Today, I had the privilege of collecting an assignment from my students. I call it the castle blueprint. All students do is draw a castle, label 7 parts, name the castle, and turn it in. I asked students to use the back side of the directions (8.5x11 paper) or any materials they wanted. The product I received was so incredible. I got 12 3D models and about 75% of the rest used their own poster paper! I can't believe how motivated the kids were to complete the assignment and they all put such much effort into it! The turn in rate was almost perfect as well. I wish kids loved to do their homework this much all the time!
So my question to all of you is... What homework assignments have you given that kids love to do?
Hills:
ReplyDeleteI know I am technically part of the Secondary Synergy blog, but you all are rocking the posts so I thought I would sneak over here. What a fun project for your students!
I have really loved how we re-vamped our memoir unit this year...it is so awesome to watch students realize they have a story to tell, then go above and beyond when they get to write about it!
I think it is interesting that when you left the product open-ended, students went with it. I wonder if we ever "box" our kids in with the assignments we give?
The castle sounds really neat!
ReplyDeleteI had newcomer EL students do the play--and they were really motivated to learn their lines. I think the fact that they wrote their lines also made them motivated, and it was THEIR work!
I also had some good response from a simple assignment to write an article about someone else in class--interview them, write 3 paragraphs from what they did over the weekend. I had great little graphics to make it look like a newspaper--one student took the lead to show the others how they could make it more laid out graphically like a real newspaper! I didn't expect that!
Something I have experienced this year more than any other year (while not technically a homework assignment)is that students have been very responsive to suggestions I make just sort offhandedly. For example, as we get into studying more modern history, I will randomly say, "you should go home and ask your parents/grandparents how they feel about this or that. Or what do they remember about this or that." Students have come back the next day (or even weeks later) really excited to tell me what they discovered about history in their own families. Furthermore, multiple students have brought in historical artifacts that their grandparents let them borrow and show to the class. While not exactly a homework assignment, I agree with Eric, it's cool to see students excited!
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