Homework! Oh, Homework!

I hate you! You stink!

These are the opening lines of a poem by Jack Prelutsky. This ode to the universal feeling of dread and despair that all of us are conditioned to feel about homework gives voice to our desire to wreak violence on a very effective and useful learning tool. I’ve often wondered where this negative feeling about homework comes from. Are we inherently underachievers? Do we value our free time so much that we resent any intrusion into it? Is competitiveness a myth? Or has homework been so misused by educators and parents that its usefulness is hidden?

In the U.S., homework has been a controversial issue for more than 100 years. In fact, in 1901, California outlawed homework for pupils in grades kindergarten through eighth grade and limited it for high school students. The Ladies’ Home Journal ran a national campaign from 1900 to 1913 against homework, using children’s health as its primary rationale along with disruption to family life. Progressive education in the 1940s and early ’50s altered the discussion about homework from banning it to making it more creative than rote memorization.

The success of Sputnik in 1957 changed the debate about homework to one of quantity and acceleration. In 2001, “The End of Homework: How Homework Disrupts Families, Overburdens Children, and Limits Learning” was published. The title clearly states the approach the authors of this book espouse. Current homework strives to reinforce skills that will improve standardized test scores and meet Maine Learning Results.

In “Sam’s Adventures In School” by Sara Quay and Russell Quaglia, a student, Sam, decides to practice a skill that he is having difficulty with at home. The skill is writing the letter S forward instead of backward. In effect, the student creates his own homework and sees tangible results for his efforts. This would be the ideal situation for homework – together with a teacher, a student decides what needs to be practiced, reviewed, researched, read and thought about. In other words, what are the essential next steps for a student to take in the process of learning? The student would take those steps and then the next and then the next.

Unfortunately, our educational system is not set up to accommodate that method of homework. Our current system is set up in such a way that it pits parents, students, teachers and administrators against one another. Parents want their children to be “well-rounded.” This is usually interpreted as being very good to great at everything inside and outside of the classroom. Parents struggle to balance their own workdays with family commitments. Students are praised and rewarded for stellar achievement in academics and extracurricular activities. They are not recognized for attempts and struggles and effort and reaching “aha” moments in their journey to be educated.

Teachers know that, used appropriately, homework can be a valuable tool. However, identifying, designing and assigning appropriate homework is hard and time-consuming work. Administrators need those standardized test scores to be as high as possible for as much of the student population as possible.

Since homework usually originates with teachers, what can teachers do to alleviate some of the problems inherent in homework assignments?

. Teachers need to be moderate in the quantity of homework and in its timing. Readers in one community have told me of a recent middle school grade level team that gave no homework assignments at all for Wednesday evening and on Thursday assigned four different pieces of homework due the next day. If the teachers are working as a team, shouldn’t their assignments be more evenly distributed?

. Homework assignments need to have clear directions (What am I supposed to do?), a clear purpose (Why am I doing this?), and a clear outcome (What does the learning look like?). I have seen the good, the bad and the ugly of homework assignments from kindergarten through college. The good ones have clarity. Good homework assignments are also positive.

A reader wrote to me of a language arts teacher who gave the assignment to write down “every single book you have ever read.” The reader’s child was quite excited because he loved to read and became engaged in listing and categorizing his readings. The teacher accepted everyone’s lists and then, reportedly, informed the class that they could not use any of the books on their lists for their schoolwork because rereading would not be allowed.

This teacher could have avoided this negative homework by reframing the assignment by explaining that reading instruction is a balance between new challenges and old favorites. New challenges stretch readers with more complex text or different genres, and old favorites facilitate in-depth comprehension and opportunities to make connections to other learning. His assignment could then have been designed to reveal the genres each student usually reads and what genres each student has not tried. In addition, he could have asked each student to design a “Top 10 List of All Time Favorite Books.” The discussions and information to inform instruction from this assignment could be a touchstone for the whole year.

. Completed assignments need to be returned to students within a reasonable period. If the purpose of homework is to improve student achievement, students need to be shown their areas of weakness as well as their areas of strength in a timely manner. There is nothing more frustrating than trying to help a son or daughter with homework and asking, “Well, what did the teacher think of the way you approached this last week?” only to be told, “I don’t know. We didn’t get it back.”

. Lack of homework shouldn’t automatically result in penalties. I am against zero tolerance policies for accepting late work. Many times students don’t complete homework because of circumstances beyond their control. There may be a big sister arguing as loudly as only a teenager can during homework time. A little brother could be throwing up all afternoon and evening. Mom’s car may break down and Dad has to put everyone in the car to go and rescue her. These and similar factors influence a student’s ability to successfully complete homework. Or the student could have struggled with the homework, investing significant time attempting to understand a concept, a reading or a process and not grasping the idea. Penalizing students with detention, loss of participation in extracurricular activities and grade reductions does not increase student learning and achievement.

These four guidelines would go a long way toward easing homework concerns. Teachers, students, parents and administrators all have a significant role to play in the situation. When all four groups are working together with commonly understood expectations, all of us in education just might chant:

Homework! Oh, homework!

I want you! You’re mine!

What do you think about homework? What is the best homework assignment you ever saw? What is the worst? E-mail me at conversationswithateacher@gmail.com.