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Top ticks
Let's face it, who enjoys lugging home heavy boxes of
books to mark, or chasing up homework refusers again and again for their
efforts?
If you recognise any of this in your own setting and
assessment of homework, these ideas from teachers around the country may help
revive your enthusiasm...
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Use peer marking where possible to reduce workload,
suggests Beth Taeger (modern languages, Plumstead Manor School, Greenwich).
"Every now and then I mark it myself to keep them on their toes," she
says.
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Photocopy a student's work onto acetate for the OHP
and then class-mark that example, or mark it yourself as an examiner might,
suggests Chris Smy (maths, The John Bentley School, Wiltshire).
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Set homework on three levels: must, should and could.
This handles the need for differentiation and extension in three deft steps,
says Claire Penny (English, Ouesdale School, Newport Pagnell).
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Set research-based homework in preparation for future
lessons whenever appropriate.
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Run lunchtime homework clubs. At St Richard's
Catholic College, East Sussex, clubs staffed by teaching assistants are run in
the middle of the day. Students have internet and intranet access and the focus
is on helping those with special, or organisational, needs
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If you have a website, post details of homework set in
certain subjects for parents and students to refer to.
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Pre-printed homework sheets, designed to be independent
and containing all the information necessary to complete the task, make marking
easier in the modern languages department at Plumstead Manor School. Students
work on the sheets rather than in their books.
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If you have no option but to use exercise books for
homework, ask students to open them on the correct page before handing them in.
This will save having to flick through to the relevant page each time you pick
up a book.
FOR MORE INFO
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Homework: Learning from Practice by Penelope Weston is published
by The Stationery Office, ISBN 0113501048; www.tso.co.uk
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