Making Homework Meaningful

In this AMLE Magazine trio of side-by-side articles, three educators share their views on homework:

• Cathy Vatterott (University of Missouri/St. Louis) says the usual rationale for giving homework – teaching students responsibility – is incomplete. “That may encourage obedience and responsibility for working,” she says, “but the more important purpose is to encourage students to take responsibility for learning. When properly designed, homework encourages students to self-evaluate and reflect on their learning.” Homework should also help teachers see how well students understand, what’s getting in the way of learning, and what should be done next. 

Vatterott is against grading homework because that raises the stakes and prevents an authentic dialogue between student and teacher. “‘I didn’t do it – it was a stupid assignment’ often means ‘I couldn’t do it – it made me feel stupid,’” she says. But will students do homework if it isn’t graded? Yes, if they get feedback and the process genuinely helps them be more successful in school. “Coaches don’t keep score during practice,” says Vatterott, “but they do give lots of individualized feedback and they do require their athletes to practice.” 

• Lee Jenkins (consultant) says, “Traditional homework practice is one of the major contributors of dislike or even disdain for school.” Most homework in middle and high schools is copied, a number of students’ A grades on tests are pulled down by low homework grades, and teachers spend a lot of time grading homework – time that would be better spent preparing lessons. Jenkins suggests a different approach: 

• Assign homework.
• Don’t collect it.
• Instead, give a short quiz at the beginning of class consisting of a random selection of 2-5 problems from the homework. 
• Quickly grade the quiz. 

“The homework quiz measures what is in the students’ heads and not what they copied or was completed by their parents,” says Jenkins. This reduces student pressure and cuts way down on teacher grading time. 

• Larry Sandomir (a teacher in a progressive New York City school) says, “I try to create a learning process rather than unnecessary learning tension… Homework matters if it deepens and expands a student’s understanding of and appreciation for a particular subject. It matters if it helps a student better balance his or her life in terms of time management and sense of proportion… [Students] should want to discuss what they are doing with their parents because it makes them think, wonder, get excited, or even struggle.”

“Giving Feedback,” “Removing Pressure,” and “Making Meaning” by Cathy Vatterott, Lee Jenkins, and Larry Sandomir (respectively) in AMLE Magazine, September 2013 (Vol. 1, #2, p. 6-7), www.amle.org; the authors can be reached at Vatterott@umsl.edu, lee@lbellj.com, and lawrence.sandomir@calhoun.org. 

From the Marshall Memo #504