Week 4
Reflecting on Fridays' class discussion, what is your position on homework?
Write a claim the purpose of which is to lead someone to act (audience, persuasive term, action that should be taken).
Ex:
Movie theater patrons / should / boycott Universal Pictures theater productions.
Movie theater patrons / must / boycott Universal Pictures theater productions.
(but make yours about homework)
The persuasive term is your choice. The audience is your choice. The action is your choice. Be sure to qualify all three of these to narrow down the scope of your claim, which will in turn narrow the scope or your argument, allowing you to focus, focus, focus!
After designing your claim, provide two reasons and one piece of evidence for each those reasons (a total of two reasons, two pieces of evidence). This constitutes the "Grounds" portion of an argument in the Toulmin model.
Write a claim the purpose of which is to lead someone to act (audience, persuasive term, action that should be taken).
Ex:
Movie theater patrons / should / boycott Universal Pictures theater productions.
Movie theater patrons / must / boycott Universal Pictures theater productions.
(but make yours about homework)
The persuasive term is your choice. The audience is your choice. The action is your choice. Be sure to qualify all three of these to narrow down the scope of your claim, which will in turn narrow the scope or your argument, allowing you to focus, focus, focus!
After designing your claim, provide two reasons and one piece of evidence for each those reasons (a total of two reasons, two pieces of evidence). This constitutes the "Grounds" portion of an argument in the Toulmin model.
The amount of homework given to students should be given in smaller, more beneficial portions. Students need to make their claims in order to reach their audience. In order to make their point, students need to bring attention to the problem of too much homework. As students, we must use proof and statistics to show the school board how we feel about the amount of homework given. One reason the amount of homework is bad is because nowadays it seems as though homework is given just to keep students busy. This should not be the purpose of homework. I believe homework is necessary to a certain extent, but doing the same types of questions over and over is quite ridiculous. Usually this causes students to get annoyed and bored with the subject at hand, which will cause students to be less interested in class. Another reason is because students have more than one class. For example, if I have to read 100 pages for one class and do 50 questions for another class, more than likely, I am going to do one activity better than the other. This is because students are already in class for three or four hours a day and then going home to spend just as much time on homework makes students not give their best efforts.
ReplyDeleteWhile homework is beneficial, too much can be unnecessary and considered "busy work". Teachers should give homework only when it is necessary and in small amounts. Perhaps only the students that need extra practice have to turn in their work, while for the others it's optional. Students should begin by talking with their teachers about the amount of homework they have, however if they don't get the answers they are looking for, they need to go to the school board. Too much homework, or "busywork", is unnecessary because sometimes there is not enough time in the day for students to do the work that is assigned to them. For example, students spend eight hours at school, two to three more hours doing sports or extra curricular activities, and then come home to three or four more hours of homework. If they get the suggested eight hours of sleep, that leaves them only about an hour of free time to themselves. Another reason why too much homework is unnecessary is because it completely defeats the purpose of helping students retain information they learned during the school day. For example, if a student has an hour of homework in four different classes, the chances of him remembering everything he did for homework that night are slim. Having too much homework is overwhelming and counterproductive.
ReplyDeleteThe amount of busy homework should be reduced so that students can spend more time doing useful work. When there is an excessive amount of homework, students either do nothing or only do what is the easiest. There is not time to do the studying that is beneficial. The audience my claim is directed act would include teachers and district officials. These people would be able to control and reduce the amount of homework students are given. One reason the amount of homework should be reduced is because students do not have enough time to complete all of their busy work along with important studying and work. Although most is fairly simple, busy work takes up a lot of time. Effective homework and studying also takes up a decent amount of time. Students run out of time during the day to get everything done. A reason teachers and district officials should do something to decrease the amount of homework is because students' homework should be beneficial to learning. When homework is effective it teaches students by involving practice and comprehension. The amount of homework assigned to students should be reduced in order for student to complete more beneficial work and learn more effectively.
