http://firesinthemind.org/

Deliberate practice leads to new learning and skills

Homework must have an express purpose....but kids say that they don't know the point of the homework

• Don't give everyone the same homework because all students learn at different paces & in different ways
• If homework is too easy...it is busywork.  If it is too difficult, then students get left behind...they remember their misunderstandings as truths.
• How might you design homework in order to meet each student's needs?
• Give more choices in homework - different point values...must add up to a determined value 
• Students want to know why they are doing an assignment...write it at the top of the page 
• Be sure that your purpose is respectful - not just because your administrator says so, to be able to enter more grades into the gradebook, appease parents
• Students say that they can often do their homework without thinking - it is just repetition - leads to copying
• How can you keep your homework from being busywork? - Does it help to share the work's purpose with your students?
• What are you asking your students to practice again & again?  Do those tasks require focus & increase understanding? 
• Students say that they don't have enough time for homework
• How could we help students better allocate their time? - To we have the right to dictate how students spend their time after school? Is giving the student who doesn't finish his homework on time simply giving him a ticket out?
• Students say that they don't use their homework for anything. Respect their time - use the skills & information again in class.  Make it part of the bigger picture of what they are learning...a piece of the puzzle
• Expert Habits of Mind
• Ask good ?s
• Rely on Evidence
• Look for patterns
• Break down problems
• And more
• Expert Habits of Work
• Collaboration
• Welcoming Critique
• Revising
• Persistance
• Seeking new challenges
• Understanding your own best work styles
• The 4 Rs of Homework as Practice
• Ready themselves for new learning
• Recall & Repeat their knowledge and skills in different contexts
• Review material that they have learned earlier
• Revise their work repeatedly 
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