Check out what this elementary school is doing in Maryland (also in Iserotope Extras!):

What do you think? At the elementary school level, I think this is the way to go. Unless we carve out time to read — and to allow students to choose what to read — there won’t be enough reading.

But once students hit middle school, things get more complicated, and I value some non-reading homework, as long as it’s consistent, purposeful, and valuable. One of the biggest challenges my students face is unpredictable and scattered homework. Homework shouldn’t change every day and require different sets of academic skills.

What are your thoughts? If teachers shun conventional homework and substitute independent reading in its place, what do you think will happen? More real reading? Fake reading? Worse math skills? 

 Respected teacher John Spencer tweeted this today about homework:

Homework doesn’t teach kids responsibility. It teaches compliance. A better solution is self-directed, independent, optional learning.

— John Spencer (@johntspencer) January 9, 2013

What do you think? What’s the role of homework, and what is it teaching, if anything? 

Related articles

• The Tyranny of Homework:
• How to Set Good Homework
• Utah teacher: assigned homework does not benefit kids

 You know things are serious when the French get involved.

First, it was obesity. Why can the French eat cheese and drink wine and not get fat? (The answer: Lots of smoking, very few cookies.)

Next, it was parenting. Why are French kids so calm and respectful? (The answer: Their parents neglect them and force them to stay at the dinner table while adults eat cheese and drink wine.)

Now the French are weighing in on the homework debate, according to a report yesterday on National Public Radio. (Find the whole article in Iserotope Extras!) In the segment, Eleanor Beardsley covers the current effort by French President Francois Hollande to reform education in his country. One of his proposals: Get rid of homework entirely.

Listen to the report (about 4 mins):

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According to President Hollande, homework creates a greater divide between the “haves” and “have-nots” in French society. Eliminating homework would offer a more-level playing field and give every French child a chance to succeed.

Instead of requiring homework, Hollande proposes, schools should have longer days. In addition, children should attend school on Wednesdays, now a weekly holiday in France.

Sounds like a good plan, right? Do more work in school and less at home?

There’s only one problem: The “have-nots” like homework and want it to stick around. Specifically, poor and middle-class parents are protesting the proposal.

One parent, Aissata Toure, says:

[Eliminating homework] is not a good idea at all because even at a young age, having individual work at home helps build maturity and responsibility, and if it’s something they didn’t quite get in school, the parents can help them. Homework is important for a kid’s future.

In other words, homework not only offers young people academic practice but also promotes important character traits like “maturity” and “responsibility.” Homework is “important for a kid’s future.” This French debate sounds like a very American one.

At the end of the report, a French magazine editor explains why rich French parents advocate for no homework. They already treat their kids to extra-curricular activities like sports, museums, libraries, music, and dance. Homework gets in the way of the higher-class acculturation process.

He’s onto something — and that’s what makes the Great Homework Debate so difficult. If we keep homework, then the achievement gap will persist — students with privilege, who know the game of school, will continue to outpace their peers. On the other hand, if we get rid of homework, then the achievement gap will persist — students with privilege will have greater access to extra-curricular activities (as they do already) and will continue to outpace their peers.

Tough one. What do you think? What are your thoughts about the homework debate? Let me know. Or check out my previous posts about homework. 

 Often I find myself feeling like I’m chasing my students down and making sure they take care of their business, rather than the other way around.

It’s like Hide and Go Seek. The student misses an assignment, tries to hide, and it’s up to me to follow up, find the student, and rectify the situation.

It’s exhausting. It’s enabling. And it doesn’t teach students how to take responsibility. And sometimes, it’s necessary.

But this year, I’ve been trying to flip things a bit and have my students take more ownership. Here are a couple things I’m doing:

1. Requiring students to text me if they’re going to be absent or late.
This sends the message that I expect my students to be in my class and to be on time. I want to make sure they they know that I care about them and that my class is important for their education.

When they text me, my students demonstrate regard. Another benefit is that I have a record of students, in addition to my attendance binder, who are late and absent, and I can easily text them back to remind them not to get behind and to check my class website for the classwork and homework.

2. Requiring students to write a thoughtful note if they miss an assignment.
I got this idea from a teacher in Lisa Delpit’s most recent book, Multiplication is for White People. I’ve just started doing this, and so far, it’s working well. For too many students, homework is an option, not a habit. When I taught ninth graders, it was not uncommon for less than half to complete their homework.

The note — in which students explain why they didn’t complete the assignment, how missing homework impacts their education, and when they will complete the assignment — does two things. First, it sends the message that when something is due, you must turn something in. You can’t have nothing. Second, like the texting requirement, it puts accountability on the student. Instead of missing something — instead of hiding — the student must be reflective and produce something. You can’t just run away and fail.

You  may ask how I’m doing with follow up. Do students actually text and write notes? By and large, yes. I’d say that about 90 percent of my students text me when they’re absent or late. The other 10 percent need follow up and intervention. Some of the non-texters rebel against the expectation and think that the expectation is a form of control. I respond by saying that it is a form of mutual respect, relationship, and commitment to education.

