Mrs Humanities

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Mrs Humanities shares… 5 simple homework strategies

mrs humanities shares

I hate to say it but on many occasions I have set homework just for the sake of it. All of my schools have had a homework policy of sorts i.e. students must receive so many minutes of homework a week. But if students are going to spend 7 hours in school and then complete homework as well it must be worthwhile.

This year I’ve been trying to improve the homework I set to limit the stress experienced by my students. These are some of the techniques I’m using.

1 // Finishing Classwork

It really is that simple. I want my students to have a full set of notes or the ability to be able to complete a task to the best of their ability. To ensure this I regularly set them homework to complete the task or tasks they’ve been undertaking in class. For those that finish in the lesson, there are stretch and challenge tasks to push them further or they spend time reviewing their work and applying it to an offered exam question.

The benefit of this is that my students work hard in lesson, but they know that if they’ve not had time to fully complete something or have needed help and guidance in the lesson and have been delayed in completing their work, they have the time to get it finished.

finishing classwork

2 // Exam Style Questions

Mainly used with exam classes, but occasionally with Key Stage 3. The use of exam style questions for homework is that they encourage students to review their notes and apply their understanding.

We regularly go through exam answer structure for 6 and 9 mark questions, plan the answer and discuss the content. Setting questions for homework then leaves students to apply their learning independently, the use of mark schemes in the hand in lesson then allows for students to self or peer assess before submitting. In order to assess students understanding I also set shorter exam style questions for homework to ensure they regularly apply their learning and develop their exam technique.

esq

3 // Learning Journals

This is a technique I recently introduced with Key Stage 3 so currently still in the trial stage. The concept is that students will reflect, summarise and explore the topic. I’ve set out the end of topic assessed piece of work with the students already so they are aware of the purpose of the learning journal and have allowed them to take whichever route they wish with it. Here’s an example of the instructions I’ve given.

learning journal

At parent’s evening I share the idea with parent’s and they loved the concept. I explained that students weren’t prescribed in the format in which they wish to present their learning journal it can be anything from recording their learning, questions and feelings on the topic in the back of their books to something a bit more creative such as a scrapbook or mood board. They only need to spend 20 minutes on it a week, but should use it to direct their interest into the final assessed piece of work.
Learning Journals

4 // Summary Picture

I don’t set this homework too often but I do find it effective as an insight into my learners understanding and thoughts on a topic. It is quite simple, after a lesson or series of lessons students have to find, take or draw a picture that summarises what they’ve learnt, the answer to a question or how they’ve felt about the topic of study. For example when studying global issues I ask students to find a picture that represents how they feel at the end of the topic about the issues facing our planet and society, they have to write a justification to support the image and we share these with the class. Some bring in images that represent doom and gloom whilst others have brought in images that represent hope and solutions. It’s always insightful to hear their thoughts, opinions and probably more so the justifications for their pictures.

summary picture

Alternatively you can ask students to reflect on their learning journey and bring a picture in that represents that.

5 // Self-Marking Quiz

Now these can take a little time to set up, but once done you can use them time and time again. There are numerous platforms that you can use such as:
SAM Learning
Google forms
Show My Homework
Moodle
EdModo

These are great as they assess students understanding of the knowledge and provides them with immediate feedback. As their teacher you can then look at their scores, their errors and plan appropriately before the lesson to cover misconceptions.

Self marking quizzes

 

What homework strategies do you use regularly?

Feel free to share them in the comments.

Mrs Humanities

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Homework Points

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Last year I trialled numerous homework approaches with KS3 from booklets to takeaway homework. It was a fair bit of trial and error. The most successful were the booklets, however they required a great deal of printing; also many of my students really enjoyed creative homework especially those that involved model making.

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After much deliberation I’ve decided this year to use a points menu, since we had numerous issues with the takeaway homework method but I liked the menu approach. I feel giving pupils choice in their learning, develops a sense of responsibility. I also like homework to foster a sense of curiosity so try to encourage further research or activities that allow my learners to develop their own interest in an aspect of the topic.

