First off, this idea is not for every class. There is no cookie cutter that fits every class, every subject. That being said, I made a decision a couple of years ago to get rid of homework in all of my classes.
As a social studies teacher, I took a long, hard look at what my students were being assigned for homework in my class. Most of it was reading and worksheets to aid in comprehension. This was how I had been taught, so I had been doing the “monkey-see, monkey-do” teaching method. I then remembered how much I hated the worksheets my teachers had assigned me. It was grunt work that did nothing than to take up time. I then asked parents about the amount of homework their kids were doing. I was shocked. It was an average of about 4 hours per night! And these were freshmen and seniors!
Freshmen, as we know, need to rest and sleep once in a while. Seniors, on the other hand, need to work as they are getting ready for college expenses. Then, what about time to spend with family? What about time to be kids? What about extracurricular activities? All of the demands on time we place on our students and kids were robbing them of being kids and teenagers. So, out of RESPECT for family, friends, and the students themselves, I decided to design a class that had little to no homework.
WHAT WAS I THINKING?!?
I started out looking at various scholarship and studies. I found many teachers were incorporating class time into work time. I liked the idea. I would be able to help/supervise the kids as they did their work and I could give them immediate feedback. It would also guarantee the kids were doing the work, not the parents. Ok. Step one complete.
Step two would be dicier. How could I make the time in class when I was pushed for time by the various pacing guides, high stakes testing, and various interruptions that are par for the day? I had to redesign my delivery. I cut some of the fat from the presentations. I replaced most of the worksheets with webquests, web-based resources, and project-based learning. I streamlined the notes by “repurposing” a note-taking system I had seen called “Stoplight” notes. Red was the most important, yellow was support, and green was just extra stuff I thought would bring in a cool factor. I tried to make a 20/60/20 split on the colors. This took a lot of time. I’m not going to lie. But I had made a commitment and I was determined to see it through. The results? I was able to deliver more information in less time because the kids knew what was important and what was “extra”. I did not test on green info. This also allowed the kids to have quick rests and let me share via stories that were fun and interesting. No more “Is this gonna be on the test?” and no more “Do we need to know this?” Gold. Projects in class allowed the kids to be creative without parents taking over. Priceless. I discovered that I now had time to do guided practice in class with reading comprehension – something I am passionate about. This was a winner.
Step three was to come up with projects. I picked the minds of several teachers and reworked their ideas to fit my class. I asked students what projects they liked in other classes and worked that in. I created a binder of ideas that students could access. I have now given that binder to more teachers than I can count. If I’d have sold it…well that’s another story. Anyhow, back to the class. I had to create one class for freshmen and another for seniors. Again, what was I thinking? And the differentiation. I was beginning to feel overwhelmed when I came across the idea of layered curricula. Again, I repurposed the idea to fit my class. I divided the projects into levels based on difficulty and assigned maximum grades for the projects. It was money.
Finally, I had to address the senior class. It was a different subject and different cognitive level. I was not going to insult their intelligence. I again started researching what other teachers had done and then it hit me. What about a middle-college design and incorporate a transition model? I had been in charge of the Freshmen Transition Team for middle to high school, so why not do the same for seniors to college freshmen? I went to several colleges and asked professors what skills they wanted to see students walk into their classes with. Most of the professors said reading comprehension, problem-solving, and critical thinking was at the top of the wish list. Given I was setting up all of those in my class, I knew I was on the right track. Then I decided to make an assignment list for each unit. The first day would be direct instruction. Nothing else. This would mimic a college level lecture hall. The next three classes would be time in class to do the assignments. The students had quizzes, mini-projects, and analytical assignments. The last day of the unit was a summative test. The students would never have to take home work from my class. This would be done for every unit and would be a routine. Mission accomplished.
Well, almost. I had to get my administrators to go along with this plan. I fully explained it including the rationale and research. I blew their minds. Next hurdle? Parent buy-in. Parents night came before the first day of classes. I briefly explained that this class would be virtually without homework out of respect to family-time. Total buy-in. First day of class with the kids. Explained what was expected of them. This was non-negotiable. They would learn organization. They would be pushed harder than ever before. But the benefit of no homework would outweigh all of that. It took a few days to get into the routine, but there was a great buy-in and the proof was that over 95% of my students passed the end-of-course state test. I’ve had a class pass rate of about 98% over the same time. I’ve had numerous students that have gone on to college tell me that I prepared them for what college was really like. They’ve used some of the skills from my projects to become tutors, teaching assistants, and even graduate school assistantships that helped pay for their schooling.
Overall, I can say that it’s been successful. Don’t get me wrong – there have been bumps in the road. I’ve made some changes every year to improve. I’ve gotten rid of some projects and replaced them with others. I streamlined my government direct instruction to make it more along the flipped classroom. I’ve created a bunch of tech-based assignments that are cutting edge. It’s a learning process for me as well. Just remember to reflect upon what works and what doesn’t. Leave your ego outside. Don’t be afraid to admit some lessons might be clunkers. And then, when everything else is done, remember that if teaching were easy, anyone could do it.
