EDRG 604 Blog Entry 10

Homework should be given at every grade level, but in moderation. It should be given for extra practice and not just because you can. Using a specific homework structure many times will help ensure the success of ESL students. They need a constant rather than having things change daily. This doesn’t necessarily mean that it needs to be the same every day, all the time. That is just unrealistic and does not take place in most classrooms. It is, however, important to use homework as a tool. The extra practice that takes place at home will continue to allow the student to get more practice. “Not all homework or practice needs to be the same. Some students may reach 80 percent proficiency well before 24 practices. If so, they should move into extension activities. English language learners, however, are likely to need more than 24 practice sessions to be competent at a skill, so some of those practice sessions can be assigned as homework.” (Hill, 2006). This homework may take place in forms of reading logs, graphic organizers, or composition notebooks. While these are just a few, there are many other homework structures that are used. I like to use composition notebooks. They use them for math, reading, writing, science, and social studies. While each notebook all have a little bit different structure, they all have a constant within that subject. This constant allows students to always know what the expaectation for that particular notebook is. If they miss a day a school, they do not have to be re-taught as to what they should do.
Providing appropriate and timely feedback is also vital to a child’s success. They need to see what mistakes they made and what changes they can make before continuing on to the next task. If they do not have this feedback, it is very likely that they will the same mistakes on every assignment because they were never told that it was wrong. “Reinforcing effort is about helping students to understand the relationship between effort and achievement.” (Hill, 2006).