Homework Strategies for Teachers

Teachers provide students with homework because it provides student's with an opportunity to extend the learning process beyond the school day. Homework, when managed and planned effectively, can enhance student learning more effectively than just providing students with independent practice within the time constraints of the classroom. Homework is a form of independent student practice and because of this teachers need to be cautious in managing and planning homework assignments and ensure that an adequate amount of learning and instruction has occurred in order for the student to complete the homework successfully. If this is not done properly homework can actually harm the learning process of students instead of enhancing it. Teacher's need to use specific strategies to ensure that student homework consolidates skills that have already been taught, results in low rates of student error, is accompanied by a management strategy for correction, and is highly aligned with the daily objectives used during the day's instruction.

When a teacher ensures that student homework will consolidate skills that have been previously taught, the teacher is providing students with practice extending and applying those skills to new situations. Students need to make connections between previously learned information and newly presented information and practice using specific strategies that have been taught to help students work through problems on their own until the strategies become almost autonomous. Homework needs to provide students with the opportunities to make connections between concepts and allow them to practice using specific strategies that are detrimental to their success in the classroom. Teachers can provide students with these opportunities by providing them with homework that requires students to think critically and apply their strategies in order for the work to be solved accurately. For example, teachers can provide students with science homework that requires some passage reading and explain to students that they will need to use their reading strategy to solve the questions following the reading. The homework can also require students to think analyze and synthesize the information in the passage to provide an answer. Require the students to think of previously learned concepts and use their reading strategies to complete the homework and it will allow students to consolidate previously learned information while gaining comprehension for new content.

Teachers also need to know how to make sure that student homework results in low student error rates. Teachers can make sure that this occurs by ensuring that homework is directly aligned with the objectives that have been previously taught or introduced that day. Homework needs to include only the information that has been taught to students and not any unnecessary or new concept. Homework is not the right place for teacher's to introduce students to new content or skills. When homework is directly aligned with the content and strategies that have been previously taught, or newly introduced that day, students have a higher chance of succeeding with the assignment. When students are given homework that contains a lot of new content or they are not able to apply their strategies in order to comprehend the assignment, the homework will have high rates of student error. However, when teachers provide students with homework that enables them to use strategies or has the content that has been taught instead of never before seen content, the students will have low rates of student error on the homework.

Teachers need to have a management strategy for correcting homework to allow for maximum time management in the classroom. There are numerous strategies that teachers can use for correcting homework. One of the least time consuming ways for homework to be corrected is to have the students turn in their homework to subject-specific baskets and then when it is time to review the homework that day pass the papers out to the students. At the same time, it is necessary to ensure that student's are not receiving their own assignment. The next step in this process is to have students grade each other's papers. Students need to have specific strategies in place for this. A good one for teacher's to use is to have students put their names on the paper that they are grading and to use a different color pen than what the homework was completed in. This holds both the student who completed the homework and grader responsible for the grade that is received on the homework. After the homework has been graded by student's peers, allow the papers returned to the owner and then review any commonly missed problems. The teacher can identify these problems by having student's raise their hands when they have missed a problem. The teacher will need to keep track of how many missed which questions during this process. A teacher can use a sticky note to keep tally marks on when students have missed problems and then review with the class the problems that have been missed by the majority. There are many other strategies that teacher's can use to correct homework. It is important for teacher's to be aware of the importance that correcting homework has on a student's ability to succeed. If a management strategy like the example is in place then students would receive immediate, corrective feedback the very next day and any misunderstandings or problems can be corrected immediately. Students are more likely to succeed when they receive positive, immediate corrective feedback.

Another strategy that teacher's need to include in their repertoire is one that ensures homework is directly aligned with daily lessons. This is very important because student's need homework that they are capable of doing. They need the prerequisite skills and strategies that are necessary for success. Teacher's can help students achieve academic success on their homework by only assigning homework that is aligned with the instruction given that day. This will provide the students with additional independent practice for completing work on a new concept. Teacher's can make sure that the homework given is directly aligned by comparing the homework with the lesson plans for that day. If it is too advanced then it should probably be assigned later when the content has been covered more in depth. It is very important that homework is not too easy or too hard. The reason behind this is that students' need positive motivation to complete their homework to the best of their abilities. If the homework is too easy then they will feel like they are being treated as stupid and if it is too difficult they may give up because they know they cannot complete the work. If homework is aligned with the instruction that was provided during the day then it will provide the necessary practice that the students need to gain mastery over the subject without making them feel inferior. Teacher's should not provide students with homework over content that has not been covered, just like the homework provided cannot be over content that was learned 1 or 2 years ago and has been mastered.These strategies should be implemented with every teacher when designing homework for students because they provide students with the opportunities to succeed. When students are successful their self-concept improves and provides students with a chance of gaining even greater academic achievements in the future.