This was part of a lesson in his English book about effective and ineffective summarizing strategies. While not a reading assignment, exactly, it prompted a conversation.
His argument went something like this:
Teachers want us to read, right? But...instead of assigning us to read...they assign us to read things about reading, or fill out packets about the things we have read. What a great way to suck all the fun out of reading. If they want us to love to read, we should just read. If they want to know what I've been reading, or what I think about what I'm reading, why not just ask me?To be fair, he's in middle school, and in my experience, it's a rare middle schooler who loves homework. And he wasn't (really) being critical of his English teacher; he's an equal-opportunity homework-hater, and is sick of the packets in all of his subjects. He is also the kid who will read his geography book just because he is interested in it...until you give him a worksheet to fill in after reading. (That just turns the joyful learning into something to slog through...)
But do you think he might be on to something here? What if we expected kids to do the reading?
This has me wondering about why it is common practice to assign a worksheet to go along with every reading assignment. Are we trying help kids think about the reading? (I mean, really?) Or are we trying to hold them accountable for doing the reading? (Because I can think of several other ways to hold kids accountable for reading other than filling out a sheet.) Or are we trying to justify ourselves as teachers somehow, trying to prove that we have given students the opportunity to learn? (That just sounds silly to me, but I wonder...?) Or maybe we are trying to pad kids' grades by giving them a pile of piddly assignments to offset any low test grades? (Oh, don't get me started on this...we have to stop grading for compliance, completion, and effort!)
What do you think? Can we expect kids to just do the reading without assigning a sheet to go along with it? Are you brave enough to try it?
For the record, I hate homework and see no need for it prior to middle school and homework in middle school better have some serious punch. In high school, I get... that's definitely different. The purpose of homework can not be to teach responsibility or anything along those lines. Let me as the parent do that please. Every second of homework should improve learning not teach compliance. To you middle schooler's point, if the reading assignment is compelling enough then we need to trust our students to read it and follow it up with some neat discussion or differentiated opportunities to share what they learned... a debate or video blog or speech or other. Anyway, I'll stop here, but I could go on and on. Thanks for posting this!!
ReplyDeleteThank you for taking the time to read and comment, my friend! Glad that I'm not *completely* off-base here--your affirmation is encouraging. :-)
DeleteI'm thinking the very same thing about reading assigned as homework--what's the purpose of it? If the only purpose is completing the sheet...well, we may have bigger issues with that teacher's classroom practice...
I think your word "purpose" should drive the whole conversation. Have you read "The Homework Myth" by Alfie Kohn? Worth your time for sure.
Delete"The Homework Myth" was a game-changer for me. Honestly, it's what kicked off a lot of my railing about the crappy homework so many teachers assign. #nomorecrappyhomework
DeleteGame changer for me too! To be honest, our school/teachers, get it! I have no real complaints about my kids (8th & 9th grade) load.
DeleteWorksheets and packets do kill reading! Sometimes my personal children are reading a short novel and have a packet twice the size to fill out. Most of the work is nothing more than time fillers (crossword puzzles, word searches, mazes, etc.)
ReplyDeleteI find that very rarely do worksheets actually provide valuable information anyway. Just because they circle the right word in the sentence, doesn't mean they understand subjects in a sentence.
WHEW! Thanks for bringing up this topic.
Moreover, when the end goal is to complete a worksheet and/or packet correctly, that is there only purpose for reading. It takes away from the more natural reasons (to learn something, to discover, to enjoy, etc.)
DeleteThanks for taking the time to read and comment, Jessica. You've hit the nail on the head with your comment about these sheets often being "time fillers." While it is *possible* for a sheet to truly be a guide for thinking...more often than not they are "busy-work-sheets" rather than "think sheets."
DeleteSo what is it about worksheets? Is there something intrinsically wrong with a single sheet of paper? Or is it what we put on it? In Beginning Band the students get worksheets (called music). Should they then not play it because it is a sheet (or two) of paper? And yes, I do get it. Many 'worksheets' are simply poorly designed activities. However, that does not negate the fact that there are wonderful activities that can (and should and do) get sent home and they happen to be on a single sheet of paper.
ReplyDeleteThanks for taking time to comment, my friend! I agree with you in principle: there is nothing intrinsically wrong with a sheet in and of itself. It *is* possible for a sheet to have positive benefits. (And I'd be disingenuous if I made it sound like I never used worksheets myself when I taught in K-12...because I did!) But I still question the purpose of (most of) the sheets I see. When I did assign a sheet for my students to complete, it was more often something we used in class, or at least something we would use *in class* if it went home as homework.
DeleteI guess I'm really arguing for teachers to up their game, and be thoughtful about the quality of the work they assign. Let's stop calling them "worksheets"...because the connotation is that they are then busy-work. Maybe "thinksheets is better? (I do think that the names we use matter...but maybe this is just silliness? Not sure...)
Thanks for the push-back on this, my friend. :-)
I am struggling with this worksheet concept in student teaching. After going through a Dordt Education Program experience that taught us to steer clear from (over?)-using worksheets, I find it hard to enter a veteran teachers' classroom and try to use a different format when he or she may be under that sort of worksheet format. I have started to teach with a no worksheet format and focus more on overarching/guiding questions with essay responses in a history classroom setting and I am wondering how the students will respond to this. Time will tell. Thankful for veteran teachers who will allow you to take over some of their classes in the first place.
ReplyDeleteI am also wondering how to implement more reading into a general World History classroom without a worksheet format. Any suggestions?