February 22, 2025 • 12 mins
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jocelyn (00:00):
Hello and welcome to the Structured Literacy Podcast.
I'm Jocelyn and I'm recordinghere in Tasmania, on the lands
of the Palawa people.
Today's episode comes from aquestion that was asked in our
Facebook group, On theStructured Literacy Bus, so if
you haven't joined us, come onover, we'd love to see you.
It's a question that I thinkmany of us grapple with.
It's the question of homework.
(00:21):
Should we give it?
If we do, what should it looklike, and how do we make sure it
actually helps our students?
The homework debate has beenaround for as long as I've been
teaching and in fact even longerthan that.
Every school, every teacher andevery parent seems to have
their own take on whether it'sworthwhile.
And when we look at theresearch, well, it's a bit of a
(00:45):
mixed bag.
Some studies show it makeslittle difference to overall
outcomes and, interestingly,some meta-analyses have even
found that parent help can havea negative impact on student
learning.
But before you run through theschool declaring, "no more
homework, let's dig a littledeeper into what some research
tells us about when homeworkmight actually be helpful.
(01:08):
And I have to be really clear,there is no definitive answer
from research.
So in the absence of that, weask ourselves the question, what
does the research say and howcan we use common sense and
experience to make great choicesfor students?
So I have a couple of papers toshare.
The first is called SupportingYoung Children's Literacy
(01:31):
Learning Through HomeschoolPartnerships: The Effectiveness
of a Home Repeated ReadingIntervention by Alyssa Hindon
and Jean Parator.
This paper was published in theJournal of Literacy Research in
2007, and it's a small one withless than 10 students involved,
(01:52):
so we do have to keep that inmind when interpreting the
results.
The study focused on a homerepeated reading intervention,
and we know from lots ofresearch that repeated reading
does support fluency, so that'sin alignment with what we
already know.
What caught my attention washow specific and structured the
(02:13):
approach was.
The researchers found that whenstudents practiced reading text
at home, that they'd alreadyworked on in class, and that's
important, they made fewererrors and showed significant
gains in fluency.
Now, these weren't just randombooks that were sent home, as I
said, they were texts thestudents had already encountered
(02:36):
in classroom instruction.
All of the children in thestudy read more than 10,000
words during the intervention.
Further, four of the parentsprovided substantial word- level
support, and the children whoreceived this support made fewer
repeated reading errors.
So the best gains were madewith a combination of repeated
(02:59):
reading and word- level help.
The second study by Dolian andLovag is called Variations of
Homework Amount Assigned inElementary School Can Impact
Academic Achievement.
This study was published in theJournal of Experimental
Education in 2022.
The Dolian and Lovag studyincluded 440 second grade
(03:23):
students, who were randomlydistributed in three groups
within the classes they attended.
Each group received differentamounts of homework in writing
and maths for 20 days.
The result showed a significantimmediate effect of homework
quantity on writing, as measuredby tests of punctuation and
(03:44):
spelling correction, but not onmaths competency.
The writing homework effectswere sustained four months later
, but only for the group thathad allocated a moderate amount
of homework to writing skillspractice.
This group spent approximately20 minutes per day doing
homework, with a balance ofmaths and literacy tasks, so all
(04:07):
up, it was about 10 minutes aday of practicing punctuation,
spelling and other core skills.
What's interesting about thisstudy was the explicit
connection between what wasstudied in class and the
homework.
Again, the homework wasn'trandom.
It was focused on buildingfoundational skills, including
spelling and punctuation.
(04:28):
In fact, the purpose of thehomework assignments was to
allow students to practiceskills taught in class the same
day.
The researchers found thatincreasing the amount of
homework to that 20 minutes aday had a significant immediate
effect on both writing skillsthat were measured so that was
(04:48):
spelling and editing, but thatincreasing the amount of
homework past a certainthreshold did not increase
academic performance.
The results suggest thatproviding opportunities for
additional practice of writingrules that were introduced in
the classroom could helpstudents transfer these skills
(05:08):
from short-term to long-termmemory and support memory
consolidation.
And doesn't that make sense?
So the homework was useful whenstudents practiced what they
had been taught but was not yetfully consolidated in class
because of the extra opportunityfor consolidation.
(05:28):
Now let's connect this to whatwe know about how learning works
in general.
We'll think about theinformation processing model for
a moment.
We know that to move learningfrom working memory through to
long-term memory, we needmultiple repetitions and
practice opportunities.
