Teacher Mark Creasy has turned the traditional concept of homework on it's head by tasking his students with the administration and assessment. Here's how it works.
Over the past 10 years as a teacher, I have come to view homework as a Goldilocks issue. For some parents, there's always too much, for others not enough and for the rest it's just right.
For me, though, the bigger issue is the inverse relationship between the time and effort taken over setting, completing and marking homework and the benefit for the learner. Traditionally-set homework – involving worksheets, workbooks, research, answering and memorising – does not and cannot meet the needs of every learner individually. Furthermore, the well-intentioned ideal behind homework – to prepare learners for the future – is impossible as children have no influence over the work, except for those who decide not to complete it.
As the parent of a nine-year-old, I view homework as something which I need to support the school in getting my daughter to complete, but I also see the way it affects how much time she has for other activities which often have as much – or more – educational benefit: baking, making, playing, and so on. Having been taught to think for herself she can frequently find better learning opportunities. I've written notes to teachers explaining why she hasn't completed the set homework and stating what she has done instead – complicated, as I work at her school too.
Replace homework with "unhomework"
Over the past 10 years of teaching across six schools in both the primary and secondary sectors, I've developed a way to make homework more purposeful and inspire students to want to complete it for their own benefit. I call it unhomework. While it is a simple concept – get the children to set, check and assess the work so teachers don't have to – it can't be achieved without securing the right environment for success. To do this, I've established the 5 Rs as my bedrock: respect, relationships, resilience, responsibilities and rights. These are essential to make unhomework effective – the tasks children complete at home, of their own volition, are actually just an extension of this classroom ethos.
Unhomework in action – three key elements
A great example of this process happened with my year 5 class recently for our topic of the sun, Earth and moon. As this is a subject where practical experiment opportunities are lacking, I decided a group project fitted the brief better. Here's an outline of unhomework in pactice:
1. The 5 Rs
• Respect – students decided what strengths they had to offer to help the group complete the topic.
• Relationships – the groups elected a leader, who monitored work and chose pieces. This involved using Google Docs for sharing, as well as play dates to create dances, songs and plays.
• Resilience – the children worked on this for more than four weeks so had to be dedicated and focused, aided by the leader who monitored the work completion.
• Rights – students had the right to complete the work as they chose, but could not assert their rights over their peers.
• Responsibilities – everyone had to complete their work to a standard that showed their best, being held to account by their peers. Students chose what was included and the mode of presentation, which included planets being made, presented as slides, drawn, written about and even danced.
2. The ground rules
Once the 5 Rs are established in your classroom, then these are the simple expectations adhered to in my classes:
• Work can be presented in any format.
• Work needs to meet a target for improvement or could be something you enjoy doing applied in a new way or to a different subject.
• The children set the deadline and must meet it. Handing in early is only positive if the work meets the standard they can achieve.
3. What? Why? How?
These three questions – what are the focus, purpose and criteria for success? – are the framework in which my classes set their own work. I suggest establishing with the class that all homework you have set in the past meets these elements (show them with examples of their work) and then ask them to set their own, recording it formally under these headings. By having all unhomework set in this way, it is easily referred back to and can be built upon. Again, the recent year five science project demonstrates each of these:
• Focus – students chose this for themselves and created a checklist with their group.
• Purpose – in discussion with their peers, the children explained why they had chosen this.
• Success criteria – the children reviewed their own work and others' against these. Using their ideas for improvement, we are currently working on a project for the topic sound with the students in different groups to continue to develop their 5 Rs.
Each aspect is important, but especially the success criteria, as they allow for self-, peer- and teacher-assessment to be focused and targeted. Similarly, the triangular feedback provided by the child, learning partner and teacher allows for development to the work to be made, rather than a simple "completed, move on" approach.
In my experience, unhomework prepares learners for their future lives by developing and embedding the skills that establish lifelong learning as a reality, not just a concept or a soundbite.
