My main professional goal this year is to increase the rigor (without leaving behind some students) in my junior/senior “Basic English” classes. One of the ways that I intend to increase the rigor is by assigning homework more often. I hesitated to assign too much homework the past two years in “Basic English” because students would usually not do any work outside of class and grades dropped when I assigned any homework. I thought that one way I could fix this would be to get students into the habit of doing homework early on in the year. So far it has seemed to work and students are doing a great job getting their work in on time.
I am being very careful that the homework I assign is not just busy work and is really beneficial for students to spend time on. Barb McNulty passed on some articles having to do with homework and I looked through them and felt like I was on the right track so far with what homework I have assigned. Cathy Vatterott’s article “Five Hallmarks of Good Homework” indicates that homework should:
#1 have a clear purpose
• “Our goal is to give students methods that are purposeful for them, methods that work for their learning style.”
#2 require thinking
#3 should allow students to feel some ownership over their work
• “When we customize tasks to fit student learning styles and interests, the task becomes theirs, not ours.”
#4 should be something that students can do on their own and feel competent at
#5 should be aesthetically pleasing
• “Every day, students make decisions about whether to do a homework assignment on the basis of their first impressions. The way homework looks is important”
Excellent goal! I look forward to reading about strategies you're using and how successful they are. I would love to know how you're making sure the assignments require thinking but also allow students to feel competent - that's a tough balance sometimes.
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