Homework+and+Practice+(Frank)

**__ Homework and Practice __**

**__ Overview __**  The idea of homework and practice is the exercise of student learning on their own time by them relating, applying and incorporating new academic knowledge. It could be the teacher’s goal to plan homework and practice activities that will match or complement the academic levels and stages of the student’s present course of study. Researchers are suggesting that homework and practice should be a focused strategy that targets the increasing of a student’s understanding of a subject area. Even though, student practice often means repetitive work exercises, the teacher should also engage the student by applying new learning as well. Additional research indicates that important questions should be considered when applying homework and practice methods. “ Students learn more when allowed to practice fewer skills or concepts, but at a deeper level” (Healy, 1990). Student practice times could be immediately after the regular school day, with using technology as the focus “multiply the grade x 10 to approximate the right amount of minutes per night for students”. Literature also mentions the use of the four types of homework applications to effectively increase student learning. 1. Memorization of basic rules, algorithms, or laws so the skill becomes rote. 2. Increase in skill speed, used for improving students' abilities to apply these skills in more complex problem solving. 3. Deepening understanding of a concept—providing students time to read further, elaborating on a new idea and expanding their understanding. 4. Preparation for the following day's learning, such as an advance organizer or cue to increase readiness for new information.

Source: Homework and Practice, http://www.netc.org/focus/strategies/home.php

 **__ 1st Technology __**  ( __Web Environments)__ The Soshiku Website, [|**http://soshiku.com**]

The homework/school work tracking website known as Soshiku is a simple but powerful tool that manages high school or college assignments. Soshiku keeps track of when assignments are due and can notify the student via email or SMS.

Homework and practice is an activity that can sometimes take a back seat to other student life concerns. I selected this technology to help the student stay on top of their academic responsibilities without the burden of keeping mental or manual notes for their academic assignments, homework and schedules. The student’s social life can become very demanding at times and if they are not alerted for their upcoming academic obligations they may find themselves struggling to keep up in school. This website could serve as that extra alert nudge to help the student to not fall behind in their academic studies. Related research finding suggests; “At the high school level, for every 30 additional minutes of homework completed daily, a student's GPA can increase up to half a point” (Keith, 1992). “Mastery requires focused practice over days or weeks. After only four practice sessions students reach a halfway point to mastery. It takes more than 24 more practice sessions before students reach 80 percent mastery. And this practice must occur over a span of days or weeks, and cannot be rushed” (Anderson, 1995; Newell & Rosenbloom, 1981). Research ideas on the implementation process suggests to; “Create support structures for homework. Journals, trackers, and other tools help students organize assignments and support communication between student, teacher, and parents.” Source: Homework and Practice, http://www.netc.org/focus/strategies/home.php
 * Rationale: **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 8.5pt;">An up to date Computer with High Speed Internet access <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 8.5pt;">Cost: This site is promoted as being a free website to students.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 8.5pt;">Resources needed: **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**__ 2nd Technology __** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> ( __Web as Resource)__ <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> a). Quiz Hub Website; [] is an Academic Practice website that helps the students strengthen their basic knowledge of English language arts, geography, history, math, and science through interactive quiz games. The ideal use for this site is to provide the student with a broad based rapid fire exposure of academic quizzes in a multitude of subject areas to help prevent the onset of academic boredom for the multi tasking student. <span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 20pt; text-decoration: none; textunderline: none;"> <span style="color: black; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden; text-decoration: none; textunderline: none;">﻿ <span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 14.4pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">b). Structured Math Practice website, http://www.ixl.com/ The IXL learning system was founded in 1998 to advance student education through Web based technologies. This particular web resource offers a more structured and systemic approach for exposing the student to the standards and benchmarks for mathematics for their grade levels. This site is great for making sure that the students get exposed to math related exercises that they could see in standardized testing.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Homework and practice demands could become daunting to the students who are just trying to stay on top of their assignments. An even greater concern could rise if the student is not exposed to all of the grade level learning standards for their current grade level. Students may very well be doing their homework on timely bases but because of time constraints they may also run the risk of glossing over some important material that they will see in standardized testing. These websites could help to fill in the possible void in the learning gaps by at least exposing the students to the math activities that are recommended for their grade level. Related research finding suggests; “At the high school level, for every 30 additional minutes of homework completed daily, a student's GPA can increase up to half a point” (Keith, 1992). “Mastery requires focused practice over days or weeks. After only four practice sessions students reach a halfway point to mastery. It takes more than 24 more practice sessions before students reach 80 percent mastery. And this practice must occur over a span of days or weeks, and cannot be rushed” (Anderson, 1995; Newell & Rosenbloom, 1981).
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">An up to date Computer with High Speed Internet access <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Cost: Parents $9.95 per month or $79 per year for each student. Teachers can join for $199.00 per year for the entire class.
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**__ 3rd. Technology __** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> ( __Software)__ <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">  [|The Digital Field Trips (5-User Home Co-op Lab Pack)],  []

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> The Digital Field Trip allows for fun learning of the natural sciences by using this standalone software package. Created in 1995 this software allows the student to independently perform, interactive virtual frog dissection and lessons about the diverse ecosystems of the world.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Homework and practice exercises could become boring and dreaded by a student at times, which is why I suggested this software to combat this problem. By the student’s exploration of these virtual field trips they could escape the confines of their study areas and still maintain a learning posture.
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">An up to date Computer with High Speed Internet access <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Cost: $119.95, Product ID: 971029 / Mfg Part #: 4D82-5
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Education Challenge:** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The educational challenge for this strategy could be to keep the student motivated about staying engaged on their own with good homework and academic practices. Because homework assignments help students to develop their own study habits (Bempechat, 2004), it could be a good idea to make sure that the assignments and the student’s present instructional levels are equal. Interestingly, parental involvement in the homework process could be a hindrance to the student (Balli, 1998; Balli, Demo, & Wedman, 1997, 1998; Perkins & Milgram, 1996). However, the parent/teacher should devise some method for applying consistence consequences for the student’s homework completion or lack thereof of assignments. Another challenge in applying this strategy would be to allow the student time to incorporate these new skills into practice based on their own understanding of the subject area. Creating homework/practice policies and guidelines of when, where, what and how long to work could help to alleviate possible student frustrations about this activity. The parent should avoid the concern of being the content expert for student homework subject areas by monitoring the level of difficulty that the student might be experiencing in doing the work. “If a student needs help with content, that's a sign that the homework assignment may be too difficult.” Timely student feedback on assignments is also an important challenge for teachers and parents, because students tend to benefit greater with feedback that arrives within hours as opposed to days after a completed activity.

<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 8.5pt;">Source: Homework and Practice, http://www.netc.org/focus/strategies/home.php