Homework- Yes or No?- 10/10/14

Upon reading this article: http://www.education.com/magazine/article/The_Homework_Debate/  I was inspired to share my thoughts on the great homework debate. This article mainly focuses on a parental perspective of the homework debate, assuring that no studies have found a correlation between homework and higher student achievement. Johnanna Sorrentino, the writer of this article, maintains that homework is merely a stressor for families and does not actually teach self-discipline and time management in students, as previously thought. The author then goes on to say that if homework is given, it should be meaningful and make students more interested in the topic. The notion is also mentioned that schools should be set at a default "no homework policy". While I can certainly understand where parents are coming from in their hate for homework; from an educators standpoint, homework plays a key role in letting students and teachers accomplish more in their time during the school year, and correctly designed assignments enhance student learning and lead to the development of higher order thinking skills.

In the context of language education, homework serves to mainly practice grammatical points and drill grammar into the minds of students, in an almost monotonous sense, without context (a frame and theme for the practice) and without any student choice, thus dropping student interest in the assignment. In this regard, I find that the no homework policy would be a blessing for students  who despise grammar. However, how do we then reinforce topics that have been taught in class? If no homework is allowed, guided practice would have to be conducted in class, thus eating up valuable instruction time and time that could be used to further engage students.

This then leads to the notion that maybe the structure of homework, or what I have deemed here as "grammatical guided practice" needs to change. Instead of having sample sentences that students need to translate for homework, or having students fill in the correctly conjugated verb in the blank, perhaps students could, during class time, read a story about the topic of their choosing and write a response using the grammatical point in question.

Providing an alternative to grammar guided practice, the focus would then turn to projects that are assigned as homework. These projects function to increase student interest, get students to question and think at a higher and deeper level and are seemingly worth students' time at home, but with a no homework policy, once again these projects would have to be conducted during valuable class time. There is simply not enough time to accomplish all that is required of a class within only the time spent in school. This is where the real disconnect occurs. There are some assignment, in my opinion, that students will have to complete at home. Thus, this no homework policy will create a more rushed class period for teachers and students. Instead of adopting a completely homework free environment, I propose that we, as teachers give students less "busy work" and more assignments that promote student creativity and higher order thinking.