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?”

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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.