Chapter 4 discussed the first four steps of the new homework paradigm: designing and differentiating quality homework tasks, moving from grading to checking, and decriminalizing grading. These strategies make homework tasks more pleasant and less punitive, and they increase student ownership of homework. These changes from traditional practice should make completion of homework less of an issue. In Chapter 5, we consider the last two steps in the new homework paradigm: strategies for homework completion and programs that support students in completing homework at school.

Attitudes About Homework Completion

Before we attempt to improve the rate of homework completion, we must confront one more traditional attitude. It is common for teachers to become obsessed with the fact that "all homework must be done." But does it truly need to be done? When it comes to learning, it's not about finishing the work; it's about demonstrating learning. Can students prove that they know what they need to know? How can we determine how well they are learning, and how can we help them do better? If we can assess learning without all those homework assignments and the students have learned what we wanted them to learn, we don't need the homework! This is a hard pill to swallow if we believe that students must do as they are told, and that not completing all homework is a sign of laziness or insubordination. But if we become so concerned that children have not been compliant, we lose sight of the role homework should play in learning. Focused on enforcing our own power as teachers, we become afraid to trust students, afraid they're going to "get away with something"—so we sometimes resort to punitive solutions that backfire.