Homework and Practice: the

1
Homework and Practice the content from Marzano

• Early Release Day Session 1
• East Elementary
• September 2009

2
Purpose of Homework and Practice

• To deepen a students understanding
• To extend learning opportunities beyond the
  confines of the school day
• Two purposes
• Practice
• Preparation
• Source Classroom Instruction that Works
  Research-based Strategies for Increasing Student
  Achievement, Robert Marzano et.al pp 60-71

3
Purposeful and Meaningful Homework

• Is an appropriate amount
• Requires minimal parental involvement
• Clearly communicates to students the purpose for
  the Homework or Practice
• Provides feedback to the student

4
1. Amount of Homework

• Different levels require different amounts of
  homework and practice - elementary, middle, high
  school
• Coopers Study reported the following gains
• 24 percentile points high school
• 12 percentile points middle school
• 6 percentile points elementary school
• NOTE Although the percentile gain at the
  elementary is a single digit, other studies
  (Cooper and others) determine that purposeful
  homework at the elementary level is beneficial.
• It produces good study habits
• It fosters positive attitudes toward school

Marzano et.al reported a 28 overall percentile
gain from their meta-analysis study.
5
2. Parent Involvement in Homework

• Role of parent ? minimal
• Encourage independent solving of content problems
  by students
• To facilitate homework, parents can
• Reinforce the purpose of homework
• Provide a quiet and consistent place
• Reinforce and recognize the effort

6
3. Purpose of Homework

• Students need to know if the homework assignment
  is
• for practice
• for preparation/elaboration

• For Practice
• Structured around highly familiar content for the
  student
• Reinforcing a familiar skill

• For Preparation or Elaboration
• Preparing students for new content
• Having students elaborate on new knowledge

Articulate clear guidelines expectations for
the assignment Value, Benefit, Time-frame,
Acceptable parent involvement
7
4. Feedback on Homework
Homework with feedback (from teacher) 30 gain
Homework without feedback 11 gain

• Vary the approach to feedback
• Specific comments from teacher
• Peer feedback monitored by teacher
• Written
• Verbal
• Rubric
• Let students know type of feedback to expect
• Ideas for giving feedback on hw students give
  each other feedback, students keep track of their
  accuracy or speed, students keep a hw portfolio
  that teacher comments on once a week

8
5. Purposeful Practice Helping students shape a
skill or process

• While practicing, students should adapt and shape
  what they have learned.
• Allowing students time to shape skills builds
  their conceptual understanding.
• Mastery takes focused practice spread out over
  time.
• Have students practice fewer examples to develop
  a deep understanding vs. many examples that
  create a shallow understanding.

9
6. Determining Skills to Practice and How Much
Practice

• Students need about 20 practice sessions before
  they grasp the new skill enough to use it
  effectively on their own
• Massed practice
• Distributed practice

10
7. Establish and Communicate a Homework Policy

• Students and parents need to understand the
  purposes of hw, amount of hw that will be
  assigned, consequences for not completing hw, and
  description of the types of parental involvement
  that are acceptable
• Sample Classroom HW Policy- clearly communicating
  your expectations (students and parents sign)
• ISS HW Policy

11
8. Students Charting Accuracy and Speed

• Speed- speaking a foreign language, estimating
  cost of purchases while standing in line at a
  store
• Accuracy- converting standard and metric units,
  learning scientific method, writing a good
  descriptive paragraph, indirect measurement