The Importance of Homework

Blog #10
     Homework is necessary and important for increasing students' achievement.  Research indicates that homework helps young students establish good study habits and, at the high shool level, a students' GPA can increase up to half a point for every thirty additional minutes of homework (Cooper, 1989). The purpose for giving homework is to provide students with opportunities to practice, review, and apply knowledge...and [it] is an effective means of extending student learning beyond the school day" (Flynn & Hill, 2006).  In order to be effective, teachers must assign meaningful homework in order to deepen their understanding of what is being taught in the classroom.
     Teachers must establish and clearly communicate a homework policy to both students and parents.  A policy should indicate the purpose of homework, expectations about homework completion, grading, the consequences for not returning assignments, and ways that parents can support their child at home (Flynn & Hill, 2006).  The best homework policies communicate a clear academic purpose that is relevant to students and allows them to demonstrate their learning (Vatterott, 2009).  Homework should not be given for "busy work;" it should be thoughtful and increase student learning and deepen their understanding. 
     Purposeful reading homework is a valuable part of my students' learning.  Given that "schooling occupies only about 13 percent of the waking hours in the first 18 years of life (Flynn & Hill, 2006, p. 77), homework is a means of extending reading practice beyond my classroom walls.  I do not assign reading worksheets to my first graders, because I want my students practicing REAL reading with REAL books at home.  Reading practice outside of school is purposeful, meaningful, and incredibly important in helping my first graders become better readers.  Daily reading practice for a minimum of 15 minutes is required homework in first grade! On Fridays, I send home 5 books for each students so that I can rest assured that the books they are reading at home are "just right" and at their instructional level.  They are expected to read and reread the books every night until they are "an expert" at reading those books with fluency. 
     I also ask parents to take 5 minutes a day to have their child practice the "100 Sight Words" for first grade.  There is a direct correlation between the number of sight words my students know and how well they read.  The more words they know, the better they read.  Simple as that.  I ask parents to make flashcards and play a game called "Out of Jail" to help make sight word practice less painful.  The goal is to see how many sight words they can get and keep out of jail.  Once they know a word five nights in a row, that word gets out of jail.  When my students know ALL 100 Sight Words, the next goal is to spell and write those words using lower-case letters. (tricky!) Again, 5 minutes of daily spelling and writing sight words is my expectation.
     Beginning in January, I will hold my students accountable for their daily reading by sending home a Reading Log each week.  The log is for my students to record their reading each day and to respond to the text in a variety of ways. (For example: asking a question, predicting, drawing or writing about their favorite part, describing the main character/setting, or writing about what they learned.) Reading logs will be signed by parents and returned to me so that I can give feedback and write comments about their reading.  This is a new homework procedure, and I am looking forward to seeing how first graders respond and interact with text when they are reading at home independently or with a parent!
 
Check out the following study on how students benefit from interactive reading homework: http://www.ttrb.ac.uk/attachments/67137579-7be1-469c-b172-0aa3704791cc.doc

Another great website for educating parents on how to help their child with homework and other helpful "homework tips" is:  http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr053.shtml

Resources:

Cooper, H.M. (1989). Homework.  White Plains, NY: Longman

Flynn, K.M. & Hill, J.D. (2006). Classroom insturction that works with English language
     learners. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Vatterott, C. (2009). Rethinking homework: Best practices that support diverse needs.
     Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.