Home Learning is not turning out to be immediately and automatically strike-me-down amazing. Lesson learned: these things take time.
I still hold that Home Learning is a cool idea (click here for a great example of how one primary school teacher is implementing it). Kids conducting their own inquiries for homework can only be great. Teachers don't need to tie themselves in knots while we try to dream up something that is related to classwork, quick to do, valuable, doesn't take too long to mark and is not too tedious or stressful for anyone. More importantly, kids finally get the opportunity to choose something that they are excited about/interested in, and spend time working on it.
I still hold that Home Learning is a cool idea (click here for a great example of how one primary school teacher is implementing it). Kids conducting their own inquiries for homework can only be great. Teachers don't need to tie themselves in knots while we try to dream up something that is related to classwork, quick to do, valuable, doesn't take too long to mark and is not too tedious or stressful for anyone. More importantly, kids finally get the opportunity to choose something that they are excited about/interested in, and spend time working on it.
Unfortunately for me, it turns out that this is an ideal to aim for, not something that is happening right from the get-go. My current theory is that maybe there is a certain amount of 'unschooling' that needs to occur before the children begin to realise Home Learning's possibilities. They are so used to the processes that are 'homework' (looking in books, talking and writing about stuff written in books, researching stuff on the internet, talking and writing about stuff from the internet...) that they need some time and scaffolding to begin to think outside the box. Now to find the ways to get them there!
At this early stage, many children are choosing topics for projects - studies of animals and places. Which is great, if that's their passion. There have been lots of opportunities to develop and practice research skills and there has been plenty of growth in learning in that area. The children have been working hard! Even so, I have to be very honest and admit that I do feel a little bit like many of them are going through the motions 'because my teacher told me to', which hurts my heart. Am I asking too much?
Over the next weeks, I really want to work on bringing back the
fun - kids inquiring by doing, playing and experimenting, not dusty stuff that teachers give them. Lucky for me, our next unit of inquiry is science-based, so there is plenty of scope for learning through play and experimentation. Hopefully this will help to lend a more practical bent to how Home Learning develops.
I'm still on the lookout for good examples of how Home Learning could work. Here's a link to a high school blog, in which the students are required to post regular reflections on the development of their 20% projects. The structure is slightly different to our approach for Home Learning, but the idea of having the children pursue independent inquiries in areas of their own choice is the same. In terms of the sheer diversity of student inquiry focuses, this really is the epitome of my dream for Home Learning. The students are working on inquiries that range from 'Dealing with Divorced Parents', to 'Crocheting' to 'Learning to code with C++'. Am I expecting too much from my 4th graders to want them to come up with an equally diverse (but of course, age-appropriate) selection? I really hope not.
I'm still on the lookout for good examples of how Home Learning could work. Here's a link to a high school blog, in which the students are required to post regular reflections on the development of their 20% projects. The structure is slightly different to our approach for Home Learning, but the idea of having the children pursue independent inquiries in areas of their own choice is the same. In terms of the sheer diversity of student inquiry focuses, this really is the epitome of my dream for Home Learning. The students are working on inquiries that range from 'Dealing with Divorced Parents', to 'Crocheting' to 'Learning to code with C++'. Am I expecting too much from my 4th graders to want them to come up with an equally diverse (but of course, age-appropriate) selection? I really hope not.
