Chapter 13: Compassion, Flexibility and Homework

by April

I was interested in the topic of homework as well. I feel like we are really learning some great new ways of thinking about things in response to the traditional methods that we grew up with. I liked the idea of holding kids accountable for their homework as well. I don't think this happened when I was a student and I'm not sure if it does now, from what you said, probably not. It does make sense though that students would learn more if they were required to fix their wrong answers (with help as needed) so that they learn and show the right way of doing something. I'm thinking of math in particular. I was always anxious about math when I was younger. I'd take home an assignment, do it, turn it in and get a grade. The problem was that I didn't actually get help on the things I wasn't understanding. I'm guessing many students don't take it upon themselves to figure out where they went wrong on their homework. They probably just look at the grade and throw it out like I always did. Perhaps having students rework through problems would help with the issue of motivation as well. Students might be more apt to try and take risks if they know that they will be shown their mistakes and given an opportunity to learn from them and rework them.

Lastly, I think I fall more in the middle of the homework vs. no homework argument. I believe it goes back to what Dr. Finnely was talking about today, that is, knowing your community. I think someone mentioned the issue of how homework can cause students from lower SES to fall further behind because it is likely that their parents are able to give them the same support as the middle- and upper-class parents. When I'm a teacher, I think I will take into consideration this issue and if it seems that students aren't really benefitting from homework, I will try and make sure that I'm not relying on it too heavily for learning. I've also heard a lot of parents from a variety of SES backgrounds complaining about the ridiculous amount of homework their children get. That's something to keep in mind as well.