Homework Points Menu

Quite simply students will be given a variety of options and have to choose enough of the options to equate to the designated number of points. In the first term it’s 120 since it’s an 8 week term, I will then adjust the points target accordingly dependent on the length of the term.

Each student will have a copy of the menu stuck into their books at the start of the topic. Each time they hand a piece in they will sign off the homework choice on their menu and glue it into their books (if possible).  Students will be able to hand the homework in at any point throughout the term but must ensure all homework is submitted before last week.

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Update on successes (or failures) to follow.

Do you use choice menus? How effective have they been for you?

Takeaway Homework Side 1


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#TakeAwayHmk – Mrs Humanities Trial and Errors

After much deliberation within my own mind about trying Take Away Homework, I decided to give it a go last term.

I’d read up about Ross Morrison McGill’s aka @TeacherToolkit idea of Take Away Homework over the summer and investigated a variety of examples but decided I would get to know my year 7 pupils first before introducing it.

Last term I decided it was the time to try out take away homework with KS3. The concept is great, it just requires a bit of work for the teacher before hand but it makes setting homework easy for the rest of the term. A winner in my book.

I decided to go with the 3 choices each week option; each choice had a different chilli rating to determine the amount of challenge/work involved. The year 7 menu looked something like this…

Takeaway Homework Side 1Takeaway Homework Side 2

Below I’ve included some of the successes and failures of my efforts with Takeaway Homework to help you.

Successes

1 // The pupils produced a wide variety of pieces of homework, some clearly spent more than the 30-40 minutes recommended for KS3.

2 // A number of pupils enjoyed the choice of homework tasks and options for creativity.

3 // Others enjoyed knowing what the next piece of homework would be and making a start on it early.

4 // For me homework was set for the term, I just had to collect, mark and praise. Win!

5 // I was able to create this great display with the fantastic homework produced by year 8 (note: the spinners and cotton wool clouds are classwork, the rest however is homework)

Failures  Areas To Improve

1 // The date set confused them. I thought this would work since the planners only give the date for Monday of each wee. However this was a difficult concept for many to grasp particularly year 7 since their lessons are on a Thursday and Friday, so their homework wasn’t set until the end of each week. This method totally failed. If I use this style of menu again I will identify the week set (i.e. Week 1, Week 2), perhaps I might even go as far as to work out the actual date the work will be set.

2 // Some pupils hated the choice. A number of pupils struggled with the choice of tasks, when I gave the pupils an opportunity to give feedback at the end of the term a small number said they just wanted the teacher to tell them what to do or to give them a specific task to complete. Whilst I prefer to give pupils choice, for some I think I would tell/discuss with them which task to complete by highlighting it with them, taking the anxiety out of choosing.

3 // Lack of effort. Despite a good number of pupils going to great lengths to produce high quality homework many were clearly rushed just to have something to hand in. This had even occurred when the pupil had chosen to complete the Flaming Hot task. This was disappointing and a nuisance to follow up. Setting out clear expectations is essential, eventually the quality of the work improved but it took a few weeks.

4 // Time consuming. Some tasks I realised were quite time consuming for the pupils such as the video making choices, research projects or key word and definition match up games. Clearly some pupils spent several hours completing their tasks. I think in future I would either set challenging but less time consuming activities or make it that all Flaming Hot tasks are over two weeks. If I did the latter choice I would ensure I set out my expectations of the level of effort required, else they’ll be doing it again *insert maniacal laugh*.

Lets Reflect

On reflection Takeaway Homework was successful with year 7 and 8, when I started at the school after Easter homework was an issue. I would spend as much time chasing it up as some students spent doing it (obviously this refers to the ones that made an effort). Now I’ve the majority of pupils handing in their homework each week, with a few exceptions of course. Choice works for many but not for some. Creativity is key to engagement.

Well if you are considering this approach, I hope this has given you some additional insight and helped your decision.
I’d definitely recommend it and although I won’t be using it this term as I’m trialling project based learning, it will most certainly see a return in term 4.

Mrs Humanities