Unhomework: How to Get the Most out of Homework Without Really Setting It - Softcover

Creasy, Mark

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1781351090 ISBN 13: 9781781351093

Publisher: Independent Thinking Press, 2014

Synopsis

Of all the aspects of day-to-day school life, the one that causes the most aggravation and unpleasantness for children, their teachers, and their parents is homework. But the one aspect that could add the most value to children’s school experience, to their approach to learning, to their achievements in the classroom, and to their success beyond school as independent, resilient, and resourceful life-long learners, is homework . . . done well. This book, drawn from genuine classroom experience that really makes a positive difference, is full of tips and ideas to help make the move to children taking responsibility for their own work.

About this title

About the Author

Mark Creasy: Mark Creasy is a dedicated father and teacher at an Independent School. His contemporary and down-to-earth style of teaching has allowed him to view learning as a tool, not a rule, to ensure that his pupils are given the right to an education that suits their needs maximizing their potential and future success.

From the Back Cover

This book, drawn from genuine classroom experience, is full of tips and ideas designed to help teachers make the move from setting homework to encouraging children to take responsibility for their own work.
Of all the aspects of day-to-day school life, the one that causes the most aggro and unpleasantness for children, their teachers and their parents is homework. That said, of all the aspects of day-to-day school life, the one that could add the most value to childrens’ school experience, to their approach to learning, to their achievements in the classroom and to their success beyond school as independent, resilient and resourceful life-long learners is … homework. But homework approached in a very different manner.

Mark’s theory of Unhomework makes differentiating for every learner both simple and tactful. His innovative approach is sensitive to all three faces of the homework experience – learner, teacher and parent.
Isabella Wallace, education consultant, author and presenter, founder and managing trustee of Reach Out 2 Schools

At a time when a curriculum and exam-driven education system straitjackets even the most dynamic teacher Unhomework inspires the practitioner not only to facilitate thinking skills and PLTS but also to build in opportunities for young learners to become creative, critical thinkers.
Sarah Noble, head of department, modern foreign languages

With this book, Mark Creasy has tackled an area of education (homework) which has long needed addressing. As a Year 4 teacher, I can readily connect with his ideas and the thinking behind Unhomework. I am sure that other teachers will do the same.
Davina Suggett, Year 4 teacher

Unhomework addresses the issue of how to involve everyone. There are examples and resources to help practitioners, from NQTs to head teachers, get started.
Ruth Saxton, primary teacher, AST in creativity and chair of the National Association for the Teaching of Drama

This is a book with plenty of ideas for teachers and practical ways for parents to support their children.
Beverley Dandy, head teacher, Outwoods Primary School

Unhomework will give you the inspiration and practical guidance you need to break free from the ‘curse of the worksheet’.
Dave Whitaker, executive principal, Springwell Community Special School and Barnsley PRU

I would recommend Unhomework to every teacher and challenge them, whether they are in primary or secondary school, to implement it for just one term and evaluate the results.
Denise Yates, chief executive, Potential Plus UK formerly the National Association for Gifted Children)

Mark Creasy teaches in Buckinghamshire. His contemporary and down-to-earth style of teaching has allowed him to view learning as a tool, not a rule, to ensure that his pupils are given the right to an education that suits their needs and maximises their potential for future success.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Introduction taken from Unhomework by Mark Creasy

