Homework is an important part of every student’s education. It is an opportunity to extend the learning that goes on within the classroom. Here at Unity College we operate a slightly different form of homework for all our Key Stage Three students. We want to encourage our students to become independent learners and have therefore decided to move to ‘Independent Learning Activities’ (ILA).
What is an ILA?
The ILA is an extended piece of work to be done independently by students. One ILA will be set each week, although some subjects will still offer a more traditional homework to be done during the same period. Each ILA is expected to take a student between 3 and 5 hours to complete and will allow a greater depth of completion and a greater chance for creativity and originality. Students will have seven days to complete each ILA though there may be some overlap between one being collected and the next one being set.
Why this change
In many of the evaluations, questionnaires and surveys completed by the parents of our students’ homework came out as one of the key areas of concern. These concerns covered the following points:
- Variation in the amount and frequency of homework
- Lack of communication regarding homework and the connected issues
- For some parents the amount of homework was insufficient, erratic or difficult to keep track of
The ILA will allow us at Unity and you as parents to know in advance the subject being set for any particular week. This will make it easier to track and monitor in terms of completion and the setting of homework.
What are the benefits of the ILA?
The ILA will:
- Allow practice and consolidation of work done in class
- Allow preparation for future class work
- Offer access to resources not always available during the college day
- Develop skills in using libraries and other learning resources
- Provide opportunities for individualised work
- Allow assessment of student’s progress and mastery of work
- Provide evidence for the evaluation of learning
- Train students in planning and organising their time
- Develop good habits and self-discipline
- Encourage ownership and responsibility for learning
- Provide information for parents
- Provide opportunities for parental co-operation and support
- Create channels for home-college dialogue
- Fulfil the expectations of parents, students, teachers and the wider community
Will there be a different ILA for different abilities?
Within the classroom teachers try to maintain standards of learning and teaching which are aimed at supporting young people both emotionally and intellectually and allowing their self confidence to grow. They also recognise that self confidence is fragile and subject to change. Those learning / teaching principles are even more at a premium with regard to learning out of college because students are on their own, often without support, and sometimes with conflicting demands from outside influences.
We aim to build the following types of differentiation into each ILA :
Differentiation by outcome – The teacher gives a task which is open ended and which can be tackled in different ways. All students can achieve success and the task is within the capabilities of all students. But students with special interests, strong motivation, or specific abilities might explore the task in greater depth, at greater length or with more care than others. In other words, the response will be differentiated.
Differentiation by task – A range of tasks may be given on the basis of interests, prior learning or ‘ability’ in that particular area of the curriculum. There needs to be flexibility, since motivation and interests might be stronger influences on achievement than the perceived ability of the students. The advantage of the ILA is that students can be given tasks which are appropriate to their needs.
Differentiation by support – The task may be the same for all students but the level of support needed may vary. Teacher produced support may be available at different levels, and individual one-to-one support may be built in by the teacher, parent and student or by pairing an older student with a younger one. The outcomes may still vary but less than in the examples above.
How can I support my child with the ILA?
Parents can help students in the following ways in the successful completion of the ILAs:
- Provide a quiet and comfortable place to complete the tasks
- Have some resources available – pens, pencils, coloured pencils, glue, paper scissors etc
- Ask what work has to be done
- Check how progress is going, a student in a room alone for a period of time does not always mean they are doing their work!
- Contact us at Unity as soon as problems arise
- Offer encouragement and support at all times
Some other questions…
What if my child is off when the ILA is set? The ILA timetable and a copy of each ILA is available on the college website and can be downloaded. We will aim to send by post a copy when students are off college for whatever reason but this is not always possible or practical. Phone the college if you are concerned and we will send a copy as soon as possible.
How will my child know what to do? Each ILA will have an instruction leaflet detailing the task, the assessment criteria, hints and tips, suggested methods of completion and a hand in date.
What if we don’t have the resources at home? Unity College offers an after college time for students in the college library. During this time students will have access to the internet (for research only – no games), and a supply of resources will be available specific to each task.
What if they can’t do the task? Students need to take responsibility for their learning. It is up to them to ask for help either from you or from their teachers. This should be done as soon as a problem is identified and not left till the day the ILA is expected in.
What happens if they don’t hand it in? A letter will be sent to students who fail to complete the task in the given time with a copy of the ILA attached. A new hand in date will be set but it is important to remember that in the meantime a new ILA will have been set and that the work will be backing up. If the ILA is still not completed after this a series of detentions will be enforced after the college day until the ILA is completed and handed in.
All ILAs are available on our Virtual Learning Environment (VLE).
The ILA timetable for 2010/11 gives details of when the ILAs will be set and when they will be collected. To access the ILAs and the ILA timetable please click here to go to our VLE.