As a social studies teacher, I took a long, hard look at what my students were being assigned for homework in my class. Most of it was reading and worksheets to aid in comprehension. This was how I had been taught, so I had been doing the “monkey-see, monkey-do” teaching method. I then remembered how much I hated the worksheets my teachers had assigned me. It was grunt work that did nothing than to take up time. I then asked parents about the amount of homework their kids were doing. I was shocked. It was an average of about 4 hours per night! And these were freshmen and seniors!
Freshmen, as we know, need to rest and sleep once in a while. Seniors, on the other hand, need to work as they are getting ready for college expenses. Then, what about time to spend with family? What about time to be kids? What about extracurricular activities? All of the demands on time we place on our students and kids were robbing them of being kids and teenagers. So, out of RESPECT for family, friends, and the students themselves, I decided to design a class that had little to no homework.
WHAT WAS I THINKING?!?
I started out looking at various scholarship and studies. I found many teachers were incorporating class time into work time. I liked the idea. I would be able to help/supervise the kids as they did their work and I could give them immediate feedback. It would also guarantee the kids were doing the work, not the parents. Ok. Step one complete.
Step two would be dicier. How could I make the time in class when I was pushed for time by the various pacing guides, high stakes testing, and various interruptions that are par for the day? I had to redesign my delivery. I cut some of the fat from the presentations. I replaced most of the worksheets with webquests, web-based resources, and project-based learning. I streamlined the notes by “repurposing” a note-taking system I had seen called “Stoplight” notes. Red was the most important, yellow was support, and green was just extra stuff I thought would bring in a cool factor. I tried to make a 20/60/20 split on the colors. This took a lot of time. I’m not going to lie. But I had made a commitment and I was determined to see it through. The results? I was able to deliver more information in less time because the kids knew what was important and what was “extra”. I did not test on green info. This also allowed the kids to have quick rests and let me share via stories that were fun and interesting. No more “Is this gonna be on the test?” and no more “Do we need to know this?” Gold. Projects in class allowed the kids to be creative without parents taking over. Priceless. I discovered that I now had time to do guided practice in class with reading comprehension – something I am passionate about. This was a winner.
Step three was to come up with projects. I picked the minds of several teachers and reworked their ideas to fit my class. I asked students what projects they liked in other classes and worked that in. I created a binder of ideas that students could access. I have now given that binder to more teachers than I can count. If I’d have sold it…well that’s another story. Anyhow, back to the class. I had to create one class for freshmen and another for seniors. Again, what was I thinking? And the differentiation. I was beginning to feel overwhelmed when I came across the idea of layered curricula. Again, I repurposed the idea to fit my class. I divided the projects into levels based on difficulty and assigned maximum grades for the projects. It was money.
Finally, I had to address the senior class. It was a different subject and different cognitive level. I was not going to insult their intelligence. I again started researching what other teachers had done and then it hit me. What about a middle-college design and incorporate a transition model? I had been in charge of the Freshmen Transition Team for middle to high school, so why not do the same for seniors to college freshmen? I went to several colleges and asked professors what skills they wanted to see students walk into their classes with. Most of the professors said reading comprehension, problem-solving, and critical thinking was at the top of the wish list. Given I was setting up all of those in my class, I knew I was on the right track. Then I decided to make an assignment list for each unit. The first day would be direct instruction. Nothing else. This would mimic a college level lecture hall. The next three classes would be time in class to do the assignments. The students had quizzes, mini-projects, and analytical assignments. The last day of the unit was a summative test. The students would never have to take home work from my class. This would be done for every unit and would be a routine. Mission accomplished.
Well, almost. I had to get my administrators to go along with this plan. I fully explained it including the rationale and research. I blew their minds. Next hurdle? Parent buy-in. Parents night came before the first day of classes. I briefly explained that this class would be virtually without homework out of respect to family-time. Total buy-in. First day of class with the kids. Explained what was expected of them. This was non-negotiable. They would learn organization. They would be pushed harder than ever before. But the benefit of no homework would outweigh all of that. It took a few days to get into the routine, but there was a great buy-in and the proof was that over 95% of my students passed the end-of-course state test. I’ve had a class pass rate of about 98% over the same time. I’ve had numerous students that have gone on to college tell me that I prepared them for what college was really like. They’ve used some of the skills from my projects to become tutors, teaching assistants, and even graduate school assistantships that helped pay for their schooling.
Overall, I can say that it’s been successful. Don’t get me wrong – there have been bumps in the road. I’ve made some changes every year to improve. I’ve gotten rid of some projects and replaced them with others. I streamlined my government direct instruction to make it more along the flipped classroom. I’ve created a bunch of tech-based assignments that are cutting edge. It’s a learning process for me as well. Just remember to reflect upon what works and what doesn’t. Leave your ego outside. Don’t be afraid to admit some lessons might be clunkers. And then, when everything else is done, remember that if teaching were easy, anyone could do it.