Homework: Yay or Nay?

Before reading this week's assignments, I began to think about how much controversy there is around homework, no matter the ability or language levels of students. In my short time in the classroom, I have worked in a school where we were told we had to give homework every night, and now I work in a school where homework is frowned upon. Both schools were on extended school day, but both had a very different view on what was appropriate for students to be working on outside of school. 

The school which mandated homework got to the point that our Principal was having us submit our homework assignments so that he could see that we were giving students work outside of class. Teachers began to provide push back because we thought it was too much for students, especially for our middle school students, because that means they would have homework from 14 different teachers since we were on a block schedule. 

In my current school, the philosophy is that students should not need homework outside of the school day because if we are providing meaningful work in our classes, we should know where our students are and that they should only be reading their free choice novels for outside work. 

So, what is the answer, especially for ELL students?

"Homework provides students with opportunities to practice, review, and apply knowledge....homework is an effective means of extending student learning beyond the school day," (Hill, 2006.)

I think that this quote is important to keep in mind when we are creating homework assignments, because unless assignments are purposeful and meaningful, is it necessary to ask students to complete the tasks?

For ELL students, it is necessary that we are providing plenty of opportunities to apply the knowledge and skills we are teaching them in class, but it should not be busy work. By giving students meaningful work that truly supports their knowledge and language acquisition, we are giving them opportunities to practice necessary skills in real world application. With that being said, we want to give students the change to practice reading, writing, speaking, and listening in authentic ways, not just have students complete worksheets. By providing students more "real world" homework, it also gives parents the opportunity to participate in their students learning, and be apart of their students learning. 

However, before we can assign the homework to our students, it is the job of teachers, schools, and districts, to conduct the following for ELL families (Hill, 2006): 

• Research the culture of students backgrounds and experience with formal education in their previous country.  
• Found out the educational customs and expectations of both the parents and students.
• Provide parents with their legal rights in the United States when it comes to education; this also needs to include their legal obligation and what your schools grading system, (ie: What does it mean to have Standards-Based grades?)
• Identify the students and parents prior exposure to the English language, even if the student was born in the United States
• Connect families with the community liaison and leadership for events in the school and community, especially those designed for ELL students

Once these norms and systems have been established for families, it is important for teachers to be instructed on what is meaningful and purposeful homework. If schools have an ELL population are going to expect students to be completing work outside of school, the work needs to be meaningful for not only the student, but the families they going to be practicing with at home. 

In order to ensure that students are successful with homework, whether they are an ELL student or not, there are four suggestions from Classroom Instruction That Works that I believe all teachers and school need to keep in mind when it comes to homework practices: 

1. The amount of homework assigned to students should increase as they progress from elementary school through high school. 
2. Parental involvement in homework should be minimal. 
3. The purpose of homework should be identified and articulated clearly. 
4. Feedback should be provided on homework assignments. 

In addition to these homework practices, I also found that the recommendations made by the same text, Classroom Instruction That Works in regards to homework from the classroom are necessary for all teachers to remember: 

1. Establish and communicate a homework policy. 
2. Design homework assignments that clearly articulate the purpose and outcome.
3. Feedback should be varied.

 So the answer is...

The amount of homework students should receive is based on the needs of your students. We cannot identify a one size fits all approach to homework, but students need to feel prepared in confident with what they are learning about. Homework should be something that comes in to continue the learning in your classroom in authentic ways. However, if students are in the pre-production or early production of their language acquisition, the work that students should be working on should be directed toward vocabulary and grammar skills and  should be focused on including their families in this work. If students are in the intermediate and advanced stages of acquisition, homework should simply be used to improve on their academic language, (Hill, 2006.)

To guide your own reflection on whether or not the work you are providing is beneficial, no matter the skill level of your student, you can reflect on the following criteria created by the U.S Department of Education: 

• Does this assignment:
• Review and practice what we have covered in class?
• Get ready for the next day's class?
• Explore more on a subject than we can cover in class?
• Extend learning by applying skills students already have?
• Teach students to use resources, (libraries, computers, websites, etc.)?
• Integrate learning by applying different skills to a single task, (book reports, project, etc.)?

Furthermore, the U.S Department of education provides how much times students should spend on homework. Their recommendations on how much homework students should have daily, and that just depends on the grade level of the students. You can see the recommendations below: 

• Kindergarten through Second Grade: 10-20 minutes of homework each school day
• Third through Sixth Grade: 30-60 minutes of homework each school day
• Seventh through Ninth Grade: Varies from night to night

So no matter the age of the student, or the amount of time the government recommends, the one key piece we must remember, is, if it does not improve our students, or is not truly worth our time to provide feedback to our students on, then we must ask ourselves, "is this homework assignment necessary?" 

