Because teachers only spend about 13 percent of their waking hours at school, teachers often utilize homework to give them opportunities to apply content knowledge, review, and practice (Hill & Flynn, 2006, p. 77). In fact, ELLs may need to practice a skill as much as twenty-four times to become competent (p. 86). To be a true extension of classwork and gauge student understanding of content, homework assignments should, by and large, be completed independently. This means that work needs to be assigned at the student’s level (p. 78). For ELLs, this often means teacher differentiation of expectations, time modifications, and scaffolded tasks.
One of the most important components of homework is a clear purpose. If students don’t find meaning to their work, the quality suffers. Most often, the best homework results I’ve seen in my students either builds on class material or reviews key concepts. Occasionally, I give students an assignment to prepare them for the next day’s activity, but I find that in all of my classes this year that the on-time homework completion rate isn’t too strong. Therefore, if students are behind on their prep work, they miss out on the learning taking place in class the next day.
As far as feedback goes, teachers need to provide meaningful feedback to students in a timely manner. They need teacher support to help them see their strengths and next-steps. Students rarely submit work that is not a reflection of their best effort. Recognizing and validating the time and work invested into an assignment truly supports the work they completed and motivates them for future assignments. One of the most important facets of timely feedback is student investment in the assignment. If it was done recently, they are much more interested in how they did, and they can better remember what they were thinking as they worked. One facet of feedback that I’d like to integrate more into my classroom is students providing feedback to each other.
Technology integration is a great way to increase student engagement, and since every student at EHS is required to have at least one study period, even kids who cannot access a computer at home can still complete their assignments. In all honesty, though, I don’t have my students utilize technology for regular homework assignments with specific sites/tasks in mind. My students sometimes use history websites to avoid having to lug a heavy book home, and my AP Government students look up current events and political cartoons to bring to class. Web quests, simulations, and primary source activities are things I prefer to integrate into the content day so I can check their understanding as they work through the task.
Hill, J. & Flynn, K. (2006). Classroom instruction that works with english language learners. Alexandria, VA: ASCD Publishing.
