Do you check your student's homework? No, not check.... I mean give feedback on their homework. If you're not giving meaningful feedback on the work they've done and simply marking it as "done" than..... "I don't want you giving any more homework!"
The purpose behind homework is to give students the opportunity to try applying a skill that they've learned in school. For many this is a difficult task. So difficult that they often seek help from adults or peers. Many times the assistance they've received is unreliable compared to what you have done in the classroom.
....and now they bring their work back to school.
Some (few) students return with a confident understanding of what they learned and applied. The rest, without any feedback, haven't benefited from the activity. Without meaningful feedback (You know... the kind that goes beyond writing "good job" on the top of the paper) to add clarity..... the homework is pointless.
Your reaction?
I found it interesting. I believe that homework should be used as a form of assessment.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Sunday's Star Ledger also had a interesting editorial posted as a Q & A forum with Alfie Kohn entitled Imagine a world with no homework. (http://blog.nj.com/njv_editorial_page/2011/06/imagine_a_world_with_no_homewo.html)
Both certainly gave me something to think about. Homework or no homework. That is the question?