"I'm so tired of homework!"
I hear my nieces say that when I visit them, and I hear students say it in my classroom on occasion. Personally, I rarely give homework, but when I do, it is very necessary. For example, when I taught fifth grade, it was nightly homework to work on multiplication facts. A five-minute quiz was given every Friday, and once students got all the answers right, they got a spacial prize and got to do an alternate activity during the quiz time the following week. In addition to that external reward, they also knew on the inside that they know all of their multiplication facts and no longer had to stress.
Dr. Pat Wolfe says that learning essentially by rote is the best way to learn what she calls "procedural" things. I learned my multiplication facts by rote, I learned the Pledge of Allegiance by rote, I learned how to bake brownies by rote, etc. A good example of how homework and practice are important in learning how to solve more complicated math problems. For example, we will solve the area of a compound figure composed of a rectangle, half of a circle, and a triangle. No matter what the shape of the figure, the students have to know that they break the figure into shapes that they already have an area formula for, find the area of each shape, then add them together. This takes a great deal of practice, repetition, and rote learning to get the hang of, so giving extra practice for homework is good for students to do.
Reinforcing effort gives students something to be proud of. My former fifth grade students would have a student-led conference with their parents once a year where they got to show off some of the work they had done and present goals that the parents can help them achieve at home. They get to keep record of the successes they have in class, and get a new sense of pride and accomplishment when they are able to show themselves off to their parents. Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, and Malenoski say that this reinforcing effort "enhances students' understanding of the relationship between effort and achievement by addressing their attitudes and beliefs about learning" (YEAR). I think having that student-led conference is a great way to keep students accountable for their grades, success, areas which need improvement, and their behavior. This conference gives them something to work toward and an incentive to do their best. No student wants to show a bunch of bad grades, write-up slips, and other negative things to their parents.
So in my humble opinion, giving appropriate homework and practice is good to help students learn procedural elements, and allowing students to keep track of their own success and reinforcing their efforts are great ways to incorporate behaviorist techniques in class.
References:
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Bridging learning theory, instruction, and technology. Baltimore: Author.
Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASC
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6 comments:
Mary,
I teach fifth grade and understand exactly what you mean when you talk about homework and practice. There are skills that students need to learn that are essential to their learning in the future. Some of these skills need to become as you and Dr. Wolfe explain “procedural”. I really like the link between Dr. Wolfe and behaviorist learning theory.
Do you use any technology to support these rote learning skills like the multiplication table?
I also enjoyed reading about your opinion of student led conferences. I have been talking with my 5th grade colleagues about implementing student led conferences this spring. I was thinking exactly as you explained that students would have to take ownership in their work. This ownership would hopefully lead to higher achievement and a sense of pride in what they are doing. I think this is a great strategy to reinforce effort.
Thanks for sharing your ideas.
I think homework is a good thing as long as it is being used effectively. Those that give homework to just give it, what I like to call busy work, is useless but giving homework that can reinforce what they have learned in the class can only benefit the student. Like my parents always told me practice makes perfect. Although practice does not make perfect the more you do something the better you understand it and the longer you will remember it. Like you had mentioned we remember the pledge of allegiance due to the fact that we have said it daily for most of our lives. So rote theory is not always a bad thing.
In your post you also talked about student led conferences and how you have found them to be effective. I wish my school district would follow the trend and start having student led conferences it would solve many problems that we are faced with pretty much on daily basis. Over the years I have noticed that many parents are in denial about their child and I have often heard comments like not my child you must be thinking of someone else. If the child was present in the meeting then there would be no middle man and hopefully issues could get resolved faster. I also feel that the students are getting smarter in the sense that they no how to play the two, parent and teacher, against each other in order to get away with things. I also feel that a student led conference would make students more accountable for not only their work but their effort. Do you find that not only the students perform better because they know they are required to be at these meetings but they also behave better?
I also remember learning by rote. Teaching kindergarten a lot of our basic skills are learned by rote. For example, the Alphabet, the Pledge and number facts. I agree with the importance of the student led conference. I have read about a "Centers-based" parent conference, where the students lead their parents around the rooms in designated areas and teach them the skills that they learn in each area. I would like to try this next school year. Great ideas!
I LOVE the idea of having the student lead conferences! What a great way to hold students accountable for their work. You are right - none of them would want to show their parents bad grades. Is this just something you did with your class or did other teachers do it s well?
Bryan: there are a few programs we had for multiplication facts. They would test accuracy and speed and some can be sort of like a video game. It's pretty cool.
Mrs. Bimbi: Yes, work and behaviors improved with the conferences. However, at my new "school" I'm afraid nothing can reach them...
Rebelheck: it was a school-wide thing.
I teach in a multigrade classroom. There is a lot of positive reinforcement that goes on in such a setting. I do not have time for much punishment. Positive reinforcement takes much less time and does not interrupt the flow of what we are doing in the classroom near as much.
I use drill and practice to reinforce those things that are going to be building blocks for other concepts. I don't believe in homework just to have homework which makes some of my students happy and some of my parents concerned. These parents feel that their child should have homework at home every night. The policy in my room is, if you didn't get done today what you were given in the classroom, that is then your homework. I will give out the challenge for students to find something about the next days topics on their own and supply some resource names, titles and web references and let them introduce the topics but homework just to have homework if not related or connected to what is expereienced in the classroom is time ill spent.
I like the idea of student lead conferences. Knowing that they will be presenting themselves makes the student a part of the teaching team. I like it.
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