Homework seems to be the bane of everyone's existence, doesn't it? Teachers hate grading it; students hate doing it, and parents hate begging their kids to do it. So why is it a thing? What good does homework do?
I will admit up front that as a high school teacher I give very VERY little homework. I never had a theory grounded in research other than my own, but what I saw was that students who did the homework were the "good" students and those who didn't do the homework were the "bad" students. After about two weeks of school, I could pick out who would always do the homework and who would never do the homework.
And if the homework isn't necessary to pass the class, why am I assigning it?
Just because there are fewer graded assignments and virtually zero homework, does not mean we are doing nothing in my class Click To Tweet, which seems to be the popular conclusion.
In the end, I am not going to assign students homework just for them to not do it. Click To Tweet I am also not going to punish students with zeros for assignments that are not showing mastery of a standard.
This post first appeared on Katie's own blog, Sluiter Nation.