Well-designed homework canprovide those additional
(05:49):
repetitions that cement learning.
It's like building a pathway,the more times you walk it, the
clearer and more established itbecomes.
But, and this is a big but, weneed to be really careful about
how we structure this.
Remember the explicit teachingmodel, well, I do, we do, you do
, of course you do.
When we're sending work home,we want to make sure it sits
(06:13):
firmly in that independentpractice zone.
And this is because we don'twant to put parents in the
position of being an unqualifiedhelper.
And we've all had experience ofa parent telling us well, I
tried to help, but I think Ijust confused them more.
And that happens particularlyas the students get older.
(06:33):
But it can happen at any ageand that's not the parent's
fault, they're not the trainedteacher and they shouldn't have
to be.
So what does all this mean forus as teachers and school
leaders making decisions?
Well, the research that we havehere suggests that homework
could be beneficial if it'sdirectly connected to what was
(06:54):
taught in class.
The skills being practiced arealready secure enough for
independent work.
So if something's only beenintroduced but the students
couldn't tell you about it halfan hour later, they're not ready
for that to go home yet.
The amount of homework assignedneeds to be moderate, about 15
to 20 minutes seems to be thesweet spot.
(07:15):
And remember, I'm saying "seemsto be, we have no definitive
answers on that.
The last thing here is thatthere's a clear purpose focused
on consolidating specific skills.
So what things could we sendhome that fit this criteria
we've seen outlined in theresearch?
(07:35):
I'm going to share a couple ofpractical ideas, but I'm sure
that you have others.
First up, phonics-relatedresources are a great option for
getting those additionalrepetitions in that we know lead
to long-lasting change.
This is especially importantfor our students who struggle.
If you're a Resource Roommember, you already have access
(07:57):
to a range of resources designedwith parents in mind.
Our complex code homeworkprintables, for example, come
with specific instructions foradults to help students practice
these skills appropriately.
Reading materials are always awinner too, but, and this is
important, make sure they'reconnected to what you're reading
(08:17):
in the classroom.
We also have to be mindful thatit's not appropriate to send
books home for Foundationstudents until they're actually
blending with confidence.
Remember, we don't want theparent in the position of being
the reading teacher.
For students practicingphonics, you can send simple
passages or decodable text homeand, again, Resource Room
(08:40):
members have access to what wecall assisted reading passages,
which includes specificinstructions for adults.
For older students, you cansend passages or material that
you've been using for partnerreading, whether that comes from
other subject areas or fromEnglish, and I know I sound like
a cracked record here, butResource Room members also have
(09:02):
access to reading passages forover 100 morpheme units that can
be sent home after you've donethe unit in class.
But let me be clear about whatwe don't want to see.
We don't want to see a returnto those one-size-fits-all Year
Two or Year Four or Year Sixhomework sheet where every
student gets the same questionsregardless of where they're up
(09:24):
to.
That didn't make sense to mewhen I was a pre-service teacher
and it absolutely doesn't makesense to me now.
It is a nightmare for ourstruggling students and unless
homework is specifically linkedto what's happening in class,
it's probably not that great forthe other students either.
It's random, busy work.
(09:45):
I think it's also reallyimportant to remember that
homework shouldn't place unduepressure on parents.
So the science dioramas andindependent geography
assignments where students aredoing research on a country of
their choice, are probably notthe best idea.
Remember what the research toldus: putting parents into the
role of the homework helper mayactually lead to worse results
(10:09):
for the students.
Finally, and this is crucial,consider your school's context
when making decisions abouthomework.
If your students come fromfamilies where home literacy
levels are low, asking parentsto help with reading,
particularly for older studentsreading more complex passages,
well, this might well alienateparents as they struggle to help
(10:32):
passages.
We want to build bridges withour families, not create
barriers.
But on the other side, you maybe working in a school where
there's high parentalexpectation and high parental
capacity to support, so everyschool's context will inform
their approach to homework.
If you decide to includehomework as part of the teaching
(10:53):
toolkit, make sure it'spurposeful, connected and
achievable.
Our goal isn't to create stressor confusion at home, but to
provide meaningful opportunitiesfor practice that supports and
consolidates the work we'redoing in the classroom.
That's it from me for thisepisode.
I hope this has helped clarifysome of the thinking around
(11:15):
homework and given you somepractical ways to approach it.
