Think of HW…Think of Boring? Mundane?
Well, HW has a completely new face in the best international schools. HW is no longer restricted to mechanical tasks of producing written work in notebooks. It encompasses much more than that...definitely moving away from the traditional idea of a “time filler”. To make it engaging and effective, most HW assignments at our school, allow students to demonstrate their learning in multiple ways, way beyond the conventional paper and pen reproduction of facts. HW does not just help reinforce the learning, and practice skills but extends and deepens learning.
To begin with, HW is given not simply as a matter of routine, but only when there is a clear purpose for enhancing student learning. The HW is not something done, only individually, in fact, the assignments are made in a way to allow for a lot of student collaboration. It gives learners the freedom to read, research and take their learning to next level. Think of Project based HW that spans across a few days or weeks and lets learners learn over a period of time, by building on the existing knowledge. This also ensures that while doing so the learners would learn self-management, time management, organisation, and other vital life skills.
Best schools know that effective HW has three important elements to it. Firstly, the HW has to clearly explain the expectations and outcome, done through using well-designed rubrics. Learners need to be aware of how they are expected to demonstrate their learning output. It thrives on creativity – It could be trying a new writing style or giving a twist to an existing fairy tale. Is it using your marketing knowledge to create a new saleable product to solve the problem? Clearly setting goals while giving creative freedom to explore, gives much needed balance between essentials and choice to students.
Secondly, the nature of HW itself has to be ‘realistically’ challenging. Think of Goldilocks’ tasks ☺ It has to enable the learners to take their learning beyond classroom and engage with the outside practical world – be it with peers, parents, or even neighbours! Does it require you to interview the manager at the store around the corner? It could be just collaborating with your peers on Google slides to bring out different perspectives on the upcoming city project. Having group based projects – HW targets communication skills and also helps learners build on their social skills like empathy and tolerance. They understand others with their differences can also be right! Tech tools like Google slides and Padlet walls allow for a beautiful representation of these views and can also give a “gallery walk” into their buzzing ideas. Web based tools like Edpuzzle, allow scope for students to watch a video with questions in between for them to answer. This makes it possible to view the video at their own pace and enhances student’s learning.
Finally, today HW is aligned with the ‘growth mindset’ feedback. HW has to be able to address not just identifying the gaps but also, effective ways to tackle the issues so that they can be resolved. Best schools are not just confined to traditional feedback methods, but experiment with audio feedback, podcasts on rubric understanding or Audacity!
Homework becomes interesting for students when they have to integrate different skills or subjects. Best schools reimagine this by giving tasks like creating videos / or news bulletin or a song of the concept they learnt in Environmental Studies. This integrates not just subjects but also allows learners to choose on how they want to present their findings. This also ensures that HW is differentiated to meet the individual learning needs of students and does not rely on one way to evaluate their understanding.
Homework has been the buzz word for every educational stakeholder since long and best schools ensure they are doing every bit to make this interesting and fun!
Also read,
How to help students to deal with procrastination?
https://www.adityabirlaworldacademy.com/blog/how-to-help-students-to-deal-with-procrastination
How can parents take active participation in a student's academics going to international schools in Mumbai?
https://www.adityabirlaworldacademy.com/blog/how-can-parents-take-active-participation-in-a-students-academics-going-to-international-schools-in-mumbai
How to make a child an active learner in international schools?
https://www.adityabirlaworldacademy.com/blog/how-to-make-a-child-an-active-learner-in-international-schools