ReplyDeleteExcessive homework is a huge burden on students in all grades. Many students are losing tons of sleep over useless "busy work" that can take hours to complete. The added stress and lack of sleep students are enduring is cutting into their ability to focus and participate in class. Teachers must reduce the amount of homework assigned if they want to see better attention and participation levels in class. Homework should be limited to only 30 minutes per class to ensure that students are not staying up late to complete assignments. Additionally, teachers should only require homework for students who have low grades in class. This will make an incentive for students to want to do better in class and students who are not doing well will benefit from the practice. If parents want to see their students do better in school, then they need to act and petition to school boards to establish better regulation on the amount of homework assigned.
ReplyDeleteTeachers should assign less "busy work" style homework and instead assign homework that is more concentrated on what is being taught in class. The homework should also help towards a students grade more so then it does now. Assigning less, more concentrated homework would allow students to reread and study other class materials that could help them with exams given in class. Also making the homework have a greater impact on the students grade, while not being busy work, would give the students a feeling of accomplishment when they see that not only is their homework helping them learn what is being taught in class but also see the physical positive effect that it is having on their grades. Know that their homework could positively change their grade would also give students more of a reason to actual do their homework. So teachers should couple actually helpful homework with impact homework in order to increase student participation and academic achievements.
ReplyDeleteTeachers should reduce the amount of homework for all students because excessive loads create unnecessary stress. Therefore, my audience is teachers from any grade. Even if the homework includes work that allows beneficial learning and not just "busy work," students tend to have many late nights due to hours of completing various assignments that may or may not even advance their knowledge. Students should be talking to their teachers about this problem and creating awareness. If that doesn't work, students should try talking to the school board or any officials that help deal with issues like this. No student wants to spend massive amounts of time out of their day completing pointless assignments when they could be doing anything else, whether it's participating in a club or a sport, or just spending time with friends. Excessive homework means that students become less involved in the community around them, and they often find that they can't sign up for activities they enjoy because their time is already consumed each day. Excessive homework also leads to sleep deprivation due to not enough time to finish everything, causing the students to stay up late and not get enough sleep. Then the student is tired the next day and can't pay attention very well, not helping them retain information effectively. This cycle ends up repeating so many times and the student often becomes overwhelmed. If people want to see students do better in school, the amount of homework needs to drop because many people can benefit from this change.
ReplyDeleteThe amount of homework given by teachers is excessive, and it needs to be reduced. Students need to work together to approach the teacher and fight for less homework. One reason less homework is important to fight for is because it is a common cause of "excessive stress and anxiety". I have personally felt overwhelmed and stressed to the point that it affected my actions to those around me. Homework should not make students feel this way. It should simply be practices or assignments that can be completed in under an hour. Another reason homework needs to be reduced is for the lack of sleep it often causes. Many people have activities and events during the day, therefore, they cannot begin homework until night time. When there is so much homework assigned, it causes students to stay up later than they normally would. This can affect a students health and performance the next day. I personally have had to stay up past midnight working on homework for 4+ hours. It is exhausting and causes me to be less productive the next day in class. These reasons are just the beginning of why homework needs to be reduced in all classes. This change will be a positive one for everyone including the teachers.
ReplyDeleteTeachers need to stop giving excessive and pointless homework. I feel personally victimized as a student who sees the effects of too much homework first hand. After spending all day in classes, coming home to do hours more homework, late into the night, doesn't make any sense. I don't feel as if it helps students do well in school, but it is merely just busy work. Also, in other countries students are not given nearly as much homework as in America. Focus should be on class and learning rather than doing tedious at home work.
ReplyDeleteTeachers should start to reduce the assignment of "busy work" for homework. We have all sat down at home with a worksheet and thought "what's the point of this." I understand that a reasonable amount of homework is good, because it allows the students to better understand a topic. Homework allows students to review what was learned in class and also helps them master topics to be able to do well on tests. I feel like teachers are going a little over the top with the amount of homework assigned. Students get tired very quickly of a topic that dry busy work gets old very fast, so not as much homework would keep a student from regretting doing homework. Classes should be time to learn from the teacher, not a teacher assigning senseless amounts of homework for a student to go learn it on their own.
ReplyDelete