PhyreBards

After talking to Mrs. Garrison about my Unit, she made a comment that I wouldn't want to give homework on one of the nights because a draft of their research paper is due the next day. Homework? I haven't even thought about how to go about assigning homework assignments especially during my five lessons this semester.

In English classes there seems to be quite a bit of flexibility with assigning homework. This is as opposed to a math class, where most homework tends to be problems out of the text book. I know that I should not be stressing or worrying about how to assign homework, but at the same time, during student teaching I want my homework assignments to be meaningful and provide reinforcement and growth in the material being studied.

And then brings about the point of checking/grading/collecting the homework the next day in class. Do I give optional reading questions with reading assignments so that students are reinforcing what they read? How do I check that they're reading (besides a quiz)?

How do I do this and take into account how much and why type of homework is appropriate? I think that by just spending more time in my placement and talking with Mrs. Garrison, I'll quickly get a better grasp on assigning homework.

One more thing to think about. Sheesh. Hey-o pizza and classroom management on Tuesday :-)

So I think that the more I've understood the idea of the writing workshops the more I can see their value. I think that it's interesting how many articles or chapters we read talk so much about either reading or writing, but more don't really combine the two. I like it best when we read things that teach us how to make things work in the classroom, not just why it's important to do them. I feel like I've had so much theory, so I just want practical strategies. Like the last chapter we read in Making the Journey had a couple of great writing topics which I thought was really helpful. Instead of just telling us to use meaningful prompts (which it definitely covered as well......) it gave us some examples of tested prompts that worked. I guess I just feel really ready to have my own classroom and get to teach and try things and see how they go instead of always talking hypothetically. I guess this is kindof a scattered posting, but I just feel like a lot of the information I've kind of heard already... Of course, I could just be in the middle-of-the-semester slump! :)