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Bringing Homework Into Focus
Tools and Tips to Enhance Practices, Design, and Feedback
In many classrooms, teachers assign homework out of habit. Learn to design quality, purposeful homework instead. The author urges educators to reflect on the purpose of student assignments to determine if and when homework is valuable. Prepare students and measure their comprehension by assigning purposeful work, setting clear expectations, and providing feedback as the unit of study unfolds.
Benefits
- Recognize that different kinds of homework assignments advance students' knowledge and promote their understanding during all stages of the learning process.
- Learn the components that influence quality homework design.
- Interpret examples of assignments for multiple school subjects to understand how to create impactful questions on any topic.
- Develop rubrics and checklists to clearly assess the accuracy of completed homework and better communicate feedback.
- Create learning environments in which students recognize that well-designed homework can help them reach their own goals for personal growth.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 1: Types of Work and Their Purposes
Chapter 2: Four Components to Ensure Quality Homework
Chapter 3: Quality Homework: The Result of Quality Design
Chapter 4: Homework: To Give or Not to Give, That Is the Question!
Chapter 5: Grading and Homework: The Two Worlds Can Coexist
Chapter 6: Next Steps: Evaluating and Changing Practices
PRINTABLE REPRODUCIBLES
Chapter 1
- Figure 1.3: Example of Diagnostic Work—Plot, Character, and Setting
- Figure 1.4: Example of Diagnostic Work—Traditional KWL
- Figure 1.7: Flipped Teaching Planning Template
- Figure 1.8: Comparison of Traditional Teaching and Flipped Teaching
- Figure 1.9: The Formative Assessment Cycle
- Figure 1.11: Comparing Formative and Summative Assessment
- Figure 1.12: Purposes of Student Work
- Figure 1.13: Instructional Cycle Flowchart
- Chapter One Collaborative Team Discussion Questions
Chapter 2
- Figure 2.2: Student Goal-Setting and Tracking Form
- Figure 2.4: Ensuring Quality Homework
- Chapter Two Collaborative Team Discussion Questions
Chapter 3
- Figure 3.3: Recognizing Quality Design—Questions to Consider
- Figure 3.4: Ensuring Quality Assignments—Questions to Consider
- Figure 3.11: Health Assignment Based on the New Bloom's Taxonomy
- Figure 3.12: Webb's Depth of Knowledge Levels—Examples at Each Level of Cognitive Rigor
- Figure 3.13: Performance Options
- Figure 3.14: Writing Rubric for Grades 3–5
- Figure 3.15: Generic Task Rubric
- Chapter Three Collaborative Team Discussion Questions
Chapter 4
- Figure 4.1: Homework Survey
- Figure 4.2: Feedback Checklist—Understanding Key Details in a Text
- Figure 4.3: Feedback Checklist—Writing to Inform
- Figure 4.4: Feedback Checklist—Drawing a Bar or Line Graph to Represent Data
- Figure 4.5: Feedback Checklist—Using Elements of a Speech
- Chapter Four Collaborative Team Discussion Questions
Chapter 5
- Figure 5.1: To Grade or Not to Grade
- Figure 5.2: Unit Example—Determining the Formative and Summative Assessment Structure
- Figure 5.4: Example One—Self-Evaluation Form
- Figure 5.5: Example Two—Self-Evaluation Form
- Figure 5.6: Partner Feedback Form
- Figure 5.7: Parent-Student Feedback Form
- Figure 5.14: Outline of Communication About Student Homework
- Chapter Five Collaborative Team Discussion Questions
Chapter 6