students who are experiencing difficulty of the impor-
tance of attendance. I simply asked, “How is your
attendance; are you getting to class on time?”

22828

The first time I administered the feedback sheet,
students asked, “What is this?” I answered, “Fill it out
and let me know what kind of progress you are making
in this class.” I have found through subsequent use of
this device that it is especially useful with students I

am meeting for the first time. If instructors teach
courses where students reappear from term to term,
these reports might lose some of their uniqueness and
productivity.

Eugene Wittman, Educational Consultant
For further information contact the author at Blue

Ridge Community College, Box 133A, Flat Rock, NC
28731.

2a2a7e

A Call for the Revival of Homework

The oldest trick in the teacher’s bag is homework—the
daily assignment of written work to be submitted by the
student at the beginning of the next session. Although I
am a longtime instructor of history at a community
college, it only recently occurred to me that homework
was a pedagogical tool I might employ. My own profes-
sors had not, and homework was only a vague memory
from my days in K-12.

But after years of trying to improve attendance,
attention, and discussion in my classroom, I stumbled
onto homework. Now it is an indispensable part of my
teaching. In order to explain how homework contributes
to attendance, attention, and discussion, I must describe
my system for assigning and evaluating it.

Students cannot submit homework unless they attend
class. They must turn in the homework at the beginning
of class, and if they arrive late, they are to drop it off
before they take a seat. Homework boosts attendance
when students learn that failure to complete it will result
in a lower grade.

Once students are there, how do you hold their
attention? Attention and discussion have a symbiotic
relationship. If students are speaking, then others are
listening. Homework encourages and generates discus-
sion in a classroom.

How does homework contribute to attention and
discussion? What sort of homework is best? Homework
needs to ask for both fact and interpretation. [For ex-
ample, I ask students to list the common theories that
account for the fall of Rome and explain which of them
seems most plausible and why.]

Homework questions that cover all of the material to
be discussed in a class session can be divided among
groups of students. In that way, different groups are
primed for each of the topics to be covered, more so than
if the instructor simply had assigned specific chapters, or

if the chapter assignment had been accompanied by
study questions but no homework.

With homework assigned, the student is more likely to
believe that daily preparation is important. If homework
has been prepared and submitted, the student has
something to say and is more likely to speak up in class.
Having responded in writing to both factual and thought
questions, some students cannot wait to shine in class
discussion. A substantive give-and-take among students
and instructor always will be more interesting and
engaging than a lecture. Several voices and points of
view are better than one.

If you are still with me, you might be shaking your
head, thinking about the amount of correction time
involved in what I propose. I have a strategy for reduc-
ing it significantly: I letter-grade half of all papers
submitted and check-only the other half. I read each
paper to be checked until it has earned a C grade. Then I
stop reading and put a check at the top of the paper. At
the end of the term, if the student has all required checks,
his semester grade for half the homework is A+, one
missing check is an A, two a B, and so on. Because the
students do not know when they will be letter-graded,
there is a built-in incentive to submit their best work.

There is no substitute for daily preparation, and one of
the best ways to ensure it, or at least to come as close as
possible, is to assign homework. Students initially may
grumble about the work but ultimately will feel good
about their learning and be more apt to share it in class.

Jim Campbell, Instructor, Social Science
For further information, contact the author at Mott

Community College, 1401 East Court Street, Flint, MI
48502.

 

Suanne D. Roueche, Editor

October 29, 1993, Vol. XV, No. 26

©The Unversity of Texas at Austin, 1993
Further duplication is permitted by MEMBER
institutions for their own personnel.

INNOVATION ABSTRACTS is a publication of the Natonal institute for Staff and Organizational Development (NISOD),
Department of Educational Administration, College of Education, EDB 348, The University of Texas at Austn, Austin, Texas
78712, (512) 471-7545. Funding in part by the W. K. Kellogg Foundaton and the Sid W. Richardson Foundation. Issued weekly
when classes are in session during fall and spning terms. ISSN 0199-106X.