Reflective Essay:
Personal Philosophy of Homework
McQuet Osborn
Arkansas State University
ELFN 6763: Philosophies of Education
Dr. Gabrina W. Charles
June 4, 2023
Personal Philosophy on Homework Context I taught 5th and 6th grade Math at Lafayette County Elementary School for 4 years. 67% of the population at this school were minority students. 100% of the students received free lunch.
Purpose and Practice Teaching Math, I believed that homework was essential for practice. I tried to grade homework when I first started teaching. Grades were based on completion not accuracy. Grades went down because the majority of the students were not turning in the assignment. I decided not to grade homework. I tried giving prizes such as a
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Number 1, I did not want to punish students for not doing homework. The demographic at this school meant that many of my students went home and had to help on the farm, or with household chores, or taking care of siblings, which made it hard for them to do homework. Number 2, Time management, if I assigned homework and did not have time to go over it then the assignments were mute. I did tutoring in the morning. If a student wanted to do homework to bring up their grade, we would go over the homework at that time. Number 3, I had to examine parents' roles in homework.There were a few parents that wanted their students to have homework and wanted to know what they were learning. Making a newsletter once a week to keep parents informed and knowledgeable about what we are learning, and making homework optional allowed parents to be involved in student …show more content…
It is very important for the teacher to go over the homework and also parent involvement has a big effect on completion rates. I believe teacher and parent expectations are essential for students to learn good homework habits. Because of the demographics at the school I worked at, I decided to make homework optional. I don’t believe this should be the norm at every school. The community and demographics at some schools may have a better outcome when it comes to assigning homework.
Conclusion
I believe making homework optional was a good solution for me. It allowed students to bring up their grades if needed, it allowed parents to get involved in student learning, and it did not punish students that were unable to get the work done. Finding time, during small groups or tutoring (in my case), to go over homework so it can be effective is essential. Parent and Teacher expectations and attitudes toward homework are extremely important to allow students to learn good homework