Diary 3: Is there an alternative to traditional homework? And how do I apply this in daily class and the lives of students to let them learn as much as possible?
I would like to start of with some refreshing opinions from teacher and author Katharine Birbalsingh, radio presenter Alan Jones and teacher Jennifer Atkinson. According to Katharine Birbalsingh no one said raising children was easy. Do teachers want to mark homework? No. Do parents want to make children do homework? No. And if children themselves don't want to do it, the conclusion seems simple. But we have a responsibility to give children the best opportunities to learn, and homework is a crucial part of learning.
On the other hand radio presenter Alan Jones says that he doesn't believe in homework because children should have time to play outside and learn skills that only time after school with your family can teach.
Jennifer Atkinson tells in Why homework is important that Research has consistently shown that parental involvement in a child's learning is a key factor in that child's achievement in school.
All of the opinions makes sense. They are thinking about the children and young learners, how to develop themselves and that homework is essential for students, even though it is an exercise maths to make at home or playing outside. Both develop skills because of using different parts of the brain to expand your knowledge. On the other hand it let me realise what I prefer to do as a teacher to help the students grow, experience and enjoy referring to doing homework.
When I think about traditional homework I am convinced it helps you to learn, understand and solve exercises by yourself (sometimes with your parents) at home. But it must also has to be as meaningful and manageable as possible. In the other way it can be fun when it has a relation to the world and the technology in where we are living and it establish skills and letting the students learn to become independent.
To boost and increase the knowledge and development of students I am convinced that a different kind of approach of homework will work. For example the use of movements that helps to visualise and memorialize the exercise, it let you train a different part of your brain, let you come out of your comfort zone, makes learning ecstatic and cheerful without thinking about that you are doing an exercise, and masters you to be assertive and not be afraid of making contact with other students.
Hereby I want to share two examples of combining movements and exercises en one.
Example 1: This exercise is applicable for children from 5 years old to adults first class in A1. Think back to this morning: For example: waking up, getting out of bed, washing up, dressing, and grabbing something to eat, walk down the stairs, get into the car, drive to school and enter in class. What sounds accompanied the action and can you make a gesturing frase with explaining the actions and making the sounds. The student will make a frase of movements, words, sounds and actions and show it to the other. They can do it alone or in a group. One can make the sounds and talk and the other one can perform the movements. Or everybody of the group can do it all together. The homework will be making a frase of movements and invent some sounds that maybe not match the movement. Because of this contradiction they will create lots of playful sounds and movements and the exercise will become funny including learning connecting sounds with words to remember.
Example 2: This exercise is applicable for children from 5 years old to the age of 12. Time is a sandwich: It is called a water dance choreography. Every child will make 4 different movements that relates for example to bubbles, ripples, splashes, swish, swirls. Then I will call out the different words of movements and they perform. The can drip, drizzle, pour and rush wildly about. The dance can make a giant whirlpool, freeze, and then slowly melt out on the floor to form a calm and quiet lake. When the children listen to my words they have to act in the moment, or remembering the movements they had created, the will dance together and learn what these words means. It is all very playful and after that we can talk about what they created together and what they would have could done differently (for the next time). The homework will be to create 4 more movements, maybe some movements they had seen from other children, and they have to practice the words that relates to the movement. They will show it next time in class so that everybody can learn from it.
Because of my background as a dancer/choreographer I like to use movements in class. If it's an exercise referring to an exercise out of a book or an exercise of movements to break the tight and straight way of teaching to relax the brain and to move the body. My preference is doing homework with video, writing, painting, coloring, discussing, audio, make a play, singing, performing, dancing etc. I will make the use of movements important to a part of my class but also I will use the normal traditional way. As far as Katharin, Allen and Jennifer are referring to their ideas and experience I would say that everybody has their own way of teaching and implementing homework in class. I believe that when you get out of your comfort zone, what means for as well the student as for the teacher, It can give you a lot of new and inestimable moments, a quicker developing of the student and a open and better relationship between students and teachers.
Links:
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/should-children-do-traditional-homework-20110923-1kpaj.html