Works Cited:

Hill, J., & Flynn, K. (2006). Classroom instruction that works with English language learners. Alexandria, Va.: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Homework: The Basics | ELL Topics from A-Z | Colorín Colorado. (2005, January 1). Retrieved February 18, 2015, from http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/20469/

Fiction & Non-Fiction Text Comparrison

The two texts that I chose are texts that I will be using in my last unit of the year in my 8th grade Social Studies classes. I wanted to begin thinking about how I will support all of my students with these texts, because they are novels. Both texts revolve around the slave era in America. Both texts follow the form of a narrative because the Non-Fiction novel is an autobiography written by a former slave named Harriet Jacobs. Crow tells the story of post-Civil War America told through the eyes of young boy. Both stories allow students to understand the divided world that was the United States during the Civil War, and how the Reconstruction time period did not allow for equality for the newly freed slaves. These texts will allow all students to understand history through stories that follow a plot diagram. Through the use of dialogue and imagery students of all levels are able to develop a story in their own mind. Below you will see features that allow for ease of ELL students, as well as challenges ELL students may face while reading these texts.

Text Title:	Non-Fiction: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs	Fiction: Crow by Barbara Wright
Grade Level:	RL: 5.9 Lexile Level: 810 Grades: 7-12	RL: 4.6 Lexile Level: 800 Grades: 4-8
Genre Text Features:	Autobiography with: setting, characters, plot, problem, solution, events, conflict, resolution, dialogue. Each chapter is one event in the author’s life. Story follows a timeline in order of the author’s life. Characters are fully developed with good imagery for students to be able to create their own ideas of who the characters are.	Narrative with: setting, characters, plot, problem, solution, events, conflict, resolution, dialogue. Characters are fully developed with good imagery for students to be able to create their own ideas of who the characters are.
Features that Help ELL Students:	Each chapter is one event in the author’s life. Story told in the form of a narrative. Story can be read aloud and taken on by students to act out scenes and events of the story.	Sentence structure is short and simple. Language is familiar and academic. Tells the story of a young boy who is facing prejudice which students may be able to relate to.
Features that Challenge ELL Students	Author’s slang terms/non-academic language could be confusing for ELL students who do not use the language or may not be familiar with the slang. No images except on the cover. Time period is not familiar and may not have background information.	Story starts in the middle of the story which could cause confusion. No images except on the cover. Time period is not familiar and may not have background information.

ELL Supports: SIOP Method

The SIOP method makes sure that the reading is accessible to all students who are learning English so they are able to comprhened text. SIOP stands for Sheltered Instruction Obeservation Protocal, and provides "scaffolds" or "shelters", that allow for all students to read the same leveled texts and be successful.

Within the SIOP method, students are provides supports prior to reading, during reading, and after reading. Below you will find strategies you can use throughout these stages to ensure that all students can access the grade level reading material you are presenting to them in class.  The examples that you see below are found in videos provided by Regis University. However, the strategies that were shown are best practices for all students, but support students who are learning a language more specifically.

Pre Reading:	-Explicitly state the objective of the day: content and language -Instructions should be clear and concise -Goal for the day: IE: Inferences from reading a passage -State the passage students will be reading from -Agenda so students know what they are going to be working on through out class -Pre-teach vocabulary: Student should be provided pictures and sentences to suport learning Examples from video: Harvest T: Who remembers what a harvest means? S: Produce                   T: Acknowledges good academic vocabulary-Produce Bouquet images and sentences provided S: Flowers Pricked T: What is a synonym for pricked S:cut, stabbed Resentment T: provided an example of boom box vs small headphones and this causing jealousy amongst siblings Cowboy Connects cowboy to the native language of the student to provide understanding                                                                                            -Book Walk/Summary of the main idea of text or chapter -Graphic Organizer/Compare & Contrast -Making predictions -Work in groups -Connect/relate to the students backgrounds -What does this topic mean to you and your culture? IE: Superstitions
During Reading:	-Ask students to clarify texts or ideas that are unfamiliar to the teacher Example: The Birthday Song in Spanish: "Do you know it?" Students sang the song for the class, clarified for each other in Spanish to ensure they were using the right language -Students and teachers read a loud the text so they can read and see the words together, be sure to clearly pronounce the words. -Remind students and demonstrate how to use reading strategies: Modeled verbally and on overhead projector, leveled questions, remind them of background knowledge         Example: What do I mean, put the harvest to bed? When you infer, you do not always have to be right: you use context clues and background knowledge to draw a conclusion  First clue the author leaves us is, her father is late and he is never late Second clue the author leaves us is that her finger being pricked is a sign for something bad to come  **Engagement with the text is increased the more they have time to interact with the text **ELL students must have wait time to interact with the text (3-5 seconds to process, the longer wait time the more they will be able to provide=output.) **Make connections to prior lesson so students can have continuity of concepts
After Reading:	-At end of the lesson it is important to  review vocabulary, reading strategies, content, learning objectives, and independent interaction with the text -Find a concept that relates to your background knowledge, a questioning piece and find a visual reference and put up on our diary board