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For the teachers on the board
So I know that there are several teachers on our board, and I was wanting to see if you had any advice for me on an issue I've been having. I have a few students, between 6-8th grade, who are just plan unmotivated to do homework. I've tried everything I can think of, and I just can't get them to do their work! I even give at least 20 minutes of every class period to get started on homework, and I try to have one "catch-up" period a week where students who are missing work for me have time to just get caught up. Even so, several of my students are failing because they just plain don't do their work.
Short of taking their hands and putting the pencil to the paper for them, I'm out of ideas. I know that most of these kids come from kind of rough homes, and that is part of the reason that they are having a hard time of getting their work done. However, others have parent support and just aren't taking their work home to get it done. Any suggestions on new strategies I could try to get them motivated to do their homework so they don't have to see me in the same grade level next year?
Re: For the teachers on the board
One of the biggest issues for me was to think, "Was is the purpose of this homework? Is it just busy work? or is it really reinforcement?" Once I weeded out all the "busy work" I was giving my students I saw the forest for the trees and I think my students did too. I found myself giving homework for homework sake and I think they saw it. I saw a new appreciation for it.
My students were urban, lower class students. I knew they got no support at home and I didn't expect it. I had an average turn in rate of homework of about 50%. Like you, nothing I did helped. So, I focused on beefing up what I did in the classroom and making every second count. I actually decreased the amount of HW I gave. To some it may sound like I lowered my expectations, but I increased my classroom expectations tenfold. Once I evaluated the purpose of the HW and saw that I could do that in the classroom more effectively on my own without relying on HW, I found it to be more helpful. I would say that my students wound up with HW only 1-2 times a week, if that. However, classroom performance increased because I wasn't wasting my class time fighting with them to finish it.
I don't know if this makes sense. By no means was I a miracle worker, I still had the ones who fought me to do work, but I found that a shift in my thinking in HW was what I needed. There is actually a lot of research out there against HW. If you are intersted, I can send it your way. I use it in my classes that I teach.
Good luck!
I totally agree. I taught for the past two years in the same kind of environment and I had difficulties getting students to do work in the classroom, to be honest homework was not a option for my kids. I had to teach them what studying was before a test and that was a concept unheard of for them. I'm not saying get rid of homework forever, but be really conscious about the work that you are giving and make sure that it's worth it. The only other thing I can say is parent involvement is everything. My kids didn't have anyone at home to help them or motivate them. If they don't have a support system at home it doesn't matter what you do in the classroom when they get home everything is forgotten.
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Those grades are much older then the grades I have taught (pre-K and 3rd) however the district that I am at this year is doing workshops for all new teachers called "Never work harder then your students". I know Barnes and Noble has the book (same title). I have found it to be kind of enlightening in ways to motivate students.
I would agree to take a look at what their homework is, why are they not motivated, is there any reward for getting their homework done?
Thanks for the advice, ladies. I honestly do not give a lot of homework; I'm not a really big fan of it myself. But the homework that I do give, is not worksheets and "busy work" sort of stuff. I think that's just a waste of time. My homework typically involves reading (obviously, since I am a Language and Reading teacher) or projects. I always give the students, on days of reading assignments, almost the entire period to get their reading done, and I never assign more than 15 pages of reading in a novel for one night. We do some reading aloud in class and partner reading, as the kids seem to enjoy that and comprehend more during those times. I also do a lot of hands-on projects and activities during class, and the students have all expressed a great deal of interest in these sort of lessons. But on the days that I do assign homework, many of my students just don't get it done. And it's not just my class, it's really all of their classes where this seems to be a trend.
To give you an idea of my school, I work at a very small, rural school in a farming community. Out of my 43 students, I have met 5 parents and am only in regular communication with 1 of them. Most of my students come from very low income homes, and several do not live with both parents or aay parents. I have a a few students with family members in prison or who have been in prison and are now out. There is little to no visible parent support for most of my students. When I talk to my students about their lack of completing homework, none of them want to fail. For the most part, they do not want to get bad grades, and enjoy the activities we do in class. They enjoy getting good grades and want to be successful in school, but when it comes to completing homework, most of them just don't do it. I have explained that in order to get good grades, they need to do their homework on time. Unfortunately, a little bit of homework is part of life, and sometimes, even when I give work days, assignments just don't get done in class and then I never see them again.
I found a conference that is in the end of November about strategies to motivate unmotivated students, and hopefully this helps me with some of my problems. I agree with what all of you have said about giving homework that has a purpose, and I try to do that to the best of my ability. My students really only get 1 or 2 assignments from me a week.
I don't really know an appropriate incentive for completing homework. Maybe something like if the whole class goes a whole month without missing assignments, I'll bring them brownies or a treat? Food tends to get middle school kids to do just about anything. Do you think that's something I could try this month?
It sounds like the students may have alot of things going on in their personal lives. That could explain some of the homework not getting done.
I think a reward for completing the homework is a good way to start. I think a month of everyone turning in homework is a long time to earn brownies. I would possibly try something like on days when everyone turns in their homework the class earns a letter. When they spell the word brownie they get brownies (or use other words-popcorn, ice cream, cookies, etc). Or ask them what they would like for a reward and then spell that word. That way if someone has something come up where they absolutly can't get their homework done or they forget it, they don't mess up a whole month for the class.
Personally, I don't agree. I think it is fine to individually reward, but this doesn't seem to be the place for a group reward. What if one person misses an assignment? Will the whole class miss out on the reward? This doesn't seem fair. I would try to balance individual with group rewards.
I like this idea! I've learned that, especially with junior high kids, food is a huge motivator, and doing the whole letter earning would make it so that the whole class wouldn't get penalized for one person forgetting one day and knocking the whole class out for the month. A teacher I worked with last year did the whole month thing with a pizza party, and only one class got it the whole year. I ran your idea by my dad, who taught middle school for 16 years and now teaches at Illinois State University, and he thinks it sounds like it's worth a shot. Thank you for the idea! I'm going to run it by the students tomorrow, and see if it works this month.