Documentation
The overall question/thesis of my paper asks, how does the
intensity/amount of homework for middle school students guarantee their success
in being prepared for their future?
However for this journal I am wondering if frequency is the fundamental
question? What can drive the quality of students work, and does frequency play
into that?
Works Cited
Gill, Brian, and Steven Schlossman. "The Lost Cause Of
Homework Reform." American Journal Of Education 109.1 (2000): 27-62.
PsycINFO. Web. 1 Oct. 2015.
Exploration
Part 1
The article, The Lost Cause in
Homework Reform, brings to light the "homework reform" movement of the 1920s-50s, that addresses
the history of homework advocators versus critics, issues of intensity of
content in homework and its usefulness, and the perspective of the
modern curriculum, teaching, and school administration. Some keys points were
that...
· * reformers looked upon repetitious homework drills and memorization
lists of previously presented learning material overburdens students, fails to
encourage good study habits, and student creativity
· “learning
by doing", and "whole child"--should be independent and voluntary.
· * 1900 through 1940, homework became “harmful to
children, unfair to parents, intrusive to families, and ineffective in improving
academic achievement.”
· * In contrast, articles and books such as A Nation at Risk and What Works?
Inspiring schools to require more and
more homework at earlier and earlier ages
· * By applying the principles of progressive
education to the content and scheduling of out of school assignments, it was theorized
that homework would advance rather than slow "learning by doing," "child-centered education.” So here the conflict arose.
Part 2
Perhaps there is a middle ground. Yes,
why can’t there be limited homework, where homework remains simply beneficial
to the student in a way that allows them to learn in a calm environment? Yes in
a way homework is good. But homework can be bad and not beneficial. Homework
can either teach or it can limit the time for true learning. Meaning, if it’s
absolutely imperative that we learn something—the homework assigned isn’t busy
work or drills—the homework that is assigned challenges us while not being a heavy
burden to the students. I think that when something becomes a burdensome
homework assignment it is inspired by the opinion of the student feeling comfortable
in the particular lesson. Here is where they should be encouraged to explore
new material rather than hold them back with assignments that hold no meaning
to the advancement of their knowledge.
I think EdaJ. LeShan, an author for
education books, hit it right when arguing that "real learning involves
comprehension and absorption, not just memorizing.” So when a middle schooler
is assigned a list of words to memorize the definitions, many, to my belief (and
experience) would look at a chunk of a particular word and associate it with
the definition for just a quick memorization. Likewise listing countries or
states and their capitals is another reason why this type of activity, I feel, makes
learning distasteful. It leads many students, like myself, to ask the question,
“who cares?” and when a student asks
him or herself they are immediately turned off, and the teacher has lost their student. These lesson and homework styles serve a poor
purpose. Perhaps there is a new way to refine the way we learn these words for
the long run. Reading and writing and studying in all middle school subjects
should be offered to be read in class. Those with the lack of reading skill
will still be able to listen and get more of their material understood than if
they read the material themselves at home. So while reading a book which this
word list was assigned, the teacher reminds us what these words mean when the student
is reading. Put it on the board and if a student still doesn’t understand the
teacher can try to explain. This would force the student to take the meaning of
the difficult word, understand the simplified meaning and incorporate it into
the material being read.
But many students like me, at the
time of middle school, were already ready for the next big step so we were more
interested in learning truly important everyday life skills such as balancing a
check book or reading and comprehending “important” documents—like phone
contracts or our first bank accounts—not how to graph random points for the
sake of our Math class. Where do you go
with that knowledge? (The average person will forget about all that’s been
taught after their freshman year of college.) The frequency of homework may be
the issue but I am beginning to think the issue is about the homework we want
to do. Naturally people who are curious about something that they hear or see
will want to go and learn about it. That approach should be provided at all
levels of education not just middle school, however, for the sake of the argument,
we’ll stick to middle school. If a student has an interest in something they
should be given the options of “homework”
to learn more about whatever it is they are studying. Like a college, they take
a primary focus in one of the many things they are interested and most of their
time pours into that. Thus triggering the desire to do the homework. Homework
then becomes beneficial to the student in the perspective of the student.
**The
short reason why I said the last sentence is because I have found most of my
homework even at the collegiate level lack luster and not beneficial to me.
Even when my grades may say otherwise I have retained much of the information
spat at me.**
Part 4
So the
new question is, how can the curriculum style change to provide a better way of
learning while making it enjoyable to learn? Can a middle school “major” or a “student
study emphasis” be a way to inspire students to better grasp material more so
than large sums of homework? I would like to find schools that perhaps teach that
way and see how it affects the students in the long run. I do believe that a
middle school major would and could better inspire young students to learn and
learn more than a fine stretch of different subjects.
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