Homework: The Numb Factor

I had a conversation with my CT this very morning regarding homework, which has prompted me to expand on my thinking. My CT asked me when I would be giving homework on a daily basis. I responded by telling her I did not believe that homework should be assigned simply for the sake of assigning it. Homework needs to serve a specific purpose and be very meaningful. I just don’t believe in busy work. She disagrees.

I have read article upon article about the usefulness (or uselessness) of homework. In fact, the theme of November’s English Journal issue is homework. The question the issue asks is “Does Homework Help?” The literature consistently points to a resounding no, at least if it is just busy work. Furthermore, teachers have difficulty getting most students to do it. My students have been assigned so much homework, which accounts for only 10% of their grade, taking a zero for an assignment means nothing to them. Through the end of third quarter, they had racked up over 90 assignments. Yes, 90. You do the math; it barely affects their grade. So why would they do it? And yet some teachers persist.

Tonight I will be planning homework for the rest of the week to accommodate my CT’s request, but not without reservations and grunting, much like my students when I give them homework. I had been giving very little homework because I only assigned it when it was necessary, namely, when it would further student learning. Also, my students are required to read every night for the Accelerated Reader program, and usually I would assign extra reading. Reading every night is a perfectly viable and reasonable expectation for English homework.

If students are expected to do homework on a nightly basis, without rhyme or reason, they become numb to its benefits. I like to call this the “numb factor.” They are no longer learning but simply going through the motions. Homework becomes simply busy work, or, as students might say, it becomes torturous and meant only to inflict pain and agony. Plus, I prefer not to have students do anything unless I believe it serves a valuable, reasonably justifiable purpose. This includes every aspect of my planning and teaching, and homework in within that realm.

Because teachers assign so much homework, and because it accounts for so little of students’ grades, they do not benefit from it at all. Of course, the intrinsically motivated still do it. Others, however, just don’t care. I would much rather reserve the homework battle for moments when the homework really matters—not when it would be purposeless and deleterious to student learning.