Until next time, happy teachingeveryone.
Bye.
Hello and welcome to the Structured Literacy Podcast.
I'm Jocelyn and I'm recordinghere in Tasmania, on the lands
of the Palawa people.
Today's episode comes from aquestion that was asked in our
Facebook group, On theStructured Literacy Bus, so if
you haven't joined us, come onover, we'd love to see you.
It's a question that I thinkmany of us grapple with.
It's the question of homework.
(00:21):
Should we give it?
If we do, what should it looklike, and how do we make sure it
actually helps our students?
The homework debate has beenaround for as long as I've been
teaching and in fact even longerthan that.
Every school, every teacher andevery parent seems to have
their own take on whether it'sworthwhile.
And when we look at theresearch, well, it's a bit of a
(00:45):
mixed bag.
Some studies show it makeslittle difference to overall
outcomes and, interestingly,some meta-analyses have even
found that parent help can havea negative impact on student
learning.
But before you run through theschool declaring, "no more
homework, let's dig a littledeeper into what some research
tells us about when homeworkmight actually be helpful.
(01:08):
And I have to be really clear,there is no definitive answer
from research.
So in the absence of that, weask ourselves the question, what
does the research say and howcan we use common sense and
experience to make great choicesfor students?
So I have a couple of papers toshare.
The first is called SupportingYoung Children's Literacy
(01:31):
Learning Through HomeschoolPartnerships: The Effectiveness
of a Home Repeated ReadingIntervention by Alyssa Hindon
and Jean Parator.
This paper was published in theJournal of Literacy Research in
2007, and it's a small one withless than 10 students involved,
(01:52):
so we do have to keep that inmind when interpreting the
results.
The study focused on a homerepeated reading intervention,
and we know from lots ofresearch that repeated reading
does support fluency, so that'sin alignment with what we
already know.
What caught my attention washow specific and structured the
(02:13):
approach was.
The researchers found that whenstudents practiced reading text
at home, that they'd alreadyworked on in class, and that's
important, they made fewererrors and showed significant
gains in fluency.
Now, these weren't just randombooks that were sent home, as I
said, they were texts thestudents had already encountered
(02:36):
in classroom instruction.
All of the children in thestudy read more than 10,000
words during the intervention.
Further, four of the parentsprovided substantial word- level
support, and the children whoreceived this support made fewer
repeated reading errors.
So the best gains were madewith a combination of repeated
(02:59):
reading and word- level help.
The second study by Dolian andLovag is called Variations of
Homework Amount Assigned inElementary School Can Impact
Academic Achievement.
This study was published in theJournal of Experimental
Education in 2022.
The Dolian and Lovag studyincluded 440 second grade
(03:23):
students, who were randomlydistributed in three groups
within the classes they attended.
Each group received differentamounts of homework in writing
and maths for 20 days.
The result showed a significantimmediate effect of homework
quantity on writing, as measuredby tests of punctuation and
(03:44):
spelling correction, but not onmaths competency.
The writing homework effectswere sustained four months later
, but only for the group thathad allocated a moderate amount
of homework to writing skillspractice.
This group spent approximately20 minutes per day doing
homework, with a balance ofmaths and literacy tasks, so all
(04:07):
up, it was about 10 minutes aday of practicing punctuation,
spelling and other core skills.
What's interesting about thisstudy was the explicit
connection between what wasstudied in class and the
homework.
Again, the homework wasn'trandom.
It was focused on buildingfoundational skills, including
spelling and punctuation.
(04:28):
In fact, the purpose of thehomework assignments was to
allow students to practiceskills taught in class the same
day.
The researchers found thatincreasing the amount of
homework to that 20 minutes aday had a significant immediate
effect on both writing skillsthat were measured so that was
(04:48):
spelling and editing, but thatincreasing the amount of
homework past a certainthreshold did not increase
academic performance.
The results suggest thatproviding opportunities for
additional practice of writingrules that were introduced in
the classroom could helpstudents transfer these skills
(05:08):
from short-term to long-termmemory and support memory
consolidation.
And doesn't that make sense?
So the homework was useful whenstudents practiced what they
had been taught but was not yetfully consolidated in class
because of the extra opportunityfor consolidation.
(05:28):
Now let's connect this to whatwe know about how learning works
in general.
We'll think about theinformation processing model for
a moment.
We know that to move learningfrom working memory through to
long-term memory, we needmultiple repetitions and
practice opportunities.
