To Homework or Not to Be - that is the question. (week 2)

It is a hard call – to assign homework or not to assign homework. Very seldom do students say “thank you” for assigning homework. Most student’s grimace when they hear the mention of homework. But I truly think that when they are successful on a test or a project that their homework help build the foundation, that they are quietly thankful for the assignments. Just last week, over 85% of my students failed to pass their first vocabulary quiz of the year. Even with an extra week of time to study and hints to make sure to learn the words, there was very little success. In year’s past, I would typically provide students with nightly homework based on that week’s vocabulary words. In those years, I would see much better results on their weekly quiz as well as unit tests. As the kids funneled out the class, I heard plenty grumbling about how they needed to study more.

When I was a student, teacher assigned daily homework that would take an hour or more each night. I typically do not assign that much but I believe my 15 to 30 minutes a night of vocabulary review truly makes a difference. Most 7th and 8th graders are not naturally inclined to say “Hey, I ought study my vocabulary tonight rather than play a video game or watch TV.”