Beginnings...
I was interested in reading Terry Sale's post, where he described this year's innovations and changes. Like Terry, I am trying to reduce the amount of homework I assign my sophomores. My own son is a high school sophomore this year, and I know how exhausting and frustrating the constant load of homework can be. I've told my students that I won't assign homework over the weekends. I believe that homework erodes family life and turns a student away from the joy of learning. My goal this year is to use class time effectively--and also to be more constructivist in my teaching techniques. That probably means I won't be able to "cover" as much content as I've done in the past....but hopefully it means the kids will be more engaged in the learning.
How does this translate into specifics? I'm still working that out, of course, but it looks something like this:
Monday--Students read for pleasure for 20 minutes. They may bring any book that interests them. They earn points by reading. I'm not planning on making them do a big project or book report. All they have to do is read. Then, for 30 minutes we do vocabulary lessons from an old text book I found in the book room. I know it sounds boring, but I'm hoping a formal vocabulary study will help them with their standardized test scores, their writing, their reading. I won't test them on huge lists of words. Instead, we'll try to use the words all week--in discussion, in writing, etc. I'll try to make parts of the vocabulary study "fun."
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday --Discussion and analysis of literary "masterpieces" from our curriculum. I love literature and don't want to teach if I can't expose the students to great writers and books. But I'm going to try to engage the kids by using constructivist techniques and TECHNOLOGY. I'll be less concerned with what I think they should know about a text and more concerned with giving them the opportunity to discover their own meaning.
Thursday--Read for pleasure and writing. This year I plan to give my students more time to write in class. Sometimes, they'll need (and hopefully want) to finish their papers at home, but the goal is to do most of the writing at school. The topics will be varied, interesting, sometimes related to the literature, sometimes not. Every now and then, we'll go to the computer lab to edit and refine a final draft that will be submitted for a grade.
So far, I'm sticking to my plan. My students--though not terribly energetic yet--are working hard and seem to be very pleased with my homework policy.
How does this translate into specifics? I'm still working that out, of course, but it looks something like this:
Monday--Students read for pleasure for 20 minutes. They may bring any book that interests them. They earn points by reading. I'm not planning on making them do a big project or book report. All they have to do is read. Then, for 30 minutes we do vocabulary lessons from an old text book I found in the book room. I know it sounds boring, but I'm hoping a formal vocabulary study will help them with their standardized test scores, their writing, their reading. I won't test them on huge lists of words. Instead, we'll try to use the words all week--in discussion, in writing, etc. I'll try to make parts of the vocabulary study "fun."
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday --Discussion and analysis of literary "masterpieces" from our curriculum. I love literature and don't want to teach if I can't expose the students to great writers and books. But I'm going to try to engage the kids by using constructivist techniques and TECHNOLOGY. I'll be less concerned with what I think they should know about a text and more concerned with giving them the opportunity to discover their own meaning.
Thursday--Read for pleasure and writing. This year I plan to give my students more time to write in class. Sometimes, they'll need (and hopefully want) to finish their papers at home, but the goal is to do most of the writing at school. The topics will be varied, interesting, sometimes related to the literature, sometimes not. Every now and then, we'll go to the computer lab to edit and refine a final draft that will be submitted for a grade.
So far, I'm sticking to my plan. My students--though not terribly energetic yet--are working hard and seem to be very pleased with my homework policy.
posted by Cheryl Makovsky at 6:01 PM
5 Comments:
Wow, this is great! I wish just once we would spend some time in a faculty meeting talking about the joy of learning. Wouldn't that be refreshing?
From afar, and not being an "expert" in your area, this sounds like a wonderful plan. A nice balance (even though you know I don't always like that word) between getting students engaged in the learning and having them find their own meaning, yet still exposing them to the great works of literature and the great and universal ideas contained in them.
This sounds like a class I would really like to take . . .
I admire you and Terry's willingness to step out of the prescribed course. I am looking forward to hearing you and your students' reflections about how this affected their learning as well as their opinions about learning. I applaud you and Terry for forging the way for those of us who are curious but hesitant about the implementation of such a "radical" idea. :)
You make some very interesting points in your blog and I think you have some very good ideas on how to improve the productivity of your students and not make their life so stressful, but have them learning at the same time. As a high school student myself I know that it can indeed be a very stress filled life with all of the homework given along with after school activities. I think that it is a fantastic idea to give your students no homework over the weekend, allowing them to refresh and come back on Monday rested and rearing to go and learn. Giving your students no homework over the weekend also allows them to concentrate more in class and will most likely absorb and learn what you’re teaching a lot better. I think that it is also a very good idea to assign your students a certain number of minutes they have to read each night, that way they don’t wait until the last minute to read it and then rush through it and don’t even understand the book.
I agree with you points on how their are several ways to improve the learning of students. Not giving homework over weekends is an idea that has been around for a long time now, but not very many teacahers use it. I think that giving homework over weekends is stressful because this time should be for relaxing and recovering for the next week. Personally I think that doing work together in classrooms helps students focus more and actually absorb what they are trying to learn. Over weekends students do not care about their work and are focused on other things, this leaves room for slacking and not nearly as good of work. I enjoyed reading this post and seeing things through a different persons perspective, great post!
I agree with you points on how their are several ways to improve the learning of students. Not giving homework over weekends is an idea that has been around for a long time now, but not very many teacahers use it. I think that giving homework over weekends is stressful because this time should be for relaxing and recovering for the next week. Personally I think that doing work together in classrooms helps students focus more and actually absorb what they are trying to learn. Over weekends students do not care about their work and are focused on other things, this leaves room for slacking and not nearly as good of work. I enjoyed reading this post and seeing things through a different persons perspective, great post!
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