School's out and so is homework

By Jon Nicholls, Thomas Tallis School

After years of setting weekly homework tasks (and failing miserably to manage the process effectively) I've finally decided to stop. I want to escape the dispiriting process of setting homework, only for half the class to complete it properly and leaving me with a decision about whether to turn a blind eye or set a detention. If I set homework related to the lesson activities I would also have to deal with the fact that only half the class was ready to continue with the following week's activities. Whilst I don't have many behaviour issues in class, I don't want to punish (the same) students every week for not completing their homework. For me, homework just doesn't work.

However, given that all teachers have a statutory duty to set homework and the official policy of my school is that homework is a good thing, rather than stop completely, I've decided to shift the emphasis away from tasks related to the lesson activities and towards longer, project-based assignments that are tangential to the classroom curriculum.

To be honest, it's taken me a while to catch on to this in my own teaching. For a while my school has been using Extended Learning Enquiries at Key Stage 3 and I've seen some wonderful examples of projects completed by younger students across a range of subjects. As a father of three who vividly remembers the homework projects set by my kids' primary school (E.g. make a scale model of the Leaning Tower of Pisa), I do sometimes worry about the way complex project based home learning can:
a) cost a lot of money - stationery, equipment, materials etc.
b) involve the parent/carer more than is intended
c) take a lot more time than the teacher imagines
Longer, more complex projects can sometimes require a decent space to work and lots of study support, which not all students can rely on. 

Fairly recently my school has changed its terminology. We now refer to home learning rather than homework. If the purpose of home learning is to provide students with an opportunity to do some deliberate, independent practice then I felt the need to move away from the weekly complete/incomplete paradigm towards something more engaging and including a greater degree of choice for the students. 

One of my colleague's Action Research Report this year was entitled "If I develop a practice of #unhomework with my KS3 Design Technology classes will they become more inquisitive and disciplined?" Characteristically, she submitted her report in the form of a video which featured footage of her students and a presentation she gave at a local TeachMeet. In the 'report' she refers to Mark Creasy's book 'Unhomework'. She quotes the author:

No teacher can be reasonably expected to provide quality, differentiated feedback for their entire class - certainly not every week (and if they do, they need to get a reality check on what the children are learning).
​-- Mark Creasy

She also refers to Zoe Elder's 'Full on Learning' which presents a case for an intelligent and targeted use of appropriate technologies to bring learning to life for the student. Students' interest in social media and content creation, she argues, is fertile territory for teachers keen to enhance what goes on in the classroom. My colleague decided to experiment with unhomework with her Year 8 Design Technology class and this proved to be a success. She gave the students greater choice in how to represent what they had learned in her lessons. She put the emphasis on the amount of effort the students devoted to their projects, rather than any predetermined notion of completion or quality, in line with our new KS3 assessment policy. Students enjoyed this new approach to home learning and, consequently, the amount of projects undertaken rose significantly. Perhaps more importantly, the quality of the projects increased and the atmosphere in class improved because the teacher was not trapped in a punitive cycle of homework detention setting.

Inspired by this research I decided to get rid of weekly homework tasks for my Year 9 GCSE photography students, replacing these with Extended Learning Enquiries. These would have the following characteristics:

1. They would each last a half term (6-7 weeks on average)
2. They would enhance whatever project was being studied in class but run in parallel with lessons no longer dependent on homework being completed each week
3. They would contain a strong design thinking element with students' photographs being presented in a variety of different formats
4. They would offer students plenty of choice in how they managed the projects
5. Supporting resources would provide enough structure for less confident students but be open enough for those who wished to develop more sophisticated enquiries
6. Be assessed in terms of the effort students dedicate to each project (using our Tallis Habits model) 

I've really enjoyed thinking about, planning and creating the resources for the Year 9 Extended Learning Enquiries for next year. They are now built into our new Programme of Study for GCSE Photography. I'll probably tweak them before September - I can already see some ways to improve them. I'm hoping to continue working in this way with Year 10 and maybe even Year 11, at least up until Unit 2 starts in February. I'm really hoping that they help to develop a greater sense of responsibility and ownership of learning for the students and that they enjoy getting their teeth into some low stakes projects as opposed to high stakes weekly tasks.

I'd be really interested to learn how you approach the design, setting and marking of homework. What do you call it? How do you respond to those who don't do it or do it half-heartedly? How does your approach fit with the whole school policy? What innovations have you attempted? Do you have any great ideas to share with your photography teacher colleagues?

Feel free to leave comments below.