About Homework

LESSONS the Pandemic Can Teach Us About Homework

— by Lauren Porosoff

It didn’t take long into the pandemic for teachers to start dreading the terms synchronous and asynchronous. But these aren’t just pretentious ways of saying classwork and homework. Classwork and homework describe where learning occurs, while synchronous and asynchronous describe when and with whom. In synchronous learning, all students learn at the same time, which pre-Covid usually meant being together in a classroom. In asynchronous learning, each student learns independently at different times.

It has always been important to honor the time students spend with family and friends, pursuing interests beyond school, taking care of themselves, and engaging with their communities. The pandemic has only underscored these needs. We’ve also learned that what we previously called “homework” isn’t only what we ask students to do in their homes. It’s also what we ask students to do independently and on their own schedule, as opposed to what they do together at the same time.

A key aspect of progressive education is that education must “emerge from the interests, experiences, goals, and needs of diverse constituents” (PEN Principle #5). Let’s assume, then, that we should not assign asynchronous work just to keep our students busy outside class, but rather that any work we ask them to do should be meaningful. The question becomes, Meaningful for what? In order to determine whether an asynchronous assignment is meaningful, we first need to determine its function within the unit it’s part of. In Teach Meaningful (2020), I describe three types of units, and as we’ll see, homework plays a different role depending on the type of unit it’s part of.

1. In an inquiry-based unit, students explore the content, often guided by an essential question. Inquiries foster curiosity, observation, close reading or listening, discovery, contemplation, analysis, making connections, and asking more questions. Each learning task works with all the preceding tasks to build students’ understanding.

2. In a rehearsal-based unit, students develop a skill set through repetitive and cumulative practice.

Rehearsals foster fluency, independence, self-awareness, and the motivation to pursue more complex material. While some rehearsal-based units end in a test, others culminate in a final performance so students have something meaningful to rehearse for. Each learning task gives the student a new opportunity to maintain existing skills, increase their repertoire, or both.

3. In a project-based unit, students create meaningful work products, learning necessary content and skills in the process. Projects foster creativity, collaboration, risk-taking, sustained effort, empathy, and awareness of the community or field. Projects often begin with foundational lessons so students understand the project’s requirements and their own options. Once the work is underway, teachers might offer mini-lessons about key content or skills students need, but most of their time is spent creating or refining their work products.

Some units combine multiple types. When I taught English, every unit began as an inquiry. Guided by an essential question, we read a book and sought to understand its structure and themes. Then, students created their own pieces of writing that analyzed the text itself, used the same genre, or explored the same theme. This writing phase of the unit was project-based, as students created their own stories in verse, spoken-word performances, vignette collections, comics, and essays.

QUESTIONS TO ASK WHEN ASSIGNING HOMEWORK IN DIFFERENT TYPES OF UNITS

As we consider whether to give homework, in addition to considering other important tasks students attend to (including the task of relaxing) and time requirements for any given task, determine which type of unit you’re teaching. Then ask yourself, Which parts of this unit should students do by themselves, on their own schedules, and which parts should they do at the same time, with their classmates’ and teacher’s support?

If the unit is inquiry-based, which parts of the inquiry can students do alone—perhaps by seeking, receiving, and processing information on their own—and which parts must be done in class, where they can receive information with or from one another and create ideas together?

If the unit is rehearsal-based, what must students rehearse in class, where they can get immediate feedback from you and from one another, and what can they rehearse on their own to get as much or as little repetitive practice as they need for fluency? If they rehearse on their own, how will you hold them accountable for developing the skill, as opposed to doing the work for the work’s sake?

If the unit is project-based, which parts are best completed at school, where students have access to resources and feedback, and which (if any) parts are best completed asynchronously? If any students lack access to the time, space, and materials they need to complete the project successfully when they’re at home, is the project worth the time it would take for students to complete it at school? If not, is there another project that would serve a similar purpose and that does have parts that students can do asynchronously—and equitably?

Finally, when designing any assignment for any type of unit, keep in mind that what you consider meaningful depends on your values. Another teacher might think a different assignment would be a more meaningful use of students’ time. And since each student

has their own values, what they consider meaningful—in its own right and relative to other possible ways of using their time—will vary. If we can take any lesson forward from remote teaching, it’s the importance of honoring what matters to the students themselves. Designing learning tasks that affirm students’ identities and experiences, and using protocols that help students connect their academic learning with their values, are two ways we can dignify the time and effort students put into homework and classwork.

If progressive education is about “fostering internal motivation and the discovery of passion and purpose” (PEN Principle #4), our work must include empowering our students to understand how all assignments function within their units, and how they can make their work serve their own values. Synchronous or asynchronous, at home or at school, students deserve to make their work a source of meaning and vitality in their lives.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Lauren Porosoff (she/her) was a teacher for 18 years in independent schools, most recently at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School in New York, and now she writes and presents about how to make school a source of meaning, vitality, and community in the lives of students and teachers. Lauren’s work draws from evidence-based psychological science as well as her personal and professional experiences as a committed progressive educator. She is the lead author of EMPOWER Your Students (2018), Two-for-One Teaching (2020), Teach Meaningful (2020), and The PD Curator (2021). Learn more about her work at empowerforwards.com and follow her on Twitter at @LaurenPorosoff. e-mail: lauren@empowerforwards.com