I’ll keep you posted about the no-homework note. I predict it’ll be harder to enforce. After all, a thoughtful note takes at least three to five minutes, much longer than a hurried text. But I think it’ll be worth it to put in the time to make this an expectation in my classroom. Otherwise, homework will continue to be something students will avoid without thoughtfulness and follow-through. 

 The homework question – how much to assign? how to encourage students to do homework? —  continues to intrigue me.

A recent blog post in The Washington Post, “The Homework Trap and What to Do About It,” by Kenneth Goldberg, offers a modest proposal to solve the homework problem.

Among the ideas: (1) Assign time-bound homework, (2) Reduce penalties for missing homework.

I agree to #1 in theory. It’s true that students work at different paces. If the goal of homework is to extend learning past class, then it makes sense to ask students to make a commitment of time rather than to demand a complete product the next day.

On the other hand, assigning time-bound homework does not sound as urgent to students. If my teacher tells me to go home and read for 30 minutes — which I did last year — will I actually do it? In other words, would more or less homework get done? I’m going to ask my students, as a hypothetical, about time-bound homework and what effect it would have on their habits.

As for #2, I also agree in theory. It makes sense that homework factors in as a modest part of a student’s grade. But I also know that if my students weren’t doing significant homework, they’d be writing their eighth essay next week, not their 16th. We’d be on our fifth novel of the year, not our 10th. Sure, a class is rigorous and memorable not because of the number of assignments that students complete. But the fact remains that, in any college-prep class, homework is a big part.

The other problem with reducing penalties for missing homework is that even more students would miss homework. There is no flow to a class when 25 individuals arrive to class in 25 different places. The secret to a successful class is to build a unified story, a sense of a common experience.

The answer to the homework problem, then, is not whether to assign more or less — or whether to assign time vs. completed products. I think the most important thing is to make sure that homework is a meaningful, critical piece of my curriculum — that it’s valued by students. It’s also crucial to monitor homework completion so that it never falls below 70 percent. If it goes lower, then it’s time to rethink and regroup.

What do you think about Goldberg’s ideas for homework? 

 For a long time now, I’ve thought about ways to increase homework completion.

The Nightly Text was fairly successful, but still, homework decreased precipitously on weekends.

Last unit, without too much fanfare, I introduced a new idea to encourage students to read and annotate The Awakening.

I called it “Group Annotations.”

Up until this book, I regularly gauged my students’ reading by checking their annotations. It was simple: I’d go around, table by table, and do a spot check.

This time, I made a small change: Your annotation score was based on your overall team’s score.

That meant: If you did your annotations but your peers didn’t, you’d lose. And vice versa: If your peer did their annotations and you didn’t, you’d hurt them.

The results were excellent. Homework completion was more than 95 percent.

More than any other reading homework assignment I’ve done this year, Group Annotations encouraged students to do their reading nightly, to annotate closely, and to be prepared for classroom discussion.

My students didn’t want to be the one bringing down their team.

A bit of a warning: This idea likely would not work everywhere. After all, students have to care about each other and demonstrate social responsibility. In addition, the practice is a bit unethical; it’s a totally individual assignment with no group product that is being assessed collectively.

But it worked, and that’s what counts the most.

It’s intriguing to me how much better my students did with group accountability. When they’re working for themselves, they sometimes get lazy. When they’re working for me, they sometimes do so begrudgingly. But when they’re working for each other, their drive kicks in. 

 My experiment with the Nightly Text, this unit’s ongoing homework assignment, has been a major success.

Reading’s up, homework’s up, and the quality of discussions is up, too.

One additional benefit of the Nightly Text is that it’s been great for formative assessment.

Too often as teachers, we wait too long to find out that our students are falling behind. We spend so much time developing engaging culminating projects and daily lessons that we don’t recognize how important it is assess whether our students are making solid progress.

That’s where formative assessment comes in, and that’s how the Nightly Text is helpful.

When I receive a text, I get a quick snapshot of a student’s understanding. If a student is off point, I can intervene immediately instead of waiting until the next day.

Here’s an exchange I had tonight with a student (about The Awakening). Part of the homework was to write an analytical question for tomorrow’s Socratic seminar.

Student: Do you think women are still under men’s control?

Me: Maybe a good question for a social studies class, but there’s nothing in the book that will help you answer that. Text me back.

Student: Why do you think Kate Chopin decided to write against women’s gender roles in society?

Me: You’re getting closer, although this question relies heavily on speculation rather than textual analysis. Try to ask a question about the last 2 pages. Text me back!

Student: On the last page, Edna hears her father’s voice and her sister’s voice. Why do you think she hears her family’s voices and not Robert’s voice?

Me: OK, that’s good.

Student: Yes!

My student’s first question, although interesting, was not appropriate for a text-based discussion. His second attempt was closer — by centering on a major theme in The Awakening – but it was too broad and wouldn’t encourage his peers to delve into the text.

After a little direct prodding, however, my student was able to write a question that — although not perfect — will be a solid one for tomorrow’s discussion.

Sure, I could’ve checked his question tomorrow, but that would’ve been last minute. My student would’ve gone into the discussion without confidence.

