Tuesday, August 1, 2017

Sending Work to School?

Oh. Man. My twitterfriends Matt Miller and Alice Keeler recently published a book called Ditch That Homework: Practical Strategies to Make Homework Obsolete. (I still have to get my hands on a copy...hoping to read and review it this fall...)

Here's the zinger of a tweet Matt posted earlier today...


I have plenty that I could say about this, but I think I'll just raise a few questions to my colleagues in the teaching profession...and anyone else who wants to chime in on the comments section...

What do you say in response?

Is this fair?

Is this any different than teachers sending work home with kids?

And if so, what's the difference?


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2 comments:

  1. Phillip NashAugust 2, 2017 at 6:17 PM

    I think the hard issue in this debate is this: if we don't give students work to do at home are we teaching them that learning only takes place in a formal setting like a classroom? This is leaving aside the very good debate about what type of work we should give them to do at home.

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    1. Dave MulderAugust 3, 2017 at 9:24 AM

      That's a great point, Phillip. You're definitely right about learning in informal ways and in informal spaces. My gentle pushback is that most homework is still "formal" learning, even if it's happening in an informal space, isn't it? Formal in the sense that it is assigned by the teacher, and tied to some formal objectives, and is likely to be formally assessed, right?

      I think it's possible to structure homework informally (i.e., student-interest driven, with multiple, differentiated options) but this is, in my experience, not the kind of homework I generally assigned. (Way, way back in the day when I assigned homework to my middle school students, that is...)

      Thanks for taking the time to comment! I appreciate the feedback/pushback.

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