Homework, Instructional Strategies, Mod 5, 6516

The reading this week highlighted the other various ways in which homework could and should be utilized by a general education population. It provided me with new insight and skills should I begin working with general education students on a regular basis.

With a brief time spent in a general education classroom almost all of my teaching has been with students in Special Education classroom settings. The use of homework with these students is primarily for the additional practice and helping students get into the habit of having to do additional work each day when they get home from school. Their daily homework is also used to reinforce a lesson that was taught earlier during the school day.

One of the ideas mentioned in the Classroom Instruction that Works, was the idea of using homework before a new topic has begun to access prior knowledge about a subject (Dean, Hubbell, Pitler & Stone, 2012). As a Special Education teacher this isn’t something that I have previously done. It would be interesting to see how to incorporate this into material for next year.

Often the majority of the homework being sent home each day is in the area of math. It is used to provide students with some reinforcement about their skills and helps encourage their self-confidence. For this reason, in my Special Education class, math homework was routinely given out that was highly modified to promote student’s self-confidence. For example students were given fewer items to complete than the handout required (only having to complete the ‘odd’ or ‘even’) or a new homework page would be created to focus only on the skills that the student felt confident in already.

My own experience with the use of homework is for a very particular part of the student population. I think the way Special Education teachers modify homework is effective because as Dean et al. (2012) state it is “directly tied to the skills needed for achieving mastering of learning objectives” (Dean et al., 2012, p. 104). I worked to ensure that

Reference:

Pitler, H. & Stone, B., (2012). A handbook for classroom instruction that works (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Dean, C. B., Hubble, E. R., Pitler, H., & Stone, B. (2012). Classroom Instruction That Works (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

6132 Learners in Context, Reflection Module 5

Lev Vygotsky created the sociocultural learning theory to explain the importance of communication and culture both at home and in the school (Pressley, 2007). His model suggested that both of these areas in particular as incredibly important in the development and education of a child. Vygotsky created the idea of the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) in order to explain the variety of ways in which teachers provide assistance to students (Pressley, 2007). The ZPD helped shape the idea of working with students in a very specific way in order to give them assistance to learn by providing just the right amount and type of help. Scaffolding is one of the ways to provide such assistance.

Another distinction in Vygotsky’s approach to apprenticeship is the idea of modeling a new skill. By having the teacher actively demonstrate what needs to happen, students are much more quickly able to see and understand what the expectation is for the task. The teacher can use modeling to explain why a task is done a particular way and clarify the procedure before students try it for themselves.

I have had a recent experience where I was the student and received ZPD support from my teacher. One thing I really enjoyed about one of my classes this summer was the way the teacher created a safety net around the experience. In the beginning of the class she used modeling to show us the steps involved in creating a lesson plan. Later, she had us work in teams of three to create a lesson plan about topic ‘A’. The next time she had us work in teams of two to create a new lesson plan about topic ‘B’. Finally she gave us individual assignments to create a lesson plan about topic ‘C’. After each lesson plan was completed she would provide useful and immediate feedback that we would be able to directly apply to creating the next lesson plan. She continually provided clear directions and frequently told us about the scaffolding she was using (and slowly removing as our knowledge increased).

As a student I have to admit that the scaffolding was much needed and appreciated. If that scaffold hadn’t been in place and she asked us to complete a lesson plan without working on a team or with a partner my stress level would have rocketed from mild to overwhelming and the presentation of my skills as displayed in the lesson plan would have been reduced (Medina, 2008).

The screenshot above is shown as evidence of learning to create a lesson plan after the teamwork assistance was removed and I was able to create a lesson plan individually. The example is the first lesson plan I wrote on my own and was from the Teaching Reading to Exceptional Students course I took last summer.

As a result of having directly experienced this style of assistance and experiencing success as a learner, I am now better able to work with students. I’m able to explain the situation and better understand how to set up scaffolding to help students feel supported. I clearly understand the strength and comfort that comes from being able to ask a team or a partner questions to check thinking along the process.

This experience will directly influence the students I work with. Being able to clearly explain that the task will be first shared amongst the group, and later done individually helps students realize that they can learn in a safe situation, with the help of peers, but they will be held accountable to do their own work and display their learning later.

Reference:

Medina, J. (2008). Brain Rules, Seattle, WA: Pear Press.

Pressley, M. & McCormick, C. B. (2007). Child and adolescent development for educators. New York, NY: Guilford Press.