Now, both my student and I can rest comfortably. He feels prepared to contribute, and I know that every student will have at least one solid question to ask. 

 I’ve been thinking of banning homework on weekends, but I can’t get myself to make the move. After all, if there’s no homework on weekends, that really means there’s no homework on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays — nearly half the week!

On the other hand, even if I assign homework, that doesn’t mean my students will do it. Take a look at the bar graph below, which shows homework completion over the past couple weeks — and which clearly demonstrates the weekend homework slump.

You could make the argument that because my students mostly do not do homework on the weekend, I am punishing them and actively creating failure in my classroom. After all, I don’t have a strong enough way to encourage them to complete homework on the weekends. My text reminders and phone calls don’t seem to work.

Another idea is to create an alternative to weekend homework. That’s partly what I’m trying to do with Weekenders this year. Instead of your normal homework assignment, I’ve been having students write posts on our class website, iseroma.com. I particularly like this week’s assignment, which encourages students to read something other than our class novel.

But even though Weekenders seem more fun than other assignments, the turn-in rate still isn’t particularly high. And that’s why tonight, I’m feeling like a failure. Sure, I could text my students again, prod them, encourage them, even call them up, but I don’t much feel like it.

Sometimes, I’m ineffective, and instead of working immediately to fix the problem, it’s OK to do some thinking and figure out what’s next. 

 This unit, I’m trying something new to encourage my students to read the assigned book and to complete their homework.

I call it the Nightly Text.

Students get a few chapters of The Awakening to read, and in addition to annotating the text, students must answer one question that I send to them by text message. Their text message response is due by 11 p.m. that night.

The experiment is a total success so far. My students like the assignment. It’s quick and easy for me to do. The turn-in rate is high. Most important, there is much more reading taking place, which leads to better classroom discussions.

The Nightly Text experiment is new, so perhaps its success comes from its novelty. But here are some other reasons that I think it’s working:

1. It’s just one question. I’m not giving students a long list of questions. My students appreciate that the focus is on reading and annotating. If my point is to encourage deep reading, I can’t bombard my students with too much extra.

2. It’s not a worksheet. There’s nothing for my students to keep, organize in their binder, write on, or turn in. Students do nothing except read and then wait for their nightly text to arrive. Then they text back.

3. It makes a boring assignment dynamic. There’s nothing hugely engaging about reading a teacher-assigned book, but it has to happen for deep discussions to occur in class. By transforming the old-fashioned assignment into digital form — where it appears on a phone! — there’s enough interest and convenience for students to do it.

4. It’s great formative assessment. When I receive a text, it’s easy for me to determine how closely each student is reading. In addition, I can get a sense of the class’s progress. If my students are missing something, I can bring it up during the next class — instead of waiting until it’s too late.

5. It shows that I care about their learning. When I get a text, I usually text back a quick comment of praise or a follow-up question. My students appreciate the immediate feedback. It tells students that I care that they’re doing homework.

6. It starts a classroom discussion. When our class meets the next day, there’s already something to talk about. To facilitate conversation, I have been copying and pasting their texts to my class website. My students walk in and see their comments on the screen. That tells them it’s time to get started.

I’m really interested to see where this goes. Will the novelty wear off? What are my next steps? I have some ideas (Google Form? Edmodo?), but I want to proceed deliberately. I also want to make sure that I ask my students what they think.

Let me know what you think! 

 In my last post, I considered banning homework on weekends.

And then today, I read a recent article in Ed, the magazine of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. The debate on homework — always a controversial topic — is getting more and more heated.

On one side are the anti-homeworkers like Alfie Kohn, who say that homework amounts to busywork. Kohn says that homework is the way schools prepare children for factory work. He decries the homework-every-night model:

“The point of departure seems to be, ‘We’ve decided ahead of time that children will have to do something every night (or several times a week)

Other anti-homeworkers complain that their children deserve more free time after school. One mother in California went so far as to say:

“In closing, I just want to say that I had more free time at Harvard Law School than my son has in middle school, and that is not in the best interests of our children.”

On the other hand, pro-homeworkers think that American youth do not spend enough time on their academic pursuits. One parent on the Race to Nowhere blog wrote:

Any pursuit of excellence, be it in sports, the arts, or academics, requires hard work. That our culture finds it okay for kids to spend hours a day in a sport but not equal time on academics is part of the problem.”

Some schools are considering changes to homework. One elementary school principal in Maryland eliminated homework and substituted 30 minutes a night of reading (which I think is great — and which I consider homework).

Over the summer, Los Angeles Unified School District approved a policy decreasing homework but quickly reversed its decision.

In fact, amid all the opposing viewpoints, some people, like Harvard professor Howard Gardner, realize the real truth about homework. Gardner says:

“America and Americans lurch between too little homework in many of our schools to an excess of homework in our most competitive environments.”

In my urban public school, the real problem is too little homework, not too much. Weekends, in particular, are a No Homework Zone. Maybe assigning homework isn’t the perfect solution, but we do need to figure out ways to extend the academic day and to promote student thinking and skill building.

What do you think?