if we watched CNN Student News as a class at the same time and had realtime discussions about it?
So, in writing all of this, I think my big take away is that it all boils down to time available to cover topics in the curriculum (more Social Studies) and meeting each student's pace of learning (more Math).
There are many educators who are strongly opposed to any kind of homework - I actually think I lean more in that direction the longer I teach. The difficulty for me is being able to get through everything ... and since I am not the only one who teaches the subjects I teach, I am not free to just eliminate topics from my classes.
And while I neglected to mention it in my email (I typed it off the cuff and didn't sit and draft & revise), learning time management skills is another reason I often cite in discussions about homework. It was brought to mind again after reading Andrea Townsend's article in "The Atlantic."
I find that each year I walk a fine line between wanting to make sure my students are prepared for the rigor (and work load) they encounter in future years, but also allow them to be kids. And then I read articles like Joanne Lipman's in "The Wall Street Journal" and wonder if maybe I should be assigning more ... just kidding!
I think purposeful homework can be useful, but in my perfect world we would be able to accomplish most of what we want to during the school day and our students would be free to explore personal interests after school. If we gave them more time, maybe they could find a robotics club to take the place of math or science homework, join a book club to take the place of English/language arts, or start their own blog and cover all matter of topics.
