Homework and Practice - Danielle Pauley

The last week or two of my clinical, I gave my students homework. We were doing a unit on Newton's laws and physics is a hard subject. So, I gave my students problems to calculate for homework. A lot of them complained because they were not used to having homework in science. My clinical teacher had been out on leave for the past two months before I started my clinical. She came back a few days before I started my clinical, so this was not her fault that they were not accustomed to homework. They had several substitutes and I do not guess that any of the substitutes gave them homework. Not only did I give them problems to calculate, but I also assigned a project for them to do for homework. Since we were studying Newton's laws, I had the students to build a balloon race car. The day that the race cars were due, we actually raced them in the classroom. They had a lot of fun with their cars and it was a great way of applying Newton's laws to a real-world situation. I felt that when I assigned homework, I followed Marzano's rules. The ones I really tried to facilitate were rules three and four because I found them to be most important. Marzano (2001) states in rule three "the purpose of homework should be identified and articulated" (p. 63). I felt that my students knew the purpose of the homework because it related to Newton's laws and what we had been doing in class. In rule four, Marzano (2001) states "if homework is assigned, it should be commented on" (p. 64). Before I returned their problems that they calculated, I made sure to make comments about each problem whether it was correct or incorrect. I really think that commenting on homework is an excellent way for the students to know that you care. Especially, if you comment on the correct answers.