Homework Rationale

Homework is an important piece of a child’s education.  Although it seems that children spend a majority of their lives in school, students only spend about 13% of their waking hours in school (Hill, 2006).  Homework and independent practice are ways to assure that students are practicing and reinforcing skills that they learned while in school. 

What constitutes meaningful homework?

Homework can easily become a meaningless practice if it is only used to assign students busy work.  Homework should be connected to what students are learning in class throughout the day.  For English language learners, this could involve additional vocabulary practice to help students stay in the loop as the class studies a topic.  Regardless of what the specific assignment is, homework will only be meaningful if students can connect it back to classroom learning.  Teachers can also make homework meaningful by honing in on specific skills for specific students.  Not every student should have the same exact homework assignments for the sake of fairness.  To maintain relevancy, students should receive homework based on what skills they have, and what skills they need to continue developing.

What are your intended homework objectives for your students?

When I assign homework, I want to make sure that each student clearly understands what he or she needs to do.  I also want students to know the purpose behind their homework.  I believe that students often don’t take homework seriously because they see it as busy work.  However, if students can understand the purpose of their individual homework assignments, they will likely take it more seriously more often.  I also think it is important to give students a chance to ask questions about their homework.  They should know that they could receive support from the teacher, or a peer tutor. 

How will you provide specific feedback?

Providing students with feedback is key in helping their learning come full circle.  Ideally, students will be able to orally share their homework/individual learning with their classmates.  I envision this being done while students are doing centers in the classroom.  The teacher can monitor the homework-sharing center to monitor student progress on homework, and provide individualized feedback in a small group setting.

Fiction vs. Nonfiction

Fiction:

The typical structure of a fictional text can be something that will help English language learners.  Once learn about the elements of fiction (character, plot, theme, and setting), they will be able to get a better idea of what the book is about.  Teachers can provide graphic organizers for students to identify the characters, plot, theme, and settings of a fictional book they are reading.

Non-Fiction

Non-fiction can often be more difficult for students to access.  The many features of non-fiction text may be overwhelming to students if they do not know how to use them.  Students benefit from having non-fiction text features taught explicitly.  Teachers can model how to use different features of non-fiction text (such as the index, table of contents, glossary, etc.), and give students lots of practice.  English language learners will also benefit understanding different types of non-fiction, such as expository, narrative, persuasive and descriptive.  It’s important to relay to learners that these different types of writing are used for different purposes.  You can also help students better understand non-fiction writing by teaching text structures.  There are many graphic organizers you can use for this.  Text structures include problem/solution, compare/contrast, sequence, and cause and effect.

Sheltered Literacy Lesson

I could not get the videos to work on any of my home computers, so I found a sample sheltered lesson on YouTube.  Here are the links to the videos that I watched.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGFTlmJmdmw

In this lesson, the teacher was giving an explicit lesson about a word with multiple meanings.  The word they were focusing on was “draw.”  The teacher began the lesson by creating a multiple meaning web with her students.  The word “draw” was in the middle, and the three legs of the web pointed to three illustrations of the word draw- one had a hand drawing a picture, one had a person opening curtains, and one had a person choosing something from a hat.  Students were given 3-half sheets of paper with the word draw, and each of the definitions.  They were to draw an example of each meaning of the word draw.

In the second part, the teacher revealed a piece of chart paper with four sentences on it.  Each sentence had the word “draw” underlined.  The teacher explained the next activity.  The class was to read the first sentence, and determine the meaning of the word “draw” in that sentence.  Next, the class would read the other three sentences to decide which sentence used the word “draw” in the same way.  The class choral read the sentence together, and then the teacher asked students to hold up the half-sheet of paper they created with the appropriate meaning for “draw.”  Most students held up the correct sheet, and the teacher provided meaningful feedback.  The class choral read the sentence again.  The teacher asked the students to identify the words that helped them figure out the meaning for “draw” in this sentence.  Several students gave answers, and the teacher circled the words on the chart paper.  The class read the last three sentences using the same procedure.  Each time, they discussed the different meaning of the word “draw,” and found contextual clues.  Once, the teacher even asked students to “think-pair-share” by sharing their answers with a partner.  At the end, students were asked to identify the sentence that used “draw” the same way as the first sentence.

Reflection

Introduction- The teacher supported students in building background knowledge about the word “draw.”  She provided a visual reference, and allowed students to create their own.  The teacher in this lesson also incorporated academic language into the lesson by teaching students about multiple meaning words.

Pre-reading- The teacher explained the reading activity as well as the purpose.  Students were to identify the meaning of the word “draw” in each sentence, and then identify context clues that helped them.  The teacher incorporated more academic language by explaining “context clues,” and by giving examples.  Before starting, students had a clear idea of the activity’s expectations.

During Reading- Students and teacher read the sentences chorally.  This is very helpful for students who may not be confident in their reading ability.  It allows students to practice reading aloud without being singled out.  Also, the teacher checked for understanding along the way by having students share their thinking with the class or with a partner.  She gave meaningful feedback to students.

Post-Reading- The students had to identify which of the three uses of “draw” matched the original sentence.  The students got to discuss their answers with a partner before the answer was revealed to the class.

Reflection- The teacher reviewed the importance of using context clues to help students understand the meanings of words in sentences in paragraphs.  This brought the lesson full circle, and gave students a broader concept to take away with them.

Overall, the teacher sheltered this literacy lesson in a lot of practical ways.  Students seemed engaged, and they seemed to understand the lesson as well.