After receiving several comments on my blog about problems arising when students don't complete online work from home, I decided to investigate ways I can avoid this frustration. With the mission to incorporate more online learning next school year, I don't want to spend a lot of time planning only to have students showing up in the morning without having completed the prework at home. As one of my classmates stated that because of this problem, she abandoned this model.
In this article by Dr. Barbi Honeycutt, she gives the reader three ways to encourage student engagement and work completion from home. The first suggestion involves giving some student autonomy to the assignment. You can give your students a choice in how they demonstrate their understanding of the assignment. Her second suggestion involves making them accountable by requiring them to make their thinking visible. Maybe they have to take a quiz, bring in a written summary, or post a comment to a discussion board. Lastly, Dr. Honeycutt mentions the necessity to connect work done at home to the work done in class. If there is no connection, students will feel like they can get away without completing the online work from home.
These suggestions may seem simple, but they have definitely given me something to consider when implementing my online component next school year.
Yes! I feel that students are not completing homework online or off line. This has been a source of many frustrated teachers. I do like the student engagement/autonomy to help encourage them to do work, but I know in high school it is very difficult to get some students to do the work. Even if I EXPECT homework to be completed and it's part of my culture, it doesn't seem to be the overall culture.
ReplyDeleteJen: I really enjoyed the article you posted here! In it, I love that she references Dan Pink, whom we are already familiar with (we read his book, A Whole New Mind). The suggestions Dr. Honeycutt gives make sense. They are fairly simple to implement and can make a world of difference in the success of the flipped classroom model. After reading the article, I checked out the comments. Dr. Honeycutt posted another interesting article called 5 Way to Address Student Resistance in the Flipped Classroom (https://www.fractuslearning.com/2016/02/04/student-resistance-flipped-classroom/). It's another good read!
ReplyDeleteKelly, I thought it was funny the article referenced Pink too! I will definitely check out the article you suggested. Thanks!
DeleteThe struggle is real with homework completion! Students definitely need motivation beyond basic bribery (which I have resorted to in the past, I admit it!). I think if students have a clear understanding of how their work at home will be used the next class or in future assignments, they will probably be more likely to complete it. No one wants busy work, so we have to make sure the work we send home is meaningful.
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