... at least not intentionally. Some days my students will have a few problems to do at home if they don't use their time wisely in class or if we run out of time and it needs to get done for the following day. Other than that, my students never see homework on the lesson plan, and I'll tell you why. Below are a list of "reasons" I hear from educators (INCLUDING MYSELF...) for why we assign homework... debunked.
It prepares them for the "real world"
This is one that I am guilty of saying time and time again. When I first started teaching, I constantly found myself asking if I should or shouldn't be assigning homework to my students. When I taught 7th grade, I was thrown into a school where our students were assigned homework almost every night, and although sometimes I saw the value, other times I just felt guilty for assigning it. So I would tell myself I was doing my job as an educator by "preparing them for the real world," referring to both the students heading to college and those would would jump straight into the career path.
But the more I thought about it... I started to ask myself, does it REALLY? Because I know when I was in college, I usually only had class for 2-5 hours a day and had plenty of time to devote to homework as needed. We got assigned a lot of work outside of class, yes, but most of my classes also only met for 3 hours total a week, whereas our students are sitting in school for 8 hours A DAY. Working within a block schedule, I see EACH class for 7.5 hours a WEEK, which means that some of that time SHOULD be devoted to classwork so they don't have to take it home. Their life in K-12 looks much different than that of a college student, so using the reason that it prepares them for college is not only incomparable, but it also isn't true for half of our students who don't ever plan to attend a typical university.
While homework does give keep them accountable and teaches them to prioritize (skills they WILL need as adults), it also doesn't totally translate to the workforce. MOST jobs don't require employees to do work outside of their paid hours. If they work an hourly job, they aren't going to be bringing work home to complete without pay, and even if they have a salaried job (such as a career like teaching) I would never encourage them to do so. Many educators I know burn out so quickly for this very reason. They are working 8 hours a day, yet still bringing work home to do on the evenings, weekends, holiday breaks, etc to do outside of their contracted hours. This is something I strongly encourage teachers NOT to do, so why would I ask my students to?
Their job is to be a student
While I do agree that being a student comes before many other things in their lives, at the end of the day, our kids have so much more on their plate than just coming to class and doing homework at night. Not only is this time in their life crucial to their development (meaning they should be spending it with family, eating dinner, and getting adequate sleep) but they also have many other things taking up their time. This really hit me the other day when I asked my students to finish an assignment outside of class. We got done with school at 3:30, and after school, I went to watch a soccer game in which a few of my students from class were playing. Once that ended at 6:00 PM, I saw many of those athletes go into the school and attend the volleyball game to support their peers and spend time with their friends. At the same time, a town board meeting was taking place that lasted until 9:00 PM, which many of those same students attended after the game ended. I didn't get home from school that night until 9:30 PM, exhausted from a full day of work and after school activities... and there is NO WAY I would have been in the mindset to complete additional work. Not only that, but I needed to get to bed so I could function at my best the following day. So how would my students?
The next day I got to class and some of them didn't have the assignment done, so I gave them time in class and shifted my lesson without reprimanding them. Because athletics, socialization, and taking a stand at a meeting such as that is also important. Our kids are busy. They have lives outside of school, and they shouldn't be punished for being involved in multiple things. These are typically the students who face burnout and mental health crises as a result of stress and overwhelm.
On the opposite end, we also have students who aren't super involved in school, but they have other things happening at home. Many of my students go home to a house where they play mom or dad and take care of their siblings while their parents work all night. Other students go straight to work until 10:00 PM. Majority of these students don't have a support system at home to help them be successful.
We need to remember that.
We don't have time in class
Stop. Rushing. Through. Lessons. Just. To. Hit. A. Standard. And please remember, your lessons should be flexible and ever-changing to meet the needs of your students. If you print a calendar for the entire month and it doesn't change at all, are you accommodating to that specific group of kids? Are you taking time to re-teach when needed? Are you adding in additional material to make sure they grasp the concepts?
Not only that, but doing the work IN CLASS provides an opportunity for rich discussion. As an English teacher, I used to think I should assign the reading outside of class so it wouldn't take the time we have together. And sometimes, this is still true. But think about when you read a book... Do you read a chapter, step away from it for a day, and THEN want to talk about it? Or do you have moments while you're reading where you think "oh my gosh, I need to talk about this with someone"?
Reading texts in class allows for these discussions. It allows for you, or your students, to pause and address the text in real time. And THAT is when most of the learning happens.
It gives them extra practice
This one is most definitely true, and in some subjects it's more important than others. But as educators, we also know the power of immediate feedback. If you assign a student 10 problems and he does every single one incorrectly for the following day, is that truly helping him?
If he were to complete it in class, he could get the first one incorrect and then receive further direction and explanation from the teacher to apply to the second one. And then next one. And the next one. And he could collaborate with peers. And then hopefully, by time he gets to the tenth problem, he's doing it correctly on his own.
At the end of the day....
I am not here to tell you that you CANNOT assign homework. I just wanted to share my perspective of the matter because I have also struggled with this. I understand some educators have time restraints and requirements they must meet. All I ask is that you know your students. Know their situations. And always strive to do what's best for them, like I know you always do.
Until next time,
Paige
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