This book began life as an idea that grew out of a chance conversation and follow-up email discussion with Ian Gilbert following the Independent Thinking ‘Big Day Out’ in Nottingham. Two years later, this book is the expression of over ten years’ practical work in classrooms across four schools. During this time I have achieved the position of head teacher and have taught a range of subjects to children from Year 4 to Year 13. This will hopefully continue for a long time to come.
I qualified as a physical education teacher at Exeter in the late 1990s. Then, as now, PE didn’t require homework as such, so in the earlier days of my teaching career I didn’t need to worry about it. However, as I moved away
from the gym and into the classroom, initially teaching my second subject of English, I realised more and more that homework was pretty much a waste of time – not just the children’s time, but the teacher’s time as well.
Apart from the hours, effort and paper which went into such work, most of the homework I set until that time simply confirmed what I already knew: that it didn’t really take the children any further or deeper into their understanding. It was just homework for homework’s sake. I have to admit that I just copied the pattern I saw colleagues using, arguing that I was simply ‘following the scheme’. But this was not how I taught. Simply following a lesson scheme wasn’t how I worked inside the classroom and it wasn’t how I wanted my classes to perform outside of it either. Yes, I was one of those (annoying) colleagues who could set the work and the children would bring it in, which was something that my homework-chasing colleagues would often complain about. They either had to ask repeatedly, or they didn’t get it in at all.
I couldn’t help thinking that traditional homework was putting us on some sort of educational hamster’s wheel. I used to put a lot of time and effort into preparing the copies of the work for each child, which they went away
and completed for me to mark, but neither of us were really enjoying the process. This kind of learning was neither exciting nor rewarding – for me or for them. However, as a ‘maverick in the classroom’ (as one of my head
teachers put it), following the same ritual as everyone else didn’t sit comfortably. I spoke to other colleagues, but at that time none of us felt empowered enough to challenge the status quo, and sadly, as the children expected or knew no different, so it continued.
Ironically, given the perspective some people have about certain types of schools, it was when I was working in a Special Measures school in Luton in 2003 that my homework epiphany came. Although many people believe
Special Measures to be constraining and about box ticking, one of the wonderful things about Special Measures is the freedom it gives you if you’re prepared to take it. The clue is in the name: you’re working together on doing something different, because whatever it was before, it didn’t work. It was Dale who was instrumental in my change of mind. Dale, a Year 10 boy, would have been described as a loveable rogue by those who knew him. The middle child of a large family, he had the charm and smile to compensate for his usual lack of work and effort and was one of those children whom you just wished would recognise how talented he really was. However,football and girls were more his focus! I was teaching him GCSE English when he burst one of the great educational myths. He said, ‘So, I have to spend at least an hour every night doing my homework, yet I’m supposed to be developing myself into a rounded young man – whatever that means.’ He continued, ‘Then, you spend even longer marking it all. But you have a family you must want to be with. Surely there’s a better way than all this, isn’t there? Why do we both put ourselves through this, when we could be doing other, more enjoyable and fun things instead?’
I thought about what he’d said and realised that Dale was right: it was time to break the pattern. There really was no point to homework; well, certainly not in the ritualistic way in which I had been setting it up to then. In fact,
for the first time ever I began to look at the very nature of homework in a more holistic manner, in terms of how it was getting in the way of having a good life for me and my classes. This was with special regard to the buzz
phrase ‘lifelong learning’ with which I was being bombarded at work, in the TES and at every course I went on at that time. I had to reconsider whether I was truly doing my bit to ensure and cement this philosophy. I came to the conclusion that, unfortunately and somewhat depressingly, I wasn’t. It was at that moment that I resolved to do something different. However, despite my personal revelation, I worked in a school with a clear homework policy and expectations.
It was from this discussion with Dale – coupled with the need to be able to provide evidence that my children did ‘complete homework’ – that the idea of ‘Unhomework’ began to form in my mind. I had never given what I did a proper name, always referring to how I set homework as ‘not really doing it’ or ‘getting homework in without setting it’. However, these aren’t catchy names, nor do they sum up the essence of what I have learned to do as a classroom teacher over the past decade, so I now use the term coined by Ian Gilbert – Unhomework.
During this time Unhomework has become an integral part of my educational philosophy and an ingrained process for ensuring that my children – regardless of the age or phase I was teaching – completed work outside of the classroom which was relevant, purposeful and engaging for them, as well as being aligned with the ideals they encounter within the classroom. Unhomework allows the children to lead their learning, as I encourage them to do in the class. My aim is to achieve the position of the ‘guide at the side’. In this role, I find they need me less and less as the year progresses.
As you might expect, the Unhomework idea did not come fully formed, but developed gradually, with plenty of learning from my experience of working with over 1,500 children in the classroom. I have benefited greatly from the comments made by my colleagues, the parents and, more importantly, the children who have passed through my classes during the last decade who were tolerant of the mistakes and explorations I was making along the way. In retrospect, I can see now that I was providing them with a good role model for getting on in life.
These days, Unhomework is an essential part of my entire classroom experience. The model I have developed builds on the creative curriculum and project-based learning ideals of establishing an enquiry within a context. From this, the children then develop and answer their enquiries, before elaborating them as they decide appropriate, creating greater breadth, depth or both, or even opening up a new enquiry sparked by their learning. In this way, children are freed from the shackles of being set standardised homework. Unhomework provides
greater autonomy for them and, when done properly, eases the teacher’s burden too.
I estimate that I have now used this approach with well over 1,500 children personally, as well as indirectly with countless others, thanks to colleagues adopting the practice. This autumn I have just introduced another class of
children to Unhomework. As I currently work in primary education, I have come to realise that this process is best begun there, as it allows children to grow and develop with it as they progress through education.
To answer some recent government criticisms, specifically from Civil Society Minister Nick Hurd: it helps develop ‘grit, resilience and independence’ in their learning – though it was doing this long before it was today’s stick to beat schools with. I can honestly say that it works for children at any age and it doesn’t detract from exams or from anything else. On the contrary, it enhances them, and when introduced and explained properly, it does provide them – as Dale challenged me all that time ago – with opportunities to become more rounded human beings.

Edition details

• Publisher: Independent Thinking Press
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1781351090
• ISBN 13: 9781781351093
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 160