INTERLINK Curriculum Guide

12. Homework and Out-of-Class Activities

The basic assumption underlying every other aspect of our program is that students attain language proficiency not through being taught about language but by persistent contact with and use of language. Sufficient language use cannot be achieved in the 4-5 hours, 5 days per week that students are in class. Ideally, students should be immersed in English language use every waking hour of every day, and one of the teacher's greatest challenges is to help every student realize that goal.

Traditionally, the strategy used for extending the learning period beyond class time has been the assignment of homework. However, traditional homework has serious drawbacks. Some kinds of homework, drill-type assignments in particular, involve language, but do not necessarily involve true language use. The relationship between drill-work and the development of language skills may be similar to that between Sudoku puzzles and the development of math skills. In other words, such exercises may produce no significant result beyond keeping the student busy, and that itself, is a problem.

In his memoir Teacher Man, Frank McCourt talks about hitting upon an activity that his students loved:

They said, More, more. Could we do more?
I was taken aback. How do I handle this enthusiasm?
There was another epiphany or a flash of inspiration or illumination or something. I went to the board and wrote: "For Homework Tonight."
That was a mistake. The word homework carries negative connotations.

Homework, even if it is of a helpful nature, is likely to turn students off rather than to stimulate them to use more English outside of the classroom. Since our goal is to increase English use and not to get a particular piece of work done, the assignment of homework can turn out to be not merely unhelpful but downright counterproductive. But if we don't assign homework, how do we get students to use English outside of class?

To some extent, Core Projects provide opportunities for out-of-class work that are far less onerous and boring than conventional homework. Watching TV, surfing the Internet, reading a good book, listening to music, interviewing a stranger, even writing in a journal, can be entertaining activities that students enjoy rather than dread. But as the McCourt anecdote demonstrates, even something enjoyable can become an unwelcome task when it is imposed on a student. For that reason, it is of the utmost importance to involve the students themselves in figuring out how they can individually maximize their English use and minimize their first language use outside of class. For this to happen, students must fully understand that the teacher is not a taskmaster throwing work at students, but a facilitator helping students achieve their own goals. Since using English as much as possible is paramount to reaching those goals, the students must not just acquiesce to doing assignments that the teacher imposes, but actively plot and design activities that they will willingly engage in outside of class. And if students are not able to meet the goals they set for themselves, the teacher can help them find ways to overcome obstacles or revise their plans to make them more doable.

This new paradigm for out-of-class work has significant implications for how classes are conducted. While the teacher informs students about the importance of continual language use for improving their language skills, the students decide how they will achieve that language use and what activities to plan for themselves. This scenario is entirely consistent with curricular goals of student-centered learning, encouragement of independent learning, and teacher-as-facilitator, but it also means that teachers must adjust to the role of following the students' lead. In-class activities may end up revolving around activities that students devise for themselves outside of class, instead of vice-versa, which is the norm. Student-designed activities may or may not coincide with Core Project themes, and teachers must remember that doing Core Project activities is less important than doing activities that students are excited about doing.

A word of warning may be needed here. When students devise their own activities and study plans, they should be doing not just what they want to do, but what they need to do to improve their language skills. An RW student who needs to work on reading and writing skills will not improve those skills by playing Nintendo games for 5 hours a day or by watching TV sitcoms. The teacher-as-advisor must help students select activities that will really help them progress in their language learning and enable them to meet the Benchmarks for the class. The teacher's job does not end with helping students create their own study plans and activities. S/he must follow up by implementing effective mechanisms for monitoring whether students are actually doing what they plan to do and claim they are doing. It is not the function of the curriculum to dictate what mechanisms to use, but they may range from formal testing to presentations, to group discussions to journal entries to email communication and almost anything else that teachers' and students' creativity can devise.

An item that should, perhaps, be specifically addressed is writing assignments. Enjoyable listening, speaking and reading activities are much easier to conceive of than enjoyable academic writing activities. There might be some writing homework that is almost impossible to avoid assigning. However, all effort should be made to mitigate tedious assignments. This can be done by using class time to accomplish the most tiresome tasks (such as pre-writing work, first drafts, and proofreading) and relegating to homework only those activities that could be more fun (research) or can only be done outside of class (putting text on computer). Students may also find it more inviting to complete a writing task started in class than to start a new writing assignment as homework.

In summary, the following should always be considered in relation to homework and out of class assignments:
· the goal is not to have students work on a particular assignment but to get them to spend as much time as possible using English outside of class
· unnecessary assignments and those likely to be perceived as drudgery should be avoided
· activities that students will actually enjoy doing and spending time on should be devised;
· students should be intimately involved in planning their own out-of-class activities
· mechanisms for monitoring/assuring out-of-class activities should be implemented