Well-designed homework canprovide those additional
(05:49):
repetitions that cement learning.
It's like building a pathway,the more times you walk it, the
clearer and more established itbecomes.
But, and this is a big but, weneed to be really careful about
how we structure this.
Remember the explicit teachingmodel, well, I do, we do, you do
, of course you do.
When we're sending work home,we want to make sure it sits
(06:13):
firmly in that independentpractice zone.
And this is because we don'twant to put parents in the
position of being an unqualifiedhelper.
And we've all had experience ofa parent telling us well, I
tried to help, but I think Ijust confused them more.
And that happens particularlyas the students get older.
(06:33):
But it can happen at any ageand that's not the parent's
fault, they're not the trainedteacher and they shouldn't have
to be.
So what does all this mean forus as teachers and school
leaders making decisions?
Well, the research that we havehere suggests that homework
could be beneficial if it'sdirectly connected to what was
(06:54):
taught in class.
The skills being practiced arealready secure enough for
independent work.
So if something's only beenintroduced but the students
couldn't tell you about it halfan hour later, they're not ready
for that to go home yet.
The amount of homework assignedneeds to be moderate, about 15
to 20 minutes seems to be thesweet spot.
(07:15):
And remember, I'm saying "seemsto be, we have no definitive
answers on that.
The last thing here is thatthere's a clear purpose focused
on consolidating specific skills.
So what things could we sendhome that fit this criteria
we've seen outlined in theresearch?
(07:35):
I'm going to share a couple ofpractical ideas, but I'm sure
that you have others.
First up, phonics-relatedresources are a great option for
getting those additionalrepetitions in that we know lead
to long-lasting change.
This is especially importantfor our students who struggle.
If you're a Resource Roommember, you already have access
(07:57):
to a range of resources designedwith parents in mind.
Our complex code homeworkprintables, for example, come
with specific instructions foradults to help students practice
these skills appropriately.
Reading materials are always awinner too, but, and this is
important, make sure they'reconnected to what you're reading
(08:17):
in the classroom.
We also have to be mindful thatit's not appropriate to send
books home for Foundationstudents until they're actually
blending with confidence.
Remember, we don't want theparent in the position of being
the reading teacher.
For students practicingphonics, you can send simple
passages or decodable text homeand, again, Resource Room
(08:40):
members have access to what wecall assisted reading passages,
which includes specificinstructions for adults.
For older students, you cansend passages or material that
you've been using for partnerreading, whether that comes from
other subject areas or fromEnglish, and I know I sound like
a cracked record here, butResource Room members also have
(09:02):
access to reading passages forover 100 morpheme units that can
be sent home after you've donethe unit in class.
But let me be clear about whatwe don't want to see.
We don't want to see a returnto those one-size-fits-all Year
Two or Year Four or Year Sixhomework sheet where every
student gets the same questionsregardless of where they're up
(09:24):
to.
That didn't make sense to mewhen I was a pre-service teacher
and it absolutely doesn't makesense to me now.
It is a nightmare for ourstruggling students and unless
homework is specifically linkedto what's happening in class,
it's probably not that great forthe other students either.
It's random, busy work.
(09:45):
I think it's also reallyimportant to remember that
homework shouldn't place unduepressure on parents.
So the science dioramas andindependent geography
assignments where students aredoing research on a country of
their choice, are probably notthe best idea.
Remember what the research toldus: putting parents into the
role of the homework helper mayactually lead to worse results
(10:09):
for the students.
Finally, and this is crucial,consider your school's context
when making decisions abouthomework.
If your students come fromfamilies where home literacy
levels are low, asking parentsto help with reading,
particularly for older studentsreading more complex passages,
well, this might well alienateparents as they struggle to help
(10:32):
passages.
We want to build bridges withour families, not create
barriers.
But on the other side, you maybe working in a school where
there's high parentalexpectation and high parental
capacity to support, so everyschool's context will inform
their approach to homework.
If you decide to includehomework as part of the teaching
(10:53):
toolkit, make sure it'spurposeful, connected and
achievable.
Our goal isn't to create stressor confusion at home, but to
provide meaningful opportunitiesfor practice that supports and
consolidates the work we'redoing in the classroom.
That's it from me for thisepisode.
I hope this has helped clarifysome of the thinking around
(11:15):
homework and given you somepractical ways to approach it.
Until next time, happy teachingeveryone.
Bye.
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