Customized Homework

I've recently been pondering the role of homework in a customized learning approach. Too much, too little, too hard, too easy, I've heard them all over the past sixteen years and probably said a few about my own children's homework loads. Perhaps this is because there is no one answer to the question of homework. Possibly, in a customized program, homework also needs to be customized.

In the past, I assigned a weekly homework assignment to my students with the intent of giving them the freedom to schedule their homework efforts around their often hectic lives. The motive for assigning homework at all was to extend the school day, maximizing the learning for each student. Last fall, when I began using a more customized approach, I shifted to a new homework strategy. Instead of assigning homework, I regularly reminded students that they could (and likely would need to) work on their learning standards outside of school at times. As a result, the overwhelming majority of my students opted to do little to no standards work at home. Was I letting students off the hook, or were students learning how to better manage their time to avoid having to work outside of school?

Perhaps both. A cornerstone of customized learning is that students are individuals with their own needs and motivations. Some students, no doubt, did practice good time management skills that resulted in their having an enhanced learning experience despite doing little to no homework. Yet, other students may have used my homework policy as an avoidance tool. This result seems to cry out for a greater degree of homework customization.

There are students who will benefit from a flexible homework approach. With those students in mind, my approach from last year appears worthy of repeating. However, there needs to be a complement to the approach that better suits the needs of other students. With this in mind, I'll likely require a homework assignment twice each week focused on supporting skills rather than direct standards work. If a student chooses to do more, he/she can always tackle the standards work from the customized program, but no student can do less.

Perhaps this will be the happy medium that will solve the problem of homework once and for all,.......but I doubt it.