Do You Need to Reconsider How You Utilize Homework?

4:29:00 PM Viv Beck 0 Comments

Is Homework Even Necessary?

Teachers have the ability to design worlds of wonder for their students. They decide what matters, and make it matter. When backed with passion, I'm convinced that a good teacher could make watching paint dry an unforgettable event.
This too applies to homework. If teachers recognize why homework matters, if they are able to identify its purpose with clarity, and if they use it to support students in their learning, they can help students see it from the same perspective.
Rick Wormeli, a leader in standards based grading, address how teachers can maximize students' experiences with homework. He addresses how to grade homework. Watch his video:


More Information on the Topic...

Here is an excerpt from MiddleWeb.com written by Rick Wormeli

Smart Homework: Can We Get Real?

Prime the homework pump

Answering basic recall questions can make students feel like they are accomplishing a lot, but the assignments lose their luster quickly. The act of reading material and plucking answers from the text becomes drudgery. Prime the pump with assignments calling for higher thinking levels: comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.
According to Frank Williams, there are eight levels of creative thought; the first four are cognitive, the last four are affective. All eight levels provide great stimuli for homework assignments. Here are some examples from Imogene Forte and Sandra Schurr’s book, Integrating Instruction in Science (1996):


  • Fluency – Think of the characteristics that distinguish a living thing from a nonliving thing. List as many of these characteristics as you can.
  • Flexibility – Devise a classification system for living things based on characteristics of living things that manifest differently in different kinds of organisms.
  • Originality – Write a description of life as if you had to explain it to a nonliving thing.
  • Elaboration – Explain how biologists rely on the methods and discoveries of scientists in other fields to do their work.
  • Risk Taking – Tell how you feel about the possible benefits and the potential dangers of modern advances in genetic engineering.
  • Complexity – Discuss the issues involved in the work of a scientist whose discoveries improve some lives, but whose work is based on experiments that harm other living things.
  • Curiosity – What questions would you like to ask a biologist in order to learn about a typical day in the life of a scientist?
  • Imagination – Write a brief imaginative account of Marcello Malpighi’s first view of the movement of blood through capillaries with a microscope.